Pixel 10 Pro Fold Review: Durability and Battery Win Out Over Sleekness

As more phones get slimmer and sleeker, Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold takes a different approach. 

Yes, this year’s book-style foldable shares a striking resemblance to its not-so-thin predecessor, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. But this latest iteration emphasizes durability and battery life, without hiking the already-high $1,799 price. And while mobile AI features can still come off as gimmicky, most of the ones you’ll find on the 10 Pro Fold are helpful, especially when it comes to leveling up the camera. 

I’ve largely enjoyed using the Pixel 10 Pro Fold over the past week, though the foldable phone finds itself in an interesting place. It has “Pro” in the name without the same top-level camera specs you’ll find on the other Pixel 10 Pro phones. And without the eye-catching slim design of its competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Honor Magic V5, it can be easy to overlook. But once I peered beyond the subtle jade surface, I found the Pixel 10 Pro Fold has some key features that help it stand out. 

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold hits store shelves on Oct. 9, well over a month after the rest of the Pixel 10 lineup became available. You can check out our reviews of the baseline Pixel 10 and the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL.

Durability takes center stage

I’ll admit that when I have the Pixel 10 Pro Fold and 9 Pro Fold sitting next to each other, it takes a moment to figure out which is which. The 10 Pro Fold borrows heavily from last year’s design, down to the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover and matte back glass. But while the 9 Pro Fold comes in plain old black-and-white hues (or obsidian and porcelain, if you want to be technical), the Pixel 10 Pro Fold arrives in a soothing jade color that balances subtlety with a little more character. There’s also a silver-grey moonstone option if you want something more traditional. 

Google hasn’t slimmed down the Fold; in fact, this year’s model is slightly thicker, going from 5.1mm when open to 5.2mm, not that you’ll notice such a minimal difference. The 10 Pro Fold is also 1 gram heavier, clocking in at 258 grams. But even after using thinner foldables like the Oppo Find N5 and the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold doesn’t feel obtrusively bulky. Yes, it’s obviously heftier than its slimmer competitors, but its thickness and weight still feel relatively proportional to its size. 

One of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s standout features is its IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. That means the phone is completely protected against dust and can be submerged in up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes. (The 9 Pro Fold wasn’t even rated for protection against granular solids.) You should therefore be able to take the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to the beach and not worry about sand getting inside and ruining your pricey new device. And while an IP68 rating is standard for most premium phones, it’s a rarity in the world of foldables. Hopefully, other phone makers (ahem, Samsung) will take note. 

A new gearless hinge is also designed to be more durable, Google says. The phone opens and closes smoothly, without catching at any point. When the Fold is shut, the outward side of the hinge doesn’t protrude as much as it does on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, giving the phone a more refined overall look.

Dual display upgrades

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a 6.4-inch cover screen, compared to the 6.3-inch screen on the 9 Pro Fold, thanks to slimmer bezels. When closed, it feels like holding a standard phone (apart from the thickness), so I find myself using the cover screen pretty regularly for texting, jotting down notes and scrolling through social media.

The internal display is 8 inches, and I tend to opt for that when I’m watching videos or multitasking. I’ll have YouTube open on one side of the display while I scroll through photos or send an email on the other. An update to Split Screen gives you more range when adjusting how much space an app takes on the screen, so you can make one app tiny on the side and have another dominate the screen. But unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 7, you can only have two apps open simultaneously, instead of three. That’s disappointing.

A feature called Drag & Drop makes it easier to share photos and files across apps. In Split Screen mode, I can hold down on an image in Photos and drag it over to Messages or Gmail to quickly attach and send it. It’s a good example of Google taking advantage of the Fold’s unique design, and it feels more like a mini computer — more of that, please!

Both the cover and inside screens have up to a 120Hz refresh rate with a 3,000-nit peak brightness, which is especially helpful when looking at such a large display outdoors. The crease on the inner screen is definitely visible but, like other foldables, it isn’t noticeable once you’re watching something or scrolling. 

Cameras get an AI assist

On paper, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s camera specs are identical to those on the 9 Pro Fold. There’s a 48-megapixel wide-angle, 10.5-megapixel ultrawide and 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera, along with 10-megapixel selfie cameras on the inner and cover screens. 

