Review: Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro XL are first-choice ‘AI phones’

Last year’s Pixel 9 and 9 Pro models were the first Pixels I found to be unequivocally on par — for almost everything — with iPhone and Galaxy premium models.

This year’s Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro devices are similar to last year’s phones, but haven’t advanced much in hardware (with one camera exception). Having tested them for a while, I would call them minor upgrades that rely a lot on Google’s AI investments rather than any notable physical advances.

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That still means that they’re serious alternatives to iPhones and Galaxies or, if you really like AI, are now arguably front-runners.

The main draw, as with most previous Pixels, is their fast, smooth, easy-to-use interface allied to category-leading AI (Google owns the Gemini AI that half the other smartphones are integrating) alongside hardware that’s generally good enough to match most rivals.

My two test models were the baseline Pixel 10 (pitched at iPhone 16 and Samsung S25 users) and the flagship non-folding model, the Pixel 10 Pro XL (Google’s equivalent of a Samsung S25 Ultra or an iPhone 16 Pro Max).

There are two other Pixel models in the range, the Pixel 10 Pro and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which I haven’t yet had a chance to test, although the 10 Pro is almost identical in features, power and output to the Pixel 10 Pro XL I got.

Before I get into detail, here’s the top line summary for the phones I’ve been testing.

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PIXEL 10

Price: from €919 (128GB) to €1,019 (256GB)

Size: 6.3 inches

Pros: extra zoom lens means new triple camera system, premium build quality, new magnetised wireless charging system, market-leading embedded AI

Cons: weaker main camera than last year, upgraded G5 chip lags rival systems for gaming

PIXEL 10 PRO XL

Price: from €1,329 (256GB) to €1,719 (1TB)

Size: 6.8 inches

Pros: bigger battery, faster wireless charging (25w), extra speaker, relatively good AI

Cons: somewhat heavy, chip not as powerful as flagship rivals

If I had to pick one standout upgrade in this whole range, it’s the addition of a third camera on the base Pixel 10 model. This means that as well as a main (1x, 48-megapixel) and ultrawide (0.5x, 13-megapixel) camera, you now get an optical telephoto zoom (5x, 11-megapixel) lens, too. This is a fairly big extra feature for someone who likes taking varied photos and videos on their phone but doesn’t need all the rest of the expensive premium bells and whistles. And it puts it ahead of some other big rivals; none of the iPhone 16 base models, for example, have a third telephoto lens — you have to pay way over €1,000 to get one on a ‘Pro’ model.

That main 48-megapixel camera on the Pixel 10 is also generally excellent with some improvement in low light over last year’s model. It produces superb crisp, detailed photos.

On the other hand, the (13-megapixel) ultrawide camera on the base Pixel 10 is noticeably weaker than last year’s Pixel 9. Google seems to have cut costs by taking a cheaper, smaller, inferior ultrawide sensor here. The results from my testing were immediately obvious — this just isn’t as good as ultrawides on other phones. This is disappointing as I think ultrawides are a really excellent part of a normal phone’s camera setup.

So that’s the tradeoff with the Pixel 10— a very welcome third (telephoto zoom) camera, paid for by a slightly degraded ultrawide lens.

It’s a different story with the Pixel 10 Pro XL. Instead of a big new feature or a degradation, the Pro XL’s cameras are exactly the same as last year — same megapixel count, same sensors, same ranges. That’s not necessarily bad, as the main (1x, 50-megapixel), ultrawide (0.5x, 48-megapixel) and telephoto zoom (5x, 48-megapixel) cameras are all really good. The telephoto can now digitally zoom up to 100x. When you do that, it takes a couple of seconds after you’ve shot the photo and applies AI to sharpen the photo automatically. Overall, I found this to work surprisingly well. It’s the first 100x system I’ve used (with apologies to Samsung’s S25 Ultra) that produces somewhat usable photos at that unfeasibly long range.

But aside from slightly better stabilisation, the Pro and Pro XL camera system don’t have any physical upgrades.

That’s partly because Google is leaning so heavily into its AI-infused camera software to impress people.

There are some fairly solid camera AI upgrades to talk about here, available on all models from the Pixel 10 up. The most useful one is probably that sharpening telephoto zoom feature. But there are also some powerful new photo-editing tools, particularly the ability to just type in whatever improvement you’d like to make to the photo (whether that’s removing figures from the background, brightening it, sharpening it or just saying ‘make this photo better’). A new feature called ‘Camera Coach’ also advises you on how to frame or light whatever’s in front of you.

I can see any or all these AI features being useful at different times.

One nice AI perk is that you get a year’s worth of Gemini Pro — worth around €260 and which includes Veo3 video generation — for free if you buy a Pixel Pro or Pixel Pro XL (but not the Pixel 10).

Physically and aesthetically, all of the Pixel 10 range seem refined and premium to look at and hold in-hand. In fact, they look remarkably like iPhones (except for the rear camera arrays).

The screens on both the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro XL are top-notch. The base model’s display beats an iPhone 16 and matches Samsung’s Galaxy S25.

Google designs its own TSMC-manufactured chips now (the Pixel 10 range uses what Google calls the Tensor G5 processor) and they’re merely adequate. Nothing I threw at either phone produced anything hinting of a lag or delay, but it’s worth pointing out that these chips don’t benchmark well against the chips in the latest iPhones or Samsung Galaxy S-phones. They cannot, for example, support ray tracing in games, unlike almost all other flagship phones out there.

So this isn’t a gamer’s phone system, even though the chip is considerably faster than last year’s Tensor G4 and both of my test phones could handle any amount of photo and video editing, as well as normal day-to-day stuff.

Battery life was fine on both models, comparing at around the same level as you’d expect from similar flagship phones.

Ultimately, there isn’t that much difference between the Pixel 10 Pro XL and last year’s Pixel 9 Pro XL. But I would regard the addition of a third telephoto camera to the Pixel 10 as being a big enough change over the Pixel 9 to call it a significantly changed device, even if the quality of the ultrawide has been degraded a bit.

Ultimately, though, I suspect that physical upgrades may not be as important to the Pixel this year as in previous years. My hunch is that because Google is building up such a strong AI ecosystem, the halo effect from that is more likely to become ingrained in the Pixel phone proposition than anything else. In other words, for all that Apple and Samsung have talked about AI, Google’s Pixel is probably the device you think of when the term ‘AI phone’ is mentioned.

If AI features appeal, the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro XL are premium models that you need tor consider alongside, or even above, Samsungs and (especially) iPhones. If not, the Pixel 10 is a good — but only a good — flagship phone.