Pixel 10 Pro Fold becomes first smartphone to catch fire in durability test, triggers fire alarm

Google launched the Pixel 10 Pro Fold at the company's Made by Google event in August, making tall claims about the durability of its next-generation flagship that takes on the similar lineup from Samsung. The claims, however, came to a head in a recent durability testing of the phone by renowned YouTuber Zack Nelson who runs the channel JerryRigEverything.

​For over a decade, Nelson has been testing all major smartphones rigorously, which includes scratching the display, using a lighter to determine how the screen reacts to extreme heat, using his knife for testing the materials of the phone, and bending it to see how it handles pressure.

​In his latest video, Nelson tested out the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which turned out to be a spectacular fail in his test as the phone not only failed many of his metrics but also became the first one ever to catch fire during the bend test.

​Pixel 10 Pro Fold catches fire:

​Nelson began his bend test by exerting pressure on the other end of the device when the phone is fully unfolded, which leads to the device breaking around the antenna line, which is also where previous Pixel devices had experienced failure.

​“Having 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,” Nelson lamented in the video.

​However, things were about to get worse as Nelson went for round two, bending the Pixel 10 Pro Fold in the opposite direction. This time, however, the battery of the Pixel had enough, and there was a thermal reaction where the battery exploded and a large amount of smoke was released that led to the nearby fire alarm getting triggered.

​While the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is unlikely to receive this kind of torture by actual users, Nelson's reasoning is that testing the phone through these extreme environments helps to analyze its durability. He also went on to state that no other phone, including folding devices from Samsung, ever had a fire breakout during his test.

​“In the decade that I've been durability testing phones, I have never had a smartphone explode before,” Nelson noted.

​"For sure, this is definitely an extreme test. But I've also subjected every mainstream smartphone made in the past 10 years to these exact same tests. That has never happened before. And this is the first time I've ever had one fail so spectacularly to the point where my fire alarm is going off."