Pixelated - How Dynamic Is This Duo?

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Welcome to Pixelated episode 116. This week, we're talking about Apple's entry into the foldable market. What does the iPhone Duo take from Android foldables, where does it look to improve on efforts from the likes of Samsung and Google, and what can those brands learn from Apple for their next-gen hardware? Enjoy the episode? You can listen to our brand new weekly members-only Pixelated Pro bonus episode by signing up for 9to5Google Pro for just $5 per month. Sponsored by Bitwarden: Pixelated listeners can get started with Bitwarden’s free individual plan by clicking this link, and check out the Open Source Security Summit on September 17th. Thanks to Bitwarden for sponsoring! Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company’s suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Amazon Music Apple Podcasts Overcast Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts The Sideload 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek Space Explored Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer. And for even more Android discussion, dive into the official 9to5Google forums!

Welcome to Pixelated episode 116. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, what did you expect? We are taking a detour from our usual pixel discussions to talk about Apple's entrance into the world of foldables. What about the iPhone duo looks enticing from an Android user's perspective? What can the likes of Google and Samsung learn from this phone? Do we have more than five minutes of thoughts on the iPhone 18 Pro? The answers to these questions and more in just a moment. Also, I am happy to announce to our YouTube listeners that video is coming soon, stick around to the break for more details. It all starts right after this message from our sponsor, Bitwarden. This week's episode of Pixelated is sponsored by Bitwarden.

On September 17th, Bitwarden is hosting the Open Source Security Summit, a free, virtual, annual industry event focused on open source security. Headliners include David Sanger, New York Times White House correspondent and author of New Cold Wars, and Joseph Men, cybersecurity journalist and author of Cult of the Dead Cow. Register now at open source security summit.com. Bitwarden is the trusted open source solution for password, passkey, and secrets management committed to making secure password management accessible to everyone. With a free forever plan for individuals, you can create, manage, and auto-fill strong,

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Warden. Thanks again to Bitwarden for sponsoring Pixelated. We are in the shadow of Apple dominating the new cycle. There is a lot going on. Foldables, watches, obviously the obvious iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max devices. Curiously no 18 mention. I mean, I'm very much in the dark guys. So you are going to be my guiding light through the darkness that is apples, I guess, shaded and dingy garden. Tell me a little bit about what you've seen in red because I am so out of the loop. This is me genuinely saying I don't care,

but I do care what you guys have to say about it. And yeah, let's just talk about Apple for a change. Well, they invented the folding phone. Yeah, I guess let's start there. Either my crack was either they came in and solved it after like, what, eight years of Android foldables or the reality distortion field is in full effect. So I had no interest going in to this event in the foldable.

I generally didn't. I was what I wanted was a new iPhone air, which, as Damienerudit too, is not coming until the spring because this Apple's splitting up the lineup in an interesting way. So the regular iPhone, 18, the iPhone air, and maybe the 18E, the budget phone, is coming in the spring. So for the last phones, there's been an 18 month cycle, which is interesting. But it's going to go back to 12 months come the new cycle. But yeah, I was just looking inside in the air.

I still love the air. I love how thin it is. and the foldable is basically two airs folded together. I guess that kind of made sense though, doesn't it? Because it was almost like it felt last year like a test bed for can we make something thin. And then can we put all of the hardware in the in and around the camera area, which I guess makes sense from a design perspective. What were we thinking on the design?

So I've only seen little brief pictures of it. And I'm currently looking at it on the Apple website. I want to hear what you guys think before I kind of have a take It's a fold It's a pixel fold designed after three years It looks more like the pixel fold than the galaxy fold eight Yeah original pixel fold Yes

Yeah it I would I would say If you just showed me the front of this phone If you rebound time a week right And you just showed me a little photo of somebody holding the front of this phone that didn't have iOS displayed on it. I don't think I would think this was an Apple device. I don't know if I mean that. The top buttons are weird though.

There's so much about this that's weird. The top buttons are weird. I think like, you know, the flat edges on the left side and the, in the, the flat corners, you know, the 90 degree corners on the one side and the curved corners on the other. like, again, feels very like early foldable in a way that is kind of decidedly on Apple. I would think like I expect this design to get more refined over time. I don't know in what way, but, you know, yeah, I don't know. Like it's, I don't overall hate the design, but it's, it really feels like.

There's so many ways you can design a foldable. Absolutely. And like, this sort of just like leans into my, my, my. ongoing sentiment of just like, boy, it really just feels like Apple has become its own sort of like, not that they're an Android OEM, but like this just looks like an Android phone to me in a way that like, you know, previous iPhones really have not. It's how I feel about the iPhone 17 and 18 pros design too. Like that it just feels more like an Android maker's design than than what Apple was making for, you know, well over, almost two decades now, I guess.

and again, I don't mean it in a negative way. I'm just surprised. Like, I just, everything converges, I suppose. Yeah, and I do think the design reset comes next year with the rumor 20th anniversary. Definitely. Definitely. Amy, your take. Yeah, I was going to say, I think you're probably onto something

with the idea that they'll do something more interesting next year. My initial take is that, yeah, you can, guys are 100% correct on the pixel fold thing. When it's kind of half open, even the bezels remind me very much of the original pixel fold. Again, I think there are only so many ways to skin a cat as it were. So you're basically in a situation where the actual, the kind of passport design limits what you can do. It doesn't look the most Apple-like product. I think agree with you there, will it? It's like it does feel a bit iphoney. I'm looking at the interface and I'm not 100% certain what the heck they're trying to do here

with regards to putting the power button on like the top. And then there's what is this thing in the top right? It looks like is that showing the Wi-Fi and it's got a lot of dots underneath it? Oh, so, yes. So what I'm super excited about more so than the hardware is the how they adapted iOS to this new form factor. So in essence, they put the dock at the bottom of the, on a regular phone, they move the dock and the status bar to the right edge. That's also the case when you unfold it.

