MY PIXEL 10 PRO FOLD EXPLODED CAUGHT LIVE ON CAMERA!

JerryRigEverthing

Google has tried nothing to strengthen the Pixel Fold 10 Pro and they are all out of ideas. The new Folding Pixel Phone has failed my durability test Catastrophically. If google needs better tools to build a better phone they can get one of my tool kits HERE: https://www.ifixit.com...​  I thought for sure that after the first two catastrophic failures - Google might move some antenna lines around and make the phone stronger... But nope! The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is weaker than ever and now Explodes.   This is the first time in a decade of durability testing smartphones that ive had a phone explode in my hands

Transcript

00:00I was pretty shocked when I saw that Google left the weak antenna lines of the Pixel Fold in the

00:05same spot again for the third generation in a row. The original Pixel Fold snapped at the antenna

00:12lines right next to the hinge. And again on last year's Pixel 9 Pro Fold, it snapped right along

00:18the same exact antenna line. This is like Vader building a third Death Star with the exact same

00:24exhaust port. Or Voldemort hiding all seven horcruxes in Harry Potter's closet. Or maybe

00:31Superman mailing kryptonite to all his arch nemesises on their birthdays. Henry Ford said the

00:37only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. And I'm not saying that Google hasn't

00:42learned nothing, nor am I saying that a durability test is the only decision by which to base your

00:47phone buying experiences off of. But the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over

00:53and expecting different results. You don't got to be Einstein to realize that after the first two

00:58catastrophic failures, it might be time to move that antenna line. But here it still is, front and

01:05center, and I think it's going to fail again. But first, the scratch test. I'm a fan of the folding

01:10phone form factor, even though they aren't ready for my personal lifestyle just yet. I've got dirty hands

01:16and I do dirty projects quite often. And I don't have confidence that a folding phone can be the tool

01:22that survives life with me. The front slab of glass is Gorilla Glass Victus 2 though, and we see our

01:28normal scratches at a level 6 with deeper grooves at a level 7. I'll pull off the Mohs scale of hardness

01:34paper since we'll need it for that inner screen. The 10 megapixel front face hole punch camera is

01:39protected by the same Victus 2 glass, and the earpiece slit is rather thin right up next to the aluminum

01:45frame. Moving to the inner folding screen of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, we kind of already know what's going to

01:51happen. We haven't had any laws of physics broken in the folding screen category recently, and just

01:56like every other folding phone on the market, we see scratches beginning to form at a level 2.

02:02In order to get a screen to fold and flex, it has to be soft enough that a fingernail can damage

02:07the exterior layer. That's just how it has to be. One thing I noticed though during the unboxing is

02:13that there appears to be a second hidden under screen camera spot right next to the main 10 megapixel

02:19hole punch selfie camera. We've seen hidden cameras on smartphones before, like on the Red

02:24Magic 10 Pro or the earlier Samsung folding phones, but you know, usually those hidden cameras are

02:31disclosed. We'll have to take a closer look during the teardown, but either way it has a soft layer of

02:36scratchable plastic over both the under screen sensor and the 10 megapixel hole punch selfie camera.

02:42I do like this jade colored aluminum. It kind of glistens and darkens in color depending on how the

02:48light hits it. The volume rocker is also aluminum and removable. The power button is not removable,

02:58but the volume button is easy enough to pop back into place. The top of the Pixel 10 Pro fold has our

03:04upper loudspeaker, multiple microphones, and our SIM card tray. The metal tray has a black rubber ring around

03:14the opening to help with the IP68 water resistance rating. This is the first folding smartphone that

03:19is both rated for water and dust resistance. We will obviously put that dust spec to the test here

03:26in a sec. And of course we still have the two antenna lines up here that we've come to know all too well

03:31over the past two years. The left side of the phone, while open, does not have any buttons on it.

03:36The bottom of the phone has our lower stereo speaker, 30 watt USB-C port, and our microphone hole.

03:47If you notice, the actual microphone hole is much smaller than the exterior microphone opening.

03:52This is to make sure no hardware gets damaged if someone accidentally puts their SIM card removal

03:57tool in the wrong hole. You won't be able to damage the actual microphone or the waterproofing inside.

04:02The spine of the 10 Pro Fold is unbranded. There are no gears inside the hinge this year,

04:10and I'm sure we'll see the inside soon enough. On the back of the phone, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a

04:16light sensor in the upper left corner of the camera plateau, then a 10.5 megapixel ultra wide camera in

04:22the upper right side. The 48 megapixel main camera is on the bottom left, and the 10.8 5x telephoto is in

04:30the bottom right corner. All surrounded by the same anodized aluminum material as the phone body.

04:37The only branding on the exterior is the shiny chrome letter G on the back. Zooming in close,

04:43you can see basically a perfect placement of the soft touch glass etching around the G silhouette.

