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Another year, another spin at affordable from Google. But as the Pixel 10 Pro Fold reaches 6 months on the market, just what's going well and where could we get some improvements? Let's get into it into our long-term review of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. If you want more content just like this, long-term reviews, everything else in between, then do me a solid, hit that subscribe button, and you will get Pixel content beamed straight into your eyeballs. Thanks for joining me. Cheers. So, one thing I want to note right up top is that I actually stopped using the Pixel 9 Pro last year because I found that its utility just waned for me, but it did remain in my rotation, at least until
the Galaxy X Fold 7 arrived on the scene. But that also dropped off when the Pixel 10 Pro XL started to become part of my day-to-day repertoire. There was a lot of things I really loved about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Some things that really irked me and quite a few areas I hoped for improvement with this new model, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. So, when the Pixel 10 Pro Fold arrived later than the regular Pixel 10 series, I wasn't so enamored given its similarities, both positive and negative. However, curiosity got the better of me, and here I am a few months down the line, using Google's latest foldable, and I now have some, I guess, solid or more concrete thoughts. One thing that is 100% more
apparent now, this year more than ever, it has been, is that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is substantially thicker and chunkier than the competition. And you'll need to ask yourself if that matters to you. I find that this has actually a couple of benefits as this is a sturdy, stocky handset. It's definitely something in the pocket that you'll notice. It feels very high-end despite not necessarily being the best in every single area. The added weight is going to put a lot of people off. There's no two ways about it. But it is a cleancut, professional looking hunk of glass and metal. Sure, it's overshadowed by the ZFold 7 and various other folding phones coming out of China, but I like the design. It's playing in the ways
that I personally really do appreciate. There are some practical aspects as well that I enjoy because of this, namely the wider frame. It means that the outer aspect ratio is more like the base Pixel 10. Don't get me wrong, I'm saddened that the bezels have remained the same here, but I don't think it's necessarily a huge complaint as again, you are going to be using that inner display most of the time anyway. What irks me a lot more is that given this is technically the most flashy Google handset out there. We don't actually get par between the inner and outer displays. I genuinely think the outer display should be LTPO. No two ways about it. Just like the inner screen definitely feels like a cost
cutting measure that Google have made well or made ahead of time. Sometimes you will immediately notice a refresh rate as well jumping around when quickly switching between these two screens especially when you hit battery saver mode. in isolation. I don't think this is a huge issue, but it does diminish what is a bright, clear, and color accurate set of panels, and they are genuinely a joy to use. I'm just constantly having issues as well with the inner screen smears. Although, I'm not sure how Google fixes this problem, and it is something that lots of other phones seem to suffer from, but the Pixel 10 seem to be a bit of a massive fingerprint magnet compared to the others out there, at least 18 to 24
months on from foldables becoming a lot more mainstream. Maybe one of the unexpected benefits of this extra heft is that the thicker frame helps the device sound as there's more room for that sound to rattle around on the inner frame of the hardware. More room for reverb is definitely going to give you a fuller audio experience. And I will say the speakers are great for this type of device. A device that ordinarily doesn't necessarily have the best speakers, especially if they're wafer thin when they're unfolded. I know the hinges improve quite drastically and when you open this for the first time, you can instantly feel those improvements. The motion is super smooth and consistent
more so than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold felt to me last year as that device can feel a little bit crunchy in comparison. It definitely feels good to open this and even after thousands of folds and unfolds, it feels reassuringly firm and precise. I still worry about the mechanism though and I've avoided using the Pixel Temper Fold at places like the beach for instance, despite the fact this does have an IP68 rating. I just won't risk this phone in those environments as to me it isn't worth the hassle of potentially getting a repair having had something like a grain of sand get into the mechanism and cause some problems. To contrast that stress though, I have been using the Pixel 10 Pro completely case and screen protector
free for a number of months. And I know that isn't necessarily the situation most people find themselves in, but I have tried a lot of cases. I tried a Dbrand case recently and although it is a great case option, it was just too bulky and screen protectors at the front just don't play nicely with lots of the cases that I've tried. I'm surprised at how well this phone has held up as a result of not being using a case and screen protector. Yes, there are some tiny marks on the inner screen and maybe a few really minuscule nicks at the front, but overall I'd say beyond that it's absolutely flawless. Then again, I have babyed this as the type of device that it happens to be.
