A phone I want to love, but can’t

The Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold is an excellent foldable. It’s the primary folding cellphone with an IP68 score and built-in magnetic charging. Staples like hinge, dependable battery life, high quality screens, and well-made software program are all current.

By all of these accounts, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold needs to be a straightforward advice. And but, I feel it’s probably the most difficult mannequin to suggest out of your complete Pixel 10 collection.

Whereas the entire above concerning the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is true, so is the truth that a lot concerning the cellphone feels outdated in a world the place the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and non-folding Pixel 10 Professional exist — whether or not it’s the Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s burdening weight/thickness or its lagging cameras.

If you desire a folding Pixel cellphone, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is the perfect you will get. However in case you’re searching for the perfect Pixel expertise no matter type issue, or the perfect foldable not tied to a selected model, the dialog across the Pixel 10 Professional Fold turns into lots trickier.

What higher place to start out that dialog than the design and {hardware}?

Beginning with the positives, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is, by far, probably the most sturdy folding cellphone I’ve ever used. On paper, there are two major causes for this. The primary is the cellphone’s new gearless hinge, and the second is its IP68 mud/water resistance score — the primary of its variety for a foldable.

I didn’t deliberately put the brand new hinge and IP score to the take a look at, however life had a manner of doing that for me. Whereas on the motion pictures one night, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold slid out of my pocket and tumbled down beneath my chair, hitting the hardwood ground and steel body of the seat because it went. I dropped the cellphone on the arduous carpeted ground of a bar on one other night time. I additionally took the Pixel 10 Professional Fold to a few farms and pumpkin patches the place it was uncovered to all kinds of dust and dirt within the air.

In any case of that, the cellphone reveals no indicators of wear and tear and tear. The hinge feels simply as sturdy and easy because it did on day one; there aren’t any dings on the aluminum body, and the duvet display screen remains to be immaculate. It’s fairly unbelievable to have a folding cellphone that I really feel assured about surviving the every day trials of life, and Google deserves quite a lot of credit score for that.

There’s one other huge spotlight of the Fold’s {hardware}: its built-in magnets. Identical to the remainder of the Pixel 10 collection, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold has magnets beneath its rear panel, making it suitable with Google’s Pixelsnap equipment, your complete MagSafe ecosystem, and different Qi2 magnetic goodies. Whereas it’s a disgrace a few of the official debut Pixelsnap equipment have been underwhelming, with the ability to slap my MagSafe pockets on the again of the Fold and use it with my current magnetic charging stands has been great.

Nevertheless, that is the place the tough a part of the dialog comes into play. Have you learnt why the Pixel 10 Professional Fold slid out of my pocket that night time? As a result of it’s so rattling heavy.

Weighing 258 grams, this is likely one of the heaviest foldables launched in 2025. For some context, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 weighs 215 grams. Google’s foldable additionally loses the thickness comparability, measuring 10.8mm when folded shut, whereas the Z Fold 7 is simply 8.9mm. Having held each telephones, belief me once I say these numbers make a distinction. When it’s folded, the Z Fold 7 looks like an everyday slab cellphone, whereas the Pixel 10 Professional Fold feels extra like a brick. Even after about two weeks of use, I nonetheless often discover simply how cumbersome and heavy the Pixel really is.

That is particularly irritating since that is the yr that Samsung, HONOR, OPPO, vivo, and others all made important headway in making their foldables as skinny and lightweight as we’ve ever seen. Google had a chance to comply with go well with, however as a substitute, it recycled the identical design as final yr’s Pixel 9 Professional Fold and known as it a day. The IP68 score and built-in magnets are nice, however I’m unsure that’s sufficient for me to miss Google’s laziness right here. The Pixel’s design is ok in a bubble, however telephones just like the Z Fold 7 are competing on one other stage.

On the plus facet, as a lot as I’m not a fan of the Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s design, I actually like its shows. The 6.4-inch cowl display screen appears nice, as does the 8-inch inside display screen, which is brilliant, colourful, and has a wider facet ratio that I want to the extra sq. Z Fold 7. If I’ve one criticism, it’s that Google nonetheless refuses to make use of an LTPO panel for the duvet display screen. It’s not a deal-breaker, however at this worth, there’s no cause to not embrace one.

