Google Pixel 10 Pro XL review: the best AI phone on the market
Google's latest smartphones hit all the right notes and offer a competitive AI edge
š Rating: 4.5/5
š„ Editorās Choice
ā
Pros
š± The displays are brighter and better than ever
šø Triple camera system continues to impress
š 100x AI zoom makes for some incredible shots
š„ Video quality is some of the best on any smartphone
š¤ Gemini AI upgrades like Magic Cue and Camera Coach are handy
š Longer battery life that lasts nearly two days on XL
š§² Qi2 magnetic charging finally arrives
šØ New colors spruce up familiar designs
ā Cons
š¾ 128GB base storage on the Pixel 10 Pro isnāt enough for pro users
ā”ļø Only the 10 Pro XL gets faster charging
š° Pixel 10 Pro XL base price went up
š No design improvements compared to last year
The Shortcut review
Google has two of the best Android phones Iāve used all year. Iāve been a fan of Pixel phones since the first one came out in 2016, and now, with its 10th generation, the Pixel has hit a new peak. The Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL are easily two of the most well-rounded phones of 2025, with great cameras, battery life, and genuinely useful AI that average users can appreciate.
Weāve tried the best that this year has to offer, from the Galaxy S25 Ultra to the OnePlus 13 and beyond. And by comparison, once again, Google has nailed virtually everything you could ask for from a smartphone.
Are the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL perfect? No, but boy do they come close. Between the speedy performance, reliable software updates, excellent cameras (this time with 100x AI zoom), and the same gorgeous design, thereās very little to dislike about these phones.
Full review
Design
š Youāve seen it before. Google didnāt reinvent the wheel with the Pixel 10 Pro. Both the Pro and Pro XL look a lot like the Pixel 9 Pro from last year, which is fine by me. The design is premium and unique, with a big pill-shaped camera visor on the back, curved corners, and flat sides. There arenāt any extra buttons or functions on the sides, either; youāre getting the same volume and power buttons, USB-C ports, and dual speakers. It seems like Appleās the only one getting creative with buttons nowadays, oddly enough.
šØ New colors help spruce things up. To help liven things up, Google has introduced a couple of new colors for the Pixel 10 Pro. Thereās the regular Obsidian and Porcelain (black and white) finishes weāve had for years, as well as two new additions to the line: Moonstone and Jade. I was sent the Obsidian Pixel 10 Pro and Porcelain Pixel 10 Pro XL to review, so my biggest takeaway is that you should 100% stick to the more fun colors. These ones feel a bit tired.
šŖØ Tougher than ever. Googleās entire Pixel 10 lineup is IP68 rated and comes with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. They also ship with spacecraft-grade aluminum. Google touts that these phones are pretty durable against drops (the Pixel 10 Pro is twice as durable as the Pixel 8 Pro). Iāll continue testing this for the foreseeable future as the Pixel 10 Pro becomes my daily driver on Android to compare to the iPhone 17 Pro.
Displays
š± Two sizes, same specs. This is where the Pixel 10 Pro series shines. Available in 6.3-inch and 6.8-inch sizes, the Super Actua OLED delivers punchy contrast and vibrant (yet not oversaturated) colors to deliver a top-tier viewing experience. Itās backed by a sharp resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, along with a thin bezel around the sides. The screen is simply stupendous, and it easily holds up compared to displays on Appleās iPhones and Samsungās Galaxy phones.
āļø Higher brightness than last year. The best part? Theyāre even brighter this year. The Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL can reach 3,300 nits of peak brightness, up from 3,000 nits compared to last year. While the difference is negligible, itās a welcome improvement thatāll only help you see your screen more easily in the most challenging lighting.
Cameras
šø Stupendous main camera. Iām happy to report that for yet another year, the Google Pixel has one of the best camera systems on any smartphone. Its primary 50MP camera is mostly responsible for that; while the hardware hasnāt gotten any upgrades beyond better stabilization, itās still capable of kicking out amazing-looking photos in any lighting condition you can think of. With vivid details, sharp contrast, and excellent HDR, the Pixel 10 Proās camera is at the top of its game this generation. Itās certainly going to give the iPhone 17 Pro a run for its money.
šļø The ultra-wide is plenty capable. The 48MP ultra-wide camera on the Pixel 10 Pro is also rock-solid. It doesnāt quite capture the same level of detail as the main camera, but with Googleās post-processing magic, photos often look just as good as when taken with the main lens. The 123Āŗ field of view is also great for getting everyone in the frame.
