Google thinks the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is a big leap

With the Pixel 10 Pro Fold now available, Google is detailing the design and engineering decisions that it made. Of note is how the team considers this device to be a bigger upgrade than most people are giving it credit for given the near identical design that is ever so slightly thicker.

Google “had to decide how big of a leap [it] wanted to make” this generation after a “major engineering lift” from the Pixel Fold to Pixel 9 Pro Fold. The self-described “safer path” would have been “updated specs and cameras,” as well as a color refresh. 

The company ended up taking a “more aggressive path” for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

“We felt that if we’re able to really progress and push our engineering capabilities, we should,” Claude [Zellweger, Pixel industrial design lead] says. That’s how we ended up with what Claude describes as the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s “aggressive dimensions,” a better performing camera and more — including an all-new gearless hinge, which made much of the new Fold’s build possible.

A gearless hinge is more reliable as there are no gears that can be damaged over time by dust getting stuck. This is a not insignificant improvement over the life of your foldable. In removing the small spaces required by the old hinge, this made possible the IP68 water and dust resistance rating. 

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Typical hinges have four gears with teeth that allow two halves of the device to rotate symmetrically as it opens and closes. The gearless hinge maintains this symmetrical motion using mechanical components called CAMs, which convert one type of motion to another. In this case, they’re converting rotational to linear motion, which allows the hinge to save some space.

The hinge also allows for smoother opens/closes — as pointed out in our review — and “protrudes from the phone’s body less.” The 10 Pro Fold is .8mm narrower when folded.

Of course, this new hinge led to the bigger 6.4-inch (from 6.3) outer display given a bezel shrink after taking out the gears. It also resulted in the rearranged internal architecture that allowed for a bigger battery (5,015 vs. 4,650 mAh).

Meanwhile, the hinge is polished and not matte as Google doesn’t want that component to “blend in,” thus continuing the team’s belief that shiny means premium. Similarly, that’s why there’s a metallic finish for the edges (diamond-cut chamfers).

“And one important thing that we want to do every year is keep the hinge polished.” If it were matte, he says, it would just blend in — the polish elevates the phone, signaling it fits in with the rest of the pro Pixels.”