Our tough dialog across the Pixel 10 Professional Fold continues with its cameras. I wish to begin by saying these cameras are high-quality. They’re constant, straightforward to shoot with, and I’ve taken some photographs with the Pixel 10 Professional Fold that I’m pleased with.

Nevertheless, for a cellphone that prices $1,799 — no much less a Google Pixel cellphone — I anticipated extra. Much more.

Specs-wise, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s cameras are equivalent to its predecessor. Meaning you get a 48MP main digital camera, a ten.5MP ultrawide digital camera, and a ten.8MP telephoto digital camera with 5x optical zoom. The megapixel counts for these secondary cameras are already unbecoming, and it’s price reminding that each one three digital camera sensors are significantly smaller in comparison with those on the non-folding Pixel 10 Professional.

Trying on the footage within the gallery above and the 4 photographs under (all taken with the 48MP main digital camera), it’s not a whole catastrophe. I actually love the colours within the first picture above of the sky and the orange clouds. The photograph of my canine appears good, as does the shot of the pumpkins within the smaller gallery under.

On the floor, you possibly can argue that almost all of those footage are completely high-quality. And they’re! However once you take a look at them somewhat extra carefully, you rapidly discover the shortcomings. Within the image of the drink, the small sensor measurement struggles to supply a pure bokeh impact, ensuing within the lemon and edges of the drink being manner too tender. Within the photograph of the sundown over the lake, the solar is much too uncovered. The Fold struggled to concentrate on the transferring miniature horse, and I’m fairly upset with the chilly, harsh colours within the footage of the yawning cat and the apples.

And that’s to say nothing of the first digital camera’s lowlight efficiency, the place it just about takes a nosedive. Between problem focusing and severely missing element, the Fold doesn’t maintain up effectively as soon as the solar goes down.

What concerning the ultrawide and telephoto cameras? They’re there. The ten.5MP ultrawide digital camera’s 127-degree discipline of view succeeds at capturing much more of the scene at hand. Sadly, there’s a really noticeable high quality drop-off in comparison with the first digital camera, as is totally evident within the photograph above of the water fountain.

The ten.8MP telephoto digital camera isn’t a lot better. The 5x optical zoom vary sounds promising, contemplating that’s the identical optical vary because the Pixel 10 Professional’s telephoto digital camera. Nevertheless, the images themselves inform a distinct story. Whereas the zoom vary is helpful, the Fold simply doesn’t seize a lot element. The telephoto digital camera will get you nearer to your topic, and for informal use, it will get the job accomplished. But it surely’s not a telephoto digital camera befitting of a $1,799 smartphone. Hell, it could look misplaced on a $999 one, too.

You may transcend the 5x optical vary if you need, although the outcomes are equally disappointing. The Pixel 10 Professional Fold delivers (barely) usable footage at 10x and 20x, its most zoom vary, however with a continued degradation in image high quality. It’s additionally price noting that the Fold doesn’t have the Pixel 10 Professional’s Professional Res Zoom characteristic, which lets you zoom as much as 100x and seize actually high-quality footage at 30x and 50x.

The Pixel 10 Professional Fold is equally disappointing in its video capabilities. Identical to with nonetheless photographs, the Fold’s video recording struggles when the lights go down. It’s additionally annoyingly capped at 4K/60fps, whereas the Pixel 10 Professional and Z Fold 7 each assist 8K video.

There’s an argument that, for a folding cellphone, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s cameras are adequate. However I don’t assume “adequate” is sufficient. Are these cameras serviceable? Completely. However there’s additionally nothing particular or outstanding about them. They’re worse throughout the board in comparison with the Pixel 10 Professional — a cellphone that prices $800 much less — and have much less performance, too.

If I’m shopping for a cellphone known as the “Pixel 10 Professional Fold,” I anticipate it to ship on Google’s greatest strengths: intelligent software program and wonderful cameras. The Pixel 10 Professional Fold doesn’t reside as much as Google’s digital camera experience, and for a cellphone this costly — folding or not — that’s a severe subject.