š Telephoto close-ups with AI Zoom. The 48MP 5x telephoto camera on the Pixel 10 Pro produces very similar results to the other cameras in both bright and dark conditions. This year, though, Google decided to spice things up with the inclusion of 100x Pro Res Zoom. It allows you to get way closer to your subject than ever before on a Pixel phone, and it uses AI to unblur everything so you can make out what you just captured.
š¤Ŗ But AI Zoom does hallucinate. While less-complicated photos like trees and buildings look enhanced beyond what an iPhone can do, any time you zoom into something with words, the AI tends to make up what itās looking at. It would often get the words wrong in our testing (often looking like script in other languages), while some shots of buildings had extra lines through windows that werenāt there in real life. I also noticed that close-ups on human beings would result in very little AI touch-ups added to the end result, keeping photos about as blurry as they are without AI. Itās a neat feature to play around with, but not one to rely on for accurate photos of real life.
š· Use Camera Coach to upgrade your game. The Pixel 10 Pro comes with Camera Coach, Googleās new way of helping you nail the perfect photo. Powered by Gemini and built into the camera app, the feature walks you through framing a photo based on the scene in front of you and recommends different angles, lighting, filters, and more to get a great-looking photo. During my testing, the feature would often recommend stepping a bit further back from the subject and adjusting my angle to perfect the lighting, which I really appreciated. This could be a great feature for anyone who wants to take their photography game to the next level.
šļø Auto Best Take can save you time. Another new AI-powered trick for the Pixel 10 camera is Auto Best Take. It builds on Best Take, which Google introduced two years ago with the Pixel 8; it still captures multiple photos to see which one everyone looks best in, except now, itāll automatically merge the best frames into a single photo, eliminating the need for you to make the decision.
š„ Excellent video quality. I enjoyed capturing videos with the Pixel 10 Pro. The 4K 30fps clips I recorded turned out quite nice, with good detail and lighting throughout. I still think the post-processing isnāt as good as what iPhones have that make Appleās smartphones the ones to buy for recording the best video, but the Pixel is a close step behind.
š¤³ Sharp selfies. The 42MP selfie camera on the Pixel 10 Pro is one of the best Iāve tested all year. Tapping the shutter button, or saying āHey Google, take a selfie,ā always resulted in great color reproduction and detail in my tests. The fact that the lens is a bit wider than most others makes it ideal for people-packed group selfies or solo photos where you want to tell a story about where youāve been.
Software & AI
š¤ Thatās your Magic Cue. This AI-powered UI shortcut offers a way to display information in convenient places across apps. For example, if youāre on the phone with an airline, your flight details will be sourced from apps like Gmail and presented right on the screen. It also works in Google Messages and Daily Hub, the companyās alternative to Samsungās Now Brief. In my testing, the feature seemed to work well; the system recommended calendar details on an event I was texting my boss about during the conversation, which helped make it easier to share them in a jiff. I imagine this feature will only get better over time.
š£ļø Voice Translate breaks language barriers. Google also added Voice Translate on the Pixel 10 Pro. It uses AI and the Tensor G5 to translate phone calls in real-time, allowing you to speak to people in different languages without having to rely on translated texts. It even replicates your voice when translating, which is impressive to say the least. At launch, it supports translating to or from English with Spanish, German, Japanese, French, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, and Indonesian. With the iPhone 17 getting a similar feature in iOS 26, itās great to see Google adding it to its own smartphones as well.
ā¬ļø More AI upgrades. Google also threw in a slew of other AI upgrades on the Pixel 10 Pro. In Gemini Live, answers to your questions will pop up depending on what youāre asking about thatās on your screen. Googleās NotebookLM is also integrated directly with Pixel Screenshots and Recorder, so you can add content from both to your notebook. Thereās also the new Pixel Journal app for tracking your wellbeing and practicing gratitude. Writing Tools have been improved in Gboard, auto-generated music tracks are available in the Recorder app, and you can now see real-time transcripts for missed or declined calls with Take a Message.
