Google reveals the gearless hinge that makes the Pixel 10 Pro Fold smoother and more durable.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is Google’s current foldable phone, which was announced in August alongside the Pixel 10, Pro, and Pro XL. It just became available recently, though, and now the Mountain View tech giant has published a blog post giving us details on how it made its gearless hinge.
Google chose that method for the hinge that was less safe and more aggressive, according to Google’s designers and engineers. Apparently, this approach was taken without sacrificing the benefits of « pro-level phones », as Google puts it.
The gearless hinge was chosen because gears can cause issues over time by accumulating dust stuck between them. That would degrade the opening and closing experience on the foldable, which is actually the main aspect of foldable phones to begin with. Also, a gearless hinge is more reliable, notes Google.
Normally, a hinge has four gears with teeth that allow for the two halves of the device to rotate symmetrically as it opens and closes. On the other hand, a gearless hinge uses CAMs, which are mechanical components that convert rotational motion to linear motion, in order to maintain the symmetrical motion.