One other potential subject, relying on what you wish to do with the Pixel 10 Professional Fold, is its Tensor G5 chip. This is similar chipset utilized in the remainder of the Pixel 10 collection, and much like my time with the Pixel 10 Professional, I’ve had no efficiency points with the Pixel 10 Professional Fold.

Most of my software use consists of YouTube, X, Reddit, Chrome, Slack, Telegram, and Gmail. Working these apps individually or split-screen on the Fold’s inside show, the Tensor G5 has dealt with all the things with ease. It’s additionally accomplished so with out overheating, which is an enormous step ahead for Google’s Tensor chips.

For that type of utilization, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is nice. However in case you’re serious about shopping for a foldable, you in all probability wish to play quite a lot of huge, graphically-intensive video games, do quite a lot of photograph/video enhancing, and so on. — issues that shine on an enormous folding show. And for that extra hardcore use, I’m rather less assured within the Tensor G5’s skill.

In comparison with the Pixel 9 Professional Fold and its Tensor G4 chip, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s CPU efficiency is improved, particularly its multi-core numbers. Nevertheless, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a commanding lead over Google’s newest foldable, all due to its Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. The Z Fold 7’s GPU additionally scores increased than the Pixel 10 Professional Fold within the Wild Life Stress Take a look at, particularly early on. The telephones principally even out close to the top of the take a look at, each when it comes to rating and temperature, however there’s little doubt Samsung remains to be the winner.

And it’s not simply benchmarks the place the G5’s trailing horsepower is obvious. Enjoying Delta Drive with the default Beautiful graphics, the sport ran easily, however didn’t look significantly good. Once I bumped the graphics to Final, the sport seemed lots higher, however on the expense of dropped frames, graphic pop-ins, and jittery animations.

As soon as once more, that is the place the problem of the Pixel 10 Professional Fold rears its head. Day-to-day efficiency is nice, as is informal gaming. Extra intense video games are playable, however the expertise doesn’t replicate the cellphone’s worth or its rivals. For a cellphone just like the Pixel 10 Professional Fold, which attracts the eye of energy customers who wish to push their gadgets to the restrict, it doesn’t take lengthy to see why it is a downside.

On a extra optimistic word, battery life on the Pixel 10 Professional Fold has been actually good. With a mixture of Wi-Fi and 5G connectivity, diversified app utilization, and round a 70/30 cut up of utilizing the duvet display screen and inside show, I’ve been constantly beginning days at about 6 AM and attending to 11 PM with 20-30% battery nonetheless remaining — usually with 4 hours and half-hour of screen-on time every day.

The quickest I drained the battery was on a day when it was at 100% at 5 AM and dropped to six% by 9:15 PM Nevertheless, this included 5 hours and quarter-hour of display screen time, numerous time on 5G, some benchmark exams, and a good quantity of YouTube and X. Our battery benchmarks present that the Z Fold 7 once more has the higher hand, however so far as my real-world useage goes, I’ve been fairly pleased with the Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s battery life.

What’s much less spectacular is the recharge time. With 30W most wired cost speeds, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold takes 87 minutes to recharge from about 2% again as much as 100%. We all know Google is able to sooner recharging because the Pixel 10 Professional XL helps 45W speeds, however not so on the Fold. It’s not the top of the world, however identical to with the cameras and efficiency, it’s one other annoying compromise for a cellphone this costly.

As a lot as I dislike how heavy the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is, and as dearly as I want its cameras had been higher, Google’s software program is so good that these shortcomings are somewhat simpler to cope with.

What makes the Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s software program so particular is that it’s the identical Pixel expertise you get on every other Google Pixel cellphone. Meaning you get Now Enjoying to inform you what tune is taking part in within the background, the At a Look widget to maintain you up to date on the day forward, and all of Google’s wonderful calling instruments — together with industry-leading spam filtering, name summaries, and extra.

These Pixel-exclusive options add quite a lot of worth, and to have them on the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is an enormous deal — even when they aren’t unique to the Fold.

