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Is there such a thing as a perfect phone for a parent with toddlers?
Probably not. It would need to be indestructible, resistant to jammy, little hands mucking it up, and impossible to lose.
If you've ever struggled to get the perfect picture of your busy toddlers, look into the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
But there is a new option that has SO many great features that will help you do one of the most important things you will use your phone for: capture adorable shots of your kids!
Meet The Pixel 9 Pro Fold
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a top-notch folding phone. It has a 6.3-inch outer display but opens into an 8-inch tablet for times when you need some added screen real estate. Plus, this foldable has some powerful features that make it a great choice for parents. Let's dig into those now, starting with some fantastic photography features.
Made You Look
How tricky is it to get your kids to not only hold still but also look at the camera at the same time? The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has an excellent feature to draw your kids' attention called Made You Look.
When you fire up the camera app while the phone is open to tablet mode, you'll see a special camera menu that has a feature called Made You Look. By tapping on this, the external screen (which is facing your potentially reluctant photography subjects) will play one of several interactive animations.
The purpose of this is to draw the attention of your kids, so they're both facing the right direction and looking at the right spot for a great photo. The animation even intensifies if the phone doesn't think the kids are looking. It plays sounds and adds extra motion until it gets the full attention your family photo deserves!
Best Take
You're probably no stranger to snapping multiple pics of your kids in rapid succession in the hopes that at least ONE of them has both kids looking, eyes open, hands out of mouths (and fingers out of noses). Still, this can be a difficult task, and you end up with a photo where one kid has a great expression in one shot, and five pics later, the other kid looks adorable, but never both in the same picture.
@realdrewkozub New Pixel Camera feature Best Take lets you choose the best expression from a series of photos, so everyone looks their best. Game changer for group shots! #pixel #pixel8 #googlepixel8 #teampixel ♬ original sound - Drew Kozub
Best Take fixes that. It uses the existing similar photos you just snapped and allows you to swipe through several poses for each person in the photo, giving you the perfect pic you were hoping to snap.
Add Me
This next one is such a great feature for family group shots. When you're on a day trip to the zoo, or a fun family outing, often one parent is left out of the picture because they're playing the role of the photographer.
Add me is a really intuitive feature to make sure everyone makes it into the group shot.
Parent One frames up the shot and snaps the picture of parent Two and the kids.
Then, Parent Two swaps places with Parent One to snap a second photo. The Pixel phone provides guidance on how to frame it up properly and then stitches the two photos together to seamlessly create a group picture with everyone in the photo!
@realdrewkozub Google Pixel's new Add Me photography feature allows EVERYONE to be in a photo, even the person snapping the pics. Here's how it works! #Pixel9 #googlepixel #pixel #teampixel #techtok ♬ original sound - Drew Kozub
More than photography
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has some other great features (which you can read more about here), but Made You Look was the first one that I saw and thought, "This would be PERFECT for getting photos of the twins!"
Using this particular folding phone is nice because it sheds the bulk of a lot of other folding phones (it's only two millimeters thicker than the non-folding Pixel 9 Pro) and gives you a really versatile to device to go from phone to tablet when browsing the web, reading a book, or editing photos.
Aside from photography features, there could be some very helpful homework help with the on-board AI assistant called Gemini Live, a really handy way to organize screenshots (and search information from them), plus a fun app called Pixel Studio for generating cartoon images for custom stickers, invitations, or just for fun with your family.
Are you ready for a foldable?
Having pumped up all the great features of this phone, before you get too excited, just know it is one of the most expensive phones you can buy right now.
Fortunately, most of the great features are available in the non-folding versions of the Google Pixel 9 (note, but not on Pixel 8 or older), with pricing in line with your average smartphone.
Assuming you're a parent, or grandparent, I'm guessing you take a lot of family photos with your phone. So, make sure to let me know in the Comments section below which of these features you think would be most helpful for you!
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold
As we've outlined in the article, we think the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has such cool features for photography, especially if you're dealing with toddlers, who can be a bit restless at photo time. This is a premium phone, with a premium price tag, but in a space where folding phones have been a bit lacking (or WAY too thick), the Pixel 9 Pro Fold stands out as the best folding phone available now.
Also, feel free to share this article with anyone you think would enjoy.
Of the features on the Pixel 9 lineup, which one do you think would be most helpful to you? Let me know in the Comments section below, or if you have questions about these devices, I've been using all three versions of the Pixel 9 phones extensively and love to Geek Out about them, so leave those in the Comments section, too!
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