In 2025, our phones no longer jiggle jiggle, they fold. Google came a bit later to the folding phone caper, only debuting the original Pixel folding phone in 2023, but already the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold shows how far the brand has come in terms of responding to user feedback. The original Pixel Fold was an unwieldy brick (in hindsight), while the new Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold seems much more usable.
Google still has a long way to go before its folding phones are on the same level as Samsung’s, but after a few months with the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, this phone seems a lot more ready for the mainstream.
Table of contents
- First impressions
- Specifications and price
- Camera
- Holding and folding
- Performance
- Who is the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold for?
First impressions
My first impression of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold was that it was colourful! I appreciate that folding phones come in colours now. For too long, they were black or (if we’re getting a bit weird with it) white. Seeing this more expanded pastel range of colours is a relief. Granted, it’s a tone of pale pastel green that would fit in perfectly in an art deco bathroom, yet still. It’s nice.
Unboxing and set up were exactly what you’d expect from a Google Pixel, only with more folding. Moving my settings, apps, photos, etc., over from my old phone to my new phone was quick and painless.
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold specifications and price
| Price | $2,699 (256GB) |
| Warranty | 2 years in addition to your consumer law rights |
| Official website | Google Australia |
| External display | 6.4-inch (162 mm) Actua display 20:9 aspect ratio 1080 x 2364 OLED at 408 PPI Smooth Display (60–120 Hz) Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover glass Up to 2,000 nits (HDR) and up to 3,000 nits (peak brightness) >2,000,000:1 contrast ratio HDR support Full 24-bit depth for 16 million colours |
| Internal display | 8-inch (204 mm) Super Actua Flex display 2076 x 2152 OLED at 373 PPI Smooth Display (1–120 Hz) Ultra Thin Glass Up to 1,800 nits (HDR) and up to 3,000 nits (peak brightness) >2,000,000:1 contrast ratio HDR support Full 24-bit depth for 16 million colours |
| Dimensions and weight | 258g Folded: 155.2 mm (height) x 76.3 mm (width) x 10.8 mm (depth) Unfolded: 155.2mm x 150.4mm x 5.2mm |
| Battery and charging | Typical 5015 mAh (minimum 4919 mAh) Fast charging capable Pixelsnap wireless charging (Qi2 certified) up to 15W |
| Processor | Google Tensor G5 Titan M2 security coprocessor |
| Rear camera system | Wide Camera 48MP Quad PD wide camera ƒ/1.70 aperture 82° field of view 1/2″ image sensor size Ultrawide Camera 10.5 MP Dual PD ultrawide camera ƒ/2.2 aperture 127° field of view 1/3.4″ image sensor size Telephoto Camera 10.8 MP Dual PD telephoto camera with optical image stabilisation ƒ/3.1 aperture 23° field of view 5x optical zoom 1/3.2″ image sensor size All Rear Cameras Super Res Zoom up to 20x Multi-zone LDAF (laser detect auto focus) sensor Spectral and flicker sensor Optical + electronic image stabilisation on wide and telephoto |
| Front and inner camera systems | 10 MP Dual PD selfie camera ƒ/2.2 aperture 87° field of view |
| IP rating | IP68 |
There are a few things in there to call out. The first is that while this is called the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which implies it is the folding version of the Google Pixel 10 Pro, it actually has some pretty key differences.
The main difference is that the camera system has lower specs (10.5/10.8MP vs 48MP on the ultrawide and telephoto rear cameras, and also a quarter of the megapixels and a smaller field of view on the front camera). The non-folding Pixel 10 Pro also has Pro Res Zoom up to 100x, while the Fold only has 20x, which will be meaningful for people who go to a lot of stadium concerts and don’t buy the premium tickets. It’s also got a marginally smaller battery than the Pixel 10 Pro XL.
How much of a difference will that make to your real life? Probably nothing too noticeable unless you want to zoom in on Harry Styles in concert from the back row. But they are interesting differences to note.
The phone is also just overall chunkier than its competitors. It’s better than the previous generation by a long way, but Samsung and Honor have phones that feel better in the hand, and are comfortable to use both folded and unfolded. The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold still feels like it’s one or two iterations away from catching up to the rest in terms of comfort in the hand.
That said, being dust-tight and getting an IP68 rating is a huge deal for a folding phone, and that will give it some leeway on size.
Camera
Everyone raves about the Google Pixel cameras for good reason. On the non-folding phones, they’re some of the best phone cameras you can get, as long as you don’t mind a little AI being shoved in (and on) your face.
