Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold Review: Refinement, Not Revolution

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Greatest Costs At the moment: Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold

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Final yr’s Pixel 9 Professional Fold introduced with it some large modifications, however with the launch of the Pixel 10 Professional Fold, Google is sticking to its tried and examined design. At a look, you would possibly battle to inform the 2 telephones aside, except for the fetching new color choices.

Nevertheless, appears to be like might be deceiving, and the newest foldable Pixel has some important modifications beneath the floor. Like the remainder of the Pixel 10 lineup, it will get the Pixelsnap magnet therapy, Tensor G5 chipset, and a few new software program options. It additionally sports activities a much bigger battery, sooner charging, higher sturdiness and brighter screens. 

It have to be mentioned, although, that the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is launching in a really completely different panorama from final yr’s mannequin. Samsung wowed us with its ultra-thin and massively upgraded Galaxy Z Fold 7, whereas Honor’s Magic V5 additionally made a huge impact. Does the Pixel do sufficient to compete? Let’s dive in.

Design & Construct

• Aluminium body, glass again
• 258g, Gorilla Glass Victus 2
• IP68 rated

As talked about within the introduction, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold appears to be like extraordinarily much like its predecessor. It’s principally the identical form, the cameras are in the identical place, and the supplies aren’t too dissimilar. It’s solely actually the color choices that give it away.

Luke Baker

It’s now obtainable in both Moonstone or Jade, which interprets to purpley-grey or pale inexperienced. I’ve the Moonstone choice in for testing, and it makes a right away constructive impression. The glass rear panel feels velvety-smooth and is totally proof against fingerprint smudges, whereas the perimeters have a colour-matched matt aluminium end, and the hinge is polished to a shine.

Whereas the competitors has been slimming down, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is definitely a tiny bit thicker than the final mannequin, and it’s barely heavier, too. There’s a superb motive, although, and that’s as a result of Google has stuffed some magnets and a bigger battery inside.

Luke Baker

Identical to its non-folding siblings, the Fold has adopted MagSa… excuse me, Pixelsnap know-how. This implies, while not having to connect a case, you should utilize the cellphone with just about any Apple MagSafe, Qi2 or Pixelsnap-compatible accent.

I’ve all the time been a fan of Apple’s MagSafe tech, and whereas Google can’t be awarded any factors for originality, I’m joyful that we lastly have inner magnets in a folding cellphone. That mentioned, I’ve been slapping third-party magnetic instances on my telephones for years now, and so they work nice. So, it’s not likely a step ahead in utility, however it does imply you should utilize it and not using a case – if you happen to’re courageous sufficient.

Luke Baker

On the subject of sturdiness, Google has achieved one other first. That is the primary foldable cellphone to be awarded an IP68 score for mud and water resistance. There’s loads of water resistant foldables in the marketplace nowadays, however they’re all prone to mud to a point. Supposedly, the Pixel will fare a lot better within the nice outdoor.

Once I examined the Pixel 9 Professional Fold, I used to be impressed with how sturdy and confidence-inspiring it felt, and it’s the identical case right here. The hinge was already nice, however it’s been improved on this mannequin, and it’s simply probably the greatest within the enterprise.

Luke Baker

The flip facet of that’s the Pixel 9 Professional Fold felt chunky and virtually outdated in comparison with the competitors. That has not been improved this yr; conversely, it has solely gotten worse.

Display screen & Audio system

• Outer: 6.4-inch, 1080 x 2364, OLED, 120Hz
• Interior: 8-inch, 2076 x 2152, OLED, 120Hz
• Stereo audio system

Beginning with the quilt display, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold has a barely bigger show, measuring 6.4 inches up from 6.3 inches. Sadly, I wasn’t capable of see the 2 telephones facet by facet, however I assume this was achieved by shrinking the bezels barely.

Luke Baker

Make no mistake, although, the bezels on the quilt show are nonetheless the chunkiest of any flagship foldable. Part of me likes the best way they appear; it’s virtually like a cartoon define across the entrance of the cellphone, and it’s sort of charming. However slimmer bezels will surely appear and feel extra trendy.

On the within, the folding show nonetheless measures 8 inches diagonally, which implies it’s nonetheless one of many largest book-style folding screens round. Sadly, the crease doesn’t appear to have improved a lot, and it feels far more noticeable than Samsung and Honor’s newest efforts.

