The Pixel 10 Pro Fold was a flop, and 2026 is Google’s last chance to fix it

2025 was a wildly successful year for Google’s Pixel hardware. The Pixel 9a marked another strong entry in the company’s budget portfolio, while the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro were solid upgrades in their own right. The Pixel Watch 4 also catapulted Google’s smartwatch hardware, and the Pixel Buds 2a set a new standard for affordable earbuds.

This year’s Pixel foldable was easily the weakest link in Google’s 2025 lineup, not because it’s an outright failure, but because it could have been so much more. There’s enormous potential in the Pixel Fold, but Google is running out of time to fully tap into it. And whether we see Google do that — or let the Pixel Fold fall too far behind the competition — will ultimately come down to what happens in 2026.

Leading up to the announcement of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold earlier this year, there was a lot of excitement around Google’s third attempt at a foldable phone. The original Pixel Fold was a highly flawed first-gen product, and the year-over-year improvements we saw between it and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold were almost unbelievable. The hardware advancements Google made were outstanding, and it quickly proved just how serious the company was about its foldable ambitions.

It was naive to expect Google to deliver such a major upgrade back-to-back, but there were issues with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold that needed fixing — things like camera quality, performance, and further refinement of its design. In other words, all reasonable improvements for its successor.

However, even with realistic expectations about what the Pixel 10 Pro Fold would be, the final product we got was still a letdown. Where the Pixel 9 Pro Fold was clearly created with fire and passion to push foldables to the next level, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold felt like it came from a team that just had a deadline to meet.

Foldable hardware had a breakout year in 2025, with Samsung, HONOR, OPPO, and vivo all making significant headways in creating foldables that are thinner and lighter than ever. Google needed to follow suit here, but instead, it stayed completely still. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold isn’t any thinner or lighter than its predecessor, and while the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s design may have been impressive a year ago, it looks and feels antiquated by 2025 foldable standards.

Cameras were another item due for an upgrade, but that didn’t happen either. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold reused the exact same sensors as the previous model, and for a flagship Pixel phone, they aren’t good enough. When Samsung is cramming a 200MP primary camera into the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and vivo is fitting 50MP telephoto and ultrawide cameras into the X Fold 5, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s 48MP primary sensor and ~10MP secondary cameras just can’t compete.

And that’s ultimately true for much of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold experience. While the Tensor G5 chip is performant for regular app use and stays cooler than previous versions, it struggles with gaming and other more demanding workloads — things a foldable should excel at. Google’s paltry 30W wired charge speeds are in dire need of an upgrade, and so much of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s software is frustratingly buggy.

To Google’s credit, it made some smart moves with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. I absolutely love the addition of magnetic charging, and the new hinge that allows for an IP68 rating is nothing short of impressive. But that’s not nearly enough to make the Pixel 10 Pro Fold a phone worth $1,799, especially when the rest of it is so incredibly similar to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. As I said in my Pixel 10 Pro Fold review, the phone feels lazy, and it’s a shame because we know Google is capable of much, much more.

That’s where we stand with the Pixel Fold today, but what about what comes next? Where does Google go with the inevitable Pixel 11 Pro Fold in 2026? Given what we’ve seen from Google’s foldable portfolio so far, we’re likely looking at one of two scenarios.

If that means bumping the price to $2,000, so be it. Samsung has increased the price of its Z Fold series for the last couple of years, and it’s worked out for the company. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold may be $200 cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but the Fold 7 is a better foldable in almost every way and more than justifies its higher price. Google can’t be afraid to go toe-to-toe with its biggest rival in the US, even if that means making the Pixel Fold more expensive.

The other option is for Google to just repeat what it did with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It could reuse the same hardware for another year, add a new Tensor chip, and maybe include minor display upgrades, and call it a day.

Part of me doesn’t think Google would go down this route when it was so clearly outclassed by virtually every other foldable in 2025, but the Pixel 10 Pro Fold proves that Google doesn’t mind phoning it in. If Google isn’t that serious about pushing the foldable market forward and just wants to say it’s part of the equation, why not go this route? It’s easier, cheaper, and safer.

But there’s a problem with that second option. If Google churns out another rehashed Pixel Fold with no meaningful upgrades, that’ll be the company telling us it doesn’t care about competing seriously in the foldable space. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold will be there for Google to say it sells a folding phone, but it won’t be one that most people should buy. That’s what the Pixel 10 Pro Fold feels like, and I worry that’s all Google cares to do.

No matter which option Google chooses, it’ll be making a big statement about the future of folding Pixels. With option one, the company tells the world it’s still serious about the foldable market and has the will to compete with its biggest rivals. But with option two, we could see Google essentially admit defeat and let the Pixel Fold coast along until it officially fades into obscurity.

As a Pixel and foldable fan, I certainly hope Google goes the former route. There’s so much the company can still do with the Pixel Fold, and I want the Pixel 11 Pro Fold to unequivocally be Google’s best foldable ever — as I’m sure most people do.

I just hope Google feels the same way.