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I’ve been testing the Pixel 10 Pro Fold for one month now and it’s got so many compelling features but also some which are frustrating. It's not just in clever AI smarts that Google is leading the way. The new foldable is waterproof and dustproof, has MagSafe compatible wireless charging, faster wired charging, brighter screens and better battery life. READ MORE: Google Pixel Buds 2a review: new earphones tick a lot of crucial boxes, especially for Pixel smartphone owners READ MORE: Google Pixel Watch 4 review: bigger and brighter display, better battery life and improved GPS The third iteration of the tech behemoth’s book-style foldable is the first handset of its kind with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance - dust resistance has been the holy grail of all folding phone manufacturers for many years. This achievement should remove any durability doubts that may still remain about foldables. Pixel 10 Pro Fold ’s new gearless hinge apparently makes the folding mechanism twice as durable as its predecessor and the firm said the hinge will last for more than 10 years of smooth opening and closing. For now I can tell you this 258g folding smartphone feels rock solid in the hand. The external screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Pixel 10 Pro Fold looks and feels very similar to last year’s model but that’s no bad thing as it was one of my favourite phones of 2024 to hold and use. Pixel 10 Pro Fold is also the first folding phone I’ve tested with MagSafe compatible wireless charging functionality - a far more useful daily benefit for users than slimness for the sake of it. I don’t have any of Google’s own Pixelsnap accessories yet, but the phone works with all my MagSafe chargers and stands and the thrill of this feature is immense as it’s new to Android. Other improvements include smaller bezels that give you more screen real estate on both the dazzling 6.4in front screen and the 8in inner display which is the largest on any foldable. Both OLED screens have improved 3,000 nits levels of peak brightness and superfast 120Hz refresh rates for slick scrolling. The inner screen’s crease is more noticeable than the crease on Honor’s Magic V5 or Samsung’s Z Fold7, its two main rivals in Europe. However, you only really notice it when you go looking for it and it’s not something that bothers me in everyday use. The inner display’s selfie camera cutout is located in the upper right-hand corner which means the cutout doesn’t affect your full-screen content. The way the hardware and software combine means that, like the other non-folding Pixel 10 devices, this device delivers the best execution of Android on a smartphone. And you get the stylish Material 3 Expressive design language which looks the part. This is the first TSMC-manufactured chip employed by the Pixel line which previously used Samsung made Exynos processors. The device is powered by the 3nm Tensor G5 chip and it feels superfast in everyday use. There is a hefty 16GB of RAM on this model helping things along. I haven’t encountered any stuttering or lag when multitasking, app switching, browsing social media, editing documents or images and using the camera app. This device doesn’t score too highly in synthetic benchmark tests but this is only relevant if you are an ardent mobile gamer, in which case you should perhaps consider a dedicated gaming handset instead, such as the upcoming Redmagic 11 Pro if you want to get the best graphics and highest frame rates in the latest demanding games. The new chip’s power and speed is most evident when you are using Google’s advanced AI as Tensor G5 handles more complex systems on-device. Gemini is ahead of the pack with useful AI tools that can enhance your overall experience. All the firm’s AI favourites such as Pixel Screenshots, Call Screen, and Magic Compose are here along with newer tools such as Magic Cue and Pixel Journal and access to Veo 3 video generation. And if you are a new user, you will get one year’s free Gemini AI Pro worth €263 too. Magic Cue is a clever digital assistant that runs in the background on your device to proactively suggest contextual options on your phone. It only works with a handful of apps such as Gmail, Maps and Calendar for now, and it is not perfect yet. But it shows a lot of potential. Split screen multitasking on the inner display includes the ability to drag and drop files and images between two apps, which is so handy. And while Z Fold7 offers a wider range of foldable-specific features to make the most of the big screen, the 10 Fold offers solutions that will be helpful enough for many users. The camera hardware here is identical to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, a set-up which was frustrating last year and is perhaps even more so this year. Pixel phones have a deserved reputation for delivering great photography and thus you’d expect the firm's most expensive device to include the latest and greatest camera tech. The superb 5x optical zoom on Honor’s Magic V5 shows and Samsung’s 200MP lens on Z Fold7 demonstrate what is possible on a foldable. Yes there is a 10.8MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom and an f/3.1 aperture on Pixel 10 Pro Fold but its quality falls well short of the zoom prowess of the non-folding Pixel 10 Pro XL. You also get a 10.5MP f/2.2 ultrawide on the 10 Fold and a 48MP f/1.7 primary wide angle camera. The reality is Google’s computational photography smarts are so strong that this phone does deliver consistently pleasing images from the main camera especially. However, the same can not be said for the two 10MP f/2.2 selfie cameras which are only average, which is disappointing considering the price of the phone and the fact that it’s a Pixel flagship. Video quality is decent enough from the main camera, but it’s not as smooth and sharp as the likes of iPhone 17 Pro and S25 Ultra. The improved Best Take mode for group shots captures multiple images and blends them together for a photo in which everyone is looking at the camera. I haven’t used the Camera Coach feature much other than to test it out but if you are a beginner or want to up your photo game and could do with some help, then it is a decent assistant that uses Gemini to help you compose and frame your shots in order to craft better images. Pixel 10 Pro Fold includes a new Instant View feature in the camera app. This enables you to use one side of the inner display to view your photos as you’re taking them. It means you can quickly check if a shot was blurry or framed correctly and take another if needed. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a 5015mAh battery, which is significantly bigger than the 4400mAh cell in the Galaxy Z Fold7. Combined with the efficiency gains of the newer Tensor G5 chip, this means that the endurance here is pleasing and superior to other foldables. On days of heavy testing it was easy to drain the power pack, but on more typical days there was enough stamina to keep the phone going from an 8am start to midnight with some juice left in the tank. The wireless charging here is capped at 15W (so it takes two hours to get from zero to 100 percent) while the 30W wired charging takes about 90 minutes to fully refuel the phone but it can get to 50 percent in just 30 minutes. The dual speakers are relatively loud and impactful as far as smartphone speakers go, but the positioning is odd so you need to be mindful of their location so you don’t cover one up when holding the device. You get WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6, NFC, VPN, Thread, dual-band GNSS GPS, UWB and USB-C Gen 3.2. And as with all Pixel 10 series devices, there is the promise of seven years of Android OS, security and Pixel Drop updates. Pixel 10 Pro Fold is not a perfect foldable. The camera hardware could be better, although the software does make up for the shortcomings in the still images it produces. I love using this device so much as Google’s software delivers the smoothest and purest implementation of the latest Android 16 operating system on a smartphone, folding or otherwise. And you get plenty of slick AI tricks and tools too. So while it’s outshone by Z Fold7 and Magic V5 in certain ways, the overall package here makes it a compelling foldable phone for power users and nerdy fans of cutting-edge tech. Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is available in moonstone (blue-tinted grey) and jade (pale green) colours and costs from €1,929 from Google Store for 256GB of storage. You can pay interest-free €643 a month over three months. It is also available from Currys at the same price. And you can buy it from Very for €2094.99 . The device is not currently listed on Amazon.ie but is listed on Amazon.co.uk for €2,000 at time of publication. https://amzn.to/4ovZkRu Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