Luke Baker

The bezel is fairly chunky on the inside display, too, however I don’t thoughts that a lot. With a big display like this, it’s fairly good to have someplace to understand with out unintentionally triggering contact controls.

The selfie digital camera cutout is situated in the identical place as final time, neatly tucked within the higher right-hand nook (or top-left, relying in your orientation). I like to see this, because it means the cutout doesn’t have an effect on 16:9 full-screen content material, irrespective of which approach you maintain the cellphone.

Luke Baker

The screens are each barely brighter this time round, now capable of attain 3000 nits at peak brightness, up from 2700 nits on the earlier mannequin. Actually, I had no complaints concerning the brightness earlier than, however additional lumens can solely be a superb factor.

The audio system, so far as I’m conscious, are unchanged on this mannequin. By way of sound high quality, I’ve no actual complaints; they’re loud, detailed and have an honest quantity of low-end response. 

The positioning remains to be troublesome, although, as after I held the cellphone in panorama orientation, I used to be typically muffling one of many audio system with my palm.

Luke Baker

Specs & Efficiency

• Google Tensor G5
• 16GB RAM
• 256GB / 512GB / 1TB storage

As anticipated, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold makes the soar to Google’s newest chip, the Tensor G5. It’s a 3nm chip, and Google says it’s round 34% sooner on common than the final era. With regards to domestically run AI, like Google’s Screenshots app and Recorder, the brand new chip is supposedly 2.6x sooner and twice as environment friendly.

In our normal suite of benchmarks, the distinction is apparent to see. In each CPU and GPU efficiency, this chip is a noticeable step up. Nevertheless, there’s nonetheless a large hole between this Tensor chip and the very best from Qualcomm and MediaTek.

Luke Baker

In actuality, most customers gained’t really feel a distinction between these flagship-class chips. They’re all tremendous fast, and also you’re not possible to see stuttering or discover slowdowns while you’re shopping social media, modifying paperwork or utilizing the cameras.

The ample 16GB of RAM signifies that this cellphone by no means struggles with multitasking, both, even with a number of apps on the display without delay.

It’s solely those that play extraordinarily demanding video games or try to edit super-high-quality video footage that can see a marked distinction. I performed some Wuthering Waves with the settings maxed out at 60fps, and whereas the Pixel may run it, the body charges had been nowhere close to as constant as they’re on 8 Elite-powered handsets.

Luke Baker

It was nonetheless playable, however I may really feel the cellphone struggling sometimes. It additionally received fairly scorching, particularly within the space slightly below the cameras on the rear panel. However flipping the cellphone round and holding it across the cowl display space meant that I may preserve that warmth away from my paws.

After all, if you happen to’re into much less graphically demanding video games, this cellphone will run them with out concern. However hardcore avid gamers could have a greater time with one thing Snapdragon-powered.

Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold

Cameras

• 48 Mp f/1.7 most important digital camera
• 10.8 Mp f/3.1 5x telephoto
• 10.5 Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide
• Twin 10 Mp, f/2.2 selfie cameras

The digital camera {hardware} on the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is similar to the Pixel 9 Professional Fold, and apart from the selfie snappers, they match the unique Pixel Fold, too. As a digital camera nerd, this was actually disappointing to be taught. The Pixel 9 Professional Fold cameras had been removed from the very best of their class already, and whereas different manufacturers are making strides, Google is resting on its laurels.

Positive, folding cellphone cameras not often rival the very best bar telephones. However personally, I don’t suppose we must be seeing an array of digital camera sensors that principally hover across the 10Mp mark on a cellphone that prices practically two grand.

Luke Baker

That mentioned, a part of the Pixel attract might be attributed to the picture processing and different software-enabled options, none of which is just too reliant on {hardware}. And certainly, if you happen to’re not too choosy along with your pictures, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is able to taking some very nice photographs.

The cameras do finest within the daylight, and at night time, you’ll wish to persist with the principle sensor as a lot as doable. The telephoto and ultrawide are very blur-prone, and heavy-handed denoising obliterates lots of wonderful element.

