Pixel 10 Pro Fold Is Tougher, Smarter and Totally Dust-Resistant

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold may not look too different from Google's previous foldable phone, but it does bring some key improvements to areas like battery life and durability, while maintaining perhaps the most important aspect: the price. The 10 Pro Fold starts at $1,799 and will be available starting Oct. 9.

Google unveiled its latest foldable, along with the rest of the Pixel 10 series, at its Made by Google event in New York on Wednesday. The rest of the lineup includes the baseline Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL, which have an earlier Aug. 28 release date. Like the 10 Pro Fold, the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Buds 2A hit store shelves on Oct. 9.  

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Pixel 10 Pro Fold build and durability

Perhaps the most impressive feature on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is its IP68 rating. That means the phone is completely protected against dust and can be submerged in up to a meter and a half of water for 30 minutes -- the same level of particle and liquid resistance as most other premium phones. 

Foldables typically have little -- if any -- protection against granular solids; the last Pixel Fold didn't even have a rating for that, only for keeping out liquids. Samsung has also only been able to muster an IP48 rating for its Galaxy Z Fold 7, which means that phone can handle solid particles bigger than 1 millimeter but not dust. That makes Google's feat all the more impressive -- and welcome. You can hopefully take your foldable to the beach and not worry too much about sand getting in and ruining your pricey new device. 

The 10 Pro Fold's gearless hinge is designed to be more durable.

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The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is about the same size as last year's Fold, albeit with a slightly larger 6.4-inch cover screen. The internal display remains at 8 inches. The phone is one gram heavier than the 9 Pro Fold, clocking in at 258g. The gearless hinge is designed to be more durable, Google says. The phone's front and back are made with Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus 2, just like the 9 Pro Fold.

Both the cover and internal displays have a slightly higher 3,000 nits peak brightness, and a split screen mode makes it easier to multitask and quickly adjust app sizes with a tap. You can drag and drop media and files, like an image from Google Photos or a link from Chrome into Messages, essentially turning your Fold into a mini computer of sorts.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold cameras and AI

The 10 Pro Fold has a triple rear camera system with a 48-megapixel wide-angle, 10.5-megapixel ultrawide and 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera.

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The camera specs match those on last year's Fold. There's a 48-megapixel wide-angle, 10.5-megapixel ultrawide and 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera, as well as 10-megapixel selfie cameras on the inner and cover screens. But the Pixel 10 Pro Fold leans heavily into new AI capabilities to boost images. 

One of these new AI features, Camera Coach, taps Gemini to serve up tips on how to take a better shot. It might tell you to photograph your subject at a lower angle, or to work in more of the background, or even to switch to Portrait mode. I got to try out the feature at Google's campus in Mountain View, California, ahead of the Pixel 10 launch and was impressed with the tips it offered to really make subjects and architecture pop -- and I'd like to think of myself as an already good mobile photographer. 

Another feature, Auto Best Take, builds on the feature Google debuted with the Pixel 8, but instead of manually selecting which expressions to piece together for an ideal group photo, AI will now automatically surface one image where everyone looks their best. This is the AI update I'm perhaps most excited about; when I tried the feature, I was impressed at how seamlessly it pieced together the winning shot on its own. And Add Me, which uses augmented reality and AI to seemingly include the photographer in the shot, now works on even bigger groups.

Powering all of this is the new Tensor G5 chip. Google says it allows for a smoother user experience and boosts photo and video quality.

It's also what enables other on-device AI features like Magic Cue, which can pull up relevant information based on what you're doing. For example, if you're calling your airline, Magic Cue can show your flight details as soon as you dial or it might automatically bring up the address for your Airbnb when a friend asks for it.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold battery and charging

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a 5,015-mAh battery, a notable boost over the 9 Pro Fold's 4,650-mAh capacity. Google says the 10 Pro Fold can last more than 30 hours and can reach 50% charge in 30 minutes. That's something we'll be sure to check out in CNET's battery and charging tests, so stay tuned for our review. 

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is also Qi2 certified if you'd rather go the wireless charging route. Magnets embedded in the phone, which Google calls PixelSnap, also make it easier to snap on wireless chargers, stands and other accessories -- much like the iPhone's MagSafe connector, though it's unclear if they're similar enough for magnetic accessories to work on both.

An eye on practicality

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a 6.4-inch cover screen.

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The Pixel 10 Pro Fold may not have as revolutionary a design as the super-slim Galaxy Z Fold 7, but it appears to focus on the more practical, core features of a phone. According to a recent CNET survey, the top considerations when buying a new phone are price, battery life, storage and camera features. 

The 10 Pro Fold seemingly checks all those boxes. A $1,799 price tag isn't pocket change, but at least Google didn't hike the price, as Samsung did with its book-style foldable. The 10 Pro Fold also has a higher battery capacity than both last year's fold and the Z Fold 7. Google's new phone comes with a generous 16GB of RAM and either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. And while the camera specs match last year's Pixel Fold, a batch of new AI features help to elevate images.  

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold comes with seven years of OS and security updates to help stretch your dollars, which is the high-water mark for software security these days (Samsung also guarantees seven years of updates for its phones). 

Stay tuned to CNET's ongoing coverage of the full Pixel 10 lineup in the weeks to come.