The best foldable phones in 2024: Our top picks from Samsung, Google, and more

There are two main types of foldable phones available, and our testing and experience show that the best foldable phones for most people are of the book-style, tablet-hybrid design rather than the clamshell-style flip phone.

Tablet-hybrid foldable phones are significantly more expensive but offer greater functionality, performance, and battery life in exchange. Clamshell foldables are, in effect, fashionable statement pieces with a secondary benefit of becoming compact when folded, and they're expensive for what they are; that said, there are worthwhile options for those who value the clamshell design.

In our testing, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the top option among the best foldable phones thanks to its performance, premium design and build quality, large cover and tablet displays, solid battery life, and excellent cameras. If you want to spend as little as possible on a foldable phone, the Motorola Razr (2023) is your best option for a valuable and truly affordable foldable.

Our top picks for the best foldable phones

Best overall: Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold - See at Amazon

Best overall alternative: OnePlus Open - See at Amazon

Best foldable flip phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 - See at Amazon

Best budget foldable: Motorola Razr (2023) - See at Amazon

Best overall

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the best foldable phone we've tested thanks to its overall performance, excellent cameras, comfortable folding experience, thin design, and large 8-inch tablet display.

Indeed, we picked the Pixel 9 Pro Fold over the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 largely due to the latter's awkward, narrow display. When using the Galaxy Z Fold 6 in the folded position, we want a better approximation of a regular phone.

In contrast, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold's 6.3-inch cover display is the same shape and size as the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro. Thus, using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold in the folded position is a comfortable and familiar affair compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, making Google's latest attempt the best Android phone in the tablet-hybrid form.

Additionally, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold's 8-inch tablet display is the biggest in the business, at least in the US. It's noticeably larger than the Galaxy Z Fold 6's 7.6-inch display and marginally larger than the OnePlus Open's 7.8-inch display. To be fair, the experience of watching videos, using apps on a larger scale, and multitasking with multiple open apps is overall similar on all tablet-hybrid foldable phones.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold, running on Google's Tensor G4 processor, common to the Pixel 9 series, won't win any awards for benchmark results compared to other foldables running on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Still, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold wasn't perceivably slower, or slow at all, during testing and regular use running apps and games. It's proof that raw power and benchmark results don't paint the whole picture.

Despite having cameras with smaller megapixel numbers than the Pixel 9 Pro, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold doesn't disappoint. It still delivers Google's signature "look" for photos, common to any of the best Google Pixel phones. It produces natural colors and an excellent balance of dynamic lighting, creating a sense of depth that no other Android phone maker can match.

Read our Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold hands-on assessment, and see our guide to the best Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold cases to protect the phone.

Best overall alternative

We can't make a recommendation for the top foldable phone without including the OnePlus Open. It's only the "alternative" to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold as it's nearly a year older and runs on the previous-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor.

To be sure, the OnePlus Open's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor still runs apps and games unquestionably quickly and smoothly. However, the phone's $1,700 starting price tag lessens its long-term value, as its performance may soon lag the more recent (and slightly more expensive) foldables with newer processors.

Otherwise, the OnePlus Open has a similar 6.3-inch cover display that's as familiar as a regular phone display. It also has a large, high-quality 7.8-inch tablet display. The apps we used during testing, including several Google apps, Reddit, Instagram, Apple Music, and LastPass, also display beautifully in tablet mode, whether they're optimized or not.

For its first attempt at foldable phones, OnePlus truly knocked it out of the park. The phone looks and feels like the company has been designing and manufacturing premium foldable phones for years. It's one of the most satisfying and smooth foldable phones to unfold and fold, and (apart from its large, protruding camera) it's among the flattest foldables in tablet mode when some foldables don't appear or feel quite flat.

In terms of camera performance, the OnePlus Open takes gorgeous photos with its triple-lens camera system. The tuning provided by revered camera company Hasselblad delivers gorgeous colors, especially.

The OnePlus Open isn't perfect, however. It doesn't include wireless charging, a glaring omission for a modern high-end phone. And, while its cameras are excellent, they can deliver softer details on moving subjects, like pets or toddlers, than other top Android devices. It's rather reliant on sufficient lighting to capture tack-sharp photos.

If you can get past the fact it's running on a previous-generation processor, the OnePlus comes every bit as recommended as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Read our OnePlus Open hands-on assessment.

Best foldable flip phone

Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 6 is the most polished, feature-rich, and powerful clamshell foldable you can buy. It's safe to say that if you're looking for the best clamshell foldable, you should buy the Galaxy Z Flip 6.

First and foremost, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 retains and improves on the Galaxy Z Flip 5's large cover screen, or "Flex Window," which is significantly more useful than the tiny cover displays that were previously common on clamshell foldables.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6's 3.4-inch cover screen lets you see a wide range of information at a glance, access basic settings, and use Samsung's Galaxy AI features to perform tasks like real-time translation and replying to messages with Suggested Replies, which we found useful.

