Zack Nelson from the tech-focused YouTube channel JerryRigEverything has just subjected Google’s new Pixel 9 Pro Fold handset to his infamous durability test.
The $1,800 Pixel 9 Pro Fold is “super durable,” according to Google, but it probably wasn’t thinking of Nelson’s unique way of “inspecting” phones when it made that claim.
The results of the test aren’t pretty, but with lots of scratching, scrunching, and burning, as well as a spot of enthusiastically delivered bending, that’s no big surprise.
After scraping some pretty ugly marks onto the exterior of Google’s new foldable using a box cutter — and cutting his own finger in the process — Nelson drops an absurd amount of dirt and sand onto the phone “to find out if the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has any dust protection.” The answer is quickly found to be: “No, it doesn’t.”
Next comes the naked flame, which, after some prolonged burning, leaves its mark on both the interior display and the outer one, too.
Finally, we get the highly anticipated and very unscientific bend test. Not surprisingly, foldables rarely fare well when forced the wrong way. But Nelson was surprised to see that in the case of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the device didn’t break along the hinge but instead just off the center in the location of its two antenna lines.
By the end of the video, the phone is a complete wreck. “There’s quite the mess in here,” Nelson observes.
Rest assured that even the clumsiest, most irresponsible smartphone user won’t ever end up with a phone in this state. But Nelson’s durability test at least give us some idea of just how much abuse a device can take before it gives in.
