Google Pixel 10 review: Likeable, not excitable

A lot can change in nine years, particularly in the consumer tech world. Around this time nine years ago, Google released its first Pixel smartphones to mixed reviews and dismal sales. Fast forward to 2025, and Pixel has built itself a reputation as a photography powerhouse and grown to hold the third-largest share of the smartphone market in Australia, behind behemoths Apple and Samsung.

The Pixel 10 is the culmination of all those years of innovations, failures and successes. While it’s not particularly groundbreaking (is any smartphone release in 2025?), it does enough to appeal to O.G. Pixel fans and potentially tempt some Apple or Samsung devotees to convert.

Despite bearing the big, exciting, monumental number of “10”, Google has ushered in its decade Pixel-versary with very little fanfare by barely deviating from the Pixel 9’s design playbook. At first glance, it’s hard to tell the difference between the Pixel 10 and its predecessor. But looks can be deceiving, as Google has made some substantial upgrades under the hood.

Sure, the frame is the same aluminium, the 6.3-inch display is almost identical (albeit slightly brighter), and the glossy glass backing is as fingerprint-attracting as ever, but aside from the new range of cool-toned colours (Indigo, Frost, Lemongrass and Obsidian), there’s only one key difference that hints at greater changes under the hood: the cameras.

The first indicator of the completely overhauled camera array on the base Pixel is the presence of a new 10.9MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom.

On paper, the other cameras seem like a downgrade—the Pixel 10’s 48MP Quad PD wide camera is slightly below the Pixel 9’s 50MP Octa PD wide camera, and the Pixel 10’s 13MP Quad PD ultrawide lens feels like a significant step down from its predecessor’s 48MP Quad PD ultrawide lens. But numbers are just that, and aren’t always a reliable indicator of camera performance. In practice, the Pixel 10’s cameras are excellent. Google’s image processing is some of the best in the biz, and this Pixel is no exception.

Subjects are crisp, colours are true to life, and although the megapixel count may be down from last year, the apertures on all three lenses are slightly wider, allowing for better performance in low-light conditions. For me, however, the true standout was the telephoto lens. The 5x optical zoom is genuinely good, and actually allowed me, with my very shaky hands, to take some spectacular snaps of my favourite (and equally shaky) subjects—birds.

Another key hardware addition this year is Google’s answer to Apple MagSafe, dubbed “Pixelsnap”. We’ll get into battery and charging performance in the next section, but perhaps the most exciting thing about the introduction of Pixelsnap (at least, for me) is that it works with all my existing MagSafe accessories, including my favourite ring stand, wireless charger and card holder. Although it feels somewhat sacrilegious to have an Apple-branded card holder attached to a Pixel, it nevertheless makes switching from Apple a whole lot easier, not to mention cheaper.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a 2025 phone release without the mention of AI. Whether you want it or not, the Pixel 10 has it. Headline additions this year include: Magic Cue, which can contextually surface quick answers or information you need by scanning other apps (like Gmail, Messages and Calendar) for information like addresses and appointment times; Voice Translate, which uses the Pixel’s on-device AI to translate calls from other languages in real-time in the speaker’s own voice; Call Notes, which is an extension of the existing Call Screen feature found on Pixel 9 that generates transcripts for missed calls and identifies next steps for any messages left; and Camera Coach, which offers real-time suggestions in the Camera app to help you take better photos.

It could be the AI sceptic in me, but none of these new features are particularly earthshattering. At least, not at this early stage. Magic Cue only works with first-party Google apps, Voice Translate currently only supports 11 languages, and Camera Coach produces mixed results. Call Notes is admittedly great, though.

Google first ditched Snapdragon in favour of its own Tensor processor in 2021 with the Pixel 6. At the time, it held up reasonably well against the competition. While it lagged behind contemporary flagships, it still gave them a good run for their money.

Nowadays, while rivals have taken giant leaps forward in processing speed, the Tensor has only taken small steps. The Google Tensor G5, at least on paper, simply can’t compete with the likes of the iPhone 16 and Samsung Galaxy S25, despite being in the same price range. I don’t normally pay much attention to benchmarking as numbers certainly aren’t everything, but in this case, the Geekbench 6 scores speak for themselves.

In practice, the Google Pixel 10 isn’t going to give you any trouble with day-to-day activities, unless you’re frequently editing 4K videos or running hugely intensive mobile games. In fact, it’s unlikely that the average person would notice much of a difference coming from the likes of an iPhone 16 or Galaxy S25 anyway. But that doesn’t take away from the sense that Google has spent more time focusing on AI than polishing the brain that runs it. While the base model manages with the Tensor G5 well enough, in the case of the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL, it’s almost egregious as a flagship processor. Still, it is an improvement (a 34% faster GPU, according to Google) on the Tensor G4, so that’s something.

On a more positive note, the Pixel 10’s battery life has mostly exceeded my expectations. Although not quite capable of the almost two-day battery life of its cheaper (and much chunkier) sibling, the Pixel 9a, it manages to get a day and a half quite easily, with a 30-minute juice on a 30W charger enough to bring it back to around 50%. The Pixel 10, like its pricier Pro siblings, also supports Qi2 wireless charging, though only up to 15W as opposed to the Pro XL’s 25W.