We found that Samsung significantly improved battery life and camera quality year-over-year. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 doesn't struggle to endure a day's use like its predecessor did, and its upgraded 50MP main and 12MP wide cameras don't suffer as badly from the overexposure issues that recent Galaxy phones have uniformly displayed, though any of the best Samsung phones is more prone to inconsistent camera quality relative to Google's phones and any of the best iPhones.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor for Galaxy, the top Android processor in 2024. It's a supremely powerful and capable processor that can run anything you throw at it smoothly and quickly.

Combine its stellar performance with a 6.7-inch foldable OLED panel running at 120Hz and supporting 1080p resolution, and you have an ultra-premium fluid experience while swiping around apps and the Android operating system.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 review, and see our guide to the best Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 cases to protect the phone.

Best budget foldable

Motorola's base Razr (2023) wins the accolade for the best budget foldable phone, as it's also the only worthwhile foldable that fits our definition of "budget": a sub-$500 starting price.

As you can imagine, the Razr's comparatively low price means the phone isn't quite as fully kitted as more expensive clamshell foldables, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 or 2024's Razr or Razr Plus, which have larger cover displays. Like most of the best budget Android phones, the 2023 Razr's camera quality is also not on par with high-end devices.

The 2023 Razr runs on the previous-generation mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor rather than a current flagship processor, like the Snapdragon 8 series. Despite this, the Razr remains surprisingly snappy and runs apps without trouble.

You'll also find the Razr's small external display less useful than the larger external displays on flagship foldables. It's only good for showing notifications and the time and doesn't let you do much else, forcing you to unfold the Razr to do anything meaningful or menial, like writing a quick response to a text.

Still, the tiny external display can be used as a viewfinder for taking selfies with the main camera, which is a marquee feature of foldable phones.Once unfolded, the Razr offers a premium display experience with its 6.9-inch OLED folding panel that runs at a 144Hz refresh rate and a 1080p resolution.

Starting at a discounted $350, the 2023 Motorola Razr remains a solid entry-level foldable phone that's a good option if you can't justify the $1,000-plus price tags of most foldable phones or want to experiment with the foldable clamshell design.

Read our Motorola Razr (2023) hands-on assessment.

Best foldable phones compared

How we test foldable phones

Foldable phones undergo our typical phone performance, camera, and battery tests, with additional testing and considerations due to their foldable designs.

We have extensive experience with phones from Samsung, Google, Apple, OnePlus, Motorola, and more, and we can usually reach a firm conclusion within a few days of using a test device.

Our typical phone performance test involves using the phone as our main daily driver during the testing period to run common and popular apps and games. We expect quick and smooth performance, and we're looking for any variation of our expectactions. We also run the Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark test and various 3D Mark tests to measure year-over-year performance improvements.

Our typical camera tests involve taking photos of the same scenery across the phones we review. When a new phone is released, we bring all its generationally relevant competitors to take test photos at the same time of day and time of year to get the most comparable images.

Much of our camera assessment is based on the quality of spontaneous and uncontrolled personal photos, as they reveal strengths and weaknesses that controlled test photos miss, like taking pictures of subjects in motion and the day-to-day experience of using the phone's camera app. They're also the kinds of photos most people would take compared to our controlled test photos. Even though they weigh heavily in our assessment, we often don't include personal photos that depict family and friends to protect their privacy. We'll include as many relevant personal photos as possible, however.

Our battery test involves two runs of the 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test, one hour of music streaming while connected to a Bluetooth speaker, five runs of the Geekbench 6 CPU test, and two hours of video streaming. The test is designed to simulate a mix of light and heavy use with three hours of screen-on time.

For book-style foldables, the 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test and video stream portions of the battery test are done in tablet mode with the interior display. These tests simulate tasks normally done in tablet mode, like playing games or streaming videos. The other tests, including the Geekbench 6 and music streaming test, are performed with the exterior display when the phone is folded.

Special considerations and tests for foldables include assessing the feel of the folding mechanism, ease of unfolding and folding, and the phone's overall functionality in folded and unfolded modes.

FAQs

Are foldable phones worth it?

Spec for spec, foldable phones are more expensive than their traditional flat counterparts. With that in mind, foldable phones need to offer a benefit to compensate for their higher prices. If the benefit makes sense, a foldable phone is worth it.

Book-style foldables are a hybrid of a traditional phone and a tablet. If you've ever wished you had both simultaneously but find it unpractical to carry around a separate tablet, especially one that needs a separate data plan, a book-style foldable could certainly be worth it.

Clamshell foldables offer compact portability when not in use and can be fashionable statement pieces. However, we find their benefits less valuable than those of a book-style foldable. Yet, if you like the idea of a sleek, stylish, compact clamshell that can be flipped open and folded shut, who are we to say it's not worth it?

Is Apple making a foldable phone?

Applehasreportedlybeen working on prototypes for "at least two iPhones that would fold widthwise" since the start of this year. A more recent report fromThe Information suggests that Apple couldstart selling foldable phones as early as 2026.

There's no reliable indication that a foldable phone could come any earlier. With that in mind, we wouldn't recommend waiting for an Apple foldable if you want to venture into the foldable realm or upgrade. If your current phone is in dire straits and you're looking for a worthwhile Apple phone, we would direct you to the new iPhone 16 series.