{"id":85364,"date":"2025-10-16T23:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/85364\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T23:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:32:07","slug":"durability-tester-says-googles-new-1800-foldable-phone-is-the-first-smartphone-to-explode-during-his-routine-test-and-he-caught-it-all-on-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/85364\/","title":{"rendered":"Durability tester says Google’s new $1,800 foldable phone is the first smartphone to explode during his routine test\u2014and he caught it all on camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

A popular tech durability expert has declared Google\u2019s new Pixel 10 Pro Fold<\/a> the weakest foldable smartphone he has ever tested after the device caught fire during a routine bend test, marking the first battery explosion in his decade-long career of testing smartphones.\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

Zack Nelson, the man behind the JerryRigEverything<\/a> channel, which has nearly 10 million subscribers on YouTube<\/a>, posted a video<\/a> on Tuesday showing the $1,799 device snapping at its antenna lines before its battery began smoking heavily enough to trigger a fire alarm in his workspace. The explosion occurred when Nelson attempted to straighten the phone after it had already fractured during the bend test, causing the battery layers to pinch together and short circuit.\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

\u201cSurprisingly, in the decade that I\u2019ve been durability testing phones, I have never had a smartphone explode before,\u201d Nelson said in the video. \u201cThe Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the first phone to go up in smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n

The failure was particularly notable because the device broke at the same structural weak point that plagued its two predecessors. Both the original Pixel Fold<\/a> and last year\u2019s Pixel 9 Pro Fold<\/a> snapped along antenna lines positioned near the hinge during similar tests. Nelson criticized Google<\/a> for not addressing the design flaw despite two previous catastrophic failures.\u200b<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the audacity to call the Pixel 10 Fold extremely durable during their launch event while not changing the antenna line locations from the previous two versions that catastrophically failed is an insult to tech enthusiasts everywhere,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like Vader building a third Death Star with the exact same exhaust port, or Voldemort hiding all seven Horcruxes in Harry Potter\u2019s closet,\u201d Nelson added. \u201cHenry Ford said the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. And I\u2019m not saying that Google hasn\u2019t learned nothing, nor am I saying that a durability test is the only decision by which to base your phone buying experiences off of. But the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results\u200b.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google had marketed the Pixel 10 Pro Fold as its most durable foldable yet<\/a>, claiming the device could withstand more than a decade of folding and featuring the first IP68 rating for dust and water resistance on any foldable smartphone. The company also touted a redesigned gearless hinge<\/a> that it said was twice as durable as the previous generation.\u200b<\/p>\n

However, Nelson\u2019s testing raised questions about those durability claims. When he poured sand into the device\u2019s hinge\u2014a standard part of his dust resistance evaluation\u2014the phone produced what he described as \u201cdisturbing crunching sounds,\u201d suggesting particles had infiltrated the mechanism. \u201cThe screen is probably dust-proof,\u201d Nelson said, \u201cbut the hinge definitely is not.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n

The battery explosion occurred due to thermal runaway<\/a>, a chain reaction within lithium-ion batteries that happens when heat generation exceeds the battery\u2019s ability to dissipate it. When Nelson bent the phone, the physical fracture along the antenna line pinched the battery\u2019s internal layers together, causing a short circuit that released all of the battery\u2019s stored energy in an uncontrolled burst.\u200b<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pouch-style lithium batteries are made up of long sheets of foil that are wrapped around each other,\u201d Nelson explained in the video. \u201cSince my phone physically fractured along the antenna line, we must have pinched the layers of the battery together, causing a short circuit, which immediately dumps all of its energy into a self-accelerating, uncontrolled thermal reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thermal runaway typically occurs when battery temperatures reach 150 to 180 degrees Celsius, triggering exothermic reactions that can drive temperatures beyond 1,000 degrees Celsius. The phenomenon is self-perpetuating and nearly impossible to stop once it begins.\u200b<\/p>\n

Nelson noted that while his tests are extreme, he has subjected every mainstream smartphone made in the past decade to identical evaluations without ever experiencing a battery fire.\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which launched this fall, features Google\u2019s new Tensor G5 processor manufactured using TSMC\u2019s 3nm process, 16GB of RAM, and screens measuring 6.4 inches externally and 8 inches internally. The device is available<\/a> starting at $1,799 for the 256GB model, but can cost up to $2,149 for 1 terabyte of storage.\u200b<\/p>\n

Google did not immediately respond to Fortune with regards to Nelson\u2019s testing results.<\/p>\n

Despite the dramatic failure in Nelson\u2019s test, other reviewers have<\/a> praised<\/a> the Pixel 10 Pro Fold\u2019s durability features under normal use conditions, particularly its IP68 rating. One reviewer took the device to a beach where it became covered in sand and partially submerged in saltwater but continued functioning afterward.\u200b<\/p>\n

Nelson ended his video by suggesting Google should relocate the antenna lines in future designs. \u201cI would, however, recommend that before Google attempts anything else, they should relocate the antenna lines near the hinge or not,\u201d he said. \u201cEither way, I\u2019ll be here next year to keep them in check.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can watch Nelson\u2019s teardown of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold below. It lights on fire at the 7:25 mark:<\/p>\n

For this story,\u00a0Fortune\u00a0used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular tech durability expert has declared Google\u2019s new Pixel 10 Pro Fold the weakest foldable smartphone he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[34536,8843,47,1711,6794,61,60,202,54912,80,4621],"class_list":{"0":"post-85364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-batteries","9":"tag-chemicals","10":"tag-fire","11":"tag-google","12":"tag-google-pixel","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-mobile","16":"tag-smartphones-and-mobile-devices","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-youtube"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}