Following a significant bend, the battery seems to heat up — however, iFixit remains unconcerned.
Following a significant bend, the battery seems to heat up — however, iFixit remains unconcerned.
Google may have yet another Pixel facing a battery issue, this time concerning the newly released Pixel 10 Pro Fold. In a video released today, YouTuber JerryRigEverything, known as Zack Nelson, put the foldable through his regular durability tests, but during his bend test — after already damaging the phone — the battery swells, appears to overheat, produces enough smoke to trigger a nearby fire alarm, and ultimately becomes a charred mess on his testing table.
To be fair, Nelson exerts an extraordinary level of strain on the device. He initially damages the phone by bending it backward while fully opened, and the battery doesn’t swell until he applies significant pressure to the compromised section of the device in a manner that effectively folds the screen against itself.
This is not a situation that an everyday user is likely to encounter routinely. Nevertheless, it remains atypical even under such extreme conditions, according to Nelson. He mentions he hasn’t experienced anything comparable in previous evaluations.
“Interestingly, in the ten years I’ve been testing phone durability, I’ve never witnessed a smartphone explode before,” states Nelson. “The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the first device to produce smoke.” And while he acknowledges that this is an “extreme test,” he adds that “I’ve subjected every mainstream smartphone released in the past decade to these identical tests. And this is the initial occasion I’ve seen one fail so drastically that my fire alarm was activated.”
Google did not respond immediately to a request for comment. However, this isn’t the first instance of battery problems reported from Google this year: the company updated the Pixel 6A to “address a potential battery overheating concern,” and it also issued an update for the Pixel 4A to “enhance the stability of battery performance.”
“While a battery fire is quite alarming, we don’t view this as an indicator that there is an inherent flaw in the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s design,” states iFixit’s Elizabeth Chamberlain to The Verge. “The risk of thermal runaway is merely a characteristic of Li-ion batteries. It appears that Zack likely didn’t discharge the battery before disassembling the phone (most new devices arrive with over 60% charge). We generally advise discharging a battery to below 25%, but considering the exceptional stress Zack imposes on devices, even that threshold may be excessive.
Chamberlain further explains that “thermal runaway is essentially a localized short circuit, occurring most likely when you breach the insulating layers of a jelly roll-style battery.” She also referenced a blog post and a video from iFixit that discusses battery fires.
Nelson also tested the IP68 dust resistance of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Despite Google branding the phone as its “most resilient foldable to date” and emphasizing the advantages of the device’s gearless hinge, Nelson sprinkled dust directly onto the hinge and then opened and closed the phone, resulting in some distressing crunching noises as dust became lodged inside. “This is rather embarrassing,” Nelson remarks.