Regularly as well, I get people asking me about the inner display crease when they see this for the first time. Yes, it is still very visible, especially at certain angles and no more so than the Zfold 7 though, but it is a permanent fixture that you either have to put to the back of your mind or like a lot of people seem to do hyperfixate on. I'm in the former camp. I've kind of made peace with it and at least at this stage and it doesn't really affect how much I enjoy using this inner bigger screen. Over time though, I've started to realize that at least for me a 1 one or square aspect ratio isn't all that useful. Kind of puts into perspective how good the original Pixel fold was as a concept. Sure, it wasn't a great
device due to some uh specific hardware choices, but the inner screen ratio was just better to use. I actually want my foldables to emulate a tablet. And this halfway house of a 1:1 ratio doesn't really give me all the benefits that I kind of wanted from an inner screen of this size. And I know it's not necessarily feasible, but I would love an indisplay fingerprint scanner for the outer display. I kind of stopped liking that power button fingerprint scanner with the Pixel 9 Pro last year, and it's a problem again this time around as I kind of find that the quick tap unlocks my phone too easily. I don't always want that. And double tapping the display just leaves it even more
fingerprint reading than smudge than it already is. I'm kind of setting the autolock to one minute again as I ordinarily don't do. This is something I did with the Pixel 9 Pro last year to mitigate this annoying little issue. But I guess the Fold is kind of suffering from success in that regard. The fingerprint scanner is absolutely lightning fast and a lot of people do prefer a capacitive option to an indisplay option anyway. So what's this phone like to use? Well, I will say performance is absolutely fine, but is fine good enough for people who care about having the best in the business, especially at the price point this is at. I think there are lots of ways in which the Pixel 10 Profold is a few steps behind, but I do think
optimization is hiding a lot of these issues. It is the biggest benefit of going with the Pixel over the competition out there. It definitely feels snappy in spite of its slightly less power intensive or power capable internals. To me though, I'm kind of lost as to how much use the inner display has become to me. I found that the apps that I was excited for last year when I tried the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, like Pokemon TCG Pocket, Batro, and oddly their games, which is something I don't necessarily do tons of on my phones, they do they don't take full advantage of this bigger play area and updates have not fixed that either. There are lots of applications that I happen to use day-to-day that just happen to break with this one to one aspect ratio. I use zero camo of the
default camera application quite a lot when I'm out and about, but it simply doesn't work properly with that inner display. There are tons of other examples like this, like Reddit and Instagram for instance, and many more that tried to apply a regular phone layout to that increased inner screen real estate. And you think this would have been fixed by this point in time after some experimentation. And while I can't take credit for this personally, I think you'll have a better experience when using those various applications and services in a browser window, a Chrome browser window for instance, while using that inner screen. I'm stopping short of calling this a hack, but to me, this is a vastly better experience for using services that
predominantly are better in a web browser. Anyway, I think the thing is we need more applications to flex and bend to those larger internal screens and work better on larger canvases. And Google, for the love that all is good, please add options for separate layouts for this inner and outer display screens. It kind of it drives me crazy at this point in time. Maybe we could even get fold specific widgets as well that might alter or adjust based on the orientation or opening of the inner screen. You could kind of place them at halfway points on that screen as well. I think that would be a really clutch addition. I'm surprised Google hasn't done this already. I know that the desktop mode allows for more
applications to be used simultaneously, but I do wonder why we still have a two app limit here on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It was fine at first when these were first being added to the market, but it would be useful on that bigger inner screen as yeah, running two phone apps side by side isn't always the best. Sometimes I want a third or maybe even a fourth in some rare cases. I will say though that I love material 3 expressive and I love that it's getting even more playful because the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is just more thoughtful and interesting
than any other OEM skin out there or running on than any other OEM skin out there on a foldable phone. Yes, I do think we could do with a few more new features to catch up to the other players out there, but it is hard not to love using this phone like you would any other Pixel. But as is often the case with any foldable phone, I think the camera is almost always that weak point on this growing uh portion of the market. And it's no secret that the Pixel 10 profile definitely needs some work here because it's being held back by its setup. The tuning definitely remains solid and the issues though, they start to become more apparent the more that you happen to this use this on
a daily basis. I often struggle to come to terms with using this lesser setup when I have other phones available to me. I think it's less of a problem on the Pixel 9a and 10a because they are a lot cheaper. They're about a third of the price of this, but it feels out of sorts with the rest of the experience given how expensive this device happens to be. The main s the main sensor is solid. Um the main sensor here is solid enough. The wide angle, well, it's fine, but the telephoto isn't all that great. There is a lot of noise in many images I've used with this camera, and it is hard to flatten out these imperfections with just pure processing alone. Even though I know Google will continue to