Alas, Google did not bring its A-game to the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which has less of an emphasis on the camera features than its non-folding siblings. If this phone was, say, $800 at most, the camera system would be very good. However, this is a $2,699 phone that has a name that invokes the Pixel phone with the best cameras. Thus, it’s getting compared to phones in that price range, which have better specs.
The cameras aren’t bad by any means, but they’re also not hitting it out of the park, either. It is possible to take great photos with it, and a great photo will almost always look great. But most of the photos most people will take will be average photos. So, let’s compare some phones with very average photos of giraffes at the zoo.
Starting with the unzoomed shots, you can see some distinct colour differences between the Pixel phones and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Samsung has a much colder colour palette, and the Pixels really emphasising how green the garden is.
I think the iPhone has the colours closest to what it looked like on the day, but I like the warmth of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold a lot. The iPhone definitely has better details on the clouds, but overall, I’m more impressed with the wide shot out of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold than I expected, given the specs. However, there is basically no improvement over the 9 Pro Fold.
Verdict: Everything but the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra wins.
On the 2x zoom, you can see that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has done a better job of retaining the textures. The dents in the rocks are clearer. Whereas the details on the leaves just seem a bit washed out and noisy on the Pixels and iPhone. Everything does seem much sharper on the iPhone, but the Samsung Galaxy S25 cameras still win this battle for the details.
Verdict: The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra takes the cake here, but narrowly.
Taking the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to 5x zoom, this is a big test and where the megapixel number actually matters. The Pixels are just outclassed here. The photos are fine, but they just look washed out, and don’t capture the details as well compared to the Samsung and iPhone. The iPhone also captured the light far better.
Verdict: The iPhone is a better gig-going companion.
Selfies
Putting aside the fact that the selfie camera is a significant downgrade in terms of specs compared to the non-folding Pixel 10 Pro, I don’t like how much the phone has processed my face. Some of the automatic post-processing choices are odd. If you want to edit your own photos after you take them, that’s totally fine, you should have that option. What I don’t like is how it tries to clean up my face by default.
While it’s kept a lot of my wrinkles, it’s smoothed a few, it’s whitened my teeth (I had been snacking on orange lollies the afternoon I took this, and there is definitely evidence of it on my face, according to the mirror. Interestingly, it made my pink hair more orange.
It’s a capable camera, but I’d rather capture what I actually look like, rather than what an algorithm thinks I want to look like, which is sometimes the purpose of a photo. I don’t want my photos altered before I decide to alter them. I find it unfortunate how many Android photos by default alter people’s faces, and it seems like an unhealthy thing that we should talk about more as a society.
The front-facing camera, when the phone is unfolded, is even worse, with so much noise in the picture. I understand that people are more likely to use the good rear cameras to take selfies, as that’s one of the benefits of a folding phone. But you’re still presumably going to be using the selfie cameras for video calls a lot of the time, and this is certainly below what I would expect in this price range.
Holding and folding
This phone is a lot more bulky than its two main competitors, the excellent Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the newer competitor, the Honor Magic V5. It’s still blocky and quite thick. But while it still feels like it’s a couple of years of innovation behind the rest of the class, I actually don’t hate it. Sure, it’s thick, but it’s not trying to be a normal phone that happens to unfold. It seems content in the form factor of a folding phone, and the thicker body makes it more comfortable to hold while unfolded.
The hinge feels smooth, and there’s not too much resistance. The crease down the middle of the internal screen is pretty intense, which might bother some people. But I’m completely fine with a little valley in the screen — it’s a folding screen, things that fold have creases, and it’s a nice ‘home’ space for the hands.
Performance
I have yet to find anything that slows down the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold too aggressively. I largely use it for gaming, playing Fortnite and Pokémon TCG Pocket, and even after hours of playing, it’s still not too hot. The large screen holds a decent frame rate for extended periods of time, and it’s clear and smooth.
The screen is bright and easy to see in the sunshine.
It’s definitely not the most powerful phone around; the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra crushes it in terms of raw power, and in turn, the iPhone 17 Pro Max crushes that. The Tensor G5 chip in the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is more geared towards generative AI than being powerful for anything else, and it really shows. It’s a less capable phone because of that choice.
That said, the battery is quite good for a folding phone, with the larger body holding a larger 5,015mAh battery.
Who is the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold for?
This is the phone for people who love their older Google Pixel, and want that, but folding. It’s not the best folding phone on the market, and it’s not the best Google Pixel available. But it is the best folding Google Pixel, and that’s still very good.
My pick of folding phones is still the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. But it’s a very competitive field in the top three, and if you prefer Google phones but want something that folds, this is the way to go.
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