So controls are always persistently at the light. Where is the gesture pill? Is it? I can't see it. I don't see it in the middle. Is it going to be in the middle? I'm sure it works both sides. I haven't seen I'm using this.

I assume it works the same But like on my On my, you know, I have an iPhone in my hand right now There's no like bar at the bottom specifically Like visibly. Oh yeah, so I just assume that you still swap. Yeah. Anyways, yeah.

So they moved it there. So the docks there. The circular thing. So they change the status bar indicators and Android parlons to it's that loop, that circle. The top arc is the battery. The middle is the wall.

Wi-Fi and the bottom is the cellular indicators. But yeah, their big UI innovation is they moved everything to the light edge, which I think is interesting and I'm very curious to use. For an iPhone, for somebody in the Apple ecosystem, this is the biggest change, the UX of their phone in ages. So to me, that's interesting. You could argue this is the biggest UX change we've seen on a mobile platform. platform in ages.

Like I like even even Android has not undergone a shift where it's like we're going to move the status bar icons and the dock to the right side of the display like you are me at 11 years old experimenting with Windows XP's docs or task bar settings. It's like it's interesting and it also immediately reminds me of something like car play which I think is like a really interesting space to take inspiration from. And I forgot who on our team cracked that, yeah, this is going to be copied by some Android. Oh, I think it was Daniel. And absolutely. Every but, like, that's, so, so I actually am fairly, the thing I am the most optimistic about on this is the software. By far, it's not close. And not so much in terms of Iowa specifically, but in terms of Apple.

How to solve the UI challenge. Exactly. Apple is trying something new here in a way that I think, even if it doesn't. doesn't work. First of all, if it doesn't work, it doesn't impact me one bit. If it does work, then I assume companies, certainly Samsung, like, let's just be honest, but also maybe even like Google will take inspiration from how this doc and UI overall is working, this UX overall is working. You know, and then there's the more flashier, less useful parts, like the opening transition when you open this thing is like, it's gorgeous. Like, what do you want me to say? Like, it is really

well done. So yeah, I don't know. As much as I'm like... And the unfold animation. Yes, 100%. Yeah. As much as I'm like what kind of whatever on the, my first, you know, looking at photos or videos of the hardware,

I think what they're doing with software is interesting even if it's on a platform that, you know, is only going to indirectly influence Android. Do you think it's a good thing though? I'm hearing you guys waxing lyrical about it and I mean I'm feeling the distortion

to reality distortion feel is attacking me I think it definitely feels as though from what you're trying to say or correct me if I'm wrong that this is good potentially for the foldable scene on Android because what we're going to see is Apple's take on it it is a hacky phone factor there's no two ways about it

but having to fold a display in half creates so many problems both in a physical sense and then a UX perspective because you kind of have to account for the fact that it's not quite a tablet, it's not quite a phone, it's this middle ground. From what I've seen, I really like the, you kind of believe some of the animations look good. I don't necessarily think it makes sense to put the volume rock on the top, but I guess it feels a little bit like the iPad in the way that you would hold it.

And I do wonder if there's going to be almost like a concerted effort now for everyone to be properly stealing from each other in good ways. I hope that people don't fall down to the track. Sorry, I hope that Andrew. at OEMs don't fall down the trap of just copying what Apple are doing. But I do think looking and seeing, oh, that's an interesting take because they've not been in it. What have we had? Nearly 10 years of, not 10 years, 2019 first foldable.

So yeah, it is nearly 10 years of foldables coming up from like, what, 2029. We haven't really seen major UI like kind of paradigm shifts. And this feels like, okay, someone's going to come in with a wrecking ball elsewhere, do their own thing. and we might now get better products as a result. So I suppose there's some good aspects. Two things I'll chime in on. On the current, when the interior of the screen is a square versus when it's a rectangle,

like with the fold eight, with the original pixel fold and what the iPhone is doing, I'd say the square does not feel like a tablet, but when it's a rectangle, it does feel like a proper tablet, especially when you rotate it into portrait. So I think that's what the past, Portform Factor unlocks. Plus, I think the outer, the wide outer screen is super interesting,

and I enjoyed that for my time on the pixel fold. And the second thing is to just dive in on why the dog change is interesting from a UX perspective. So right now, when the screen is folded, you're using the cover screen, the dark's on the bottom. You have five, four, five apps. And when you unfold it, on the pixel fold, you get six apps. So objectively, like moving.

your thumb, your finger to that wide bottom edge from where you're holding the foldable on the sides is uncomfortable. And that should have been in hindsight, that should have been an obvious problem. And the problem is more magnified on a rectangular

bottom edge of a screen. So putting it, so keeping all the controls, the dock, the active app controls and it's on that edge that you can always reach. That is a good genry, a good idea. I wonder if they will make changes over time to prioritize left-handed people

because it definitely feels like you should be able to switch. Yeah, I feel like this definitely is optimizing for the camera. Yeah, that makes sense as well actually, to be fair. Like it does feel like we're going back to the 1800s where left-handed people don't exist and you have to be right-handed for this one. But I don't think, I don't doubt that Apple will think about this and make those changes. The sideways dock, I mean, would you have expected that headed to? time, I think it definitely feels really out also with everything that they've ever done before.

