GRAMGoogle’s third-generation foldable phone promises to be more durable than all the others like the first with full water and dust resistance, while also packing plenty of advanced artificial intelligence and a suite of adaptive cameras.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold builds on last year’s excellent 9 Pro Fold by eliminating the gears in the hinge along its spine, allowing it to deal with dust, which has been the Achilles heel of all foldable phones so far, gumming up the job in a way that simply isn’t a problem for regular phones.
But, as with all foldable phones, the Pixel is very expensive, costing £1,749 (€1,899 / $1,799 / A$2,699), well above the £1,199 Pixel 10 Pro XL and rubbing shoulders with the equally expensive Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Improved durability aside, not much has visibly changed on the outside since the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. The external screen is a little larger thanks to thinner bezels, and the interior and exterior screens are a little brighter than before. The Fold has a great shape when closed for phone-based tasks and can comfortably fit two full-size apps side by side on the excellent internal screen when open.
However, the Pixel is heavy and feels chunky compared to Samsung’s impressively thin and light Z Fold 7. It weighs 258g, which can be felt in use and in your pocket, although it is significantly thicker than a regular phone and the latest rivals.
The Fold has the same Google Tensor G5 chip as the rest of the Pixel 10 line with 16GB of RAM and at least 256GB of storage. It performs as well as the Pixel 10 Pro, feels snappy in use, and is capable of handling most tasks without breaking a sweat. However, those looking for the highest frame rates in high-end games will be better served by rivals with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip.
As with all foldable devices, the Fold’s battery life varies greatly depending on which screen you use most frequently. On bright days, with about five hours of active screen use split evenly between the internal and external displays, mostly over Wi-Fi, the Pixel managed between 38 and 40 hours between charges. On the most intense 5G days with more indoor screen usage, it lasted about 28 hours, ending the day with 25% left in the tank. That’s not terrible, but it’s some way behind top rivals or big-screen phones, including the Pixel 10 Pro XL.
Budget
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Exterior screen: 6.4-inch FHD+ 120Hz (408ppi) OLED
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Inside screen: 8-inch 120 Hz (373 ppi) OLED
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Processor: Google Tensor G5
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RAM: 16 GB
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Storage: 256GB, 512GB or 1TB
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Operating system: Android 16
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Camera: 48MP wide angle, 10.5MP ultrawide, 10.8MP 5x telephoto; two 10MP selfie cameras
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Connectivity: 5G, eSim, USB-C, Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, UWB, Thread, GNSS
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Water resistance: IP68 (1.5 meters for 30 minutes)
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Folded dimensions: 155.2 x 76.3 x 10.8mm
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Unfolded dimensions: 155.2 x 150.4 x 5.2mm
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Weight: 258g
Android 16, Magic Cue and Gemini
The Fold runs the same Android 16 software as the rest of the Pixel 10 Pro line, featuring a bold and colorful look, plus plenty of cutting-edge AI tools located in almost every corner of the phone.
Some of the highlights include the Gemini chatbot, which can see and hear what you do, interact with your apps, and is generally pretty helpful, plus a new real-time translation system for phone calls that replicates the caller’s voice.
Magic Cue is the standout feature, which is a small helper that runs in the background on your device, processes your data from various Google apps and displays timely information when you need it. It understands context, so when a friend texts to ask when their flight lands, it will suggest your flight details from your calendar so you can paste them directly into your conversation, or when you call a business, it will show you your order details from Gmail right in the phone app. It’s cool and discreet.
It also has some modifications to make the most of the large internal screen. A taskbar at the bottom of the screen makes it easy to place apps in split screen. You can also resize apps beyond the edge of the screen, similar to the Honor Magic V5 and OnePlus Open, which adds a bit of flexibility when running two apps side by side.
The Fold also comes with a subscription to Google AI Pro for a year, worth £19 a month, giving access to more powerful Gemini AI models and 2TB of cloud storage for photos, files and email. The phone will receive updates. until October 2032.
Sustainability
the battery is rated to last more than 1,000 complete charge cycles with at least 80% of its original capacity. The phone is repairable by Google, third-party stores or self-repair. with manuals and parts that will be available.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold contains 29% recycled materials by weight, including aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, plastic, rare earth elements, tin, and tungsten. The company breaks down the The environmental impact of the telephone. in his report and recycle old devices free.
Camera
The 10 Pro Fold has a very similar camera setup to last year’s 9 Pro Fold and the new Pixel 10, including a 48-megapixel main camera, a 10.5MP ultra-wide, and a 10.8MP 5x telephoto camera, which beats its foldable phone rivals, plus two 10MP selfie cameras.
The main camera takes good photos in a variety of conditions, although it can suffer from some blurring and grain in lower light levels. Google’s night mode is still the best in the business when it gets really dark. The ultra-wide-angle camera is solid, while the telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom can significantly shorten the distance to objects. The latter can be a little soft on details in less than ideal lighting. Like the regular Pixel 10, the camera takes good photos and videos that most will be happy with, but it can’t match the Pixel 10 Pro line, which at this price is to be expected.
The Fold has a few tricks of its own, including several shooting modes using both screens or propped up at an angle when partially folded, plus the ability to take selfies with the main camera. The handy Made You Look feature shows an animation on the outside screen that reacts when your child looks in your direction and smiles, holding their attention long enough for you to take a photo, although unfortunately it uses one of the selfie cameras, not the main camera, so it’s more for fun than a great photo.
Price
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold costs from £1,749 (€1,899/$1,799/2,699 Australian dollars).
For comparison, the Pixel 10 costs £799Pixel 10 Pro costs £999the Pixel 10 Pro XL costs £1,199the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 costs £1,799 and the Honor Magic V5 costs £1,699.99.
Verdict
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is a minor update to last year’s already good 9 Pro Fold, but one that could have a bigger impact in the future. As the first properly dust-resistant foldable device, it sets a new benchmark for durability, slowly bringing the devices closer to par with standard phones.
The inner screen is still necessarily softer than normal toughened glass to allow it to fold, however you have to be careful with it. A fingernail can leave a permanent mark if pressed hard enough.
The added Qi2 magnetic accessory and charging support are just as good on the Fold as they are on other Pixels. The phone is fast, has reasonable battery life, runs excellent software, and has the best cutting-edge AI out there. The cameras are also good for a foldable phone, although they can’t match the best regular phones.
The Pixel does a great job of balancing being a regular phone when closed and a great tablet when open, but it’s fat and heavy compared to the dramatically thinner and lighter Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Advantages: a phone and tablet in one, dust and water resistant, Qi2 charging and magnetic accessory, great tablet display, good performance, good cameras with 5x zoom, packed with AI including Magic Cue, Google AI Pro included for one year, seven years of software updates.
Cons: extremely expensive, more fragile and more expensive to repair than a regular device, thick and heavy, cameras can’t match the regular Pixel 10 Pro, battery life could be better, fewer power user features than rivals.