š„ Practical AI for the win. A lot of these tools are practical and easy to adapt in your everyday life. I use Gemini Live and Circle to Search religiously for finding out about stuff around me, and Magic Cue is quickly becoming one of my favorite perks of using a Pixel phone. Compared to other phones Iāve used that capitalize on AI in similar ways, Google has the most well-rounded suite of AI tools that are geared for just about everyone, not just early adopters. Thereās a little AI for everyone on the Pixel 10 Pro, which makes it the best AI smartphone on the market.
š¤ Android 16 with seven years of updates. The Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL come with Android 16 out of the box, outfitted with Googleās new Material 3 Expressive UI. I really like the new interface and how alive it feels; it keeps a lot of Googleās welcoming charm and adds a ton of playfulness to the overall aesthetic. Whatās more, the company is promising seven years of software upgrades with the devices, which means youāll likely get Android 24 when it comes out in 2032.
Performance
šļø Very fast, but not the fastest (on paper). Under the hood is Googleās biggest processor upgrade yet. The Tensor G5 comes with a 34% faster CPU for managing everyday tasks, while the TPU (responsible for processing AI stuff) is up to 60% more powerful than the G4. Itās built on a 3-nanometer processor, which means it runs more efficiently while still kicking out faster speeds. While the chip is plenty capable of fast everyday performance, itās not the most powerful chip youāll find. In the Android world, thatās the Snapdragon 8 Elite, while iPhones have an even faster chip in Appleās A18 Bionic. I donāt think any normal user will hit the ceiling when it comes to performance on the Tensor G5, but if you want the chip thatāll benchmark the highest on Geekbench 6, this isnāt the one for you.
š¾ Beefy storage and RAM. No matter what kind of user you are, Google has your back with enough storage and RAM. Thereās a whopping 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage in these phones, which is more than enough to keep your apps from crashing, Gemini AI from slowing down, and running out of space over the years to come. I just wish the regular Pixel 10 Pro also started out at 256GB like the Pro XL; instead, itās stuck at 128GB, which isnāt enough for most people nowadays.
Battery life
š Nearly two-day endurance. Google included a larger battery in the Pixel 10 Pro series this year, which is great news. The Pixel 10 Pro gets a new 4,870mAh battery capacity, and the Pixel 10 Pro XL has a whopping 5,200mAh battery. Google says each device has ā30+ hour battery lifeā with the new sizes, and up to 100 hours of endurance using Extreme Battery Saver. In my testing, the Pixel 10 Pro XL nearly lasts two full days between charges, while the regular Pixel 10 Pro delivers reliable all-day battery life.
ā”ļø Faster charging, but only on Pro XL. Itās the tale of two sizes. The regular Pixel 10 Pro recharges at 30W, which isnāt fast by todayās standards. As a result, it takes a while to fully recharge the 10 Proās battery, ranging between 1-1.25 hours. Meanwhile, the Pixel 10 Pro XL can recharge in an hour or less thanks to 45W fast charging. It even charges faster wirelessly at 25W versus 15W. Itās clear that if battery life and recharge speeds are important to you, the larger 10 Pro XL is the way to go.
š§² Qi2 finally arrives. To make up for the staggered charging speed, Google includes proper Qi2 support. This is the first time a mainstream Android phone has actually shipped with Qi2 built in. The Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL have magnets built into the back so you can connect MagSafe wireless chargers and other accessories, all without needing a special case. Itās just like using MagSafe on the iPhone, and itās glorious. Iāve been using some of the wallets, stands, and chargers in my collection, and itās great being able to snap them to my Pixel to use them.
šļø First-party Qi2 accessories. Google is offering a few Qi2 magnetic accessories for the Pixel 10 family, including Pixelsnap, the companyās own take on a 15W Qi2 magnetic wireless charger. Itās also selling a magnetic stand for the phones that uses a metal ring to prop your phone up, as well as cases with Pixelsnap magnets built in. I havenāt gotten my hands on a Pixelsnap Stand just yet, but the silicone cases with Pixelsnap built-in are very nice.
Should you buy the Pixel 10 Pro?
Yes, ifā¦
ā You want a well-rounded smartphone
ā You want a smaller-sized flagship
ā You need all-day battery life
ā You need great cameras
ā You want reliable software
ā You want the best AI features out right now
ā You want to use Qi2 and MagSafe accessories
No, ifā¦
ā Youāre on a tight budget (get the Pixel 10)
ā You want the best video quality (get the iPhone 16 Pro)
ā You like using a stylus with your phone (get the Galaxy S25 Ultra)
Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut. Heās been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.