Like, are they going to, do you think they maybe do this for the iPad at some point properly? Maybe. I mean, this is sort of, if you're going to accuse me of buying into any, any distortion, reality distortion field, like, I think the one thing that I really want to give Apple credit for, and I have lots to detract from them. But I, like, I think they deserve some credit for, like they did rethink like one of the, some of the core UX stuff on this phone in a way that they have

never done in the nearly 20 years of iOS like do you know, like they launched the iPad and the iPad was criticized and praised in equal parts for being just a big iPhone, right? Like it even it even was announced running iPhone

OS. They've tried so many multitasking. Yeah. They've flyed so many multitasking at that exactly. I still don't think are very good. Exactly. And look, this might be bad. I'm not here to say this is like, wow, oh my God, they finally solved my issue with foldables. I can't believe it's more so that I just like, in a space that is so lacking of new ideas or even just like, you know, the ability to risk something and try something different. Like Apple's doing it here.

If it doesn't work, they can figure out something else. But like, I don't know. I just, I'm coming off having said a lot of. similar things about Google's lack of interest in really rethinking what the pixel launcher should be in a Gemini first era that they want to push on it their users. And this feels like Apple being like, we're making a foldable. We might as well just go all in on rethinking what the user experience should be. I think they deserve some credit for that, if nothing else. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my biggest problem is that there is a lot of what I find is really

frustrating as someone who, and I'm not calling into question anyone's journalist's integrity or anything like that. It's just more a case of like you only, everyone seems to have the same milk toast takes the way that these devices come out. And I don't know if that is to do with the fact that the way Apple does this whole event and it's almost treated like it is a calendar event. And I get it. That's fine. But it almost feels like you just listen to market intakes for 24 hours. And then a week later, everyone's like, oh, do you know what? actually. This opinion has changed. You need a full week almost for all of the opinions and the broad spectrum of opinions to reveal themselves. And right now it just feels like everyone

seems to be amazed by something that is like, I mean, I'm kind of, I feel like, is it Mubutu from Zulander? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I feel like that. I feel like him right now, because I'm like, yes, it's a foldable. It's a passport foldable. The under-displaced camera, let's talk about that, because I'm seeing this right now. This looks at, at, What are they doing? It is objectively awful, objectively. I think it's fascinating that they're doing this one. I mean, look, my big picture take on this is that like, it is fascinating that like Apple, Apple sat on the sidelines for, you know, if you want to maximize it seven years,

and if you want to, you know, go from when I think foldables really started hitting mainstream attention in that fold three, fold four, original pixel fold space, like, that's still four years ago, three five years ago um they they watched the competition like go through the r and d process for them and they i am sure went through their own r and d process internally and they came out with a device that looks like a foldable like it's just like i look at this thing and i'm reading all these people being like oh my god but you can't you can only feel the crease you can't see it it's crazy this double layer technology that they've put on it that like i i am sure it does feel and look better than other 2026 foldables, but like I also don't expect that technology

to stick with the iPhone. It seems to be the one space they're really ahead of the game on, but you know, it's heavier. It's thicker than every other Android foldable you can buy right now. It's still got like the separation between the internal bezel and the actual like screen, like screen protector for lack of a better phrase. Like you like that space that you know, millimeter fraction of a millimeter space where you're going to get lint and dust build up and everything. Like it's got an awkward camera bump, right? Like it's, I look at this and I'm like, yeah, man, like they waited seven years and they launched a foldable that seems pretty in line with the rest of the market. Like it's, that's, that's, they waited and they, they, they,

they waited and that just launched at essentially the same exact spot everybody else's in. They just went through it. They went through their R&D publicly as opposed to privately. to Damien's point about crazy pills. So the thing about, I don't think the thing that can't be ignored about the iPhone, I guess about Apple in general, is their scale.

The scale is unlike nothing, it's Samsung is the closest and it's not there. Objectively, some people will never switch on the iPhone. Some, objectively, that's not going to happen.

And there's a lot of those people. So when Apple, like when they actually introduce something, this form factor for the first time, it is most people's introduction to it. And it is like you said, it is like taking crazy pills when Apple announced something that's been commonplace already in the Android space. But it's that scale, which is you can't ignore them. And it's unfortunately or fortunately you can't ignore them. And the thing I want to talk about is Samsung

and them being a fold 8, which I think I saw one complaint about somebody not liking how you can't do any 10-mode stuff with the fold 8. And I do kind of wonder if in their rush to copy Apple because they didn't do it when Google did the pixel fold. They did it when Apple is rumored. Yeah, we don't have to like,

we don't have to be coy about it. like Samsung has been rushing to copy Apple like for several years now they are back to their like early 2010s right like that's what the S25 Edge was right that's what the fold eight is like

we don't have to pretend just to you know protect Samsung's feel in collective feelings yeah but to give them their flowers on that one I do think that I'm going to be honest I think that the fold eight is a more elegant solution I think the full date is more elegant I agree I'm yeah I like the design of the fold date more

too. Having not seen, actually technically having not seen either in person. I've still not held a full date either. Well, I'm holding the full date right now. And to me, this is the more elegant solution. This is, and also, I just think the thinness, the bezels inside, I don't doubt that the display will be. Yeah, the front is the front is almost completely the same. If I'm being honest, I don't, I've never liked. the round at one side, almost the D shape of the screen, round in a corner and square, the squareness of it makes it better. It still suffers all the same problems that the iPhone will. But yeah, it just to me is a more elegant solution.

