The Pixel 10 fixes my biggest hardware pet peeve, but many of you won’t see it

Much ink has been spilled around the Pixel 10’s SIM situation. In the US, the three main phones — Pixel 10, 10 Pro, and 10 Pro XL — ship without a physical SIM slot. You can use two eSIMs at the same time, and some of us think that’s fine. While I do love my eSIMs, I’m not ready to adopt them full time just yet, so you can’t imagine my relief when we learned that the rest of the world gets to keep the slot.

My biggest relief, though, came when I discovered where the SIM slot is positioned on the Pixel 10 series. Because unlike the Pixel 9 series, which dropped the SIM to the bottom of the phone, the Pixel 10 brings it back up to the top. And that fixes my biggest hardware annoyance with the Pixel 9.

Over the last few years, many phones that have passed by my desk have had this stupid design that puts the SIM slot right at the bottom of the phone. Fine, on paper, except it’s always, invariably, right next to the bottom microphone hole. The Pixel series had escaped that foolish trend until the Pixel 9 series. Look at it. Two similarly sized round holes, right next to the SIM door, and one opens the SIM slot while the other is a microphone.

Yes, it’s absolutely clear which one does what when you stare at them. But when you’re in a hurry and you’re trying to swap SIM cards from one phone to the next, say, like a tech reviewer who does this often — cough, me, cough — you become complacent and stupid things happen. I will not mention how many times I poked the darn microphone instead of the SIM ejector pinhole; you will lose all respect for me.

Alright, fine, I like messing with my credibility, so let’s just say that it was more than once. On many phones. Including the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and 9a. (At least the Pixel 9 Pro Fold puts some distance between the two.) Including while taking photos for this very article and being very aware of the silly two-hole situation. I know, I’m helpless.

But look, I’m not alone. Every time I have to troubleshoot my parents’ phones, I have to specify exactly which hole they have to poke to open the SIM tray, and repeat it a few times to make sure they got it. The internet is also full of people saying they made the same mistake and wondering if they damaged their speaker. So Zack from JerryRigEverything did a test on YouTube a few years ago to see if poking the microphone damages phones’ waterproofing or microphone membranes, and found that most companies have designed it so that the SIM ejector tool can’t really harm either. Nice, so what am I fussing about this?

Well, for one, my paranoid self says I don’t know for sure that each phone has been designed in a way to mitigate damage from the SIM ejector. And for two, it’s unnecessarily troublesome, especially for regular users who may not know the difference. Not to mention the shameful and time-wasting process of poking the wrong hole, wondering why it’s not opening, and realizing your mistake. I speak from experience.

Check out this beauty. The Pixel 10, 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL, and 10 Pro Fold all have SIM slots that are nowhere near microphone holes. One round opening, that’s it. My eyes, hand, and the SIM ejector tool between my fingers can’t play mind games with me and decide to go somewhere they’re not allowed.

Google achieved this with a very simple change. On the Pixel 9 series (seen on the left in the image above), the SIM card slot was on the bottom of the phone, but on the Pixel 10 series (right), two speaker grilles are flanking each side of the USB-C port. One is the real speaker, and the second acts as an echo/amplification chamber. I suspect this is where the second microphone sits.

Google moved the SIM card slot to the top of the Pixel 10 phones (seen on the right in the image above). It sits alone and, although there’s a microphone hole nearby, it’s on the opposite side and nearly as far away as it could be from the SIM ejector pinhole. Perfect.

Well, unless you live in the US and don’t have any SIM card slot at all for a “cleaner” look. I’m sorry-slash-happy for you, depending on how you feel about this move.