The last time I held a foldable phone, I was standing on stage at CEBIT in 2019, demonstrating the original Samsung Galaxy Fold to a room full of people wondering whether this strange new category would survive. I loved the sound of it snapping shut. The critics were less kind.
Six years on, I finally own my first foldable: the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold and I can tell you the category hasn’t just survived. It has grown up.
First impressions
Folded, it feels like a regular Pixel: a familiar 6.4-inch display that slips into a handbag without complaint. Open it up and the 8-inch Super Actua Flex screen turns it into something else entirely and that’s a proper canvas for reading, streaming and running three apps side by side in Split Screen. Checking my calendar while answering emails and messaging the team, all on one screen, is the kind of multitasking I didn’t know I was missing.
The gearless hinge is rated for more than 200,000 folds, and with IP68 dust and water resistance plus Gorilla Glass Victus 2, it doesn’t feel like the fragile experiment foldables once were. My one honest gripe: at A$2,699, this is a considered purchase — and there’s no charger in the box.
The camera is the star
This is where the Pixel wins me over completely. The 48MP triple rear camera with a dedicated 5x telephoto and up to 20x Super Res Zoom takes excellent photographs, and the folding design unlocks tricks a candy-bar phone simply can’t do. Tabletop mode turns the phone into its own tripod for time-lapses and group shots, and Add Me finally puts the photographer in the picture.
Under the bonnet, the new Tensor G5 chip and 16GB of RAM keep everything humming, with 24-plus hours of battery and Qi2 Pixelsnap magnetic charging. Google promises seven years of software and security updates, which matters at this price.
The verdict on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold
I waited a long time to buy my first foldable, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is just the ticket. It’s a genuinely useful big screen, a brilliant camera and none of the compromises I remember from 2019. This time, the snap of it closing sounds like the future arriving, not a gamble.
