Google is back again with the Pixel smartphones, and after covering the launch last week, we’ve had hands-on the three main ones for the past few days and have collated our thoughts.
Dan is taking a look at the Pixel 10 Pro XL, and I’ll be taking a look at the Pixel 10 below and be back next week with a different focus on the Pixel 10 Pro.
This year, there are small, subtle hardware changes to the Pixel 10, and although small, they are changes that we have been crying out for for quite a while.
The Pixel 10 is the more affordable version of the Pixel 10 series. Although it lacks some of the polish and high-end materials that adorn the Pixel 10 Pro models, it is still a great phone and suitable for nearly everyone.
| Pixel 10 | Pixel 9 | |
| Display | 6.3-inch Actua display – 20:9 aspect ratio – 1080 x 2424 OLED at 422 PPI – Smooth Display (60-120Hz) – Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover glass – Up to 2000 nits (HDR) and up to 3000 nits (peak brightness) – 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio – HDR support – Full 24-bit depth for 16 million colours | 6.3-inch Actua display – 20:9 aspect ratio – 1080 x 2424 OLED at 422 PPI – Smooth Display (60-120Hz) – Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover glass – Up to 1800 nits (HDR) and up to 2700 nits (peak brightness) – 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio – HDR support – Full 24-bit depth for 16 million colours |
| Dimensions | 152.8 height x 72.0 width x 8.6 depth (mm) @ 204 g | 152.8 height x 72.0 width x 8.5 depth (mm) @ 198 g |
| Battery and Charging | 30+ hour battery life – Typical 4970mAh Minimum 4835mAh – Fast charging – up to 55% in about 30 minutes using 30W USB-C PPS charger or higher, sold separately – Pixelsnap wireless charging (Qi2-certified) up to 15W | 24+ hour battery life – Typical 4700mAh Minimum 4558mAh – Fast charging – up to 55% in about 30 minutes using Google 45W USB-C Charger, sold separately – Fast wireless charging (Qi-certified) up to 15W (with Pixel Stand) |
| Processor | Google Tensor G5 – Titan M2 security coprocessor | Google Tensor G4 – Titan M2 security coprocessor |
| Memory | 12 GB RAM | 12 GB RAM |
| Storage | 128 GB / 256 GB | 128 GB / 256 GB |
| Rear Camera | 48 MP wide with Macro Focus 13 MP ultrawide 120deg FOV 10.8 MP 5x telephoto lens Super Res Zoom up to 20x and optical quality at 0.6x, 1x, 5x,10x | 50 MP wide 48 MP ultrawide 123deg FOV with Macro Focus Super Res Zoom up to 8x and optical quality at 0.5x, 1x, 2x |
| Front Camera | 10.5 MP Dual PD selfie camera with autofocus 95° ultrawide field of view | 10.5 MP Dual PD selfie camera with autofocus 95° ultrawide field of view |
| Colours | Indigo Frost Lemongrass Obsidian | Obsidian Porcelain Wintergreen Peony |
| OS and Updates | Launched with Android 16 with 7 years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop updates from launch | Launched with Android 14 with 7 years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop updates from launch |
This year, the design of the phone is virtually identical to the Pixel 9 – all of 0.1mm thicker (and 6 grams heavier), but the Pixel 10 case fits the Pixel 9 and vice versa.
The display remains the same size and resolution, and is still protected by the same Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The display in the Pixel 10 sees a small bump in brightness and peak brightness – up to 2000 nits and 3000 nits, respectively.
The display is big and beautiful, and although the bezels are ever-so-slightly bigger than those on the Pro models, the uniformity of the bezels around the display makes it look premium.
Google must have been listening to all the gripes because the rear camera setup on the Pixel 10 gains a new camera, a 10.8MP telephoto camera capable of 5x optical zoom. Unfortunately, most likely to make room for this extra camera, the other two cameras seem to have been downgraded to 48MP (main) and 13MP (ultrawide) from 50MP and 48MP, respectively.
The other big change this year is the battery. Yes, it has been bumped from 4,700mAh to 4,970mAh, and the charging speed has increased from 27W to 30W. Additionally, it now supports Qi2 wireless charging.
The Qi2 support is significant because it finally allows Android users to enjoy all the MagSafe (and now Pixelsnap) accessories along with accurate, fast wireless charging. One disappointment though is that Google has gimped the Qi2 charging speed on the Pixel 10 (and Pixel 10 Pro) to just 15W, but the Pixel 10 Pro sees 25W support.
Google has done this due to battery, heat and space constraints. A smaller phone with increased battery heat in that smaller space does not make for a happy battery.
