The Google Pixel 10 Pro was first released just over six months ago to solid acclaim. While it’s true that the phone isn’t that much different from its predecessor, the Pixel 9 Pro, it doesn’t change the fact that it is, by most accounts, a very good phone — one of the reasons it’s on our list of the best phones. It’s so good, in fact, that I’ve been using it as my main day-to-day phone for the past six months.
I’ve gotten to know the phone very well in that period of time, and that means I have more than a few thoughts on what it’s actually like to own a Pixel 10 Pro. Some of my thoughts have been firm and resolute since day one, whether they be good or bad, but I’ve also changed my mind on a lot of things as well.
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Google Pixel 10 Pro: What I like
The weak performance doesn’t matter
A lot of people are quick to criticize Pixel phones for poor performance, on account of Tensor chips’ consistently low scores in benchmarking tests. I’ve been guilty of that, as have some of my colleagues here at Tom’s Guide, but in the six months I’ve been using the Pixel 10 Pro, I’ve noticed that benchmarking scores don’t matter all that much. Or, at least, they don’t matter to me.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Google Pixel 10 Pro |
Google Pixel 9 Pro |
Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus |
iPhone 17 Pro |
|
Processor |
Tensor G5 |
Tensor G4 |
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy |
Apple A19 Pro |
|
Geekbench (single core/multicore) |
2,335 / 6.375 |
1,948 / 4,794 |
3,725 / 11,121 |
3,834 / 9,988 |
|
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited (score/fps) |
3,134 / 18.77 |
2,567 / 15.38 |
7,518 / 45.02 |
5,840 / 35 |
What matters to me is that the phone runs smoothly and without noticeable issues or lag. As someone who doesn’t use their phone for resource-heavy tasks, like editing or gaming, I have yet to have any issues with the Pixel 10 Pro. I have other devices to do those things, and all my phone needs to be able to handle is basic everyday tasks. Browsing, music, messaging, some streaming, and so on.
The 10 Pro does all those things very well, to the point where it actually plays Netflix better than the Roku plugged into my TV. The fact that the basics work the way they’re supposed to means the lack of iPhone and Galaxy S26-tier performance highs doesn’t actually matter.
Qi2 magnets are fantastic
While Samsung seems content with leaving embedded magnets out of the Galaxy S26 series, Google had no such qualms about following Apple MagSafe’s example. While Qi2 wireless charging does have a bunch of practical charging benefits, the magnets are certainly a highlight for me.
The ability to magnetically clip your phone onto stands has been an absolute dream, especially in my car. The best car phone mounts are so much more convenient when you bring magnets into the equation. The same is true for wireless charging. In both cases, I can just slap my phone onto the charger without worrying about whether it’s positioned correctly or held securely enough.
Pixel cameras always impress
I won’t lie, I’ve taken plenty of bad photos with the Google Pixel 10 Pro. Stuff that’s blurry, poorly lit, badly framed, and so on. I should take more advantage of the Camera Coach feature, but I’ve never really felt the need. The vast majority of the photos I take are pretty good, or at the very least good enough for my purposes.
The Pixel 10 Pro may not be the best camera phone you can buy, but it’s certainly close to it. It’s got solid hardware to take the photos, backed up by powerful AI and machine learning to help enhance the things that go wrong.
Sure, some people may not like the idea of AI-assisted computational photography and post-shot processing, but I shudder to think what my photos might look like without it.
The display brightness is blindingly good
With a peak brightness of 2,518 nits per our testing, there can be a lot of lumens pumping out of the Pixel 10 Pro’s screen. I’ll be the first one to admit that you need adaptive brightness switched on, because turning it off and attempting to use your phone at night is a one-way ticket to temporarily blinding yourself. Though it does mean I have yet to find a situation where I can’t see what’s happening on screen.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Google Pixel 10 Pro |
Google Pixel 9 Pro |
Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus |
iPhone 17 Pro |
|
Brightness (nits) |
2,518 |
1,938 |
1,928 |
1,555 |
|
sRGB color spectrum |
121.4 (Adaptive), 108.3 (Natural) |
119.4 (Adaptive), 106.6 (Natural) |
151.7 (Vivid), 131.9 (Natural) |
113.2 |
|
DCI-P3 color spectrum |
89.5 / 76.3 |
86/ 76.7 |
107.5 / 93.4 |
80.2 |
|
Delta-e rating (lower is better) |
0.32 / 0.25 |
0.24 / 0.29 |
0.22 / 0.29 |
0.23 |
Admittedly, the weather has been pretty gloomy over the past six months, so I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time using the phone in super-bright sunshine. So in another six months, I may have a completely different opinion of how good this screen brightness really is. But considering this is one of the brightest phone screens you can buy, as confirmed in the Tom’s Guide lab, I can’t imagine I’m going to find something better anytime soon. Apart from the Pixel 10 Pro XL.
There’s no faulting Google’s update schedule
Back before I started using more mainstream Android phones (namely Pixel, OnePlus and Samsung Galaxy devices), I would jump around between various phone brands that weren’t quite up to speed on the whole software side of things. What few updates you actually got came out at a painfully slow pace, and often that means waiting months following major Android updates.