try doing this. On rare occasions, photos do start to look a bit soft. I will say I'm never truly outright disappointed or angry. But that said, the Pixel 10a can do almost as much as this phone at one/ird of the price. I'm kind of asking the question, is that fair when this is such an expensive piece of technology? Google will try and spin this otherwise, but I do think the Pixel 10 Pro uses what amounts to a mid-range setup on what is supposedly a flagship foldable phone. It's not necessarily ideal, but I know that is due to some hardware limitations of this form factor. Maybe we'll get a breakthrough in the future that doesn't necessarily have to compromise, or at least at some stage we'll get that. But
for now, Google's folding phone camera systems are really right in the middle ground between the A series and the base model Pixel and way below the Pro tier despite having Pro in its name. The thing is, I'm just left wanting more because I know what a Pixel phone is capable of. And yeah, this is not necessarily the best camera that you can pick up with Pixel embroidered on the back of the device. As for battery life, I have to say it is solid enough for a phone of this type. And I put it above the Galaxy X7, which I found hasn't been great given it has a much smaller battery. Although you will argue that it's a thinner device and it has lots of benefits over this. I think the lifespan
can vary with the Pixel 10 Fold, especially on what screen you happen to be using more heavily. I think if I'm glued to the larger inner screen, I can get five or six hours of screen on time without much effort. Browsing the web, using playing Reddit, uh going on Batro, all that kind of stuff, and even catching up on the latest episode of The Boys on Amazon Prime Video. To me, that is comfortably long enough to last me well into the evening every single day. On days when I'm out of the house and connected to 5G networks, it does dip a little bit, not as drastically as expected, but I tend to stick to the outer screen on those occasions. and I kind of hit similar screen on time
figures. On rare occasions, it'll be up towards that 10-hour mark if I'm really sparing. And to me, that's very, very impressive. And after a few recent updates, I think the battery experience has stabilized or the battery experience for me has stabilized. Sometimes it could be a lottery as to how quickly the battery would drain. But yeah, definitely seems a lot better than I anticipated. And I do think this sits around the middle ground of the longevity pack, at least for its own class. In some cases, it can surpass the other options out there from the likes of Samsung. I can deal with it uh without stressing too drastically. And it's been one of the things I have to say I've enjoyed in recent years with
Pixel phones in general. Less battery anxiety across the board. And that's good to me. I am desperate though for faster charging. It is very slow by modern standards and I would just love to see Google say, "Hey, we're going to put 45 watts or above across all of their devices." because at some stage you have to question why you're waiting over an hour for a full charge and it starts to feel criminal. I will say Pixel Snap is a big saving grace though as a Pixel Temper Fold is the only foldable on the market at least right now that has Mag Safe compatibility which is a big plus point and it might save a lot of the issues that I've just mentioned with regards to charging. So,
I'll be honest here at the end of this video. I think there are many better foldables out there that make the Pixel 10 Pro 4 look basic or at least rudimentary. Even when this is parked to the side, there is a lot to love with the Pixel 10 Pro 4. Mostly from the software side of things. The hardware feels like it could do with some tuning, maybe some nips, maybe some tweaks. But to Google's credit, they've tried a little bit to make some gains over last year without necessarily throwing away the bits that made the Pixel 9 Pro Fold such a good option almost 18 months ago. foldables, they're niche products, and this is arguably one of the most niche of those niche products. It isn't
necessarily the worst. It isn't necessarily the best, but it doesn't drastically move the needle for Google's foldable smartphone efforts. I think it's absolutely fine in that it has some good traits that it can cling to and set itself apart. Is it worth it? I'm not entirely convinced unless you can deal with some potential trade-offs that I've noted throughout this video. There are some trade-offs that you will hear about with every single foldable phone though and every single foldable phone that people have used throughout the review period. Ideally want to love the form factor, but I have to say I can't help but think that another phone has all the other bells and whistles that I want and
cover it, especially dayto-day. Google has made a nice folding phone, but not one that is all that easy to recommend unless you can get it at a significant discount. Luckily, we're 6 months on from launch and that means you can potentially get some good deals. softens the blow and definitely makes it easy to stomach and easier to recommend as a result. Just make sure you're acutely aware of the drawbacks before you come firing in or barreling in to this device. I want to ask you though, have you tried the Pixel Tempold? Have you enjoyed it? Have you hated it? Have you sent it back? Have you kept hold of it?
Let me know down in the comments sections below. I do wonder how Apple's foldable might actually affect the market in future. Maybe we get more development and refinement on the Android side of things. But yeah, this is a nice and affordable. Maybe not the one for everyone, but it's not bad all the same. Cheers for watching and I'll speak to you later.