There are some software and AI improvements that help to level up photos, from Super Res Zoom for sharpening punched-in images to Camera Coach, which guides you to taking a better shot. But first, let me show you some of my favorite photos I took on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

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One of the more impressive features is Super Res Zoom, which lets you punch in digitally up to 20x and then uses AI to sharpen the final image. It does an impressive job serving up shots that don’t look muddled, and makes me a little less averse to using digital zoom — though the quality is no match for optical zoom. Super Res Zoom also pales in comparison to the 100x Pro Res Zoom you’ll get on the non-folding Pixel 10 Pro phones, which feels like a missed opportunity, considering the Pixel 10 Pro Fold also has “Pro” in the name. Instead, you get a feature that’s also available on the baseline Pixel 10.

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Camera Coach uses Gemini to show you how to make your image pop, from giving you tips on framing to suggesting which mode to use (the answer is always Portrait mode in my opinion, but that’s just me). If you’re as confident about your photography as I am, it may not be something you reach for very often, but it’s interesting to see what shots it suggests. 

Add Me uses augmented reality and AI to make it look like two people are standing next to each other in a picture, when in reality you’re taking two separate photos that are merged into one. Add Me debuted on the Pixel 9 series, but now it works on bigger group photos and is better at recognizing gestures. For example, if I put my arm out and someone stands next to me (with the help of AR), it’ll know to place my arm behind them, rather than splaying it across their torso. 

Still, Add Me gives a somewhat cardboard-cutout appearance to images, and it can be tricky to figure out where someone should stand to make the final shot look natural. A neat Dual Screen Preview feature on the Fold helps a bit; it uses the phone’s cover screen to show the person on the other side of the camera what the shot will look like, so they can adjust their position before the photographer taps the shutter. 

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There’s a handy feature called Instant View that shows you the photos you’re taking in real time so you can review them. You’ll see the images roll in on the left side of the internal display each time you tap the shutter, and you can adjust your shot as needed. 

Altogether, the 10 Pro Fold serves up nice, balanced images, in terms of the exposure. Photos have an overall softness that can compromise on sharpness a bit. Colors look true to life, and highlights and shadows play nicely together.  

More AI with a (mostly) practical lens

Magic Cue is one of those AI features that even I, an AI skeptic, find myself saying, “Wow, that’s actually useful.” It automatically surfaces information that might be relevant to what you’re doing on your phone. So if I call United Airlines, it’ll show my upcoming flight information on the call screen, without me having to dig for it in my email. If a friend texts to ask about a dinner reservation, it’ll pull that information from somewhere like Gmail or Google Calendar, or at least surface a shortcut to view your calendar. 

It’s an intuitive use for AI that makes it feel like an assistant rather than a nuisance. Just know it may take a few days for Magic Cue to process information across your Google apps, so it might not be available right when you unbox and set up your phone.

Voice Translate is another feature that flexes Google’s AI chops. Rather than using a robotic voice to translate what someone is saying on a call, it taps AI to mimic the sound of someone’s voice to translate their speech. I tried Voice Translate with Vanessa Hand Orellana, the CNET Mobile team’s resident Spanish speaker. While it did a mostly good job translating, it had a funny habit of making Vanessa sound like she has an accent when it converted her voice to English, which just isn’t the case in real life. I marveled and laughed all at once.   

Some AI features feel less practical, like Pixel Studio, which comes off as more gimmicky. This lets you generate whatever you want in an image with a prompt, like adding a rainbow to a clear blue sky or changing the view outside your window to a futuristic metropolis. It might be fun, but it’s also kind of pointless. 

Battery life and storage 

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a 5,015-mAh battery, a notable upgrade over the 4,650-mAh Pixel 9 Pro Fold battery. I suppose that’s what you get when you don’t slim down a phone. I can easily get through a day of texting, scrolling, snapping photos, watching videos and sending emails and still have some battery to spare the next day. 

In CNET’s 45-minute endurance test, which involves streaming, scrolling through social media, joining a video call and playing games on the internal display, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s battery went from full to 96%. That beats the 93% I got on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the 95% on the Oppo Find N5. 