The bigger brands are a lot faster, and nobody is as fast as Google at rolling out new Android updates. Often, I can read about an impending update that will bring a bunch of features or fixes, and check my phone to find it has already been installed overnight. Sure, it’s because Google controls Android and gives its own phones priority, but even then, I’m pretty amazed at the speed at which the new software rolls out.
Moreso when you consider that it’ll be getting pumped out this way for at least 6 and a half more years.
Google Pixel 10 Pro: What I Hate
Battery life is not good enough
Pixel phones and battery life have a turbulent history, though in recent years things have been changing for the better. That said, I often struggle to get through the entire day while keeping the Pixel 10 Pro alive, and often find myself hitting 10% battery and still having a few hours before I head to bed. Considering I once lauded the Pixel 9 Pro for having such good battery life, this has been quite a disappointing experience.
It seems that, as much as Google improves its battery performance, it still lags quite far behind flagships from Apple, Samsung and OnePlus. There’s a reason it doesn’t appear on our best phone battery life page.
Heck, the OnePlus 15 managed to last over 25 hours in our battery test, compared to the Pixel 10 Pro, which doesn’t even scrape 13 hours and 45 minutes. With batteries this size, Google really needs to do better on Pixel 11 and beyond.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Google Pixel 10 Pro |
Google Pixel 9 Pro |
Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus |
iPhone 17 Pro |
|
Battery Size |
4,870 mAh |
4,700 mAh |
4,900 mAh |
3,577 mAh |
|
Battery Life (Hrs: Mins) |
13:43 |
13:37 |
13:13 |
15:21 |
|
Charging Speed |
30W |
30W |
45W |
40W |
|
Charge % after 30 minutes |
55 |
49 |
71 |
72 |
The Pixel 10 Pro does have a slightly larger battery than the Pixel 9 Pro, which should, in theory, translate to more battery life. Anecdotally, I’ve found that the battery does last a lot longer than the Pixel 9 Pro seems to.
But I will caveat with the note that the Pixel 9 Pro battery seems to have worsened ever since I installed Android 16. So we’ll have to rely on the data from the Tom’s Guide labs to see what’s going on.
128GB of starting storage isn’t enough
The 128GB storage era is ending, and soon. There isn’t a single new iPhone with 128GB of storage, and Samsung recently implemented 256GB as standard as well. Google has started down this path, ditching the 128GB storage option for Pixel 10 Pro XL, but left the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 with the smaller storage option.
I’ll admit that this is a good start, considering both Apple and Samsung made the change on their most expensive phones first before moving on to other devices in their lineup. But as someone who has currently used around 95% of my 128GB phone, and has always struggled to keep space free on the cheapest storage options, Google really should have taken things a step further.
Even if it meant charging an extra $100 for the privilege.
I keep forgetting it doubles as a thermometer
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. I do not understand why Google still has a temperature sensor on the Pixel 10 Pro. It’s the kind of feature that would have been incredible had it been released during the pandemic, but it arrived long after fear of COVID-19 had wound down and demand for a mobile thermometer was at its lowest.
Frankly, I forgot that this feature even exists. Not in a “I refuse to use it” kind of way, but from time to time, I will suddenly remember that my phone has a temperature sensor on the back. I’ve never remembered anytime it would have been useful, either, such as when I was just double-checking whether my son had a fever or not. He’s fine, but by the time I realized that my phone could have been helpful, I was already midway through using a standard baby thermometer.
What good is a feature that nobody remembers is even there? It’s about time Google just ditched it and put its efforts into something more practical.
I don’t really use most AI features
Google has invested a lot in AI in recent years, and Google Pixel phones have been the way for it to showcase them in a true Google-y environment. But I don’t actually use the majority of them, with Circle to Search being the key exception. Circle to Search is just so darn convenient and easy to use that you can’t not take advantage of it.
But the rest — barring the occasional use of an AI photo editing feature — typically remain unused. I’ve long maintained that I don’t really care about AI features on my phone, and the main reason is that I never feel the need to actually use any of them. Gemini often seems to be so slow to respond that I often find it’s a lot easier to complete tasks the normal way.
And it’s rather a shame that so much emphasis is now on adding all kinds of AI features to phones, when I really couldn’t care less about having them. Now I know how old-school car lovers feel when they have to use a touchscreen.
Bottom line
Back in October I said that I regretted upgrading to the Pixel 10 Pro, on account of how similar it was to the Pixel 9 Pro. I’m still firmly in that camp, but not because the Pixel 10 Pro is a bad phone. It is a capable device that has a lot to offer, more than I am apparently willing to use. But I certainly wouldn’t be unhappy if I’d stuck with the Pixel 9 Pro for another year.
But I can certainly appreciate the small things that Google changed with the current generation. However, some of the things that haven’t changed are really starting to grind my gears, like the weak battery life, and the constant stream of features that I don’t actually want to use. Here’s just hoping that Google makes some more significant changes to the Pixel 11 Pro, and we don’t end up with another Pixel 10a situation.
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