I tested the Pixel 10’s new telephoto camera, and the results are incredible

If there’s one aspect of the Google Pixel 10 that deserves a spotlight, it’s the phone’s new camera system. Although it seemed too good to be true in leaks, Google really did ship the base model Pixel 10 with three rear cameras — including primary, ultrawide, and telephoto sensors.

That telephoto camera is the star of the show. Ever since the Pixel 6 series, Google’s base model Pixels have been limited to primary and ultrawide cameras; if you wanted a third telephoto camera, you had to buy a Pro model. But that’s not the case for the Pixel 10.

I’ve spent the last couple of days using the Pixel 10’s new telephoto camera, both on its own and comparing it to the zoom capabilities of the Pixel 9. Simply put, having a dedicated telephoto camera on the Pixel 10 is a truly substantial upgrade — in more ways than one.

That already sounds like a big discrepancy on paper, but it becomes truly apparent once you start comparing camera samples. For this test, I captured a 2x zoom shot (largely just for reference), a 5x shot, and then the maximum zoom for both phones — 20x for the Pixel 10 and 8x for the Pixel 9.

In the first photos of the red barn, the differences are immediately noticeable. Compare the two 5x shots, and it’s no contest that the Pixel 10’s telephoto camera produced a much better photo. The Pixel 9’s 5x picture is fine at first glance, but once you notice the crunchy/over-sharpened lines on the barn and the raindrops, things go downhill pretty quickly.

The difference between the 20x and 8x photos doesn’t require much explanation, but it’s a strong testament to the added versatility you get with the Pixel 10’s telephoto camera — such as getting a clear look at the bird perched on top of the barn, something I almost missed entirely with the Pixel 9’s pictures.

Looking at the next photos of an old grain elevator, there’s again a dramatic quality difference between the two 5x samples. The Pixel 10 did a pretty good job here, retaining a lot of detail in the wood planks and good sharpness for the painted words. The Pixel 9, by comparison, loses all of the detail in the wood and produces an unsightly blurred effect around some of the letters.

Similarly, the 20x photo from the Pixel 10 once again demonstrates just how close this new telephoto camera allows you to get to your subjects. In this 20x shot, you can make out some of the imperfections of the “FUEL” paint, including where the paint meets the edges of the wood panels. It’s honestly really impressive.

For this last set of comparison photos, the takeaways are largely the same as those above. The 5x shots here appear similar at first glance, but upon zooming into the flower, you can see just how over-sharpened and low-quality the Pixel 9’s version looks. By comparison, the Pixel 10 allows the flower to appear much more natural. The 20x shot of the bee on the flower isn’t the greatest-looking photo I’ve ever taken, but it’s another good example of what this telephoto sensor is capable of.

Although comparison shots with the Pixel 9 are the easiest way to convey just how big of an upgrade the Pixel 10’s telephoto camera is, they aren’t necessary.

I particularly love the photos I got of the monarch butterfly. The 5x shot is a genuinely great photo, and while the 20x image is a bit overkill, it’s still crazy just how much detail the Pixel 10 managed to retain — including the butterfly’s fuzzy black and white body above its wings. The 20x goose photo isn’t nearly as good as the butterfly one. That said, for a moving subject, I’m pretty happy with how the 5x picture turned out.

What I love about these particular photos is that they’re ones I know I couldn’t capture without a proper telephoto camera. Wildlife pictures like this are some of my favorites to take, and a phone like the Pixel 9 just isn’t suited for them. But the Pixel 10 most definitely is, and I love it.

Last but not least, I want to briefly mention another camera capability that the telephoto camera enables on the Pixel 10: Macro Focus. While macro photography is also available on the Pixel 9, it only uses the ultrawide camera for macro shots. Comparatively, the Pixel 10’s Macro Focus utilizes both the ultrawide and telephoto cameras to get the best macro photos possible.

In the brief time I’ve played around with Macro Focus on the Pixel 10, I’ve been impressed. It automatically triggers without issue, and the quality of Macro Focus pictures looks really good to my eye. You can see a few shots for yourself with the photos above.

To see full-resolution versions of these Macro Focus pictures (and all of the pictures in this article), you can find them in this Google Drive folder.

Although we need more time before our Pixel 10 review is ready, I can confidently say that adding the telephoto camera this year was 100% the right move. Whether it’s significantly better 5x photos, going all the way to 20x shots, or somewhere in between, the telephoto camera allows for so many photography possibilities that simply aren’t an option with the Pixel 9.

As someone who tends to take a lot of zoomed-in photos, that’s a big deal for me — and I imagine that’ll be the case for a lot of other people, too. You’ll obviously get an even more impressive telephoto experience if you splurge for the Pixel 10 Pro, but the difference this year is that you don’t have to get the Pro just to capture high-quality zoom pictures. The Pixel 10 may not have the world’s best telephoto camera, but from my testing so far, it’s a darn good one.