Moreover, Android 16 with Materials 3 Expressive adapts splendidly to the Fold’s huge inside show. The cut up fast settings/notifications UI is excellent, the brand new 90:10 multitasking UI has been an infinite assist, and so many Google apps — equivalent to Gmail, Maintain, Maps, Calendar, Messages, and extra — make wonderful use of the additional display screen actual property. I additionally love the brand new On the spot View UI within the digital camera app, which reveals your viewfinder on one half of the display screen and just lately captured photographs on the opposite half. It’s a extremely intelligent use of house.

That mentioned, I want Google had accomplished somewhat extra. You may’t pin the app dock in case you use gesture navigation, use greater than two apps in cut up display screen, run apps as floating home windows, or have separate residence display screen layouts on your cowl and inside display screen. These are all fairly primary options for a folding cellphone in 2025, and with Google now being on its third era of the Pixel Fold, it’s annoying that each one of that is nonetheless lacking.

I’ve additionally encountered a shocking variety of software program bugs throughout my time with the Pixel 10 Professional Fold. On a number of events when making an attempt to make use of face unlock or the fingerprint sensor, the biometrics pop-up rapidly appeared and disappeared, making the Fold’s biometrics briefly unusable. Much more annoying is a connectivity bug that randomly (and ceaselessly) triggered the Pixel 10 Professional Fold to lose its web connection — regardless of being linked to completely high-quality Wi-Fi or 5G. For context, I haven’t skilled any such points on the Pixel 10 or Pixel 10 Professional, suggesting these bugs are particular to the Fold.

I initially thought this may very well be a problem with my unit, particularly, however different opinions of the Pixel 10 Professional Fold have talked about equally buggy software program. That’s irritating, particularly because the Fold launched a month after its non-folding Pixel 10 siblings — theoretically giving Google further time to iron out any kinks. On the plus facet, with seven years of updates and Google’s well timed cadence for rolling them out, Google ought to (hopefully) be capable to patch these bugs quickly sufficient.

That every one leads us to the $1,799 query: Must you purchase the Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold? I feel I answered that completely on the high of this evaluation.

If your subsequent cellphone has to be a foldable and has to be a Pixel, then sure, you should purchase the Pixel 10 Professional Fold. You may attempt to avoid wasting cash by selecting up the Pixel 9 Professional Fold ($1799 at Amazon) on sale, however I’d argue that the IP68 score, extra sturdy hinge, built-in magnets, and newer Tensor G5 chip make the Pixel 10 Professional Fold a worthwhile buy over its predecessor.

Nevertheless, in case you aren’t married to the thought of a foldable Pixel and have some wiggle room both manner, your cash is healthier spent elsewhere.

Let’s say you desire a folding cellphone, however you don’t essentially should have a Pixel cellphone. Your solely different actual choice within the US is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 ($1999.99 at Amazon). Although it’s an additional $200 over Google’s foldable, it’s a more sensible choice total. The Z Fold 7 is considerably extra comfy, includes a vastly extra highly effective chipset, gives extra succesful cameras, and has software program that higher makes use of its huge show. No, there isn’t an IP68 score, however we’ve had zero sturdiness issues with the Z Fold all through our testing. If I had been shopping for a folding cellphone, as a lot as I like Google’s Pixel software program, I’d select Samsung’s cellphone.

Then there’s the flip facet of that situation. For those who received’t budge from shopping for a Pixel cellphone, however you may reside with out a foldable, I’d sooner suggest the Pixel 10 Professional ($999 at Amazon) as a substitute of its folding variant. Or, if you need a bigger display screen, the Pixel 10 Professional XL ($1199 at Amazon). Each telephones have the entire similar nice Pixel options because the Fold, magnetic charging, and vastly higher cameras, for a whole bunch of {dollars} much less.

There’s something particular about having that Pixel expertise on a foldable, and for some folks, that have can be price the entire Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s shortcomings. However simply know that to get the perfect of each worlds, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold isn’t the perfect foldable you should buy and isn’t the perfect Pixel both. One yr in the past, we cherished the Pixel 9 Professional Fold, however the harsh reality is the foldable market has lept ahead prior to now yr and Google hasn’t saved up, leaving its very high Pixel providing as a distinct segment, curiosity providing. And as an enormous Pixel fan and foldable enjoyer, it actually pains me to say that.