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The other interesting U.S. hardware stuff that the iPhone duo is doing is the standby mode, how they're actually really using postures in a way that I feel like was invested. When Google first announced the foldable Android photos category, there was some work into postures. specifically, if you put the iPhone in tent mode, it activates standby. And it can show your widgets. It can show a full screen calendar. That to me is like a very part of the software story of this device. It's interesting UX.

I like the idea of putting, having like always on calendar access to my widgets. It probably explains why the volume buttons are not, the bottom edge so that they don't interfere or quick or anything like that. So to me, that is kind of interesting. The point I was bringing about the fold eight, not really closing, the fold eight feels,

well, it is rush to market to compete with this iPhone. And I think, like, the signs of it are there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I do get what you're saying. I think, I think, one,

the only, the thing that's kind of held, to get, held, holding the full date together is the fact that Samsung has already had the longest period of time, more or less, making these publicly available devices. So I think that they, I would be very intrigued. I would love to see what the calls, what the internal calls are like with Samsung over the last 24, 48 hours. I mean, they're redesigning one UI right now. 100%. I'm just being, like, in 2027, an update either pre-fold launch in the summer or with the fold 9 series.

like they're going to launch, like, they're going to launch a side dock. Like, it's just like, I don't like it. Like, but it's the strength Apple has here. Like, they are, they have thought through the software side well. It's not even just so much me giving them flowers for being, you know, for trying a redesign. But also it's, it's the subtle stuff like the table side mode or whatever, right? Like, it just works well. You know, there's things here like the,

Netflix control panel when you have the screen folded up like a laptop. Like I don't think anybody's ever really going to use it, in my opinion. They've done it on other Android foldables, and I've always found it to be more cumbersome than it's worth. And also, you really don't need, you're watching Netflix. How often do you actually need the fast forward and rewind button, like, ready to go? I don't know. But I would rather use the whole screen to watch the thing that have a small screen

with half the screen being a control panel. Have we seen the case? Have we all seen the case the case that has a built-in? Kickstand? Yeah. Kickstand. Yes, I have.

Let me just quickly take a look at the picture. You guys shared it with me, right? It was somewhere in the chat, yeah. I think it was. Maybe it wasn't. Yes, I've seen it. Yeah, I've seen it. Isn't that the most arrogant case solution

for a fold wall yet, though? Possibly. Possibly, I mean, it looks like it's just glued on. It doesn't look like there's any edge protection. No, no. I'm guessing it's MagSafe at one side and then. But that kind of, how does that work then? How does, I can't see how it works,

but obviously I'm guessing there's some magnetic element. It's like a folio, like a notebook cover. Okay, okay. I will, again, I will save my judgment until I'll see these potentially if I go to an Apple store, which I don't tend to, but I will try my best to go see them because it's very expensive. I think the upside is that with these devices

is that we have an expectation. This is not a brand new segment for anyone, so it is for Apple, and we kind of have our expectations set, and so either it will meet them or it won't. I just want to talk a little bit about the inner display with the matte finish. I think that's a really bold decision for them to make,

because I'm aware that when you have the map finishes on some of the laptops and the pseudo display screens, they can be quite like, you can get groby very, very quickly. So I wonder how they've tested that. So the frame of reference is the iPad Pro has a different nanotexture coating, so I seem to use that, and that's where they trialed it. Well, I hope that it works out for anyone who's looking to buy this. I mean, I don't know anyone who is going to be picking up an iPhone chiroiric.

I was going to call it default then. But yeah, I don't doubt that Apple will have certain solutions. They'll try and out elegant there, the problems that come with this hardware, I think. And I just wonder how this product develops over time. Is it going to stay the same? Are they going to potentially go into bigger form factors? I never thought they would ever do a one-to-one aspect ratio. I think this is definitely very, very, very Apple in terms of their shape.

Well, it's smart to lean into the iPad mini of it. Like it benefits Apple that they never stopped making that, even though everybody else stopped making small iPads. And they've certainly taken their time making new ones. I think they've only released like two this decade. They're making a waterproof one this year. There we go. Yeah.

So I think it ended up fitting together well. I also want to like, you know, months ago we talked about like, oh, is Apple going to succeed? This thing is going to become like the most popular foldable. Oh, easily. Yeah. Within like a month of its launch. like it's going to be the best-selling foldable ever. Like I just...

Apple's not going to be able to make enough. That's... It's going to be hard to get. And I didn't see anything here that made me think, yeah, you know, Apple die-hards and the people who want a new pro every year, which like,

which are different than Android die-hards. Like, an Android enthusiast is an Android enthusiast. There are lots of, like, I love Apple people who are not, like, tech nerds in the slightest. And they're going to go for this on, too. And so, yeah, I don't know. This thing's, you know, it really was going to come down to pricing.