I use MagSafe and Qi2 products a lot, so this new Qi2 support is most welcome. Not only does the phone include the required magnets, but the case does as well – so you can add a Pixel 10 case to your Pixel 9 if you want to take advantage of the magnetically held accessories.
I love the design of the Pixel 10. It is not all that different from some other smartphones but I love the way Google has put their own touches to it.
The frame around the sides is a satin-finish aluminium look and feel. The edges are rounded off nicely to make it a comfortable fit in your hand.
The camera island is extremely similar to last year’s, and unless you look closely, you may not notice the new third camera, making it appear to be the same phone. The rear of the phone is a glass backing, also covered by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 with a big G in the middle of the back.
The fingerprint sensor is underneath the display, but you may not need it very often thanks to Google’s biometrically secure face unlock.
The Pixel 10 is powered by the same chipset in the other Pixel 10s, the Google Tensor G5, so there is no issue with performance. If anything, it *should* be better given the chipset is pushing the content on the display in a lower resolution than it does in the other Pixel 10 phones.
The Pixel 10 is a great-looking and feeling phone and is a true joy to hold and use. A lot of the joy in using it though, is from what Dan and I like to call the “Pixel Experience.” The buttery smoothness of the operating system and its transitions are fantastic and something you cannot fully appreciate until you use one yourself.
As per usual, the Google Pixel phones arrive with full Google support – we are now at 7 years of support from launch. Arriving with Android 16, it will see seven major Android upgrades, along with the Pixel Drops which add features throughout the year.
All the usual culprits are there in the software including my favourite – Assistant Voice. Its accuracy and ability to use AI to determine what you said and have the sentence make sense is exceptional and second to none. When I switch to a non-Pixel device I miss this more than anything else.
There were a couple issues with the software this year that I need to bring up — my eyes have deteriorated in the past 12 months and as such need to mess with the font size and display size. Google just doesn’t seem to handle the changes very well with overlays often creating major viewing issues. You will have to play around with these settings quite a bit to get it right but I didn’t have this many issues with my previous non-Pixel phone.
One glaring bug we noticed — and it occurred on all of EFTM’s Pixel 10 phones. When you double-tap the power button to open the camera while the notification shade is down, the notification shade overlay will remain on the screen and will remain there as you navigate the operating system until you pull the shade down again. This was reproducible on both the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro.
Before I get stuck into the AI features a quick mention about the design – Material 3 Expressive. A lot of apps have received a “fresh new look” and they do not look out of place but fresh is definitely the right term for it. Some manufacturers are getting stale with their designs but Google do not seem to stand still (sometimes to a fault) and that is really nice to see.
A couple of new wallpaper features have been added this year, ‘Live effects on lockscreen’ and ‘Always on display – full screen wallpaper.’ Unfortunately, only the former has made it to the Pixel 10, but I like the new live effects on the lockscreen.
Sure, it isn’t life changing but its a nice touch and can help you personalise your phone even more. Select the wallpaper you want, tap on ‘Effects’ and then decide which effect you want to apply to the wallpaper. The effects available are a shape, the weather or a cinematic 3D style effect.
Once again, Gemini is front and centre with a new widget to help encourage you to use it more. Gemini is super handy and can answer all types of questions, perform many tasks on device and surface information from within your apps – you just need to know what to ask it.
Sometimes this can be a bit hit and miss to get the right command, but the more you use it, the better at it you’ll get, and the better Gemini will get at understanding what you are asking of it.
Pixel Screenshots is back, and as device reviewers, this is incredibly handy. If you are using this properly, you should be taking a lot of screenshots of various things that you may want to remember in the future. Pixel screenshots then saves them, organises them and recalls them when you need them.
This year, Google has added NotebookLM support to Pixel screenshots. The AI identifies if a screenshot taken is a good fit for your notebook and will automatically suggest you add it if it is.
Pixel Studio is seeing an update with new editing tools and stickers. This is not something I use ever but it seems to work well.
Gboard gets even smarter with new writing tools to help you check your test and fix writing errors – or rewrite text in the style required for the message.
Another new addition that I love is the smart edit/voice writing tools in Gboard. This allows you to use your voice to edit or change text such as:
For someone who uses voice-to-text all the time during the day, such as me, while driving, this is a godsend. It is something that probably should have been earlier – it’s been in PC dictation software for quite some time – but now the AI is powerful and smart enough to accomplish it?
The big ticket item this year was/is Magic Cue. We are not sure why, but none of us has managed to get it working at this stage. I have multiple flights coming up that are in Gmail and Google Calendar but no amount of text messages from anyone, including myself can get Magic Cue to surface the information as it is meant to.
