Google Pixel Fold suddenly doesn't sound quite so appealing

We know that Google is working on the Pixel Fold, its first foldable and a direct rival to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.

But, and Pixel Phone watchers will be familiar with this one, it looks like the as yet unreleased Google phone isn't as fast as the already-out Samsung, and may not end up being one of the best foldable phones to buy as a result.

That's according to new details posted to Geekbench for a Pixel Fold codenamed "Felix", as reported by SamMobile. The entry describes the Pixel Fold's chipset, RAM and clock speeds, providing a pretty good indication of how well it's going to perform.

How does the Pixel Fold compare to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4?

According to the Geekbench data, the Pixel Fold has the Tensor G2 processor. That means two ARM Cortex-X1 CPU cores at 2.85GHz, two ARM Cortex-A78 CPU cores at 2.35GHz, and four ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores at 1.8GHz. RAM is 12GB and it's running Android 13.

In addition to spec details, the Geekbench entry has benchmarks too. In the single core performance test the Pixel Fold scored 1,047 points, compared to 1,337 for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. In multi-core, the Pixel scored 3,257 to the Samsung's 4,028.

That's not a huge surprise, because we've already seen the Tensor G2 in the Pixel 7 Pro – so we know that the Galaxy Fold's GPU is roughly 50% faster, delivering a significant performance boost. And as SamMobile points out, by the time the Pixel Fold actually ships Samsung will be well on the way to launching the Galaxy Z Fold 5 with an even more powerful chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

It's pretty clear that in terms of performance at least, the Pixel Fold is going to fall some way behind the current Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and even further behind the next one. But sheer performance isn't really Google's thing; rather, the whole point of the Pixel line is to deliver a pure Android experience that rivals Apple's iOS – and to do it at a more reasonable price too. So on that basis, the Pixel Fold could still turn out to be a very desirable folder, even if it isn't quite a pocket rocket.