Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Refinement, not revolution

Greatest Costs Immediately: Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold

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 may battle to inform the 2 telephones aside, except for the fetching new color choices.

Nonetheless, seems could be deceiving, and the most recent foldable Pixel has some vital 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 totally 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 big effect. 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 seems 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 accessible in both Moonstone or Jade, which interprets to purpley-grey or pale inexperienced. I’ve the Moonstone possibility in for testing, and it makes a right away optimistic impression. The glass rear panel feels velvety-smooth and is totally resistant to fingerprint smudges, whereas the edges 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 an excellent cause, 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 expertise. This implies, with no need to connect a case, you should use the telephone with just about any Apple MagSafe, Qi2 or Pixelsnap-compatible accent.

I’ve at all times been a fan of Apple’s MagSafe tech, and whereas Google can’t be awarded any factors for originality, I’m pleased that we lastly have inner magnets in a folding telephone. 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, but it surely does imply you should use it with out a case – should you’re courageous sufficient.

Luke Baker

On the subject of sturdiness, Google has achieved one other first. That is the primary foldable telephone to be awarded an IP68 score for mud and water resistance. There’s loads of water resistant foldables in the marketplace as of late, however they’re all prone to mud to some extent. Supposedly, the Pixel will fare significantly better within the nice open air.

After 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, but it surely’s been improved on this mannequin, and it’s simply among the best within the enterprise.

Luke Baker

The flip aspect 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 & Audio system

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

Beginning with the duvet 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 aspect by aspect, however I assume this was achieved by shrinking the bezels barely.

Luke Baker

Make no mistake, although, the bezels on the duvet show are nonetheless the chunkiest of any flagship foldable. Part of me likes the best way they give the impression of being; it’s virtually like a cartoon define across the entrance of the telephone, and it’s form of charming. However slimmer bezels will surely feel and look extra fashionable.

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 know with out unintentionally triggering contact controls.

The selfie digicam cutout is positioned 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, regardless of which means you maintain the telephone.

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 an excellent 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 continues to be troublesome, although, as once I held the telephone 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. In relation to regionally 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 traditional suite of benchmarks, the distinction is obvious to see. In each CPU and GPU efficiency, this chip is a noticeable step up. Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless a large hole between this Tensor chip and the very best from Qualcomm and MediaTek.

Luke Baker

In actuality, most customers received’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 looking social media, modifying paperwork or utilizing the cameras.

The ample 16GB of RAM implies that this telephone 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 and 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 telephone struggling infrequently. It additionally received fairly scorching, particularly within the space just under the cameras on the rear panel. However flipping the telephone round and holding it across the cowl display space meant that I may preserve that warmth away from my paws.

In fact, should you’re into much less graphically demanding video games, this telephone will run them with out difficulty. However hardcore players may have a greater time with one thing Snapdragon-powered.

Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold

Cameras

• 48 Mp f/1.7 primary digicam
• 10.8 Mp f/3.1 5x telephoto
• 10.5 Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide
• Twin 10 Mp, f/2.2 selfie cameras

The digicam {hardware} on the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is an identical to the Pixel 9 Professional Fold, and apart from the selfie snappers, they match the unique Pixel Fold, too. As a digicam 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.

Certain, folding telephone cameras hardly ever rival the very best bar telephones. However personally, I don’t suppose we must be seeing an array of digicam sensors that largely hover across the 10Mp mark on a telephone that prices practically two grand.

Luke Baker

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

The cameras do finest within the daylight, and at night time, you’ll need to stick with the primary sensor as a lot as potential. The telephoto and ultrawide are very blur-prone, and heavy-handed denoising obliterates loads of effective element.

I actually get pleasure from 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 enable for nearly lossless 10x pictures (due to pixel-binning), whereas 10x pictures from this 10.8Mp unit look comparatively terrible.

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

The benefit of the Pixel digicam system is all of its easy-to-use software program options. Within the digicam app, you’ll discover issues just like the Digicam 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 software that allows you to alter your photographs by typing in plain English, but it surely’s at the moment solely accessible within the US. If it’s accessible 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 attraction to me, however that’s okay. They’re designed to assist individuals who don’t know what phrases like aperture and composition imply, and in some situations, they may 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 positive factors of the newer Tensor G5 chip, ought to imply that this telephone lasts quite a bit longer than the earlier mannequin.

Luke Baker

In our traditional PCMark battery take a look at, the ten Professional Fold survived for 13 hours and 1 minute, a really vital enhance on the 9 Professional Fold’s rating of simply 9 hours and 18 minutes. Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless shy of the Z Fold 6 (15:34).

These benchmark scores mirror my real-world expertise, too. The battery life is strong, and it may simply see me by a median day’s use, which had me flipping between each screens and utilizing the digicam quite a bit. 

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

Luke Baker

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

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

Software program & Apps

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

Software program is a giant promoting level for Pixel telephones, and certainly, if you would like that vanilla Android expertise, that is the one foldable that delivers the products.

Foldable units 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 deliver the Pixel expertise to a bigger format.

Luke Baker

As you may anticipate, the entire 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 tug information from all your Google functions. There’s additionally 7 years of software program help and safety updates, similar to the remainder of the lineup.

If you wish to know extra about all of these options, it’s value 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 assessment. Briefly, although, there’s loads 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 most recent options as quickly as they grow to be accessible.

Choosing the Fold will get you a brand new On the spot View characteristic within the digicam app. This allows you to use one aspect of the massive internal display to view your pictures instantly as you’re taking them. I discovered this extra helpful than I anticipated, because it means you may rapidly examine 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, but it surely has been expanded to incorporate extra animations. Principally, 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 duvet display selfie digicam to take these pictures, quite than the primary rear digicam. So, the standard is respectable, but it surely could possibly be higher, and it’s not the very best in dim lighting.

Luke Baker

In fact, you additionally get split-screen multitasking and the flexibility to tug and drop information and pictures between two apps, which actually helps profit from the bigger show. Google’s implementation nonetheless feels a little bit primary in comparison with the competitors, but it surely’s pretty intuitive and does sufficient to fulfill most individuals’s wants.

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

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

It’s a dear telephone, however that comes with the foldable territory. The bottom mannequin is barely cheaper than the equal Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, but it surely’s a little bit dearer than the Honor Magic V5. It’s additionally value noting that you simply get extra storage with the Honor, because it’s solely accessible in 512GB.

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

Must you purchase the Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold?

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

The primary drawback is the competitors. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 trumps this telephone in nearly each conceivable means. 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 telephone, with its chunky design, thick bezels and outdated cameras, simply doesn’t actually do sufficient to compete. In the event 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
• Inside: 8-inch, 2076 x 2152, OLED, 120Hz
• Energy-button fingerprint sensor
• Tensor G5
• 16GB RAM
• 256GB / 512GB / 1TB storage
• Cameras:
• 58Mp primary sensor
• 10.5Mp ultrawide
• 10.8Mp 5x telephotoo
• Twin 10Mp selfie digicam
• 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