Pixel 10 Pro Fold breaks in bend test with battery fire

Tech durability tester Zack Nelson said a review of Google’s new Pixel 10 Pro Fold ended in a rare and dramatic failure on October 14 when the device snapped during a bend test and its battery ignited, producing dense smoke that set off a smoke alarm in his workshop. Nelson put the foldable through his usual series of stress checks, including scratch, dust and bend resistance, and reported that the phone broke along an antenna line near the hinge and then experienced a battery short circuit that led to a thermal runaway reaction.

Nelson said the Pixel 10 Pro Fold failed the bend test at the same weak point that caused breakages in earlier Pixel foldable models, and he criticized Google for leaving the antenna line in the same location across three generations. "This is by far the weakest folding smartphone I have ever tested," he said, and added that in his decade of durability testing he had never before seen a smartphone explode. He also advised caution, saying not to carry an open Pixel 10 Pro Fold in a back pocket.

Nelson’s video also challenged Google’s claim that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is fully dust resistant under an IP68 rating. In a sand exposure trial Nelson said coarse...