Google Pixel 10 review

I’ve always been oddly fascinated by how Pixel smartphones look, and the Google Pixel 10 looks just as great in my opinion. With its conveniently compact size, flat screen and sides, minimalist yet nicely textured back, and the visor-like camera module, the Google Pixel 10 sticks to the established design language. It feels good too, and immediately sets itself apart as a high-end device.

The aluminium frame gives it a solid feel with the phone feeling considerably heavier than you’d think for a device of its size, and the colour options are nice as well. The review unit sent to us is the ‘frost’ colourway - it’s a really light bluish-grey shade with a glossy texture - which looks decent, although I think the matte-finish indigo and obsidian colours look a lot better.

 

 

 

 

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The Google Pixel 10 is practically the same size as the Google Pixel 10 Pro (the Pro is just a fraction of a millimetre thinner). It’s small and handy by modern standards with a 6.3-inch screen, considerably smaller than the Pixel 10 Pro XL. You get IP68 dust and water resistance on the Pixel 10, which is good enough to handle major water exposure including being dunked in shallow water.

Available in India in just a single variant priced at Rs. 79,999, the Google Pixel 10 comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It’s a fair bit more affordable than the Rs. 1,09,999 Pixel 10 Pro, but there are quite a few differences between the two smartphones. That said, it’s still the core Pixel experience but at a more accessible price point.

At first glance, you might not be able to tell the differences between the Google Pixel 10 and Google Pixel 10 Pro when it comes to the display, but the Pixel 10 gets a slightly downgraded display as compared to the Pro variant. It’s a 6.3-inch OLED (but not LTPO like on the Pro), with a resolution of 1080x2424 pixels. You do get 120Hz and HDR10+ support, but peak brightness levels are a bit lower on the Pixel 10 at 2000nits on the highest brightness mode and 3000nits at its peak.

The glass protection on top is Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. As always, it’s a well-calibrated screen that seems to pop a bit more than competing devices, although you might notice a bit of a warm colour tone. Still, it looks good, helps bring out detail in images, is sharp, and looks and feels like it should.

As mentioned, there’s just a single variant of the Google Pixel 10 available in India, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The RAM is a bit lower than the Pro which gets 16GB, but that itself shouldn’t be a problem since 12GB is enough and acceptable for a smartphone in this price range, especially one like the Pixel which is designed to work well with fewer resources. The hard limitation of 256GB could be a bigger issue, if you tend to use a lot of local storage.

Under the hood is the Google Tensor G5 processor, which is built on a 3nm process from TSMC instead of the Samsung process on last-generation’s G4.

 

 

 

 

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While the G5 does deliver higher benchmark scores than the G4, it’s still short of the scores that you’ll get from flagship Qualcomm or MediaTek chipsets. However, that gap is smaller this time around, so you can expect overall performance that is closer to what you’d expect from a flagship smartphone. Google once again points out that the Tensor G5 is made to work with the system optimally and shouldn’t be judged on its benchmark scores. Does the light software and efficient system really get the best out of it? We’ll get into that later.

Other key hardware features and specs include 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 6e and Bluetooth 6, eSIM connectivity in addition to a single physical SIM slot, and USB Type-C 3.2 for wired connectivity. 

The latest version of Android is 16, and the Google Pixel 10 gets this straight out of  the box. Google promises an impressive seven years of OS and security updates for the Pixel 10, so expect to keep getting early access to new Android versions and their features - always a key factor driving Pixel fanboyism. 

There is also the full suite of Google’s AI chops on the Pixel 10 powered by Gemini Nano, including the Gemini chatbot built into the system and Gemini Live - the conversational method of getting AI responses and suggestions. Other useful features such as circle-to-search, live translate, call assist, and Pixel screenshots are available as well, and generative AI tweaks are built into the camera system too.

Google’s Pixel Pro devices have usually had a major leg-up on core number series or ‘a’ devices in one major department - the cameras. Indeed, it isn’t only the quality of the camera setup, but also the number of cameras itself; the Pixel 9 and 9a came with dual-camera systems, while the Pro devices got the whole-hog triple-camera setup. That changes this time around.

The Google Pixel 10 gets a triple-camera setup as well, although it’s quite different to the three-cam on the Google Pixel 10 Pro. You get a 48-megapixel primary camera, 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field-of-view, and a 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera with 5X optical zoom. 

