What you should know
- Google’s Pixel 10 Professional Fold introduces a brand new gearless hinge that permits IP68 mud and water resistance.
- The gearless hinge replaces conventional gears with CAMs, bettering sturdiness and saving inside house.
- The brand new hinge design permits slimmer bezels, a bigger 6.4-inch cowl show, and a 5,015mAh battery.
After formally showcasing it alongside the remainder of the Pixel 10 lineup, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold lastly went on sale on October 8, 2025. One in all its greatest benefits over different foldables is IP68 mud and water resistance, made potential by a redesigned hinge mechanism. Google has now defined what went into creating this new hinge.
The hinge is crucial (and susceptible) a part of a foldable cellphone. It is comparatively simple for Android OEMs to make common smartphones sleeker and extra sturdy since they don’t have any transferring components, however a foldable cellphone is a unique story. Its two halves continuously transfer, counting on a hinge to maintain every little thing working easily.
Most foldable smartphones use a hinge design with tiny gears inside. Nonetheless, Sangsoo Park, an industrial designer at Google, defined in a weblog publish that these gears typically trigger issues over time. “They are often broken and mud can get caught between them,” he stated, which might result in a degraded opening and shutting expertise.
That is why Google opted for a “gearless hinge” within the Pixel 10 Professional Fold. Park famous that typical hinges use 4 gears to permit the 2 halves to rotate symmetrically because the gadget opens and closes, however Google changed these with a extra superior mechanical element known as CAMs. This new method helped save inside house and enhance reliability.
Pixel 10 Professional Fold’s hinge makes use of CAMs as a substitute of conventional gears
Google claims this new hinge of the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is extra dependable and can “proceed to work flawlessly over time,” which is particularly essential for a premium gadget with long-term software program assist. Park added that the brand new hinge additionally gave designers extra flexibility elsewhere.
For instance, the brand new hinge allowed Google to shrink the bezels across the cowl show, pushing them nearer to the hinge and barely enlarging the display to six.4 inches, up from the Pixel 9 Professional Fold.
The redesigned hinge additionally gave Google room to slot in a bigger 5,015mAh battery and obtain an IP68 score for mud and water resistance, making the Pixel 10 Professional Fold the primary foldable cellphone to hold that certification. As well as, it helps Qi2 magnetic charging, similar to the remainder of the Pixel 10 sequence.
Whereas the Pixel 10 Professional Fold is not as skinny as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, and Google nonetheless has some work to do in that space, the brand new hinge design has helped the corporate ship a foldable that feels sturdy, dependable, and, as Google describes it, one that can “proceed to work flawlessly over time.”
Most sturdy foldable cellphone
The Google Pixel 10 Professional Fold would possibly look much like its predecessor, nevertheless it brings significant upgrades together with IP68 mud and water resistance and a bigger 5,015mAh battery. Like the remainder of the Pixel 10 lineup, it’s powered by the brand new Tensor G5 chipset and runs Android 16 with a number of foldable-exclusive options.
