The Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL have been out for a couple of weeks now and we’ve been testing them for even longer. If you want to hear our thoughts on this year’s flagships from Google, the time has finally come.
As you are likely aware, Google released the Pixel 10 Pro models with pretty minor upgrades over the Pixel 9 Pro models, kept the same design, and tossed in even more AI, some of which will likely just end up on the 9 Pros at some point. We do get their new Tensor G5 chip, which is as close as it comes to being their first true Google-made silicon, a wild 100x Pro Res Zoom feature, and Qi2 magnets that are wonderful to have.
But is there enough new here? Let’s talk through in our Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL review.
What do you really need to know about the Pixel 10 Pro?
Going in to this review, I found it hard to use our standard format of “What I like” and “What I don’t like” because, well, this is so very much like a Pixel 9 Pro+. What I mean by that is that Google gave us some new stuff, but as someone who has been using a Pixel 9 Pro for the past year, I’m really struggling to come up with a long list of items that really make this feel like a new phone. That’s not to say it isn’t still excellent, but it’s so similar and familiar, that I thought I’d rather focus on the bigger items you should know about.
And before we get going, know that I’ve spent almost all of my time with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, but I’ll likely just say Pixel 10 Pro throughout. It’s easier to type and the phones have identical specs, outside of a couple of things.
Camera. You can’t talk about a Google Pixel phone and not bring up the camera immediately. It’s really the first thing we almost always talk about, as Google has been a leader in image processing for so many years that it is what Pixel phones are known for. With the Pixel 10 Pro, Google is giving us an identical camera setup to the Pixel 9 Pro that includes 50MP wide, 48MP ultra-wide, and 48MP telephoto sensors. The only major new camera feature is the 100x Pro Res Zoom that uses generative AI and the phone’s Tensor G5 to try and enhance intricate details of far away objects. Oh, we have high-res portrait shots now too, so that’s a thing. Otherwise, outside of some random AI editing or suggestion tools, we have a Pixel 9 Pro camera inside a Pixel 10 Pro body.
While that may sound disappointing, this camera is far from disappointing. I’ve taken daylight, low light, portrait, landscape, and zoom photos in recent weeks and I’m almost always impressed by the results. You may be sick of me saying this every year, but the Pixel 10 Pro (like so many before it) gives you a sense of confidence no matter the scenario. In fact, I find myself taking more pictures with this phone than I do with other phones. Finding samples to share for this review wasn’t hard, because I had a lot to choose from.
The camera is so easy to use because it’s quick, the focus speed is insane, it might take the best close-up or portrait shots in the business, and when the lights go down you still can find ways to take impressive shots. You guys know I love a good food or up-close beer picture, all of which look so great with this camera because it can capture natural depth without looking artificial. It’s inside and landscape shots, particular those with a sun setting, bring about the most comforting and dramatic warmth. Colors never look too punchy or off, but Google is still ramping contrast, which is probably why I think it brings out so much drama. Macros are crisp and detailed, and yeah, the 100x Pro Res Zoom is a bit amazing.
Just so we’re clear, though – Pro Res Zoom is faking it. This is AI photography, but Google has so far shown that it can really create proper images with its generative imaging. As long as you only take pics of objects and not people or words, I think the processing it does is creating stuff that absolutely looks real. The best example I have is the image below of a cell phone tower that is miles away. Google took the blurry vision I saw and then turned it into an image you’d share. And don’t just look at the tower, but make sure you look at the trees too. It’s wild.
I think my big takeaway from the Pixel 10 Pro camera is that it is as good as it gets in the smartphone world. There isn’t a situation where this camera struggles, but it also now does some wild 100x zoom magic. Google hasn’t given up its lead in mobile cameras here – they may have even found some tricks to take another step away from competitors.
We have a full Google Photos gallery of images here. We’ll also include some resized samples below.
Battery life. There’s this new Tensor G5 chip inside the Pixel 10 Pro models and slightly bigger batteries for both devices. Google did not promise any major improvements in battery life, though. They are still claiming that you’ll get 24+ hour battery life and that’s probably right. As you’ll see in the battery usage images below, I was typically around 4.5 to 5.5 hours of screen on time and going to bed with 10-20% battery remaining with a Pixel 10 Pro XL. That’s solid for me and actually bordering on heavier use. I hit Pokemon GO pretty hard during my review weeks and this thing held up to that abuse quite well in the sun, with brightness cranked, and using a 5G connection for most of the time.
On the smaller Pixel 10 Pro, Tim was seeing his typical 7AM-11PM schedule with 3-4 hours of screen on time with 30% remaining. Again, that’s pretty typical and lines up with the Pixel 9 Pro.
