I’ve held the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and Google's new foldable phone has some key advantages over the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. These include a more durable design that’s actually dust resistant, new AI tools that anticipate your needs, a bigger battery and a more powerful zoom camera.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is also $200 cheaper than the Z Fold, but it falls behind Samsung in one major way. Could this be the best foldable phone yet? Here’s my first impressions of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold so far.
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold release date and price
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is available for pre-order now but the release date is not until October 9. The starting price is $1,799/£1,749/AU$2,699 for 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM. That's $200/£50 less than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold specs
Starting price |
$1,799 / £1,749 / AU $2.699 |
Main display |
8 inches AMOLED (2152 x 2076, 1-120Hz) |
Cover display |
6.4 inches AMOLED (2364 x 1080, 1-120Hz) |
Chipset |
Tensor G5 |
RAM |
16GB |
Storage |
256GB/512GB/1TB |
Rear cameras |
48MP wide (f/1.7), 10.5MP ultrawide (f/2.2), 10.8MP 5x telephoto (f/3.1) |
Cover camera |
10MP (f/2.2) |
Inner camera |
10MP (f/2.2) |
Charging |
30W |
Battery |
5,015 mAh |
Dimensions folded |
155.2 x 76.3 x 10.8 mm (6.1 x 3 x 0.4 inches) |
Dimensions unfolded |
155.2 x 150.4 x 5.2mm (6.1 x 5.9 x 0.2 inches) |
Weight |
215 grams (7.5 ounces) |
IP Rating |
IP68 |
Colors |
Moonstone, Jade |
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold design
If the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the sleek sport car of foldables, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the beefy SUV. It’s bigger but also tougher.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold sports a new gearless, high-strength hinge that Google says is good for 10 years of folding. And, unlike the Z Fold 7, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is IP68 rated, which means it’s both water and dust resistant. Samsung's phone can only repel water and can't promise protection against finer dust particles.
In other words, you can bring the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to the beach and presumably not have to worry.
The bad news is that Google’s foldable is nowhere near as sleek or portable as Samsung's. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold measures 10.8mm thick when folded, compared to just 8.9mm for the Galaxy Z Fold 7. And when unfolded Samsung wins, too — it's 4.2mm compared to 5.2mm for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.
At 9.1 ounces, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold weighs the same as Google's last model, which is not great considering the Z Fold 7 is a much lighter 7.5 ounces
At least the colors look nice. You can take your pick from Moonstone and Jade, and I much prefer the Moonstone model which is slate blue.
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold displays and multitasking
The outer display on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is now slightly bigger at 6.4 inches, up from 6.3 inches on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. And you still get a massive 8-inch main display when you unfold the phone. Samsung gives you an even bigger 6.5-inch cover screen with the same size panel on the inside.
Both Pixel Fold screens are brighter now, too, as they’re both rated for 3,000 nits of peak brightness — versus 2,600 nits for the Z Fold 7.
The "Tron: Ares" trailer looked very immersive on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s big screen, although the crease is still visible where the phone unfolds. And I’m not a fan of the black bars above and below the action, though that's true for other foldables as well.
Multitasking is super simple with the Split Screen feature on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, letting you run two apps at once side by side. And you can easily resize the windows. But the Z Fold 7 can run three apps simultaneously.
You still get a desktop mode for using the Pixel 10 Pro Fold like a laptop, with the content up top and controls down below.
Pixel 10 Pro Fold cameras
It’s a bit of a bummer that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold sticks with the exact same camera hardware as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, especially since Samsung now offers a 200MP main shooter on its premium foldable.
You get the same 48MP wide camera on the Pixel, along with 10.5MP ultrawide and 10.8 MP telephoto lenses. That said, the 5x optical zoom on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold's telephoto camera beats the 3x zoom on the Z Fold 7.
I really like Google’s new Instant View feature, which makes it easy to see the photos you’ve just taken on the left side of the screen. So you can see on the spot if you got the right shot.
As with the previous Pixel Fold, there’s a rear camera selfie mode so you can use the main camera to take selfies. And there’s a new Made You Look animation to get your kids to smile.
There’s a 10MP camera for the cover display and a 10MP camera (with punch hole) on the main display. Stay tuned for our testing to see how the Pixel 10 Pro Fold stacks up against the best camera phones.
Pixel 10 Pro Fold AI features
If there’s one area the Pixel 10 Pro beats Samsung it’s AI. And it starts with a very handy Magic Cue feature that’s available across all the Pixel 10 phones.
Say you’re calling a restaurant or airline to change your dinner time or flight. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is smart enough to pull up your reservation information right on the call screen.
Or if you’re in the Messages app, you’ll see a button to show your calendar if you get asked whether you’re free tomorrow and you can pull it up without leaving the app. Magic Cue is super smart.
I’m really impressed by the Ask Photos feature, which lets you make edits to pictures just by telling your phone what you want to see changed. So you could type or talk into the Pixel 10 Pro Fold that you want to remove the reflections from an image.
Or you could remove a person from a photo just by typing it in. The AI then does the work for you.
If you want to get the best shot right out of the gate, there’s Camera Coach, which you can access right from within the camera app. It analyzes the frame and gives you tips for getting the best possible image.
And if you’re taking a group shot, Auto Best Take will automatically pick the best-looking faces and apply them to your image while still making it look natural. It’s freakishly good.
Similar to Samsung’s Now Brief, Google offers a Daily Hub that summarizes your day for you, including your appointments, reminders, weather and more.
If you want to freak people out, try the improved Live Translate feature. The Pixel 10 Pro will let you speak another language sampling your own voice.
Pixel 10 Pro Fold performance and battery life
Pixel phones have been sluggish compared to the competition up until now, but that should change with the new Tensor G5 chip in the Pixel 10 series, which gets paired with 16GB of RAM.
This 3nm chip from TSMC has a 34% faster CPU and 60% faster TPU for AI tasks. The initial leaked Pixel 10 Pro benchmarks don't paint the best picture, but we'll see how this phone performs in our own testing.
In fact, Google says the Tensor G5 offers the most advanced on-device AI capabilities yet — including Veo 3 video generation. But we’ll have to see how it measures up to the Z Fold 7’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip in our testing.
One area where Google pulls ahead is the size of the battery. You get a 5,015 mAh battery on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, compared to 4,400 for the Z Fold 7. So at least on paper, Google’s foldable should last longer on a charge. For context, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 lasted 10 hours and 55 minutes on our battery test, which is just around average for a phone.
In terms of charging, Google offers 15W Qi2 charging with new PixelSnap accessories. Samsung's phone supports Qi2 only if you use a case because there’s no built-in magnets like the ones featured on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.
If you go the wired charging route, you can get a 50% charge in 30 minutes with a 30-watt charger, Google says.
Pixel 10 Pro Fold outlook
Overall, I’m impressed with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s improved durability and helpful AI features — especially Magic Cue and Ask Photos. I also like that you get a more powerful zoom and bigger battery than Samsung’s foldable, as well as dust resistance for the first time in a foldable.
It’s also hard to ignore the $200 price gap between this phone and the Z Fold 7.
But if I’m already spending more than $1,500 for a foldable, I think I’d rather carry the much thinner and lighter one than the smarter one. Stay tuned for my full review to see if Google can change my mind.