I actually take pleasure in utilizing the 5x telephoto, however having simply examined the Xiaomi 15T Professional with its new 5x snapper, this one felt extraordinarily limiting. It’s not nice at close-ups, and there’s simply not sufficient decision to permit for longer-range zooms. The Xiaomi’s 50Mp telephotos permit for nearly lossless 10x photographs (because of pixel-binning), whereas 10x photographs from this 10.8Mp unit look comparatively terrible.

Portrait mode is oddly limiting, too. You’ll be able to solely use the principle sensor, whereas most rivals allow you to use the telephoto, and for some motive, the cellphone forces you right into a 1.5x or 2x crop. This looks like one thing that might be simple to handle, so I’m undecided why Google is sticking to its weapons.

The benefit of the Pixel digital camera system is all of its easy-to-use software program options. Within the digital camera app, you’ll discover issues just like the Digital camera Coach, which may help information you into taking a extra aesthetically pleasing shot, and Auto Greatest Take, which merges a number of group pictures to make sure everybody’s eyes are open.

There’s even an AI-powered picture modifying instrument that permits you to alter your pictures by typing in plain English, however it’s at present solely obtainable within the US. If it’s obtainable to you, you may ask it to do issues like “take away the reflections within the window” or “delete the stain on my shirt”. 

As a photographer, these options don’t actually enchantment to me, however that’s okay. They’re designed to help individuals who don’t know what phrases like aperture and composition imply, and in some cases, they might make all of the distinction.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5015 mAh battery
• 30W wired charging
• 15W wi-fi charging

The Pixel 10 Professional Fold has a 5015mAh battery, which is 365mAh bigger than final yr’s mannequin, and considerably greater than the 4400mAh cell within the Galaxy Z Fold 7. This bigger capability, mixed with the effectivity features of the newer Tensor G5 chip, ought to imply that this cellphone lasts loads longer than the earlier mannequin.

Luke Baker

In our normal PCMark battery check, the ten Professional Fold survived for 13 hours and 1 minute, a really important enhance on the 9 Professional Fold’s rating of simply 9 hours and 18 minutes. Nevertheless, it’s nonetheless shy of the Z Fold 6 (15:34).

These benchmark scores replicate my real-world expertise, too. The battery life is stable, and it may simply see me by means of a median day’s use, which had me flipping between each screens and utilizing the digital camera loads. 

That mentioned, it’s nothing too exceptional, and I discovered myself reaching for the charger extra typically than after I used the Z Fold 7 each day.

Luke Baker

With regards to charging, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold can juice up at 30W with a wire or 15W wirelessly. It’s a stable enchancment on the earlier era, which solely supported 21W with a wire and seven.5W with out. 

As normal, there’s no charger within the field, only a cable. However with a suitably highly effective wall adapter, you may cost from fully lifeless to over 50% in simply half an hour. It’s not a foul exhibiting in any respect, however it’s price noting that the second 50% will take loads longer than the primary – a full cost took virtually an hour and a half, by my rely.

Software program & Apps

• Android 16
• New AI options
• 7 years of software program assist

Software program is an enormous promoting level for Pixel telephones, and certainly, in order for you that vanilla Android expertise, that is the one foldable that delivers the products.

Foldable gadgets from the likes of Samsung, Honor and Oppo all use closely customised variations of Android that change the basics. Google is the one one to convey the Pixel expertise to a bigger format.

Luke Baker

As you would possibly anticipate, all the new options that debuted with the Pixel 10 collection can be found for the Fold, too. This implies you get Materials 3 Expressive customisation, a great deal of new Gemini performance, together with video era with Veo 3, and Magic Cue, which makes use of AI to drag information from your entire Google purposes. There’s additionally 7 years of software program assist and safety updates, similar to the remainder of the lineup.

If you wish to know extra about all of these options, it’s price having a learn of our Pixel 10, 10 Professional and 10 Professional XL opinions. To keep away from retreading the identical floor, I’ll simply be specializing in the Fold-exclusive options on this overview. In brief, although, there’s lots of AI options right here, and a few of them are tremendous useful. You additionally get a yr of Google AI Professional subscription included, so you may entry all the newest options as quickly as they change into obtainable.

Choosing the Fold will get you a brand new On the spot View function within the digital camera app. This allows you to use one facet of the big inside display to view your pictures instantly as you’re taking them. I discovered this extra helpful than I anticipated, because it means you may shortly verify if a shot was blurry or framed appropriately earlier than taking one other.

