Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Review

Introduction

It’s hard to believe we’ve already reached the 10th generation of the Google Pixel. But here we are.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL isn’t looking to completely change the game, just refine what was already great about the Pixel. Google knows what it wants to achieve with its phones, and these latest devices stick very much with that approach.

Google is all in on AI, and these phones have AI everywhere – from the camera to the software. Some of it works well, but it is starting to feel like it’s encroaching on areas I would rather it wasn’t.

So, after a week of testing, is the Pixel 10 Pro XL the best Android phone on the market? Or is Google going in the wrong direction?

Design

• It remains a bulky device
• Four colour choices
• PixelSnap adds magnetic skills

It’s safe to say that – apart from some new colour options – the Pixel 10 Pro XL very much looks like the Pixel 9 Pro XL that came before it. It’s got that modern, stylish Pixel-look, but it wasn’t the first thing I noticed when I started using it. 

In an age where phones are starting to get thinner, it’s the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s bulk that stands out. Having used the Galaxy S25 Edge for a couple of weeks while away on holiday, switching to the Pixel’s heftier design was more of a challenge than it would have been had I moved over from another phone. But even compared to the likes of the S25 Ultra, it still feels a bit like a brick. It’s thicker and heavier than Samsung’s biggest slab phone.

The end result is a phone that leads to more grip fatigue and strain than most when attempting to use it one-handed. Still, that thickness and bulk serve a purpose. Borrowing a trick from Apple’s kitbag, it has something called PixelSnap, which is essentially the same as Apple’s MagSafe. 

Embedded within the phone’s rear is a ring of magnets, and with the right accessories – think cases, wallets, ring grips or wireless chargers – you can just snap them on magnetically. Google has launched a few first-party accessories itself, but older MagSafe accessories also work. It also crucially means the phone is Qi 2 compatible, so you can charge pretty quickly with a wireless charger if you have a compatible one.

It’s a neat addition overall and one that definitely adds convenience. Being able to charge my Pixel on a wireless charging stand by my bedside without needing a third-party case with magnets has been super useful. On the same note, being able to snap on a MagSafe PopSocket to alleviate the aforementioned grip fatigue is a very welcome relief. 

Otherwise, the design and build is largely the same as last year’s Pixel 9 Pro series. The Pro model separates itself from the smaller PIxel by offering polished flat edges and a frosted matte glass panel on the back.

Despite being a bit of a brick, those edges are softened slightly to ensure they’re not sharp, and the matte glass is pleasant to touch. It also happens to look really good in the Moonstone finish I have here, which is mostly grey but with a hint of blue in certain lights. It reminds me a little of the Sierra Blue finish from Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro range a few years back. It’s really nice. 

It feels really sturdy and well-made, and with the typical IP68 rating against water and dust, it should survive getting caught in the rain or being dropped in the sink.                                                                      

Screen

• Big, bright OLED display
• One of the best smartphone displays
• Excellent sound from the speakers

When Google briefed us on these new Pixel devices, it proudly told us that the new Super Actua display on the Pro models is the best display on a smartphone. And having used it a lot over the past week or so, I’m inclined to agree. It’s a really wonderful screen. 

At 3300 nits peak brightness, it might not hit the huge heights offered in HDR scenes by some Chinese phone makers, but a good display is about more than just how bright small spots get in some specific scenarios. When looking at the overall colour, sharpness, contrast and brightness across the panel, it hits all the right notes.

It’s a colour rich screen, without being super saturated and has a classic Google Pixel golden tone, so the content is warm and inviting. Gradient shifts between colours and darker or light areas look really natural and smooth, and it’s visible clearly even outdoors in bright daylight scenes – and that’s without a fancy anti-glare coating on it. 

Skin tones look good, and the contrast or black levels are so deep, you can barely tell the black parts apart from the bezel around the edges. It’s a super display. And because it’s 120Hz adaptive capable, it can ramp up and down at small increments to ensure you always get smooth, responsive animations and it can drop to a low refresh on static pages to save battery. It’s difficult to find fault with.

