With the Pixel 10, Google is setting a new baseline for Android

Unlike Apple’s tenth-generation iPhone X, which served as an evolutionary leap forward in smartphone design and in human-computer interaction modality back in 2017, Google is playing a humbler and more iterative game with its recently-released Pixel 10 series.

Now, that’s not a bad thing per se — slow and steady year-over-year improvements have been Google’s mantra for some time now, and the company has been quietly consolidating its hardware identity within the competitive smartphone landscape since at least the days of the Pixel 6 in 2021.

Arguably, Google’s existing Pixel 9 was already a well-rounded package to the point where it’d be a mistake to drastically alter the Pixel formula or to introduce a Project Soli-level curveball into the mix. With a focus on refinement and new AI experiences for 2025, I went ahead and switched my SIM card over to Google’s premier (albeit non-Pro) Pixel 10 — and, for the most part, I came away without disappointment.

4.5/5

Brand

Google

SoC

Tensor G5

Display

6.3-inch Actua Display 1080 x 2424 pixel resolution OLED (60-120Hz)

RAM

12GB

Google’s Pixel 10 features the tech giant’s new Tensor G5 chip and a three-camera setup for the first time that includes a 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera.

Pros & Cons

• Classy external design
• Qi2 magnetic wireless charging
• Material 3 Expressive is gorgeous

• Glossy rear glass panel
• Tensor G5 isn’t a 2025 powerhouse
• Non-telephoto cameras are nerfed

A time-tested external design

Google’s signature Pixel camera bar is every bit as classy here as it is on the 10 Pro

Externally speaking, the Pixel 10 looks roughly the same as not only the Pixel 9 series, but also the Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL. The phone is characterized by boxy-yet-rounded corners, a prominent full-width rear camera bar, and a set of slim, symmetrical front-facing bezels.

Picking up the Pixel 10, its 7.2oz (204g) weight is well distributed, and its 6 x 2.8 x 0.3-inches (152.8 x 72 x 8.6mm) dimensions are large without feeling unwieldy. The small phone enthusiasts within me would’ve loved for the device to be just a bit more compact, perhaps more comparable to the 6-inch screened Pixel 5, but the 10’s 6.3-inch size class still strikes a solid balance between portability and usability.

As expected, the Pixel 10 is well-built, too. The unit’s mix of aluminum and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 tempered glass feels premium in the hand, there’s no creaking or flexing to worry about, and, as has been the case on Pixel phones for some time now, it features buttons that are some of the most satisfying and tactile to click on the market. I’m a fan of the metal outer trim’s satin finish, though I have to say that I’d have preferred a soft-touch rear glass panel as opposed to a glossy (and fingerprint prone) glossy one.

Putting the Pixel 10 side by side with both its contemporaries and with previous-generation Pixels, it’s clear to me that Google has homed in on a design that simply works. The camera bar is an elegant and iconic design cue that both looks aesthetically pleasing and that prevents table wobble, and the bottom-mounted speaker and microphone grilles are perfectly symmetrical with the USB Type-C port.

My particular review unit is of the lemongrass variety, with a vibrant rear glass panel finish that features hints of both yellow and green. Other colorways on offer include the light blue frost, the dark blue indigo, and the dark gray obsidian. All models feature black front bezels and color-matched aluminum side rails. If you’re a sucker for nostalgia, then indigo might be the way to go: it appears to be a subtle callback to the very first Pixel’s really blue colorway from all the way back in 2016.

The year of the spec bump

The Pixel 10 is characterized by iterative year-over-year upgrades

It’s not just the exterior shell of the Pixel 10 that closely resembles that of its immediate predecessor. For all intents and purposes, the phone’s internal specifications are only a minor step up over the Pixel 9, though the improvements made here are welcome nonetheless.

The handset is powered by the Tensor G5, which is Google’s fifth-generation in-house system on a chip (SoC). As in previous years, Google’s focus with Tensor is on creating a hardware-accelerated operating environment for on-device AI processing, with traditional compute and graphics performance being something of a secondary concern.

A quick Geekbench 6 benchmarking test reveals a single-core score of 2,319 and a multi-core score of 6,302. This doesn’t quite measure up to the sheer compute power found on the likes of the Apple A19 Pro or the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipsets, though it does provide more than enough headroom for general-purpose smartphone usage.