04:48Very nice attention to detail. I'm worried about a few other details on the phone, you know, but we'll

04:53get there soon enough. Google said that this year's 10 Pro Fold is the first folding phone to ever have an

05:006.8 dust resistance rating. The 8 has to do with liquid, but the 6 part of the rating means that

05:05the phone is essentially dust proof, since the number 6 is as high as the rating scale gets when

05:11it comes to dust. And yeah, the screen is probably dust proof, but unfortunately for Google, I can

05:17conclusively say that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold hinge is definitely not dust proof. The crunching of the dust

05:26that is now inside the hinge sounds pretty disturbing. And yeah, the Samsung folding phone sounded pretty

05:33much the same after dust was dropped into their hinges, but they also never claimed to be dust proof.

05:40I've been doing these durability tests for more than a decade now, and Google has to have known I

05:45was going to check on their claim. This is kind of embarrassing. The inner 8 inch Super Actua flex screen

05:52lasted about 15 seconds under the heat from my lighter. This time around we don't see any melted

05:57plastic on the surface, but the pixels are very much dead from that flame. The exterior 6.4 inch

06:033000 nit display fared much better under the heat and lasts at a good 25 seconds without any visible damage.

06:11Speaking of damage, Google says this 10 Pro Fold can handle 10 years worth of folding. That's a decade,

06:18but they don't give an exact number of folds that it can withstand. And yeah, sure, if the phone is only

06:25folded in a vacuum, it'll probably be just fine. But here in the real world where people sit on phones,

06:31book bag squish phones, and little kids exist, the Pixel 10 Fold just ain't going to make it. Having the

06:40audacity to call the Pixel 10 Fold extremely durable during their launch event while not changing the

06:46antenna line locations from the previous two versions that catastrophically failed is an

06:52insult to tech enthusiasts everywhere. This catastrophic failure was entirely predictable

06:57from 730 days ago. For sure, hype up the phone, but don't lie about it being durable if you didn't

07:03change anything to make it more durable. Google tried nothing to beef up the structure and they're

07:08all out of ideas. Not only is the antenna line broken up at the top, but it looks like the two antenna

07:14lines along the left side are also bent. This is by far the weakest folding smartphone I've ever tested.

07:20And it gets worse. Straightening it back out for round two, the battery decides it's had enough.

07:39Surprisingly, in the decade that I've been durability testing phones,

07:43I have never had a smartphone explode before. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the first phone to go up in

07:50smoke. Thumbs up for thermal runaway I guess. And for sure this is definitely an extreme test,

08:00but I've also subjected every mainstream smartphone made in the past 10 years to these exact same tests.

08:06That has never happened before. And this is the first time I've ever had one fail so spectacularly

08:14to the point where my fire alarm is going off.

08:19Just something to think about. Don't put an open Pixel 10 Pro Fold in your back pocket or your buns

08:25could get toasted. I don't even think I really have to say it, but the Pixel 10 Pro Fold fails my durability

08:32test catastrophically. We still need to check on that hidden camera though under the pixels on the

08:37folding display, so the teardown must continue. If you're interested in fixing stuff, I'll have my

08:43own folding premium portable toolkit linked in the description. It'll definitely survive more folds

08:49than the Pixel Fold. You can see what's left now of the crispy battery layers. The pouch style lithium

08:55batteries are made up of long sheets of foil that are wrapped around each other. The electrodes are

09:00separated from each other in the pouch, obviously so they don't short out. But since my phone physically

09:06fractured along the antenna line, we must have pinched the layers of the battery together, causing a

09:11short circuit which immediately dumps all of its energy into a self accelerating uncontrolled thermal

09:17reaction. At least until there is no energy left inside the layers to react with. It does look pretty

09:23cool inside. You know, all things considered. The smaller of the two batteries does appear to have green

09:29pull tabs. But even after I'm plugging the battery like a little lego, the pull tabs just kind of snap

09:34off. And if the rest of the phone hadn't exploded already, I'd probably complain about the pull tabs not

09:39being all that great. But Google currently has bigger problems to work on. As for the under screen

09:45sensor next to the actual inner screen selfie camera, it turns out it's just that, a sensor. There is no

09:51lens. This sensor can check for proximity and light, but only as a sensor without any lens on top of it.

09:57There's no way the sensor can take pictures or images like a normal camera would, so there's

10:02nothing to worry about. But maybe if Google decides to make another folding phone in the future,

10:07we'll see them ditch the hole punch at some point and just put an under screen camera. I would,

10:11however, recommend that before Google attempts anything else, they should relocate the antenna lines

10:17near the hinge. Or not. Either way, I'll be here next year to keep them in check. Hit that subscribe

10:22button so you don't miss it. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.

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