If you're going to spend $1,799 on a smartphone, you'll want to know that it will last until your next upgrade

Folds do not have a good reputation for durability, as the internal screen is soft and the hinge is easily damaged However, durability has improved significantly since Samsung was forced to delay the release of the first Galaxy Fold due to damage to the review unit

In fact, with Google's second foldable, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the company feels so confident that it states in its marketing copy that it is “ultra-durable”

Perhaps that confidence is misplaced, as YouTuber Zack Nelson, on his JerryRigEverything channel, makes even the most rugged smartphone look worryingly fragile And unfortunately, the same three vulnerabilities as the original remained

The most dramatic of these is actually the least worrisome Sure, Nelson can bend the handset in half by bending it from the back, but he really has to go out of his way to do so In fact, the YouTuber notes, “With the phone closed, there is nothing to worry about”

This weakness seems to be partly due to the proximity of the antenna wire to the hinge, which allows the cover side to pop the display clean off the phone Says Nelson dryly, “I don't know why Google thought it was a good idea to place the antenna line in the weakest part of an already thin frame, but here we are”

The second weak point is scratches on the screen It is not the external panel that begins to scratch at levels 6 and 7 on the Mohs hardness scale, but the soft, flexible internal screen that scratches at level 2 Nelson says, “Even a fingernail can leave a permanent mark on the central screen”

“But this is perfectly normal for a folding phone and not that big of a deal if you're careful,” he continues

“There isn't a whole lot of space between the two halves, so making sure there isn't a speck of dust or dirt in the screen when you close it goes a long way to keeping things clean”

This leads neatly into the third, and perhaps most critical, weakness: dust prevention, or rather, the lack of dust prevention After dropping an impractical amount of dust on the screen, Nelson concluded, “Unfortunately for Google and for anyone who buys this phone, there seems to be no dust protection at all”

Soon, the dust begins to grind away at the hinges as they are opened and closed, in a way that is quite unpleasant to listen to Says Nelson: “This fold creaks and groans more than a millennial walking upstairs”

All of this is a bit disappointing, if not surprising The flexibility of the foldable comes at a price, not only in terms of the high MSRP, but also in terms of durability due to the engineering magic that goes into making a smartphone that can be folded in two

While most of JerryRigEverything's torture tests don't replicate real-world conditions, Nelson had a much harder time damaging the Pixel 9 Pro XL for those who don't want to constantly handle their phones with kid gloves