Technically speaking, the Tensor G5 is based on the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMCs) state-of-the-art 3nm processing node — meaning the processor offers improvements in power efficiency over the Samsung-fabricated G4 used in the Pixel 9 series.

Elsewhere, the Pixel 10’s 6.3-inch OLED display panel comes in at a resolution of 1080 x 2424, and it’s capable of pivoting between 60 and 120Hz refresh rates. Peak brightness can reach a rather bright 3,000 nits, and other niceties like HDR and 24-bit color depth are present and accounted for as well.

Other key internal Pixel 10 specifications include 12GB of RAM, a choice between 128GB or 256GB of internal storage, a 4,970 mAh battery pack, 30W wired charging, 15W wireless charging, IP68 water and dust resistance, and an excellent under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.

Pixelsnap enters the fray

At long last, Android’s MagSafe has arrived

Personally, my favorite Pixel 10 feature is one that can’t be discerned by the naked eye alone. Hidden behind the phone’s glossy rear glass panel is a new ring of magnets that conform to the Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi2 with Magnetic Power Profile (MPP) standard for wireless charging. Functionally in line with Apple’s MagSafe protocol, the Pixel 10 is the first (fine, second) Android phone to ship with magnetically-enhanced wireless charging capabilities built right in.

In short, this is a big deal for both Pixel and Android at large because it enables compatibility with a whole host of magnetically-adhering docks, stands, mounts, wallets, chargers, battery banks, and more. After using my iPhone 15 Pro for the better part of two years, and after having heavily invested in the MagSafe ecosystem, I’m ecstatic that Google is taking a leading role in bringing this same experience over to Android.

In my experience, the Pixel 10’s magnets are roughly equivalent in strength to those found on recent iPhone models I’ve tested, which is to say they’re strong and perfectly secure. On a technical level, however, I’m left disappointed by Google’s decision to opt for the older Qi 2.0.1 standard, which tops out at 15W of wireless power delivery. For comparison, the newer Qi 2.2 spec is capable of a speedier 25W, and it’s what’s found in Apple’s competing iPhone 17 at the same price point.

The camera situation sure is interesting

You win some, you lose some

With the Pixel 10, Google is shipping its first-ever non-Pro Pixel phone with a triple rear camera setup. The array consists of a 48-megapixel wide-angle shooter with an f/1.70 aperture and a 1/2-inch sensor size, a 13-megapixel 120-degree ultra-wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture and a 1/3.1-inch sensor size, and a 10.8-inch 5x telephoto camera with an f/3.1 aperture and a 1/3.2-inch sensor size.

The addition of a dedicated zoom lens is a marked step up from the Pixel 9, which only offered wide-angle and ultra-wide focal lengths, and it finally brings the base flagship Pixel in line with the triple camera standard employed by Samsung ( which is still absent from the base iPhone 17).

However, there’s a catch: while the 5x telephoto is much appreciated for zooming in on far away subjects, Google has actually downgraded the wide-angle and ultra-wide angle sensors when compared to those found on the Pixel 9. Resolutions and sensor sizes are smaller, which is disappointing, and it means you’ll need to spring for the 10 Pro or 10 Pro XL for best-in-class Pixel camera hardware.

Thankfully, Google’s computational photography prowess shines through as much here on the Pixel 10 as it does on any other modern Pixel handset, and the end result is a competent package for snapping memories. I love the Pixel 10’s effortless point-and-shoot approach to photography — color science, exposure, and other considerations are always taken care of without any worry from my end.

The phone does support RAW image capture, though Google has artificially limited manual control over autofocus, ISO, and shutter speed to the more expensive Pro models, which is a move I’m not a fan of. Video recording is also solid, with the ability to record HDR content in 4K resolution at 24, 30, or 60 frames per second (fps), as well as in 1080p Full HD at 120 and 240fps.

An Android experience worth celebrating

The Pixel 10 shines with Material 3 Expressive out of the box

I’ve chronicled my evolving impressions of Google’s new Material 3 Expressive design language in separate pieces, but, the long and the short of it is that I’ve come to love the new visual look.