They did the exact same pricing as everybody else, essentially. And so I think this thing is going to sell. Also, I thought it was going to approach 2.5K. Yeah, I did too. I thought. It's just 2000. Yeah, I think they, one of the best things you can say about it probably is that it's a win that they kept it under 2000, especially considering that they quietly secretly raised the price of every,

existing iPhone yesterday by $100 including the iPhone 16 from two years ago that is now back up to the price it launched at two years ago not great I wonder as well let's just bring it back to the original pixel fold because this now feels like I don't want to say Google whiffed it but I think maybe they did

maybe they did in the long term because they Apple the world's biggest phone manufacturer has said outright, this is the form factor we're going to choose for our foldable. Samsung will claim that they did it first. We said arguably they did it ahead of Apple. Yeah, but like Samsung only did it because it was rumored. That's it, that's it. It's like if we were playing Simon says and you tried to guess what I was going to say before I said it.

It's like you don't get bonus points for that. You're still a contender. Yeah, man, I'll give Google shade for this. I think one of Google's weakest elements is as a company. is their unwillingness to stick through a vision and to refine on it. And they backed out on that core design so quickly. And I never really understood why. Like, I think I've brought this up on the show even recently.

But I remember writing a piece, you know, in the, I think coming back from Mobile World Congress 2024 on the plane writing about how it was like so boring that Google was going to follow, you know, the One Plus opens design instead of like, you know, embracing the fact that Android can and should give you different form factors. And if they had stuck through and refined this design, we would be looking at this thing and being like, wow, Apple, like, Google really got it right in 2023 and then like refined it 24 and 5. And look at Apple like so late to the party, essentially just making, you know,

what in another world was the pixel fold too, right, instead of the pixel 9 pro fold that we got. I just, I don't know. It's how I feel about the tablet too, because obviously we got the news this week. that the pixel tablet is essentially gone, you can't buy it anymore. Another product launched at the same time that it was like, you guys should have just stuck with this

and refined the idea and you would have had a winner, but instead you, on the tablet, you threw in the towel and on the foldable, you just followed what essentially One Plus and other Chinese OEMs were doing. And now we're here

and we'll have to see how Google responds. But I think, I think, the gut feeling I had at the time, which is that I want this to be a wider screen than what we ended up having on the last three years of square displays was correct. I do wonder, so what are you guys thinking?

Do you think, I think by Pixel 13, I think we'll go back. Next year, next year's looks the same. Next year's is still square. Yeah, yeah, I'm saying 13 and maybe 14 at the very earliest we get a return to the original Pixel 4, do you think. Like, it is interesting.

interested in the framing of what Apple does compared to what everybody else does because obviously they sell the most phones on the planet in terms of the in the premium space. They're a de facto lifestyle brand at this stage and I guess not defending

some of the Android OEM's decisions to follow what Apple does. I kind of understand, I completely understand it and it does bring me a little bit of sadness and frustration that Google didn't stick with the passport design because it was almost like, damn, you remember reminds me a little bit of the early days of Microsoft,

they would do something and just ditch it. Do you know, like the early, the late 90s, early 2000s, Microsoft would take a risk, do something and completely either flum, you don't got to go that far back.

Let me introduce you to the surface do. Yeah, so like, I mean, fantastic ideas, but the execution is not there. I think that at least with the pixel fold, it was fairly solid,

despite the fact that there were foibles with some of the hardware internals. yeah I do wonder what the market's going to be like in the next 18 months so is that is the one-to-one foldable done is that sold as a productivity tool like I can't I can't see anyone but Samsung sticking with the one-to-one anymore the one-to-one aspect ratio yeah I have no idea I it's tricky because it's like I I do think the benefit to the one by one screen was that you would get like a really standard outer display but that's like you know, it felt

fresh with the one plus open because that was the first time we'd really had that. It was the first time that you were really using a device where it was like, oh, wow, like this is like really comfortable when I'm typing, when I'm just like responding to a text message but also I open it up and

you know, we've talked, I know especially myself and Damien have talked about how much we loved open canvas or whatever and like that was a really smart multitasking idea that part of the problem with the other one by one foldables is that they didn't copy it. So, yeah, I just like, with how Samsung and Google approach the software on their one-by-one, like, foldables,

I just, I don't see what the advantage. I think it's really hard to market an advantage. And you've seen that. Like, Samsung has come out of the gate being like, oh, my God, we know exactly how to market the fold-eight. Like, they did. And they're, I think they're marketing the fold-date better than they have ever marketed another foldable. Yeah. I mean, it probably screams out loud that they were selling out of specific skews.

Like, there were certain full-date devices that they just couldn't manufacture fast enough. It turns out people want to watch movies and not just work on spreadsheets all the time. Like, who could have seen this happening? Let me give you a tidbit. Let me give you a tidbit. That on the flight back from Berlin this weekend from Ether, to be fair, I would have loved to tell you I saw some really cool stuff at Eva. I really didn't. There was not much mobile tech.

There was a lot of ages for the full. show this weekend. Yeah, so I went, I just come back from the no, no, no, I want to step even further back. In the pre-show, we were like, what are we going to talk about this week? Did anything else happen besides iPhone? And you didn't bring up that you were at a trade show this weekend. I swear I brought this up in the part of the book.