The camera app supports up to 20x digital ‘Super Res’ zoom, there’s laser-detect auto-focus for all three cameras, and there’s optical and electronic image stabilisation for the primary and telephoto cameras. At the front is a 10.5-megapixel camera. Video recording at up to 4K resolution and 60fps is supported, along with 10-bit HDR and 240fps slow-motion recording. Some AI features such as audio magic eraser and macro-focus are supported too.

Understandably, it’s a step down from the more capable cameras on the Pixel 10 Pro, and the rather interesting ‘Camera Coach’ feature is missing from the offerings, but remember that the Pixel 10 is Rs. 30,000 cheaper. All of that said, it’s still a very good camera setup that matches up to what most of the competition at under Rs. 80,000 delivers.

The primary camera is the heart and soul of the Pixel camera experience, and largely delivers as expected. Point-and-shoot photo quality is up to the mark, delivering excellent results in most conditions including well-lit, low-light, and even dull-light conditions. This made for natural-looking shots that didn’t excessively brighten images and maintained the usually toned down colours of the west-coast monsoon season.

The Pixel has always been known for its ease of use with the camera, and the ability to turn quickly-composed images into decent shots with little effort, and the Pixel 10 maintains this tradition. Even other camera abilities such as portrait shots and telephoto images are nicely put together with little effort. Low-light photography does require you to hold still for a second or two, but you get natural images with little false enhancement, putting the camera’s mild AI tweaks to good use.

The Pixel 10’s most useful camera feature is the telephoto sensor, which delivers quality 5x optical zoom. Details in zoom shots are excellent, and you can go a bit further - up to 20x with digital tricks - that utilise generative techniques to create a realistic shot. You can usually tell when there’s too much work going into a digital zoom image, but the Pixel 10 does a good job of smoothening it out without any visible artefacts. It’s not the 100x zoom on the Pixel 10 Pro, but it’s still pretty good.

Performance on a smartphone is down to a few things, and although benchmark scores can measure it and offer comparison points, it may not always make sense to judge a device by its scores. That said, the Google Pixel series devices powered by custom Tensor chipsets haven’t quite matched up to the competition even in practical performance, although Google does stress on the fact that the phones are built to work efficiently with the hardware package.

ALSO SEE: Google Pixel 9a review

That’s still the case to a large extent - the Pixel 10 powered by the Tensor G5 doesn’t quite match up to devices powered by current-get flagship Qualcomm and Mediatek chipsets. However, it does bridge the gap a fair bit this time around, and the Pixel feels more responsive and intuitive than before. The slick animations and laid-back feel may hide some of the shortcomings, but the Pixel 10 doesn’t need to try as hard as previously.

There’s 12GB of RAM which is enough for current requirements, and managing every day use including multi-tasking, heavy apps, frequent camera work, and even gaming isn’t a bother. Don’t expect the same levels of performance and snappiness as on the OnePlus 13s, but you won’t mind the difference in exchange for better camera capabilities and the advantages of latest-spec, clean software.

ALSO SEE: OnePlus 13s review

Battery life on the Pixel 10 is competent but not exceptional; you’ll get a day’s worth of moderate to heavy running from the 4970mAh battery on the phone. More camera work - particularly high-res video recording - tends to speed up the battery drain, but it’s probably the best you can expect given the size of the phone.

There is no charger in the box, but you do get a decent charging cable to attach to an existing adapter. There’s support for 29W wired and 15W wireless charging, which are a fair bit slower than what brands such as OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Vivo deliver with their high-end devices. It’s arguably safer and better for the battery in the long run, but expect to wait a fair bit over an hour for a full charge on the Pixel 10 with wired charging.

The Google Pixel 10 isn’t the full Pixel experience that the Pixel 10 Pro delivers, but remember - it’s Rs. 30,000 cheaper. Despite that, you still get a fairly capable set of features, including a decent triple-camera setup, a good display, enough RAM and storage, and decent performance. 

Now you might think it’s worth spending extra for the full-fledged camera experience, and that’s not a bad thing at all - do it if you want the complete Pixel package and get the 10 Pro. However, if you don’t want to go all out and spend over a lakh, the base Pixel 10 a worthwhile device to consider for the Pixel experience, slightly toned down but still entirely capable.