It’s got an unusual resolution, but with its highest setting enabled – getting nearly 500 pixels per inch means that all the fine details and curves are pin sharp. Still, if you want to get the most from your battery, you can leave it at its default 1080p or FHD resolution and you’ll still get a pretty sharp screen. 

Combine the display with a couple of rich, bass-filled speakers, and you get a great all-around media consumption tool. In fact, the speakers – like the display – deserve special praise. They’re not only loud, but also fuller than most stereo speaker setups on the market from the likes of Apple or Samsung.

Software

• Material 3 Expressive adds a new design element
• A vast array of AI features
• Years of software updates included

The thing that makes using a Pixel feel like using a Pixel –  more than the design or build, or even the camera – is the software. And while large parts of Android 16 on the Pixel 10 series feel very much like Android 15, which felt like Android 14, there are some changes in the way the interface animates, blurs and transitions between different screens. 

Material 3 Expressive has a bounce and a spring to it to help it feel a bit more alive, and not just merely functional. There’s a playfulness and a spring in its step, and that gives it this feeling of fun and vitality that stands in the face of Samsung’s more utilitarian approach. Each approach has its benefits, but Pixel is clearly going for the crowd who want youthful, bold colours and a bit of pep.

You’ll find this redesign in all of Google’s own pre-installed apps and there are new features like Live Updates for keeping track of that Uber ride you booked, or food delivery as it’s making its way to you. 

Perhaps as important is that all the new Pixel phones will get major updates for the next 7 years. That means your Pixel 10 Pro XL should get up to Android version 22 or 23 before it’s no longer supported.

Of course – with it being a Google phone in 2025 – there’s no shortage of AI features. In fact, there’s more of that feeling that the system permeates every part of the phone experience in one way or another.

Google Photos’ Magic Editor feature keeps getting better – matching Samsung in the way it can remove items from in front of your face and use generative AI to fill in the missing half.

Granted, when I tried it, covering most of one half with my hand and then removing it, it made one of my eyes a slightly different colour, and made that side of my face a little droopy, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

There are AI tools in the camera to help you take better photos, translation and call screening features, among many, many more. 

Cameras

• A good camera, but it’s not perfect
• Three main rear sensors
• The AI is starting to get in the way

For most people looking for an Android phone, the Pixel has long been the phone I’ve recommended to anyone who wants a consistent experience in any condition, using any of the cameras on the back. And for 2025, I don’t see that changing, even if the latest model isn’t perfect.

The triple camera system on the back is virtually identical to the one that featured on the Pixel 9 Pro XL. Combined with Google’s machine learning and image processing smarts, the phone quickly and easily snaps a good photo in almost any condition. That’s always been part of the Pixel charm. Open the camera, point, focus, shoot and you’ll rarely have to try again to get the shot you want. 

Colours are typically quite warm and rich, while contrast is boosted to give the Pixel photos that vibrant, eye-catching look that’s ideal for sharing on social media and messaging friends. But there is a weakness.

The sense I couldn’t escape from using the Pixel’s camera system is that there’s a bit too much processing going on. It’s almost always most visible when shooting with the zoom camera in the daytime, particularly when zooming up past the supposed ‘optical’ limit, and into the SuperZoom AI processing range between 5x and 100x zoom.

When shooting objects with lots of fine textures and details – whether it be animal fur, leaves or the roughness of bark on trees, there was something quite artificial and oil-painting-esque about those details. It doesn’t look all that authentic. It’s nowhere near as cartoonish as the AI zoom feature that Honor debuted on the Magic 7 Pro, but it’s still a bit too smooth and blotchy when you look closely at the details.

It is worth mentioning though, that being able to shoot these images at 100x zoom, get a sharp image, and one that looks at least vaguely like the real thing is an impressive example of image processing. It does beg the question though – when does a photo stop being a photo? And how much AI processing is too much? I’d argue Google is ever so slightly on the wrong side of that boundary in some cases. 