I didn't see anything cool. I didn't see, sadly, I didn't see anything cool. Travel disruption almost through my weekend. But I did, this is so, sadly, you're all listening to this, but I am holding my full date. This is basically like my secondary device. it has my second sim in it. I'm treating it as my like travel device, i can do, I can watch films, I can watch YouTube on it. And I watched as, I'm going to say Christopher Nolan because I

cannot remember who directed it, but I watched Project Hail Mary as Christopher Nolan, who didn't direct it intended on the flight with this phone. And it was a phenomenal experience. And I highly recommend it as an entertainment device. So at least there's one thing that Apple have done right is They've understood that. People want to watch movies on the go with their phone, and they don't want to carry a tablet. And this is, you're living the dream with their passport-sized foldable.

So long made me see more. I'll just jump in to say, it was Phil Lord and Chris Miller. I just know this. I just know this. I was the film. But, yeah, I was like, do you know what?

Why don't I buy a film? Because I was delayed by five hours flying out. I was like, yeah, let's just get this. Let's watch this in the airport and then watch the rest of it on the plane. And I highly enjoyed it. It was probably the most fun I've had with a phone. Prior to that, it was the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. I took that to I.O. and watched movies on it.

And it was great. But, yeah, just they've nailed it. To be fair, to sort of Apple, they've chosen the right team. They've backed the right design. And obviously, Samsung would do the same. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer right now. You've probably found yourself relying on these same old apps and services since the Nexus days. and what suited you best back then might not be the right choice in 2026.

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back in 2013. Upgrade to Proton today and save 30% on your annual subscription by heading to Proton.me to 5 Google or by clicking the link in the show notes. That's proton.com.me slash 9 to5 Google. Thanks to Proton for sponsoring pixelated. So the iPhone that will actually be the most sold phone in the next year is the 18 pro and the 18 pro max. Should I care about the variable aperture camera? Do you know what?

I feel like Apple cared about it. No, I don't. I feel like from what I'm pretty. briefly reading about this. I haven't watched the keynote back because I just don't watch Apple keynotes. That's my thing. Hey, yeah, that's my difference maker. I don't watch Apple Keynotes. Yeah, I feel like this has been tried. I wonder, I wonder how this is going to affect the quality of images from such a small sensor because obviously Apple isn't quite breaching the centre size of some of these Chinese OEMs, which you've just got, let's be completely honest.

If you want a camera that is also a phone, go get yourself a Vivo, go get yourself an opi-es, phone, go get yourself a Xiaomi phone because the centre size is there are getting to the point where they're bigger than the DJI Osmo and Osmo Pocket. And that is already a one-inch sensor. Like I can imagine a variable aperture on those would be phenomenal, but I'm not convinced

it's going to make too much difference to all but the people who just are only ever going to stick on an iPhone. So maybe in the next few weeks we'll see some interesting images and stuff. But yeah, I think it definitely feels like they hit their peak last year

with their regular slab phones and this is almost like a oh damn how do we differentiate this now the iPhone 17 was a great value yeah

it was a great value until yesterday when it went up by $100 yeah I'm intrigued to see I'm intrigued to see how the sales go for both of these devices

like are people going to pick up both I feel like probably not. I think it is exorbitately expensive to buy any foldable and there's a reason why they'd only sell in the tens of millions instead of hundreds of millions. And just to go back to the door for a second,

Apple's advantage is retail. Like the Apple's store will be showcasing this like crazy. And that is shares heck better than the Best Buy or Carrier store. And you know what is even, I can't believe I'm going to say this because I've never, I obviously have never seen the value in this.

but the genius classes that Apple offers to teach people how to use their products will have never been more useful than with the foldable, I think. Like I actually think... You know what? I have... We have a funny story. I don't have...

Yeah. We have a funny story about the genius bar thing at Google, at Apple's HQ that will save for the protea. If you want to hear a funny story that me and Abner saw with Jordan last year. Oh, yes. Unnormal.

We will save that one. It is genuinely one of the funniest things I've ever seen my entire life. Yeah, I think retail is huge for Apple. And there's no doubt in my mind that people will go in and pick up any of these devices and be wowed by them. It is interesting that there's only

only in China we've seen brands try and replicate it. And he's scale like Samsung has closed a lot of their retail stores here in the UK, whereas Apple continues to open them and refurbish them. They just don't have that. Samsung doesn't have that kind of fan base. Do you think it doesn't have that connection with the general public in the same way?

Yeah, like I don't think most people like... Hey, they got burned by Duolingo pretty bad yesterday. I mean, tell me a bit about that Abner, because I, again, I missed all of this fall. What did it? What did Juolingo? How have they, was Samsung being their regular, like, kind of cringy cells? Thirsty. Yeah.

They tagged Duo Wingo, like, yeah, with the name. like yes, Apple also copied us. Find the tweet. You can do it just... Oh my goodness. Okay. Let me just quickly find that for you. Yeah.

They just burned Samsung by saying like, no, we don't want to be associated with your brand. It was pretty... Oh, it was a bit of a silence brand moment because this tends to be the case. It was a brutal quote RTI.T. Oh, yes. Okay. So I think the conversation is, let us know when you're reheating our leftovers. Oh, that's from Samsung.

