I held the Pixel 10 Pro Fold and these are the 4 things that impressed me about it

I won’t deny that the first leaks of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s renders and dimensions left a sour taste in my mouth. I was expecting Google to repeat what it did with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold — one of my favorite foldables from last year — and release a slimmer, more powerful workhorse. If Samsung had finally woken up and understood that lighter weight and single-handed comfort and usability were paramount for foldables, it only made sense that Google would answer back with a better proposition. Alas, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is none of that, but even so, it’s a very impressive upgrade from Google. Don’t let the similar dimensions and minimal external changes fool you like they initially fooled me, though; there are several big changes under the hood that make this phone a bit more attractive, a bit more useful, a lot more durable, and generally, just overall better than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Is it enough to make you ditch your foldable and buy the new one? I have a few arguments from my hands-on time with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to help you make up your mind. Pixel 10 Pro Fold: Hot or Not? 10 votes Hot 70 % Not 30 % Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold Top-tier specs • IP68 rating • 6.4-inch outer and 8-inch inner displays MSRP: $1,799.00 Thinner, more powerful, and a bigger display The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold combines a 6.4-inch front display with a folding 8-inch inner panel for two capable viewing experiences. With the Tensor G5 shipset, 16GB of RAM, and lots of UFS 4.0 storage options, it matches the Pixel 10 Pro XL in terms of specifications and performance. The folding phone also offers a triple camera setup, plenty of powerful AI features, wireless charging, and an IP68 rating. See price at Amazon Same old brand new Pixel Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Just like with the three slab Pixel 10 phones, I had to look really close to differentiate between the Pixel 10 Pro Fold and my Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Seeing the unit on the table in Google’s demo area, I briefly thought it was last year’s phone, then realized the Moonstone color is lighter than the previous Obsidian, and the outer display is larger. Rita El Khoury / Android Authority The 6.4-inch panel (up 0.1 inches from last year) stretches to the very edge of the hinge on the left, now, and has slightly slimmer black bezels all around. It’s brighter, too, at 3000 nits versus 2000 nits on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but that was less evident in the medium-lit room I saw the phone in. I think it’ll be more noticeable on sunny days, especially on the larger inner display, which has kept its size from last year but also received a brightness upgrade. Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Notably, the slimmer metallic frame design idea continues to the back of the phone. Here, too, the glass back stretches to the far right, leaving a super slim sliver of metal to the side. The overall effect is more refined. I used to think that my Pixel 9 Pro Fold was very elegant and refined, but somehow, it now looks a bit clunkier in comparison. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold just looks and feels nicer. A new hinge and more changes under the hood C. Scott Brown / Android Authority Google’s biggest talking point about the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the new gearless hinge mechanism, which allows for slimmer bezels and a larger outer display. In person, though, I couldn’t really tell the difference between the two from a simple glance. It’s only when I opened the Fold that I saw that the hinge seemed slimmer, and in the hand, it felt a little smoother each time I unfolded or folded the phone. If you get your ear close to it, too, you’ll notice that it’s a tad less noisy, too. Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Google has also upgraded the phone’s internals. There’s a new Tensor G5 chip, built on TSMC’s 3nm process, with a faster CPU, an upgraded TPU for all of Google’s Gemini features, and a better image processor. No word on the GPU, though, but the little we’ve heard leaves me a bit disappointed. Don’t want to miss the best from Android Authority? Set us as a preferred source in Google Search to support us and make sure you never miss our latest exclusive reports, expert analysis, and much more. Find out more here. Just like last year, the phone starts at 256GB of storage, but Google has finally remembered that faster storage options exist and upgraded that to UFS4.0 instead of UFS3.1. That, along with Zoned UFS (ZUFS), should ensure faster response time and app launches across the entire system. I’ll have to wait to get the real review unit in my hands to test these claims, though, because what I saw was an early test unit and the phone won’t officially launch until October. The first foldable with an IP68 