Images taken at night time using the dedicated Night Sight algorithm have a similar texture and finish, regardless of the camera being used.

We’re a few years into this night mode algorithm being used on smartphones, and it feels like the algorithm has been tweaked and changed, but not in a way that necessarily improves the image quality. 

What is immediately clear, however, is that the night performance is stronger across the three lenses on the back. They’re more capable of lifting light and reducing noise and grain, whether you use the zoom, primary or ultrawide lens. That strength and consistency is something that’s been a little lacking in previous models. 

Performance

• Tensor G5 chip paired with 16GB RAM
• Up to 1TB storage
• Not the finest gaming performance

Your take on the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s performance will likely depend on whether you want an all-conquering beast that chews through the most demanding graphical tests and games, or if you just need something that always feels fast and capable for everyday tasks. 

If you’re in the former camp, you won’t want the Pixel, and likely never have. If you’re in the latter group, the Pixel 10 Pro XL can keep up with pretty much anything. 

It always feels fast and responsive, and it didn’t really seem to matter at all what I was doing with it. 

I could be crunching through some levels in Mario Kart Tour, typing in WhatsApp, downloading content, using Google Gemini, nothing phased it. So while graphics benchmarks might indicate a phone that can’t match the standards set by anything powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, you’re still getting a very good, very capable phone with the Tensor G5-powered Pixel – at least, for most everyday casual tasks.

It’s only when you start running the numbers in benchmarks and trying more demanding games like Wuthering Waves or Genshin Impact that it starts to show its weaknesses. It’s really not made for ultra gaming performance, not in the slightest. 

It struggles to keep both frame rates and graphical fidelity at the top levels, and can often get a bit warm when trying. So if power and gaming performance are your biggest concerns, you’ll be better off with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. In fact, even cheaper phones like the Nothing Phone 3 and Poco F7 Pro will give you better gaming and graphics performance.

Still, if the phone you’re upgrading from is 2-3 years old, or even older, regardless of whether your last phone came from the Google Pixel range or not, this will still be faster and more capable.

Perhaps surprisingly for a Pixel, during regular everyday usage scenarios, it never felt like it got too hot, even while testing it on the hot summer days we’ve had recently. 

The only time I felt it get a little toasty was when running it through stress-testing benchmarks and playing those graphically intense games for long periods, which are enough to make most phones warm.

Battery Life 

• Big 5200mAh battery
• No charger included
• Wireless charging supported

Pixel phones are rarely known for exceptional battery life, but with the XL models, it’s also rarely a concern. 

At 5200mAh, the 10 Pro XL has a larger capacity than the last one, and with all the usual optimisations – from the software learning your usage patterns and from the display’s ability to adapt refresh rates – I could get almost two full days from a full charge. Even when using it more extensively than I would in my normal day-to-day life. 

My typical use is around three hours of screen time, working on Wi-Fi from my office. But, even on a day where I pushed the screen time to five hours, moving between 4G and 5G masts while using Google Maps for about 40 minutes of that – and the rest being a mix of casual social media, WhatsApp, browsing, testing the cameras and video watching – I still finished the day with over 50% of the battery remaining.

It’s worth noting that this was with the display set to its maximum resolution, not its default FHD setting. So if you really care about battery life and want the best possible performance, you can just leave the display in its default, out-of-the-box setting. 

With its 45W charging, the Pixel 10 Pro XL can also top up quickly. A full refill still takes near enough 90 minutes, but if you plug it in at 1% for half an hour, you’ll get nearly 75% of that battery topped up again, and that can be a bit of a lifesaver in a pinch.  At least, it can if you have a compatible charger. 

With Qi2 wireless charging onboard, it can also charge wirelessly at a decent pace. I wasn’t able to test this to very real-life charging speeds. 

Should you buy it?