US or Samsung Global? Why would you, why would they post that? Not the bedside clock, it's giving Groundhog Day while another quipped. It's feeling very familiar. This is a Sims sequel. Yikes. Okay, Samsung, you need to stop this. I'm so sorry, Duolingo, they copied us to hashtag solidarity. And then Duolingo have replied saying, Jewelingo embrace Joe. Oh, so they had a couple of them, okay, they named a phone after me and they made it bend over. Okay, so that's a little bit weird. But this is a very, very, very strange kind of marketing stunt that Samsung seems to do.

And I don't know why they do this. It's almost like no other brand, I don't know any of the brand that does it to the same scale. Maybe One Plus would have done it back in the day and maybe nothing might do it here and there. But I think just staying silent on a, if you are the product leader, if you are, that to me screams almost like insecurity from their marketing team. I just don't know, especially for a Korean company who are quite reserved and they're very meticulous, it does seem weird that they do that. I mean, rightfully so, like, again, I would love to have been on calls in the last 24, 48 hours from what's going on in Samsung execs because this is going to do some serious damage to their product lineup. I think, what do you think?

I reckon five to one, they'll five to one outsell the full day easily this year. This year alone, by the end of 2026, I would not be surprised. popular foldable by the end of the whatever six months or whatever so yeah I get and the other again like the 18 pro is kind of it's they did it they did the big upgrade last year the camera was the focus this year and next year there will be the whole brand new design that'll be interesting but so the other thing they announced of import was to watch books the same new process or whatever the interesting thing is something they're calling audio intelligence.

Yeah. So in this AI era, there are so many pendants that you can wear that just record me things, which I can see how that's useful if you work in the office, probably less so if you're remote, but neither here or another. Anyway, so Apple is copying it with two features. One is something called RELIND. So it's always listening for the past 15 seconds of conversation. If you miss something, the example is like a cooking recipe or the specials on the menu, you double tap the clown and then it'll show you a transcript of what you missed.

Is that something people want? I think this is probably the worst time they could launch something like this. I think people are really sensitive about always listening, always recording features at the moment. Like I think there's just too much. Yes, they put it on the watch, not the phone. That's very telling in the first place. It's very telling. And I believe it's, I think it's opt in.

I think you have to turn it on. It's not on by default, although it's possible that that's. No, no way. It's no way. It's all out. Okay. But it's, yeah, I just, to me, it's like, there's too much meta smart glasses, flock cameras, like, it's in the air in a way that, like,

this is just not the time to launch something like this, even though, like, you, we could, look, we could sit here and say the obvious benefits to something like this. I'm not going to pretend that I don't see, like, advantages to a, to an always listening sort of recap device like this that is trying its best to be privacy focused, despite obviously not. I feel really weird about it. And I think it's, I think it's like a very strange thing for Apple specifically to be pushing,

I think it rubs up really poorly against their privacy, like, marketing. I'm going to say, like, you know what I mean? Because I don't want to give them too much credit, but like they definitely market as a private company. And yeah, I don't know. I also just like feel a little weird that like this is not a thing. Like, yes, you can opt in or opt out. But if I'm, if I get dinner with you, I can't opt in or opt out to your water. recording me. Do you know what I mean? I don't know. It's very strange. And I understand that

like you're going to be like, oh, well, like, we live in a world where you're getting recorded all the time. And yeah, I suppose, but that doesn't mean that when somebody introduces a new method of recording me, I can't feel a little strange about it. Yeah, I definitely would. I find it weird. And the other feature they announce is just a generic conversation summary. I believe there's no actual audio. It's just a text transcript. But yeah, this is a different. this audio intelligence coming at the end of the year. It's very telling they're doing it on the watch and not on the phone.

So I guess my kind of devil's argument on this is that, yeah, it's bad timing, but these features need to happen and might as well do it now. And Apple's probably the only company they can get away with it right now. I just think there's so much context that these devices are missing right now. and context is what brings us to the next jump in usefulness and utility. I guess I'm just not, I guess, I guess I want to see that useful. Like, they need to tell me what the usefulness is. Because like, to your point, I do work remotely.

I don't know how much I would get out of this. I would rather have it be. Exactly. I would rather have it be a thing that I can just like at any moment. I mean, I can basically, what I would basically describe it as doing is like replicating the smart ring pebble made or whatever where it's like just let me like hold a button combination or double tab a button combination of some sort

and like just immediately start recording a note or a reminder or whatever that gives no you know audio feedback or whatever just does it for me and then I can or even just like I don't know like there are ways that I can do this without it being always listening I suppose yeah everybody's phone yeah but everybody's phone is a pretty good recorder I wonder what this is a battery life

What do you think this does the battery life? How are Apple going to spin this? They have the silicone to make it efficient. Exactly. I am not. There's one thing you're going to say about Apple, especially like this decade. I feel like their battery estimates are usually like relatively correct.

Yeah, if anything conservative. Exactly. And so like, I don't know, if they say that Apple Watch with this on is lasting 24 hours. hours on a charge or whatever. Like, yeah, that's probably true. Yeah, I mean, I'm intrigued to see what it happens. I mean, what was it?