In the charging department, Google is still being somewhat weird about charging speeds. As far as we can tell by the specs tables, they didn’t really improve wired charging for either phone. The Pixel 10 Pro XL can hit 70% in 30 minutes with a 45W charger, while the Pixel 10 Pro hits 55% in 30 minutes with a 30W charger. Those are the numbers from last year’s models. I was regularly hitting 25W speeds on one of my chargers, so there’s that to note.
Where Google did improve is in wireless charging, which we’ll get to next.
Qi2 and Qi2.2 magnets. Guys, we have Qi2 and it’s real Qi2! Samsung attempted to create fake Qi2 in several phones by getting a “Qi2 ready” label attached to its phones so that it didn’t have to do the hard work of building magnets into the actual device, but we saw that silliness. Google truly went for it with the Pixel 10 series. We have Qi2 in the Pixel 10 Pro and Qi2.2 in the Pixel 10 Pro XL.
What does that mean for you? Oh, so much. For one, we get faster wireless charging at 15W on the 10 Pro and 25W on the 10 Pro XL. The bigger story is that it means accessories and magnets and chargers, oh my. Like the iPhone has for so many years, you can take a Pixel 10 (without a case) and slap it on a magnetic wireless charger, attach your magnetic wallet to it, use a magnetic power bank when on the go, attach easily to your magnetic car mount, and yes, still use cases with magnets to stay safe and have magnetic fun. I just said “magnetic” far too many times, but I’m so happy with this addition to the Pixel 10 series that I can’t help myself.
This is such a major feature addition. I’m not sure it’s reason alone to buy a Pixel 10 Pro, but it certainly makes the decision an easier one if you have an older device. The world of accessories just became so much more exciting with a Pixel 10 phone.
Performance. There isn’t a great way to explain this, but the Tensor G5 in the Pixel 10 Pro seems perfectly fine. I’m not a heavy gamer or someone processing hours of video or anything. However, I ran this phone when testing it like I do every single phone I test. I throw my daily grind at it, which does include a couple of Pokemon games (GO and TCG Pocket mostly) as well as Instagram, Chrome, Reddit, Photos, ESPN, YouTube, Twitch, and Telegram. As you would expect from a “Pro” phone in 2025, none of these apps struggle to run at the 120Hz this phone’s display is capable of. Plus, we have 16GB RAM here, so apps load quickly, transitions and animations are always smooth, the keyboard is snappy and clicky, and I just haven’t had any noticeable issues to point out.
Does it ever get hot? Sure. Like I said earlier, I hammered this phone with Pokemon GO sessions in the sun for a solid week or so and it did heat up. It also got warm when sitting in my house playing some games. That heat didn’t mean worse performance, only that the phone did get noticeably warmer than I’d prefer.
Is this chip some sort of game-changing performance beast that will make the Pixel 10 Pro a gaming monster like an iPhone 17 Pro or Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra? Probably not, but Google isn’t telling you it will. Google wants you to use this as a tool, take advantage of their built-in AI products, and then snap a bunch of impressive camera shots.
Unless you are trying to play COD: Mobile at a pro level or record and then process movies on your phone, I’m not sure the Tensor G5 is going to slow you down very often. The Pixel 10 Pro is a great tool phone, just like it was built to be.
AI features. Look, I’m still the guy who looks at AI as the next bubble on the verge of bursting. The hype around AI has fully eclipsed that of 5G in ways I didn’t think was possible, but we’re here. Hopefully, for not much longer. Outside of developers who need help with code, some enterprise CEOs who were convinced AI could replace humans and make them super rich, and people who weirdly like AI image and video slop, the world of AI evangelists have a long way to go in selling people like me the ways any of this could be useful.
With the Pixel 10 Pro, Google has come close to showing me that a few times. Those mostly came from Magic Cue, which is the backend AI system Google has introduced that attempts to surface information in select apps, just as you need it by knowing info from other apps. Someone could ask me where dinner is, what time my kid’s swim practice is at, or for someone’s number and it’ll then throw that info up as a quick reply option in Messages. That’s useful.
Google also thinks it would be useful to bring up your airline reservation as you call your airline for info. I don’t know why we are calling airlines, but OK. Magic Cue could even recognize that you are in Chrome looking at something only to immediately offer it as a suggestion in Google Maps (super hit or miss with this one). All of this sort of makes sense as an AI feature that could be helpful. I think we are in the early stages of where it really needs to go, but this is a good start.
A bunch of the other AI stuff on the Pixel 10 Pro happens through the camera, where Google thinks you need help lining up a perfect shot with a built-in Camera Coach. This camera can automatically merge together several faces of people to make a shot without blurriness and also do that thing where you add yourself to a photo as the photo taker. This is where we get into the fakeness that is AI, which I’m just not a fan of. We’re talking about a picture or pictures that aren’t real and I have a problem with that.