Magic Cue is also meant to check your calendar and tell you what the weather is going to be for a certain event that has a location saved (that is somewhere else) but we could not get that to surface either.
At one stage, I was sent a message by Chemist Warehouse saying a medication was ready to be picked up, and it surfaced a little toast asking me to open maps. We are not entirely sure if that is Magic Cue, but it could be, and if so, it’s not really a great use of this new powerful AI, is it?
We are unsure if we are doing something wrong, but we will edit this and conduct a full run-through of Magic Cue when it starts working, as it could finally be a great use for AI – system-wide integration that surfaces information across apps when needed.
At this stage, for us, the implementation of Magic Cue is disappointing.
As mentioned above, the camera setup on the Pixel 10 receives an upgrade this year, with a new telephoto lens capable of up to 5x optical zoom being added. The new 10.8MP camera helps the new setup achieve 20x Super Res Zoom.
The other two cameras in the setup, however, have seen a drop in specs compared to the Pixel 9, which is disappointing. Nevertheless, I believe this is due to the need to accommodate the new camera.
Specs are all well and good in a Pixel camera, but when it comes to computational photography, Google is right at the pointy end of the market. The results for the camera are great in good light, low light and no light.
I did have a few issues at one stage taking product shots for a laptop I was reviewing where so many of the images came out blurry. This was most likely due to the phone being positioned very close to the device, and it not switching to macro mode, resulting in an off-focus image. Keep that in mind and check your photos closely when taking macro shots just in case this happens to you.
Google has included a new AI-driven Camera Coach to help you become a better photographer. It is designed to give you helpful hints to take better photos, and it does this in a step-by-step process that you can do in order. This is not a quick process but these little hints can make or break a photo and can help you learn for the future.
As you can see in the images below, the camera results are quite good – these aren’t the best samples due to time constraints, but check back next week for a more extensive set of photos (and a comparison).
Super Res Zoom worked exceptionally well as you can see below. You can do the 5x optical zoom, and then if you want to get closer, zoom all the way in to 20x. The detail still in the image at that zoom is incredible. See below.
I discussed the new Pixelsnap feature above, and it is a game-changer for Google and Android as a whole. The Pixel 10 will charge at 15W wireless using Pixelsnap magnetic wireless charging (Qi2), which is still not great, but it’s a start. My previous phone charges wirelessly at 50W, so 15W is nothing overly special.
Google states that you can get over 30 hours of battery life from the 4,970mAh battery and you could – if you used all the battery saver features Google includes. I turned them off for the review and was still able to get from 8am until 6pm comfortably – and this was in the first couple of days of having the phone, when usage is the highest.
I am a heavy user, so it should last an entire day for most users, especially if you take advantage of the battery saver modes that Google has included.
The battery will charge to 55% from empty in just 30 minutes using a “30W USB-C PPS charger or higher.” Of course, this is something sold separately, but if you have had any recent device that charges using PD, you may well have a 30W charger suitable.
The Pixel 10 has a variety of official Google accessories available for purchase, including some great-looking, snug-fitting cases that support Pixelsnap and match the colour of your phone.
There is also a standalone Pixelsnap (Qi2 charger) and a new Pixel stand which supports Pixelsnap. I’ve been using my Pixel Stand 2 to charge the Pixel 10 overnight without any issues at all.
The good news is that there are already a plethora of Qi2 accessories on the market, with more being introduced as I type this (1, 2). There are so many options for us to choose from because Apple has paved the way with MagSafe and the Pixel 10 is compatible with MagSafe products as well as Pixelsnap and Qi2.
The Google Pixel 10 is a great phone. It is built extremely well and feels premium in the phone. For the most part, the software is an amazing experience although our experience with the camera/notification shade bug and Magic Cue left a bit to be desired, it is something you really don’t come across all that often.
Magic Cue though, is something that you SHOULD come across often — this is a game changer for AI on smartphones with system-wide integration, it could make your life so much easier. Hopefully, Google will be able to help us out with getting it working properly, but at this stage, we have spoken to five different reviewers, and no one has managed to get it working properly yet.
The camera upgrade on the Pixel 10 produces some amazing pictures with the new 20x Super Res Zoom offering flagship-quality images.
Overall, the Pixel 10 offers great bang for your buck, although I would wait until Google get Magic Cue fixed because if that lives up to its promise, the Pixel 10 phones will be the devices of the year.
The Pixel 10 is available from today through the Google Store, or through your favourite retailers or telco, including Officeworks, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Telstra, Vodafone and Optus starting at $1,349.
Scott is our resident open technology expert. If you can mod it, or want to use it your way, Scott has probably done it. From Laptops to phones, headphones and game consoles, he’s played with it and wants to see the next generation.
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