Google announced the Pixel 10 Pro Fold alongside the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, and Pixel 10 Pro XL back in August, but the folding smartphone only became available today.
To celebrate the occasion, Google has explained why it chose to build a gearless hinge for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and it’s all about offering more “without sacrificing the benefits of pro-level phones”.
Google’s designers and engineers took the less safe and more aggressive path with regard to the hinge, as well as the phone’s overall “aggressive dimensions”, which is how Claude Zellweger, who leads the Pixel industrial design team, sees them.
The gearless hinge, as the name implies, doesn’t have any gears, and the design team went this route because gears can cause issues over time by getting dust stuck between them, “degrading the basic opening and closing experience that is critical on a foldable”. A gearless hinge is more reliable.
A typical hinge has four gears with teeth that let the two halves of the device rotate symmetrically as it opens and closes. The gearless hinge maintains this symmetrical motion by using CAMs, which are mechanical components that convert rotational motion to linear motion, allowing the hinge to save some space. The CAMs are spring-loaded so when either half of the device is opened, the other is forced to follow.
The use of this hinge allowed for bigger screens and smaller bezels, and a bigger battery. And since the gearless hinge protrudes less from the body of the phone, it’s got a better in-hand grip and feel. The IP68 dust and water resistance rating was achieved because the small spaces the old hinge’s gears required were eliminated.
