2 days ago
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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- Pixel 10 lineup brings invited changes crossed each models.
- Base Pixel 10 suits most, but powerfulness users volition similar Pro XL.
- Pro XL is the sleeper deed with apical show and endurance.
Get much in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add america arsenic a preferred Google source connected Chrome and Chromium browsers.
I'll beryllium honest: My expectations going into my Google Pixel 10 demos were connected the little side. I had conscionable wrapped up investigating Samsung's $1,900 foldable phone, and Google each but confirmed the caller Pixel phones would look identical to past year's, spoiling the astonishment up of today's event.
The question I had going successful was simple: Was this a deficiency of ambition oregon a motion of unwavering confidence?
Also: Everything announced astatine Made by Google 2025: Pixel 10 Pro, Fold, Watch 4, and more
It took lone minutes of hands-on clip to find the reply -- and recognize conscionable however incorrect I was astir which Pixel exemplary I would really want this year. No, the designers astatine Google haven't tally retired of ideas for decorating a solid rectangle; instead, they've improved thing that was already great. And 1 exemplary successful peculiar near the biggest content connected me.
The Pixel 10 conscionable hardly missed the people
Going into the Made by Google event, I was afloat prepared to slap my wallet down for the modular Pixel 10 model, ending a seven-year streak of buying the XL/Pro variant. The penning was connected the wall: A dedicated telephoto lens would springiness the basal Pixel the camera bump it needed to rival its Pro siblings, Qi2 wireless charging with integrated magnets acceptable the signifier for Android's MagSafe moment, and a charming Indigo colour (pictured above) had my caseless habits drooling.
But a person introspection of the instrumentality and its spec expanse revealed immoderate not-so-obvious shortcomings. First, fitting a dedicated telephoto lens into the rear camera barroom meant that Google had to downgrade to smaller main and ultrawide sensors, resulting successful camera samples that, based connected my albeit constricted illustration size, lacked colour accuracy and opposition compared to the Pro models.
Google is besides launching a caller dock mode that passively displays the time, weather, photos, and adjacent astute location controls erstwhile the Pixel 10 is mounted connected the caller PixelSnap charging mount. However, the modular Pixel 10 lacks the LTPO exertion -- which allows the show to refresh from 1Hz to 120Hz -- recovered connected the Pro models, meaning it's little powerfulness businesslike erstwhile docked.
By the extremity of my Pixel 10 demo, the glossy backmost screen of my Indigo portion was plastered with fingerprint marks -- a gentle reminder of wherefore the astir costly phones connected the marketplace opt for satin finishes alternatively of shiny glass.
I astir folded for this Pixel exemplary
That near maine with the Pixel 10 Pro phones, including a Fold exemplary that features slimmer beforehand surface bezels, a larger battery, the aforesaid Qi2 charging arsenic the Pixel 10, and a $1,799 terms tag that makes you deliberation twice. Coming from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which greatly improved successful lightness and ergonomics this year, I was afloat prepared for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to consciousness outdated.
Instead, the instrumentality felt balanced and, frankly, overmuch much durable successful the hand. Google's done thing extravagant with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold; it's the archetypal foldable telephone ever to beryllium certified with an IP68 rating, making it some water- and dust-resistant. Why has this ne'er been done before? The mechanical quality of foldable phones, with each their hinge systems and obstruction maneuvers, makes it astir intolerable to fend disconnected dust-sized particles.
Achieving this engineering feat automatically puts the Pixel 10 Pro Fold up of the contention erstwhile it comes to longevity and reliability. (Again, the designers astatine Google are intelligibly not retired of ideas.)
Then came the atrocious news. Like erstwhile years, Google's astir costly hardware merchandise is simply a tier beneath the Pro and Pro XL models erstwhile it comes to wide specs similar camera and charging, a prime that makes the Pro Fold a pugnacious merchantability against much capable, non-folding flagships. This exemplary besides charges astatine up to 30W wired and 15W wireless, compared to the Pro XL's 45W wired and 25W wireless.
That leaves two, and 1 large quality
The Pixel 10 Pro features a 6.3-inch display, portion the 10 Pro XL features a 6.8-inch display.
Google has kept the diagnostic parity betwixt its Pro and Pro XL models reasonably balanced implicit the years, and from a bird's-eye view, that remains existent successful 2025. But past you commencement to announcement the insignificant ways successful which the XL exemplary pulls up and wonderment if the spread has ever been larger.
Like with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, charging and endurance are the astir notable differences betwixt the Pro and Pro XL. The second has some a larger artillery (5,200mAh vs. 4,870mAh) and faster wired and wireless charging. It's besides the lone Pixel exemplary this twelvemonth to enactment the caller Qi2.5 standard, allowing it to propulsion successful wireless vigor astatine a 25W rating.
I've besides recovered the Pro XL model's larger 6.8-inch surface much optimal for Google's assorted caller AI features, whether it's for displaying Magic Cues successful messages and telephone calls, oregon photograph tips erstwhile Camera Coach is turned on, cementing it arsenic the telephone I'll apt upgrade to this summer.
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