The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is Google’s third foldable Pixel. That’s important because, for products, the rule of thumb is that the third one nails the vision. Having spent time with all three models (the Pixel Fold, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and the current Pixel 10 Pro Fold), what has Google focused on, and does this say anything about the maturing and expanding foldables market?
Protecting The Pixel 10 Pro Fold
Arguably, the biggest issue around foldables in general and Google’s Pixel Fold, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold has not been the price; it has been the anxiety that owning a foldable would cause. The idea that even a small amount of damage from hard crumbs could damage the screen or break the hinge, the lack of waterproofing turning every drop of water into a risk, and the feeling that it will surely break when dropped… and happening to a smartphone costing nearly £2,000? That’s anxiety.
Google has taken that on board and, with decent visibility, addresses these issues and uses those fixes as part of the marketing campaign. Specifically, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is IP68-certified, and it is protected against dust and water. By pushing aside the need to be as thin as possible, the 10 Pro Fold has some heft, and that heft offers tactile reassurance that it can take some damage.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is a subtle tank of a foldable. Less about fashion and more about functioning in everyday environments with the same carefree use as a premium device, such as the Pixel 10 Pro XL.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold Is A Smartphone… And A Tablet
The price is also being addressed. Key to that is reframing the value proposition. When foldables debuted, there was a sense of significant compromises around their utility when closed. Flip phones tended to have cover screens designed for notifications rather than a full Android implementation.
While foldables did have Android running on the outside display, these were typically limited by the device’s footprint… aspect ratios were skewed, so the first Pixel Fold was more like an old-fashioned pocketbook when closed than a comfortably sized smartphone. The value was pitched as a larger screen that could act as a portable tablet. With the best will in the world, Android’s tablet support in the early days of foldables hampered their growth.
That support has been on an upward curve following the launch of both the Pixel Fold and the Pixel Tablet, as seen when you open the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It may not be the best Android tablet out there, bu it does end up being one of the most convenient – if the best Android tablet is the one you have with you, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s tablet will tuck ino your pocket comfortably, ready to spring out as an 8-inch square screen giving you more workspace and mutlitasking optons than a standalone phone.
It’s a small thing, but the dimensions of the inner screen mean you can replicate two phone displays on the indie, allowing you to multitask effectively on a phone screen while keeping your eyes switching between the two apps on show.
As for the phone side of the equation, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is, to all intents and purposes, a Pixel 10 when closed. The dimensions are almost identical; you have a display with the same dimensions and aspect ratio, and if you popped the 10 Pro Fold into a case that hid the join of the two sides, you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference. It is a little heavier, and with the camera island set to one side, there’s a bit more rocking on a flat surface, but you have a regular phone when the 10 Pro Fold is closed.
You get a phone that should meet 100 percent of your needs, and a tablet that feels around 80 percent of the functionality of a standard Android tablet (and most of that is due to the square aspect ratio). Yet you get the benefits of a larger display with more information, or a multi-app view so you feel like two apps are running at once.
For those who prize functionality in their mobile, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold offers more than your regular phone while still being a regular phone or a small tablet whenever you need it.
The Real World Story Of The Pixel 10 Pro Fold
One of the advantages of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is how it can reduce friction in a mobile device, making things easier to use, showing you more relevant information, and unlocking the utility of features that could be seen as clunky on a regular smartphone.
Some of the benefits found in software are currently universal to the Pixel 10 family. Google’s steps to introduce Agentic-AI apps with the Magic Cue software, helping pre-populate replies and present your personal on-device information when the Gemini AI assistant considers it relevant.
I feel that feature, perhaps with per-manufacturer branding, will be available pretty much everywhere over the next twelve months. It’s the unique use of the large screen where the small advantages can add up. Id’ pick out three features that typify this.
The first are your browser tabs. On a phone screen, they get tucked away under a numbered box, yet the Pixel 10 Pro Fol lifts them out to a recognisable strip along the top of the screen. You can still use the number to see thumbnails of each tab, but switching between multiple websites is now far simpler and faster.
Then you have your homescreen widgets. Personally, I’m a “just the weather and my icons” old-school navigator, but others in the household here love their widgets and have multiple pages set up for different parts of their lives. With twice as much space for widgets, if that’s your style, then you have a lot more utility to play with.
How about the ability to preview photos on the tablet display? While you can span a regular camera app across the entire width, you can also run the equivalent of the phone layout on the right side of the 10 Pro Fold, and on the left side, you get a preview of the photos you have just taken, as if you were looking on the phone display. It’s an extension of the idea of two apps running side by side, except here it’s one app with two distinct views on either side.
Being able to preview your photos in “full screen” more immediately is a small win, and it’s these small wins that Google hopes will add up and make the 10 Pro Fold attractive.
Finally, picture-in-picture mode is available for many media apps (notably YouTube Premium), but on a regular portrait-view phone screen, it can take up a significant amount of screen real estate and get in the way of the primary app. Now take that feature and add it to a larger tablet screen where more space and more information are on show. PiP suddenly becomes far more viable in day-to-day use.
Of course, with all of these, the real trick is remembering that you don’t have a Pixel 10 Pro, you have a Pixel 10 Pro Fold, so you have to make sure you open up your phone!
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold And The Consumer
2025 has seen the foldables market mature. You have the well-established Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip phones from Samsung, ranking high in sales and market share; you have challengers such as Honor coming into consideration with the Magic V5, and here you have Google reinforcing the foldables market with its third Foldable Pixel.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold addresses many public concerns about foldables. It doesn’t push the boat out in terms of design, instead relying on the idea that the Pixel is a practical foldable. It’s not loaded with gimmicks; you have peace of mind, a two-in-one phone and tablet, and an understanding of how a foldable phone can offer a more productive experience over a standard candybar phone.
This latest Pixel is a phone for everyone. It just happens to fold.
There’s more than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to consider… read the latest smartphone headlines in Forbes’ weekly Android Circuit news digest…