rating Rita El Khoury / Android Authority More foldables with IP68 water and dust resistance will undoubtedly follow, but for now, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the first and only foldable with this rating. It’s not a feature I’d expected to see Google implement first, but I’m glad they did because it removes one of the last foldable hurdles for daily usability. I currently baby my Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and that’s one of the reasons I don’t use it much outside of home, often picking my trusty Pixel 9 Pro XL instead. I just don’t want to carry a phone that I’m always worried about, especially when it doesn’t have proper dust ingress protection. Anything from pocket lint to a bit of sand on a dusty day becomes a potential threat to the hinge and the entire phone. And that’s not a fun risk for a phone that costs $1,800. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the first and only foldable with an IP68 rating. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s IP68 beats the 9 Pro Fold’s IPX8 (no dust protection) and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s IP48 (lower dust ingress). It puts the new foldable on par with Google’s slab phones, so I can worry less when I slip it in my pocket or use it to take photos on a hike. The new hinge also brings improved folding durability, which Google says can handle twice as many folds as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. But based on Google’s math — 10+ years at 50 folds per day — that’s only around 200,000 folds, which is the industry’s previous standard. Now, phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 are rated for 500,000 folds, and Google still has a lot of catching up to do. A little thicker, but for (more or less) good reason Rita El Khoury / Android Authority On paper, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is nearly the same thickness as last year’s phone when unfolded, and yes, in person, it’s impossible to tell the difference between 5.2mm and 5.1mm. When it’s folded up, the difference goes up to 0.3mm (10.8mm on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold vs 10.5mm on the 9 Pro Fold), which was still so marginally insignificant that I couldn’t feel it either in my hands. Still, this minor regression is my biggest disappointment with the Fold in 2025 because I expected a big improvement instead. I see Samsung, vivo, HONOR, and other brands chasing extra-thin, super-light foldables, while Google, which was briefly the king of the game with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, is now trailing behind. Maybe you won’t care about this, but every conversation I’ve had around foldables with non-techies in the last year has revolved around them wanting a great phone first, and a foldable second. “It has to be as easy to use with one hand as my regular phone,” is the most frequent sentence I hear. That and price are the biggest barriers to adoption; otherwise, the phone remains an admirable feat of engineering, but not a product people envision buying and carrying every day. Rita El Khoury / Android Authority And therein lie some of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s issues. It’s more of a workhorse than a phone that will appeal to the masses who will see it as a regressive choice compared to the thinner and lighter options out there. That’s because, unlike everyone else, Google has chosen to stick with a Lithium-ion battery and make it bigger at 5,015mAh. Then it also added Qi2 charging with the built-in magnets to ensure you can prop your Pixel 10 Pro Fold on any Pixelsnap or MagSafe accessories. Both changes explain the size, but they don’t make it any more marketable. My biggest disappointment with the Fold is because I expected a big improvement, but it has the Google experience some will want. Picking the Pixel 10 Pro Fold will be “a choice” in 2025, and it’ll suit those who know they want Google’s software features and camera experience, need Qi2 and the higher durability, and don’t mind carrying a new phone with a slightly passé design. For everyone else, a Galaxy Z Fold 7 will be a more fashionable choice with a more powerful processor, too. If you want one, you can already pre-order it in the sleek Moonstone or the gorgeously underrated Jade. The base model with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM starts at $1,799, with 512GB and 1TB options, too, but none of them will ship before October 9. Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold Top-tier specs • IP68 rating • 6.4-inch outer and 8-inch inner displays MSRP: $1,799.00 Thinner, more powerful, and a bigger display The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold combines a 6.4-inch front display with a folding 8-inch inner panel for two capable viewing experiences. With the Tensor G5 shipset, 16GB of RAM, and lots of UFS 4.0 storage options, it matches the Pixel 10 Pro XL in terms of specifications and performance. The folding phone also offers a triple camera setup, plenty of powerful AI features, wireless charging, and an IP68 rating. See price at Amazon Follow