The new, responsive animations found throughout Material 3 Expressive’s OS design are delightful, and everything just feels more playful and alive than it has in years previous. The new blur effects are tastefully implemented across interface surfaces, and, put together, these changes humanize Android and the Pixel in a way that not even Apple’s new Liquid Glass redesign does for the iPhone.

I was particularly excited to check out the Pixel 10’s upgraded Always-on display mode, which provides the option to display a blurred version of your wallpaper on screen at all times. Unfortunately, as it turns out, Google has limited this feature to the higher-end Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL models. This can likely be attributed to the more advanced LTPO-powered display refresh rates that ship on the Pro models, which are capable of notching all the way down to 1Hz (as opposed to the Pixel 10’s minimum of 60Hz).

Out of the box, my Pixel 10’s interface was color-coded to match its lemongrass exterior hue. Everything from Android’s notification center, to its app drawer, to its Settings app feature a subtle yellow hue, which is a small attention to detail that exemplifies Google’s newfound sense of hardware-software synergy. Of course, it’s easy enough to switch over to any other number of UI colortones, and they automatically adapt to whichever wallpaper you’ve selected.

I also want to shout out the Pixel 10’s all-new out-of-box selection of screen savers, which finally matches the fit-and-finish found on Apple’s StandBy Mode for iPhone. Both the digital and analog clock faces are well crafted, as is the new Weather screen saver. I’m a fan of the increased date and time readability, and the globally available Low light mode is also much appreciated. The loss of the Colors screen saver is an unfortunate casualty in my eyes, however.

As for AI experiences built into the Pixel 10, Google is talking a big game as per usual. This time around, the new flagship AI feature is Magic Cue, which attempts to automatically surface relevant information while using the phone. For example, a prompt with upcoming flight details might appear on the call screen while attempting to reach an airline’s customer service line.

In my short time with Magic Cue, I haven’t found the tool to be a useful one. It’s possible that I simply haven’t used the handset for long enough for it to properly index my Google Account’s Gmail messages and RCS texts, but, either way, I’ve come away entirely underwhelmed. Conceptually, Magic Cue makes a lot of sense, and so I hope to see Google improve upon it via future software updates.

Other new AI-powered additions this year include Camera Coach, which attempts to offer contextually relevant photography tips within the camera app, and Daily Hub, which serves as an AI briefing page for a birds-eye view of the day ahead. Neither feature is particularly compelling in my eyes, and they both seem to be trying to solve problems with AI for the sake of AI.

On a brighter note, existing AI features from the Pixel 9 era continue to prove useful, including Pixel Screenshots (which sorts screen caps for easy reference), the camera’s Add Me mode (for adding extra subjects into a photo), and Gemini Live integration (Google’s large language model (LLM) powered conversational voice assistant).

Is the Pixel 10 worth the upgrade?

It might be, depending on which phone you already have in your pocket

You’d be mistaken to dismiss the standard non-Pro Pixel 10 as a dull and uninspired retreading of yesteryear’s Pixel 9. While it’s true that both devices look, feel, and behave rather similarly on paper, Google has refined the end-user experience by paying attention to the oft-overlooked mobile minutia that matter when using a high-end handset.

The Pixel 10’s design is refined, confident, and delightfully symmetrical, its triple rear camera array provides focal length flexibility, and its Material 3 Expressive-based interpretation of Android 16 is a joy to interact with. The addition of Qi2’s MPP ring of magnets is a major quality of life improvement over its direct predecessor, though charging speeds could be a bit snappier. I’m also still not sold on the merits of Magic Cue and certain other Gemini AI features, though they’re compelling on a conceptual level.

All in all, if you’re in the market for a new high-end smartphone, and if you aren’t entirely wedded to Apple’s walled garden ecosystem, then the Google Pixel 10 is a smart choice worthy of consideration. At $800, it’s a fair bit more affordable than its Pro-tier siblings, while managing to deliver on all the essential components characteristic of a premium 2025 smartphone.

This device was provided to Pocket-lint by Google.

4.5/5

Brand

Google

SoC

Tensor G5

Display

6.3-inch Actua Display 1080 x 2424 pixel resolution OLED (60-120Hz)

RAM

12GB

Google’s Pixel 10 features the tech giant’s new Tensor G5 chip and a three-camera setup for the first time that includes a 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera.