The Pixel 10 Pro is the Pixel I’ve always wanted Google to make

I find it hard to believe we’ve had ten generations of Pixel already. The event for the original Pixel in October 2016 is still vivid in my mind — I’d never been as excited for a phone as I was in that moment, and I haven’t felt that excitement since, either. As enamored by the Pixel as I was, I stopped using Pixels for over six years, and with good reason. The Pixel 10 Pro, though, is the phone I’ve been waiting for Google to make.

If I used to be so excited about the Pixel, you may wonder when and why that stopped. Well, by the time the Pixel 3 arrived, the honeymoon period had ended. My time with the early Pixels was plagued with defective phones and issues I’d grown tired of. My Pixel XL, 2 XL, and 3 XL all had to be swapped on warranty at least three times, and the Pixel 3 XL made things worse by being a frustrating device even when it was working as intended.

Pixels today might not lead the pack based on a spec sheet, but it was far more noticeable back then. The Pixel 3 XL only had 4GB of RAM, and it clearly needed more. Every time I opened the camera app while playing music, either the camera app or my music player would crash — usually both. Unlike older Pixels, which felt smooth and fast for at least a few months before slowing down, the Pixel 3 XL always felt stuttery. I’d overlooked the flaws of Pixels’ past because of the benefits of the software and camera experience, but I couldn’t do that anymore. I returned my Pixel 3 XL for a Galaxy S10 Plus, and while I loved my time with Samsung’s flagships, I always hoped a Pixel would be good enough someday.

Pixels don’t dominate spec comparisons now any more than they used to, but the lack of some cutting-edge specs isn’t the compromise it once was. Tensor G5 isn’t in the same league as a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or Apple’s A19 Pro, but that doesn’t mean it offers a bad experience. Gaming isn’t something I usually do on mobile, and if it is, I play text-based choose-your-own-adventure style games, something G5 can easily handle.

All I want from Tensor is a phone that flies through social media and work apps, doesn’t overheat, and is efficient enough to get me through the day, and G5 manages that. I’m not trying to excuse Google — I absolutely think that Tensor should perform better than it does for the price. When you buy a Pixel, though, you’re effectively asking yourself if the obvious downsides are worth it for the Pixel magic, and in this case, I think they are.

Another thing the Pixel 10 Pro (and the 9 Pro) has going for it is build quality. All of the Pixels I used until now, including almost all of the Pixels in between my 3XL and 10 Pro, felt less than solid. It’s hard to articulate into words, but compared to whatever Samsung I was using at the time, Google’s offerings felt cheaper, less well-made.

The Pixel 9 Pro I used earlier this year, and by extension, my Pixel 10 Pro, have fixed that. Aside from the polished frame that makes the phone feel slippery, everything about my 10 Pro feels solid and substantial. It doesn’t feel like something’s going to break whenever I pick it up, and in this Jade color, it’s one of the few phones I own that I like to take out of its case and just stare at.

Finally, there’s the size. A few years ago, I realised I wanted something smaller than the huge Ultra phones I was getting from Samsung, but I didn’t want to miss out on flagship cameras. With last year’s Pixel 9 Pro and now my 10 Pro, Google has given me what Samsung couldn’t. My Pixel 10 Pro isn’t a small phone, but it isn’t unmanageably large, either. It’s comfortable to use with one hand, doesn’t hurt my wrist, and I have all of the important features from the larger phone.

I do have some concerns, though. Over the last few years, Google has had issues with batteries across various models that I find troubling. My Grandfather’s Pixel 6a was one of them. The battery swelled so much that it popped the display out of the phone’s frame, damaging the display connectors in the process. This is appalling and absolutely shouldn’t happen, and it does give me pause when it comes to recommending a Pixel to others. The reason I still bought a Pixel 10 Pro is down to my buying habits and Google’s customer support in the UK. I tend to replace my phone every 1-2 years, long before an issue like this would arise. If I do encounter a problem, I have confidence that Google will look after me. The 6a I mentioned earlier was well out of the two-year warranty, but Google dispatched a refurbished 6a to me in less than 24 hours, which had a new battery and display, effectively making it a brand-new phone.

Do I think we should all ignore these issues? Absolutely not, but it was a calculated risk I was willing to take this time around.

The improvements to hardware and build quality mean that I can finally make use of the Pixel features I’ve been jealous of. The last year has been a non-stop barrage of spam calls and texts, and it’s been unbearable. Since I swapped to the Pixel 10 Pro nearly two months ago, I’ve only had a single call. The automatic spam filtering on a Pixel is so good that I don’t even realise how many scammers have tried to get hold of me unless I check the filter.

The one spam call that did make it through that filter, though, didn’t reach me. I used call screening to intercept it, and the transcript gave me enough to reject the call without speaking to anyone. That alone is almost enough to make using a Pixel worth it for me, but the phone call-related features don’t end there. I changed broadband providers recently, and navigating the phone tree with Direct My Call and having my Pixel sit on the line for me with Hold For Me made it a more seamless and pain-free experience.

Now Playing isn’t a new feature — it debuted on the Pixel 2 series, which I owned. It is something I missed far more than I ever imagined, though. It’s a simple feature that subtly keeps track of music it hears playing in the environment, displaying the current song on the lock screen and notification shade while also keeping a history. Unlocking your phone and manually searching for a song that’s playing isn’t difficult, but Now Playing is special. It searches for music via an on-device database of popular songs, so the recognition isn’t dependent on an internet connection, and it works faster than any normal song search. Now Playing is something greater than the sum of its parts; a useful feature that is more useful than anyone who hasn’t used it could imagine.

Pixel cameras have always been great, and many would consider the Pixel 3 XL a better camera phone than the Galaxy S10 Plus I traded it for, but I disagree. Sure, regular 1X photos looked better on the Pixel, but the 3 XL only had a single rear camera, while the S10 Plus had an additional 2X telephoto and 123-degree ultrawide camera. That versatility more than made up for any difference in overall quality, and I was more than happy with the photos I took with my Galaxy S10 Plus.

To be fair to Google, it caught up with Samsung and other manufacturers long before the Pixel 10. The Pixel 6 Pro finally added a true flagship camera that could go toe to toe with Samsung’s best, but at that point, my other issues with Pixels stopped it from being a contender for me. Now that I have a Pixel again, I’m reminded why people love these cameras. They’re reliable, consistent, and rarely deliver a photo that isn’t worth keeping.

There’s still room for improvement, though. I tried an iPhone 16 Pro for a few months last year, and while the overall experience wasn’t my cup of tea, there were things about the camera software I’d like to see Google borrow. ProRes would give the Pixel’s video suite a needed boost, but what I want most is Photographic Styles. The iPhone has a collection of these styles that can be dialed in, saved, and automatically applied to new photos. If you don’t like how it looks or want a different style for a particular photo, they can be removed, edited, and swapped even after the picture is taken.

Google has the bones for something like this. The editor in Google Photos has 20 filters that can be applied and tweaked after a photo is captured, but you can’t save any of them as a preset. Edited images are saved as a copy in addition to the original, which causes clutter, and you have to apply these filters to each photo yourself. A true Photographic Styles competitor would give the Pixel camera app a needed shot of personalisation.

Put simply, the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL are the best phones Google has made and finally eliminate the issues that stopped me from buying them for the last six and a half years. It won’t be for everyone. People who play more intensive games or want the absolute best hardware for the money will be disappointed in Tensor G5. For me, though, Google is delivering the perfect Pixel package that I’ve waited years for.

Is the Pixel 10 Pro your perfect Pixel, or has Google failed to better an older model that remains your favorite? Let us know in the comments.