In a longer, 3-hour streaming test over Wi-Fi, I watched a YouTube video in full-screen mode at full brightness on the inner display. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s battery dropped from 100% to 78%. 

That’s lower than the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 84% result, and a notable drop from the Oppo Find N5’s 89% landing point. But it’s in the same ballpark as the other Pixel 10 phones, which suggests the Tensor G5 chip may not be as optimized for video playback as other chips on the market. (The baseline Pixel 10 ended at 82%, the 10 Pro finished at 69% and the 10 Pro XL ended with 76%.)

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold can top off quickly with wired charging, going from 0% to 51% in half an hour. It reaches a full charge in just under an hour and a half. 

The 10 Pro Fold can also charge wirelessly at 15 watts and is Qi2 certified. Magnets embedded in the phone — which Google calls Pixelsnap — make it easier to use magnetic accessories like chargers, wallets and stands. Pixelsnap is like Google’s take on MagSafe for the iPhone. And yes, MagSafe accessories work on the Pixel 10 lineup. Using the Pixelsnap charging stand, the 10 Pro Fold went from 0% to 27% in half an hour.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold arrives with Android 16 on board, and it supports seven years of software and security updates. The phone has a generous 16GB of RAM, and you can choose from 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage.

Final thoughts: Should you buy the Pixel 10 Pro Fold?

The foldable phone space remains a niche one, though competition continues to heat up as phone makers race to release the most innovative, eye-catching designs. Unlike many of its competitors, Google didn’t slim down the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, but rather focused on bolstering features that some buyers might prioritize, like battery life and durability. That gives this phone a slightly more practical appeal, even if it doesn’t make for the flashiest superlatives.

Both the cover and internal screen feel equally practical in their own ways. A slightly wider cover screen with scaled-back bezels helps this phone look as “normal” as possible when I need it to function like a standard slate phone, like when I’m quickly shooting over a text or absentmindedly scrolling through Instagram. 

Features like Drag & Drop, Instant View and a more versatile Split Screen mode help make sense of the Fold’s spacious 8-inch internal screen, and give me more of a reason to open up the phone and use it like a mini computer. Having more of these capabilities could create a clearer use case as to why buyers should opt for a foldable phone, as opposed to a more traditional design. 

I’m perhaps most thrilled that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold has an IP68 rating, which so many other premium phones have touted for years. Hopefully, other foldable phone-makers follow suit. But in the meantime, it’s a feature that can help the Pixel stand out to anyone who doesn’t want to stress about tiny particles ruining their $1,799 device. Beach approved!  

But despite the “Pro” in its title, the Fold’s cameras are still a step down from its Pixel 10 Pro counterparts. If you’d rather have the best cameras Google has to offer, you might have to forfeit the cool factor of a foldable and opt for the Pixel 10 Pro or 10 Pro XL. It seems like a missed opportunity to make the Pixel 10 Pro Fold live up to its name.

If you have last year’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the changes in this year’s model probably aren’t worth the upgrade. (I promise you most people won’t be able to tell the difference between the two phones.) If you’re rocking the first Pixel Fold, this will feel like quite the step up, especially from a design standpoint. And trust me, get it in jade.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold vs. Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs. Oppo Find N5

	Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold	Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold	Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7	Oppo Find N5
Cover display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate	6.4-inch OLED; 2,364×1,080 pixels; 60 to 120Hz refresh rate	6.3-inch OLED; 2,424×1,080 pixels; 60 to 120 Hz variable refresh rate	6.5-inch AMOLED, 2,520×1,080p, 1 to 120Hz refresh rate	6.62-inch OLED; 2,616×1,140 pixels; 1 to120Hz variable refresh rate
Internal display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate	8-inch OLED; 2,152 x 2,076 pixels; 1 to 120Hz refresh rate (LTPO)	8-inch OLED; 2,152×2,076 pixels, 1 to 120 Hz variable refresh rate (LTPO)	8-inch AMOLED, 2,184×1,968p, 1 to 120Hz refresh rate	8.12-inch OLED; 2,480×2,248 pixels; 1 to 120Hz variable refresh rate
Pixel density	Cover: 408ppi; Internal: 373ppi	Cover: 422 ppi; Internal: 373 ppi	Cover: 422 ppi; Internal: 368 ppi	Cover: 431 ppi; Internal: 412 ppi
Dimensions (inches)	Open: 6.1 x 5.9 x 0.2 in; Closed: 6.1 x 3 x 0.4 in	Open: 6.1 x 5.9 x 0.2 in; Closed: 6.1 x 3 x 0.4 in	Open: 5.63 x 6.24 x 0.17 in; Closed: 2.87 x 6.24 x 0.35 in	Open: 6.3×5.77×0.16 in; Closed: 6.3×2.93×0.35 in
Dimensions (millimeters)	Open: 155.2 x 150.4 x 5.2 mm; Closed: 155.2 x 76.3 x 10.8 mm	Open: 155.2×150.2×5.1 mm; Closed: 155.2×77.1×10.5 mm	Open: 143.2 x 158.4 x 4.2mm; Closed: 72.8 x 158.4 x 8.9mm	Open: 160.87×146.58×4.21mm; Closed: 160.87×74.42×8.93mm
Weight (grams, ounces)	258g (9.1 oz)	257g (9.1 oz)	215g (7.58 oz.)	229g (8.08 oz)
Mobile software	Android 16	Android 14	Android 16	Android 15
Cameras	48-megapixel (wide), 10.5-megapixel (ultrawide), 10.8-megapixel (5x telephoto)	48-megapixel (wide), 10.5-megapixel (ultrawide), 10.8-megapixel (5x telephoto)	200-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 10-megapixel (telephoto)	50-megapixel (main), 8-megapixel (ultrawide), 50-megapixel (periscope telephoto)
Internal screen camera	10-megapixel (inner screen); 10-megapixel (cover screen)	10-megapixel (inner screen); 10-megapixel (cover screen)	10-megapixel (inner screen); 10-megapixel (outer screen)	8-megapixel (inner screen); 8-megapixel (cover screen)
Video capture	4K	4K	8K	4K
Processor	Google Tensor G5	Google Tensor G4	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy	Snapdragon 8 Elite
RAM/storage	16GB + 256GB, 512GB, 1TB	16GB + 256GB, 512GB	12GB + 256GB, 12GB + 512GB, 16GB + 1TB	16GB + 512GB
Expandable storage	None	None	None	None
Battery	5,015 mAh	4,650 mAh	4,400 mAh	5,600 mAh
Fingerprint sensor	Yes	Side	Yes	Side
Connector	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	None	None	None	None
Special features	IP68 rating, gearless hinge, cover and internal screen 3,000 nits peak brightnes, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover and back glass, Satellite SOS, ultra-wideband chip, Qi2-certified, free Google VPN. 7 years of OS, security and Pixel Drop updates	IPX8 rating, Satellite SOS, Wi-Fi 7, ultrawideband chip, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover and back glass, cover screen peek brightness 2,700 nits, internal screen peek brightness 2,700 nits, 21W wired fast charging (Charger not included), Qi-certified, free Google VPN, Super Res Zoom, Add Me, Face Unblur, Made You Look, Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, Best Take, Video Boost. 7 years of OS, security and Pixel Drop updates	One UI 8, 25W wired charging speed, Qi wireless charging, 2,600-nit peak brightness, Galaxy AI, NFC, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, IP48 water resistance	IPX9 rating, 80W fast wired charging, 50W wireless charging, nanocrystal glass cover display, anti-reflective film on inner display, cover screen peek brightness 2,450 nits, internal screen peek brightness 2,100 nits, LTPO OLED display
US price starts at	$1,799 (256GB)	$1,799 (256GB)	$2,000 (256GB)	$1,870 (512GB)

How we test phones

Every phone CNET’s reviews team tests is used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions, from bright sunlight to dark indoor enviornments. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode, and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily, as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds and foldable displays, among others that can be useful. We balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether the phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value. While these tests may not always be reflected in CNET’s initial review, we conduct follow-up and long-term testing in most circumstances.