The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold has been out and about for some time now, and unlike the search engine’s first foldable, this year’s model is also out and about in Malaysia. But unlike its rivals that made their debut a lot earlier in the year, the company has certainly taken their sweet time with its launch.
But, as the saying goes, better late than never. And in this case, I’m genuinely excited to be using a foldable as one of my daily drivers again.
Specifications
Looks And Functionality
In spite of all the hype and forced enthusiasm from Jimmy Fallon, there’s actually a good number of talking points to be had with the 10 Pro Fold. While the original Fold never officially made it to our shores, I had a chance to see it in other countries and I will ask you to take my word on this: there is a difference between the two.
First, the foldable display is bigger. I know that’s obviously on paper, but in my hands, it’s easy to get a sense of its size and weight, emphasis on the latter too. 258g is not light and, to draw on a subject I often use: that’s the same as a steak’s pre-cooked weight.
Opening a foldable is still a bit of a chore.
That aside, it’s not the most easily accessible foldable I’ve used. By that, I often struggle getting any purchase on the edges of the 10 Pro Fold when I’m unfolding it. That problem, by the way, is present both with and without the presence of the Pixelsnap case.
Speaking of the Pixelsnap casing, Google really something going on here. It barely weighs anything and there’s no effort needed in snapping it onto the foldable, no pun intended. That said, its lightweight frame makes it feel really fragile, so I don’t recommend that you try flexing it before you snap it on.
Once unfolded, though, the one thing that really stands out to me is the crease between the foldable display. Look, I know this subject is stale, bordering on composting, but despite my best attempts to ignore it, it’s the first thing that stares me right in the face. I mean, it’s not so bad once the display is on, but when it’s blank and turned off, it’s hard not to notice. Worse, because virtually all the phone brands seem to have given up on the whole “anti-fingeprint” magnet trend, both displays on the 10 Pro Fold get dirty easily.
When folded, the size and width of the 10 Pro Fold fills up my hands comfortably, primarily due to the fact that the phone itself isn’t exceedingly thin. It’s about the same width as your typical candy bar smartphone, albeit slightly heavier.
Moving on, I can’t say that I’m a fan of the button layout for the 10 Pro Fold. Maybe it’s because I’m coming from a phone where the power button is situated in the middle, but even now, I still make the mistake of pressing the volume rocker.
That said, I appreciate the fact that the fingerprint scanner is built directly into the power button but it’s not accurate all the time. More often than not, I have to replace my fingers or thumb before they actually register.
Performance And Battery
Compared to the other foldables on the market, the Tensor G5 is far from the most powerful but that shouldn’t be the reason for you to strike the 10 Pro Fold off the list. I won’t go into too much detail about its general performance; it’s the same chipset found across the entire Pixel 10 Series, and seeing how much colleagues have already tested the chipset the base model, as well as the Pro and Pro XL, you can read about it over there.
Circling back to the Power button, it’s also programmable to do a multitude of functions. By default, double-pressing it allows you to bring up the camera or Google Wallet. For the sake this review, I actually set it to act upon the latter, seeing how much I was travelling at the time and made more sense for me to tie it to my digital wallet, given how frequent my use of public transportation was.
To that end, the act of app switching, closing and opening them, swiping between windows; they all feel smooth, fast, and responsive, the last one to a degree. Here’s the problem: whenever I open up apps in the foldable display, the navigation bar and apps bar at the bottom tends to shift its position ever so slightly.
Now, I’m a regular buttons kind of guy, meaning I like the home, back, and app window buttons at the bottom. The problem here is, when I turn off my phone or if the screen goes off due to inactivity, and I proceed to wake it up again, these buttons actually shift ever so slightly upwards, rather than remain right at the edge. Basically, this leads to an issue where the buttons are not responsive because they have shifted position. What’s even funnier is that, when I do manage to tap on the home button, you can see the whole bare visibly shift into place.
Battery life is a no-brainer reason, should you need another.
Battery life is an extremely strong plus point for the 10 Pro Fold, and that’s not just me exaggerating. The legs on the battery are just so very long, I’m getting more close to two days of continuous use – binge watching multiple seasons of a series on YouTube or Netflix yields between 18 and 20 hours on average. That average, by the way, is the same, be it on the cover or foldable display. Oh, and if you’re wondering why the screenshots don’t make sense, trust me: that’s just Android going into low power mode, which is a good and bad thing. Good because it stretches the battery, bad that it doesn’t jot down the power consumption of the relevant app.
Camera
48MP sensors have been the norm for the majority of camera phones, be it with flagships or mid-rangers. The 10 Pro Fold, though, feels like it was given a lot less love than its non-foldable siblings.
There’s only one of them in the triple-camera module, with the other two being a 10.8MP telephoto and a 10.5MP ultrawide. For comparison, the non-foldable Pixel 10 Pro and XL get a 50MP+48MP+48MP combo.
Does this affect its performance? To a varying degree, yes. Daytime shots retain a lot of clarity and detail, but a lot of it gets lost when I zoom in on a subject. Likewise, the same loss of detail occurs with low-light shots, but that said, some night shots actually turn out quite nicely.
Also: yes, there is some application of AI to the pictures but based on what I’ve seen, it’s primarily applied to the images that are zoomed in on the subject, and the rule of thumb with the 10 Pro Fold’s camera is that the more zoomed in you are, the greater the regeneration.
Further, if you’re anything like me, you’d appreciate that the colour palette of the 10 Pro Fold’s camera isn’t as saturated and actually looks and feels more natural.
Sample Images
Night Shots
Competition
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7
As far as foldables go, and in keeping with the spirit of the medium, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold7 is one of the obvious no-brainers on the list. Specs-wise, this foldable uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, up to 16GB RAM, and up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage.
The foldable display is actually the same size as the 10 Pro Fold at 8-inches, but obviously uses Samsung’s own Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel, while the cover display is ever so slightly larger at 6.5-inches. Camera-wise, the main module comprises a 200MP wide, 10MP telephoto, and 12MP ultrawide.
The starting price for the Z Fold7 is slightly cheaper at RM7,799 but the top-end 16GB+1TB configuration will set you back RM9,899.
Oppo Find N5
The Find N5 is perhaps the biggest foldable, quite literally, when compared to the 10 Pro Fold. Its foldable OLED display measures in at 8.12-inches, while the OLED cover display is 6.62-inches.
Oppo is only bringing in one configuration into Malaysia, meaning that, beneath the hood, it’s powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, has 16GB RAM, 512GB UFS 4.0 storage, and a main camera array that combines a 50MP wide, 50MP periscope telephoto, and an 8MP ultrawide.
Price-wise, the Find N5 retails at RM7,999.
Conclusion
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold may not be the thinnest foldable on the market, but as is the case with the series and the generation before, Google more than makes up for it with a solid chassis and build. There’s just something alluring about the brushed metal edges and slick back.
It’s hard for me to even make an argument about its steep RM7,999 asking price because that is the average asking price for virtually every other foldable out there. But one of the best trade-offs for the price, in my opinion, is a phone that is practically free from brand-centric apps and bloatware, with the worst offender being vivo.
And that’s another boon for the 10 Pro Fold: it holds the rare title of being the most current foldable that basically runs on Vanilla Android UI, and believe me when I say that there is still a market for folks who wish for that experience.
Photography by John Law.