Luke Baker

You additionally get Made You Look, which debuted on the 9 Professional Fold, however it has been expanded to incorporate extra animations. Mainly, it shows vibrant cartoon animations on the outer display to seize the eye of youngsters (or possibly even pets) and makes use of AI to detect when the topic is smiling, which can make the animated characters react.

It really works shockingly properly, youngsters can’t preserve their eyes off these animations, and that makes it very easy to seize some pretty pictures. The draw back, although, is that it makes use of the quilt display selfie digital camera to take these pictures, relatively than the principle rear digital camera. So, the standard is respectable, however it might be higher, and it’s not the very best in dim lighting.

Luke Baker

After all, you additionally get split-screen multitasking and the flexibility to pull and drop information and pictures between two apps, which actually helps benefit from the bigger show. Google’s implementation nonetheless feels just a little primary in comparison with the competitors, however it’s pretty intuitive and does sufficient to fulfill most individuals’s wants.

Lastly, there are a few quirky new recreation integrations that benefit from the folding {hardware}. When you play both Asphalt Legends or Disney Speedstorm, you may allow a brand new split-view mode and a dual-screen mode.

Primarily, this splits the gameplay alongside the hinge. So your racing motion is on the high, whereas the mini map and controls are separated to the decrease portion of the show. As well as, it provides additional controls to the quilt show, which might be tapped on the again just like the triggers of a recreation controller.

It’s a intelligent thought, and I hope we see different builders profiting from the {hardware} like this, however it’s not probably the most sensible implementation in its present state. Who is aware of, possibly that is the beginning of an entire wave of foldable-optimised titles, however I wouldn’t maintain your breath.

One other key promoting level of the ten Professional Fold is software program updates. Google will assist it for a complete of seven years and, as a Pixel, it’ll be among the many first in line for any new main variations of Android. Pixel gadgets provide probably the most seamless software program expertise you’ll discover on any Android cellphone.

Value & Availability

The Pixel 10 Professional Fold begins at £1749/$1799 with 256GB storage, similar to its predecessor. In the meantime, the 512GB model will set you again £1869/$1919, and the 1TB mannequin prices £2099/$2149. All variants include 16GB of RAM.

The Pixel 10 Professional Fold arrived later than the remainder of the Pixel 10 lineup, however it’s now transport in most areas globally. You’ll be able to choose it up through Google’s official retailer, a third-party retailer like Amazon or on contract by means of most main suppliers.

It’s an expensive cellphone, however that comes with the foldable territory. The bottom mannequin is barely cheaper than the equal Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, however it’s just a little dearer than the Honor Magic V5. It’s additionally price noting that you simply get extra storage with the Honor, because it’s solely obtainable in 512GB.

See extra choices in our full information to the very best foldable telephones.

Do you have to purchase the Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold?

The Pixel 10 Professional Fold leaves me with combined emotions. I’ve very a lot loved utilizing it, and I significantly like how stable and sturdy it feels. It additionally has some distinctive advantages that you simply gained’t discover with some other foldable, similar to IP68 mud and water resistance and built-in magnets.

The primary downside is the competitors. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 trumps this cellphone in nearly each conceivable approach. It’s a lot slimmer and lighter, the crease is much less noticeable, it’s extra highly effective, and the cameras are much more spectacular, too.

This cellphone, with its chunky design, thick bezels and outdated cameras, simply doesn’t actually do sufficient to compete. When you love Google’s first-party options and UI, and also you’re very involved about mud resistance, possibly this mannequin may sway you. Personally, although, I’d choose the Samsung each time.

Specs

• Android 16
• Outer: 6.4-inch, 1080 x 2364, OLED, 120Hz
• Interior: 8-inch, 2076 x 2152, OLED, 120Hz
• Energy-button fingerprint sensor
• Tensor G5
• 16GB RAM
• 256GB / 512GB / 1TB storage
• Cameras:
• 58Mp most important sensor
• 10.5Mp ultrawide
• 10.8Mp 5x telephotoo
• Twin 10Mp selfie digital camera
• As much as 4K @ 60fps rear video
• Stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM + eSIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7
• Bluetooth 6.0
• 5015mAh battery
• 30W wired charging
• 15W wi-fi charging
• 155.2 x 76.3 x 10.8 mm (folded)
• IP68 licensed
• 258g
• Colors: Moonstone, Jade