Google Pixel 10 Pro review

Calling this an evolution feels generous. The Pixel 10 Pro is basically the 9 Pro wearing a better tailored suit. The back glass now has a luxury matte finish—silky enough to make you consider going caseless (before your survival instincts kick in). The frame is “spacecraft-grade aluminium,” which sounds like Google engineers were bored of aircraft jokes. It looks premium, feels dense, and yes, it’s a tad chunkier, but nothing a few days of muscle memory can’t fix.

The 6.3-inch OLED display runs at 120Hz (adaptive between 1Hz–120Hz) and hits 2200 nits HDR brightness, peaking at a bonkers 3300 nits in sunlight. Outdoor visibility is no longer a squint-fest, and HDR content finally pops without looking oversaturated. Design-wise, the Pixel 10 Pro won’t turn heads for being new, but it will hold your gaze for being quietly refined. Google also debuts its Pixelsnap magnetic alignment ecosystem inspired by Apple’s MagSafe.

 

 

 

 

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Magnets are built into the phone, so accessories like cases, stands, wallets, and chargers can click on accurately. We didn’t have Pixelsnap accessories at the time of this review, but we are curious too to compare it against the proven MagSafe for “stickiness”.

ALSO SEE: Google Pixel 9a review

Qi2 wireless charging is finally going mainstream with the Pixel 10 series, giving you up to 15W wireless charging, with slick alignment and Magnet safety. Want even faster? Only the Pixel 10 Pro XL gets 25 W Qi2.2 thanks to better cooling and bigger internals.

“Go AI or go home” is basically the motto here. Google didn’t bother reinventing the optics, so the main and ultrawide sensors are unchanged, with the 5x telephoto gaining better OIS. The real juice is in the Tensor G5’s AI-fuelled image pipeline. Enter features like Camera Coach, which politely nags you into framing better shots, and the new 100x Pro Res Zoom, where a diffusion model works in real-time to maintain sharpness and texture without turning buildings into Minecraft blocks. It’s actually usable, unlike the nightmare fuel we’ve seen on other AI-zoom attempts.

ALSO SEE: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review

Selfies? Still the 42MP ultrawide unit from last year, but with smarter processing. Dynamic range has improved, skin tones look less “AI airbrushed,” and autofocus is faster in tricky light. AI features like Best Take, Add Me, Magic Eraser, and Face Unblur return, now processing quicker thanks to Tensor G5. But many “on-device AI” tricks still rely on cloud help.

Flip off data and Wi-Fi, and the Pixel sheepishly warns: “For better results, connect to internet.” So yes, Gemini Nano does translations, summaries, and basic edits locally, but for heavy lifting, you’re still roped into Google’s servers. The dream of fully offline AI hasn’t arrived yet. Still, the end result photos are consistently stunning, and that zoom is so good you might start side-eyeing your DSLR.

The Tensor G5 is built on a 3nm TSMC process, paired with 16GB RAM and a dedicated TPU for machine learning. On paper, this is Google’s biggest leap in silicon yet. In practice? It’s a mixed bag. Day-to-day use is slick enough. Scrolling, multitasking, even gaming give no reason to complain. But when it comes to AI editing, some tasks still take 5–10 seconds to render.

Not exactly the instant wizardry Google markets. Sure, that’s faster than the 9 Pro, but it doesn’t feel like a generation-defining leap. Where it shines is camera performance, particularly the zoom. The 100x AI-assisted zoom retains texture and reality in ways no other phone camera has pulled off without hallucinating details. And combined with Gemini Nano, you get smart on-device tools: live transcription, summarisation, call screening with natural-sounding voices, even real-time translation that doesn’t need an internet lifeline for short bursts.

 

 

 

 

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The Pixel 10 Pro’s Gemini tricks aren’t the kind of party tricks you can suss out in a week. Magic Cue, on paper is your personal hype man, whispering context-aware suggestions mid-call or while firing off messages. But is it genuinely useful or just another digital backseat driver? That’s something only months of real-world nagging will reveal.

What does feel instantly brilliant though is Circle to Search. The first time you doodle a circle around shoes on Instagram and instantly get results, you wonder how you ever tolerated the old app-hopping grind. It’s pure sorcery. In fact, even the Veo video trick where it converts any still photo into a moving, 8-sec video based on simple prompts is shockingly authentic.

ALSO SEE: Nothing Phone 3 review

If you have the determination and time, the complexity of the scene you can create just by speaking into your Pixel device is a staggering feat of modern engineering. All, made to be as easy to access as possible.  

Battery life is steady, giving a day of heavy use with the 4870mAh cell. Charging tops at 30W wired, which is hardly headline-worthy, but serviceable. Im guessing the excitement around Pixelsnap accessories will be real and most owners will be moving to the slower but cooler charging method.

The Pixel 10 Pro isn’t a radical reinvention. It’s refinement layered with smarter AI tricks that are genuinely useful, if not always instantaneous. It looks nearly identical to its predecessor, but handles better, feels classier, and shoots sharper photos in more conditions. Google wants you to see this as the “AI phone”, and in many ways, it is. The zoom wizardry, Camera Coach, real-time translations, and smarter edits prove it. 

But the reliance on cloud processing and the sometimes sluggish on-device AI make it feel like the future is almost here, just not quite evenly distributed. If you’re on a Pixel 9 Pro, this isn’t a must-upgrade. If you’re new to Pixel or on an older model, the 10 Pro is Google’s most complete, confident phone yet.