Three of the points that always stand out in Pixel phones are their photography and their power (the latter elevated thanks to the ability to have the Android operating system adapted in an “inbred” way). The sum of both does not affect its price, the most competitive on the market in this sector. And that is its third quality. But it also has some problems, particularly in its new foldable.
Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold became the first smartphone to explode during a durability test by influencer JerryRigEverything, a shocking moment in YouTuber Zack Nelson’s decade of experience in device stress testing. Nelson is known for his videos, with more than 2.5 billion views, where you dismantle technological products and subject them to different tests, it is “extreme stress.”
Nelson found that Google’s latest foldable was structurally weak and dangerously unstable. The test started routinely for his channel. The cover screen, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2, showed level six scratches on the Mohs scale and deeper level seven grooves, the standard.
However, The interior screen was still fragile, with marks even from a fingernail. Nelson noted that while the soft polymer layer scratches easily, it remains virtually secure once folded.
The situation worsened during the dust resistance test. Google promotes the Pixel 10 Pro Fold as the first foldable phone with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. But Nelson’s sand test revealed a different story.
After pouring sand on the phone, he verified that the interior screen held well, but the hinge did not, reporting a squeaking noise as fine particles lodged inside. Nelson questioned how the device could justify its IP rating and called the hinge design misleading. But there is more. When it came to the flex test, the influencer noted that Google claims its redesigned hinge can withstand a decade of use.
The “problem” is that Nelson (in his famous style) applied force in the opposite direction and the phone broke in half, not at the hinge, but along the antenna lines on the left side. This is important, since Nelson himself, in his videos about the Pixel Fol and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, had warned Google to relocate these weak points because the failure occurred in the same area.
When he tried to fold the device further, the battery caught fire, smoke came out of the broken frame, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold became the first phone in its series to catch fire in front of the camera. Nelson later explained that The explosion occurred after the antenna lines pressed the battery layerscausing a short circuit. The resulting thermal reaction released all of the battery’s energy in a violent explosion.
The comparison that Nelson used to refer to Google’s decision to reuse the same faulty antenna design was to claim that it would be as if “Darth Vader built a third Death Star with the same exhaust port that doomed it in the past.”
As if all this wasn’t enough, Nelson continued taking the phone apart and discovered that the sensor under the screen that was said to be a hidden camera was actually a proximity and light sensor.
His verdict was overwhelming: “By far, the weakest folding phone I’ve ever tried. “Having the nerve to say that the Pixel 10 Fold is extremely durable… is an insult to tech enthusiasts around the world.”
Of course, it must be clarified that the tests to which Nelson subjects the devices, They are extreme and users rarely, on a daily basis, take their cell phones to these conditions.