The Pixel 10 Professional Fold gained’t look very completely different should you place it subsequent to final yr’s Pixel 9 Professional Fold. Moreover Google’s AI chops, there’s not a lot of an overhaul at first look. Nonetheless, that is the primary foldable to obtain an IP68 score, and that counts for one thing.

Ever since firms began launching foldables, sturdiness has been the prime concern for customers. The longevity of hinges, safety of the inside display screen, and resistance of those gadgets towards liquid and sand are all the time huge issues when shopping for a foldable as in comparison with a slab telephone.

Google’s Pixel 10 Professional Fold is the corporate’s try at assuaging these worries. The gadget carefully resembles its predecessor, however there are a number of key adjustments that make the telephone sturdier.

First is a brand new gearless hinge, which provides a little bit of resistance to folding and unfolding the telephone. Due to the brand new hinge, there’s little or no hole when the telephone is folded. This ensures that fewer mud particles and different particles can get inside and doubtlessly harm the display screen. Whereas I didn’t get the telephone in any sand, I saved it in my bag and my pocket a number of instances to see if lint from both place had any impact. Nonetheless, the telephone continued functioning as traditional.

I didn’t submerge the telephone in water, both. Nonetheless, having IP68 safety implies that the telephone ought to stand up to mud and water higher than its predecessor.

Other than the durability improve, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold gained a brand new Tensor G5 processor. Whereas it’s tremendous for many day-to-day duties, as my expertise suggests, there’s some dialogue about the way it doesn’t carry out in addition to some different processors in benchmark checks.

Different {hardware} adjustments within the 10 Professional Fold contain an even bigger battery than final yr, which is a welcome change. Plus, the telephone has a brighter display screen, so it’s simpler to make use of exterior within the daylight. One notable factor in regards to the show is that the bezel across the display screen is way thicker than what I’ve seen on different current telephones, together with each foldables and slab telephones.

Since this can be a Pixel telephone, Google added a lot of AI options to the software program. These additions embody Magic Cue, which surfaces snippets and options based mostly on screenshots and knowledge from apps like Maps, Gmail, Messages, and Preserve. You additionally get name translation, Gemini Dwell with video view, and a digicam coach to information you to take images. (These options are already current on the Pixel 10 Professional, and you’ll learn extra about how they work right here.)

Cameras

For Pixel telephones, the digicam has been a central story for years now. The Pixel 10 Fold Professional has digicam specs much like final yr’s gadget. This implies there’s a 48-megapixel primary sensor, a ten.8-megapixel telephoto sensor with 5x optical zoom, and a ten.5-megapixel ultrawide sensor. It additionally has a pair of 10-megapixel sensors because the selfie digicam on each the quilt show and the within show.

This setup shouldn’t be on par with the Pixel 10 Professional’s 50-megapixel primary sensor and a pair of 48-megapixel sensors for ultrawide and telephoto. In the meantime, the Pixel Professional 10 additionally has a 42-megapixel selfie digicam.

The images from the Fold’s primary digicam present good particulars, however that isn’t the case with each the telephoto and ultrawide lenses. In low gentle, solely the primary digicam holds some water, however the Pixel 10 Professional cameras outshine it.

One gripe I’ve with the Pixel 10 Professional Fold digicam is that every time I wished to take a photograph of a small object, like an AirPods case, the digicam triggered macro mode, even when it was not tremendous near the article.

The jury is out on how a lot AI must be utilized in images, however if you’re a fan of the Pixel AI Zoom function, which may allow you to use 100x zoom, you may be disenchanted to know that the function is lacking on the Pixel 10 Professional Fold.

The complicated “Professional” moniker

It’s exhausting to anticipate a telephone to not have a reputation that may be a mouthful on this period. Nonetheless, Google’s inclusion of “Professional” within the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is a tad complicated. The corporate launched the Pixel Fold in 2023, after which modified the naming scheme final yr.

Normally, Professional is reserved for the top-tier telephone of any lineup. Until you depend the show dimension and battery dimension — which consequence within the kind issue — the foldable falls brief within the digicam, cooling, and charging departments.

The digicam is a step down from the Pixel 10 Professional, as we described earlier. Plus, Google solely included vapor chamber cooling for its Professional slab telephones. And the 25W Qi2 charging is reserved for the Pixel 10 Professional XL. A few of this is likely to be a limitation due to the foldable kind. However then, why not drop the Professional title?

Google additionally must encourage builders to undertake third-party apps to suit the foldable expertise, in addition to tweaking its personal apps and making the general multitasking efficiency much less glitchy. It might be good to see Google implement one thing like Samsung’s multi-window function on Pixel foldables.

The place does the Pixel foldable stand?

Amid producers like Samsung, Oppo, and Honor racing to construct skinny foldable telephones, Google has produced a proudly chunky and hefty foldable. The corporate has focused on making it extra sturdy and long-lasting with the brand new hinge and the IP score.

The telephone’s digicam bump shouldn’t be as large as among the Chinese language producers have on their gadgets. Which means it holds a bit higher if you lay it down on a flat floor. The cameras don’t match as much as the Pixel 10 Professional line, which is a bummer. However if you’re not hung up on digicam efficiency, Pixel Fold cameras should not a nasty wager.

The Pixel 10 Professional sells at a listed value of $1,799 — $200 cheaper than Samsung’s Z Fold 7 — however you will get reductions on varied websites. In order for you a completely baked Google or Pixel expertise in a foldable kind issue, this gadget is for you.