What was the kind of, did they highlight anything in the keynote with regards to what's going to be happening with or other devices later than the line? Obviously, we didn't see a base 18, which means. No, I don't think they referenced it at all unless I walked away from the, from the video at that point. I suppose, I suppose this leaves a door open, though, for Google to kind of get in and have a, base model that is going to potentially and obviously understandably

17 is like a 12 year old technology even though you would argue that on paper it floors almost any other base model Android phone but newer model potentially Google can offer discounts as well on their own devices I'm sure they will like

it feels like the 11 is perfectly placed now to kind of sneak in and maybe steal a little bit of some sort of market share I'm not sure am I right am I wrong in thinking that I think, yeah, it's the obvious line is why you're buying a year-old phone this holiday season. And it's, when you put it that way, it's kind of a gamble that Apple took to put it on an 18-month cycle before, like, that ends right after the holiday season. So, yeah, that'll be interesting to watch.

But, again, the 18 pro is probably what the yearly people upgrade to. but yeah. I mean, I'm pretty interested by Apple being the first to do it on an proper 18-month cycle. It's going back to normal. It's going back to normal. Yeah, no, but do you think, I wonder if they'll see this as potentially an opportunity to do it with other devices.

So say we kept there. Obviously, we have the iPhone Duo. If they do a follow-up, which I'm sure they will. I'm sure it will be a roaring success. I do wonder if they do it with certain devices in their lineup and almost separate. it, a bit like how Samsung have done with their foldable devices, a completely separate launch away from their other phones. And I don't know, sometimes I don't know if that hurts Samsung.

I think with Apple it would do no damage whatsoever. I think they could quite easily have another event, say, earlier in the year, or maybe in between WWDC and this regular iPhone launch season and have people pay attention to it to a foldable device. It definitely feels as though this one is a fringe problem. product in that it is part of the iPhone line but could fit into lots of their product portfolio in a different way. So, yeah, I mean, I'm intrigued to see what happens with everything in the grand scheme of things. Was there any of the fallout that maybe people might not have paid

attention to because we're all Android focused like myself? Is there anything that was kind of like stuck out at you that maybe was either missing or was out of place? I think I guess So iOS 27 is launching on Monday This coming Monday And that has the new seat The Gemini back series AI A lot of people

Already use chat GPT Gemini etc But I think Probably having it on your phone Having it as a default app on everybody's phone will probably unlock a new wave of AI stuff or the various people like doing screenshots of AI being long but that's coming. Well I guess that kind of covers our iPhone roundup for the year.

It was such a boring event. Like I said something similar in Daniel Bader's newsletter that we all chimed in on and definitely absolutely go read Daniel. newsletter. Go sign up for for inbox if you haven't already. But yeah, I just like, you know, it really felt like aside from the stuff I already praised on the on the UX side for the foldable. It was like, man, they are just any other tech company. And I, I'm not trying, that's not me trying to buy into, again, the reality distortion field so much. But like,

undeniably, there was there was a difference in the jobs, Apple and even the earlier cook period. And it's just like, it's so interesting to watch them, be like, nope, that's just a smart watch. That's like any other smart watch on the market. That's just a foldable. That the only, the most notable thing about it is that you're late to market. Um, et cetera, like, without much in the way of like new, at least hardware ideas. Um, and so on and so on. I don't know. It's just, it's just, it was one of those few times. It's not the first time I've felt this, but it's probably the strongest in terms of hardware where I'm just like, they're, they're like, they're like Google or Samsung or any of these companies.

It's just, it's interesting. Yeah, at the end of the day, they only want your money. They're not always your friends, these companies. So, yeah, I think, I'm, I will, we'll probably take another look later on the line, obviously, when these devices go out to people and people are using them out in the wild. I'm just interested to see what the, once the dust truly settles and, like I say, the hype, because I do think that there is an undeniable hype around an Apple, that I can't buy into it sadly.

I just find it, I want someone to be more refreshing and be almost, tell me it in the most, I guess, dry way possible. You don't need, we don't need, it's a lot. It's very influencer heavy, it feels like these events get influencer heavy every year and no one talks. Everyone talks in absolute. It's the best, the best thing it's ever launched. So we don't know that yet.

We will find out in the next few months. I mean, we're very much coming up to a month with a pixel 11 soon, So we'll also have some updates on that. But yeah, it's been a blast. We're going to go over to the Pro Teer now. We'll give you this funny story about the Cubtino campus at their Apple Store. It's phenomenal. Abner's got a tease.

Abner's got a tease to bring us right into the bonus. Go ahead, Abner. Okay, so I'm going to turn off my camera. Then I'm going to show something on screen. And I want everybody's on this call. all's honest reactions upon seeing it. Oh, wow, okay. That's not what I expected at all.

This is a man who, yeah, this would, he'd never do this normally. They'd put it that way. And the other thing is, if you can tell about the grid. Full, okay, full, home screen. Four by, four by five, is it?

I can't quite see it. Oh. This is, again, this is, this guy's going through. You are having a mid-life crisis happen. All right. Yeah. Ace and the lineup is crazy.

I think we have to go break this down to the bonus. Yeah, we need to know what, why, what spurred this decision. But yeah, come join us off on the pro today. It's been a great, great chatting to you, even though I didn't know anything about iPhone really ahead of time. And now you know everything. Now you know everything. And I'm not as impressed as I thought I would be. But yes.

Thanks guys still listening. Well said. And we'll speak to you soon. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9-to-5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.