I’m not convinced about the Pixel 10 Pro’s 100x zoom, and you shouldn’t be either

The Google Pixel 10 series is just a few weeks away, and I’m keenly waiting to see what these new phones offer. One of the most intriguing and persistent rumors is that the base model will have a telephoto camera, but what about the Pro phones?

It sounds like Google could maintain the same 48MP 5x cameras seen on the Pixel 9 Pro series. However, a trove of marketing material shared by veteran leaker Evan Blass has revealed that the Pixel 10 Pro phones could get 100x zoom. I’m not convinced that this feature is anything more than a marketing stunt, and you shouldn’t be, either.

The apparent marketing screenshot (seen above) suggests that the Pixel 10 Pro range could offer “Pro Res Zoom” up to 100x. It’s unclear whether this refers to on-device zoom capabilities or cloud-powered zoom smarts. There’s also no word if this applies to pictures, videos, or both.

What is abundantly clear, though, is that 100x zoom is little more than a gimmick today, and there’s little reason to believe Google will change things. Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra was the first to offer this feature in 2020, thanks to a 48MP 4x periscope camera, and it was largely a waste of time. We’ve since seen larger telephoto sensors, wider apertures, more megapixels, and more powerful image processing hardware. But phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL crumble long before 50x, let alone 100x. Don’t believe me? Well, colleague Rob Triggs tested a quartet of phones at 10x and 30x earlier this year, and thought that the Samsung and Google phones were the worst performers. That doesn’t bode well for the Pixel 10 Pro’s image processing at 100x.

Vivo, HONOR, and Xiaomi have also released phones with 200MP periscope cameras in the last couple of years, and 100x photos taken with these devices aren’t a game-changing upgrade. Check out the shots below, comparing the Galaxy S25 Ultra to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and the Galaxy S24 Ultra to the vivo X100 Ultra.

Even though many flagship phones offer stabilization features for long-range zoom, the first set of images shows it’s still tough to keep the viewfinder steady at 100x. As for actual image quality, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s picture avoids the horrible fringing seen in the Samsung shot, therefore delivering cleaner edges. However, this photo still offers a highly contrasted look and heavy noise reduction that wipes away detail. These 200MP cameras can capture a more defined image at long range, as seen in the crane shot, allowing you to identify specific elements in a scene. This might work for accessibility purposes, but these images are useless for Instagram.

Could AI help Google?

I’ve also seen manufacturers, such as Xiaomi, HONOR, vivo, and OnePlus, use AI to fill in the gaps at 100x. However, this practice varies wildly in execution, based on the phone brand and the subject matter. AI-based zoom can work well with simple textures (e.g., buildings), but often struggles with people and complex textures like foliage and mountains. Colleague Ryan Haines praised the OnePlus 13‘s long-range AI-based zoom, noting that even 120x shots can look decent (see the first shot below). However, other 120x samples show how bad things can get.

Meanwhile, Rob Triggs praised the OPPO Find X8 Pro‘s AI-assisted long-range zoom, albeit out to 60x. On the other hand, he criticized the HONOR Magic 7 Pro’s AI-enabled camera zoom, which added elements to his 30x landscape scene, like extra branches, trees, and additional buildings (see the comparison below). I also noticed that the vivo X200 Ultra would remove some elements in ~30x snaps, such as balcony railings. Who needs ’em anyway?

Google has also dabbled with AI to improve zoom, as it launched the Zoom Enhance feature last year. This tool lets you return to an image after the fact and zoom in for a higher-quality cropped picture. However, our impressions were decidedly mixed in our Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL reviews, as we often thought it was merely over-sharpening images. So I don’t have high hopes that the Pixel 10 Pro series can take good 100x shots if Google merely adopts this tech.

I’m sure Google’s software smarts will help the Pixel 10 Pro phones achieve better 100x results. The company already offers fantastic camera tricks like Super Res Zoom, the Add Me feature, astrophotography mode, and Face Unblur. And some of these underlying technologies can enable better 100x photos. But will you want to share these images with people? Yeah, I’m not betting on that. Rival phones show us that 100x zoom is a little better in 2025, but still not good, so it’s hard to see Google doing substantially better.

I do hope Google proves me wrong, though, and that 100x Pro Res Zoom is a big upgrade to long-range zoom. But history tells us that we shouldn’t take smartphone brands at their word when they talk about camera zoom.