- The Google Pixel 10’s battery started smoking during a durability test
- The phone also snapped at a weak antenna line
- And it failed to demonstrate its claimed dust resistance
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is – among other things – sold on being durable. It’s the first foldable with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, and Google claims that it can survive up to ten years of folding. But despite these supposed merits, the 10 Pro Fold has just performed extremely poorly in a durability test.
JerryRigEverything has put the Pixel 10 Pro Fold through his usual battery of tests, and in the process of bending the phone, it snapped along one of its antenna lines. But worse than it snapping, while straightening the phone back out, the battery started smoking so much that it even set off a smoke alarm.
In around a decade of testing just about every mainstream phone, this is the first time a handset has gone up in smoke for JerryRigEverything, and while they weren’t expecting that to happen, they also weren’t surprised that it snapped along the antenna line, because the previous two foldable Pixels had that same weakness – one that Google has apparently done nothing to address.
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One of the worst results ever
JerryRigEverything described this result as a “catastrophic failure”, likening the antenna line weakness to “building a third Death Star with the exact same exhaust port.”
But while the snapped screen and smoking battery are the biggest failings here, they aren’t the only ones, with the YouTuber also finding that, despite Google’s IP68 claims, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s hinge can get sand stuck in it, leading them to believe that it’s only the screen that’s actually dust-proof (as something with an IP68 rating should be).
Of course, JerryRigEverything’s heavy-duty tests don’t necessarily reflect the demands of everyday use, but if you were planning to buy the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold based on any sort of durability credentials, you should be very careful not to bend it too much when it’s unfolded.
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