But back to useful stuff, the Pixel 10 Pro’s phone app can utilize “Take a Message,” a new feature that replaces your voicemail, transcribes voicemails in real-time, offers suggestions based off the message, etc. I’ve used this quite a bit lately. Google also created a real-time voice translate in the phone app that takes your voice and voices it to a person on the other end in another language, making it sound like you! I haven’t done this yet, but the demos they keep showing are insanely impressive. Even writing about it over and over again still blows my mind each time.
Outside of those items, the rest of the AI story is familiar. You have Gemini access at all times, Gemini Live if you want to talk to a bot, Circle to Search (still great!), and the weirdification of Google Photos and its editing tools that people don’t seem to be a fan of. Specifically to the Pixel 10 Pro, you can also ask Google Photos to edit photos by voice, which is somewhat helpful for quick edits to brightness or contrast or shadows, but again, gets into the AI slop territory the minute you start removing objects or people or adding things.
I’ll say this – if you want the phone with as much AI built-in as you can get, this is the phone for you. While someone like me probably won’t ever use much of it, it’s there for those who want it, for those who use Gemini all day long, and for those who like making images and videos of a life they haven’t lived. Magic Cue does seem genuinely on the right track, so we’ll just be keeping an eye on where that goes.
What’s the rest of the Pixel 10 Pro story?
All of those things I talked about above are the identity of the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL. Those are the items that are a part of the sales pitch for Google’s new phones. Those are the things that might push you onto one or help you decide to stick with your current device. Because the rest of this tale is positive, it’s just so familiar for anyone coming from a Pixel 9 Pro.
The displays are essentially the same. We have the same sizes, same refresh rates, and same tech (LTPO), but they do get slightly brighter at peak levels when in sunlight. Those displays are still great, though, with natural color reproduction, impressive viewing angles, and high-to-low brightness that fits all moments in life. Like all previous Pixel phones, the adaptive brightness is a bit aggressive at times when dimming, but other than that, no complaints in displays.
The designs are the same, as is durability, so we get spacecraft-grade aluminum with matte glass backs and polished (grrr!) frames. The colors aren’t that fun, but the new Moonstone is quite pretty. For my own personal device, I went matte black (Obsidian) because it just looks so clean and yet I already sort of regret not getting Moonstone. We also have IP68 water and dust resistance and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both the front and back.
The devices look and feel great in the hand. Google truly impressed us with their hardware refinements with the Pixel 9 series and that’s all back again here. These phones feel incredibly premium. I hate to compare them to iPhones, but they are on that level. In terms of quality of hardware, I’d put Apple and Google at the top, with Samsung quite a bit below.
The software is still excellent, as we’ve come to expect from Google. The support is here with a full 7 years of updates, plus these phones run Android 16 out of the box with the fantastic new Material 3 Expressive design. Google’s software just feels so much more native than Samsung or OnePlus’ and you really need to use it to know what I mean. Every little touch responds, the keyboard pops-up and is ready in the perfect amount of flow, and there isn’t so much going on that you’ll ever be overwhelmed. But Google still nails notifications, the app switcher, the app drawer, its own apps are still the best, and settings are easy to find and use.
Google’s Pixel 10 Pro has the best software of any smartphone. I’d use this experience 10 out of 10 times if given a choice. Samsung’s One UI is still bad, OxygenOS is closing-in at least, and iOS will probably forever make me want to punch things when a notification rolls in.
We love the two sizes, so please keep buying both, everyone. With the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL, Google gave us true choice without forcing us to choose a size and then miss out on features. They’ve continued that with the Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL, but the 10 Pro XL does get a newer Qi2.2 standard with faster charging speeds and a base storage of 256GB. Otherwise, they are identical and we love it.
Should you buy the Pixel 10 Pro or Pixel 10 Pro XL?
This is a pretty easy question to answer – if you have a Pixel 9 Pro or 9 Pro XL, I don’t think you need to upgrade. The changes here aren’t meaningful enough for you to take the cash hit and upgrade. And as far as we know, so much of the AI stuff will come to the 9 series at some point. You would really just be upgrading to get Qi2, a full 7 years of updates, and Pro Res Zoom. While that stuff is awesome, ehhhhhh, that’s not much.
But for you folks with anything older than a Pixel 9 series, like a Pixel 8 and below, these will be worth a look. The hardware is such a major improvement, the cameras might be too, performance will be better than those old Tensor units, and you get the promise of more AI as it comes out. And yeah, magnets are awesome.
There are likely some 10% off codes floating around to help you get a discount here.
Buy Pixel 10 Pro / Pixel 10 Pro XL
Read the original post: Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL Review: Still the Best in Android
This articles is written by : Fady Askharoun Samy Askharoun
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