Google Pixel 10: What Reddit Owners Actually Think

The list of improvements really is quite minor. You get better performance from the new Tensor G5 chip and some niceties in the form of the magnetic Qi2 charging and Pixelsnap accessories, but that's really about it. As for the downsides, the phone is quite cumbersome to use because of its weight and stiff buttons, the G5 chip is lacking compared to rivals with questionable long-term performance, and the charging speeds and battery life remain unimpressive. The software was also quite buggy.

The Pixel 10 is an Android phone, but you'd never know it from Google's marketing. It barely talks about Android as a platform—the word only appears once on the product pages, and it's in the FAQs at the bottom.

Isn't that the same for almost all phone series now, though? The changes are so small and mostly just incremental improvements. True innovation jumps feel like a long time ago, or just too expensive to justify (like the folding ones).

None of this would be as much of an issue if the phone was priced like $200 less than the competition or if it wasn't released by a company as large as freaking Google.

I've skimmed through the full review, Gsmarena was really harsh and brutal on this one. They usually are overtly positive in Pixel reviews, but this one was really negative. I can't blame them. The specs simply aren't good enough for the price. For 800, maybe 1000 usd it would be great but for 1200 it's just not good enough and is bad vfm compared with its actually flagship competitors.

One of the Pixel 10 Pro XL's party tricks is being able to capture images at 100x. The camera uses data from the sensors and then uses a local upscaling and image reconstruction algorithm to recreate a convincing-looking image. At first glance, these images look quite good until you realize you are mostly just looking at AI hallucinations. The AI can reconstitute details that it is aware of, but if you try capturing text from a distance that it cannot recognize, you get the typical AI garbling.

We're at a point where I can bulk move apps, hide apps and sort pages on my iPhone but can't on my pixel. I can remap lockscreen shortcuts to any app on my iPhone but not on my pixel.

My wife had the 21 ultra and I can't see some of this being true unless you have a defective copy. The front camera on my P10Pro XL is one of the best I've seen, definitely better than the 21 ultra and the iPhone 14 pro max that I had before.

Before the 9 when Google tried to enter flagship design territory, the pixel was priced appropriately for the trade offs. You knew what you were getting. You paid a more mid tier price for non-flagship hardware with Google's software features. It was a great deal and the trade off made sense. If they want to charge flagship prices we should get flagship hardware.

Isn't the camera like 100x better? Or the zoom at least. I thought that was the major allure.

Your opportunity to get an extremely poorly performing Tensor Processor, for a lot more than it's worth still.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL ups the wattage from 37W to 45W this year. Despite that, we somehow got worse charging speeds on this year's model. New chip and allegedly more powerful charging but still mid performance, likely below average battery endurance, and somehow slower charging? And not mentioned by EU-based GSMarena is US Pixel 10 series have lost their physical sim slot.

My phone auto-screened 12 suspected spam calls in the background today, and I never even had a ring. All automatic.

You sure they didn't give you a refurb? Worth checking. In any case, you could send it back and ask for another just to be sure you didn't get a lemon.

You either got a defective unit or the build quality on pixel 10 has gone inferior, I have a pixel 8a which is weaker in terms of specifications, but runs butter smooth with no problems, I also come from a s21 ultra.

I just upgraded from 6 Pro to 10 Pro. The initial feeling is the 10 Pro is much smoother and responsive. Will see if my happiness holds.

Great take. You will never convince a raw specs user otherwise. I'll take something smooth with solid battery life and a great camera over hardcore specs. If I wanted to game I'd be using a gaming system.

I don't think Google is too worried about peak performance as long as the phone is smooth, an 865 or 888 with a better GPU would likely be more than enough for 9/10 people, however the buggy software is a major issue, reliable smooth software is pixels main selling point.

10th iteration and they still can't make a damn phone that takes good video. If they want iPhone defectors this has to be priority number one, not stupid AI parlor tricks nobody wants.

There's only so much you can improve on a pocket PC you use to load up on dopamine.

Literally every other major Android manufacturer has implemented the new animation engine, that can handle multiple animations at the same time. Pixel OS is stuck on being limited to finishing one animation before being able to handle the next input. To me Pixels feel like the slowest phones on the market right now. Oxygen, Hyper and OneUI all adopted the new engines and feel incredibly fluid and satisfying. Going back from one of these flagships to a Pixel 9/10 Pro feels super bad.

If people pay 1000+ for one they are bound to be disappointed. I got mine for 500 with promos and its great. Then again I'm not the type of person who buys phones as a hobby.

Got mine about a month ago and no complaints here. I got it for the camera and really impressed with it!

Did anybody see the article about battery intelligence will limit the phone to a 80% charge after 200 cycles no way of the user turning it off so that kind of sucks as well.

I feel that the Tensor 1 is very good optimized right now. (Except for the modem, which is hardware)

I have the exact same story! I just upgraded my pixel 6 pro to that pixel 10 XL. Mainly because of battery issues. I'm very happy so far.

Coming from someone that had a P2, P3, and P6, the 10 has been wonderful and so slick and fast. Make sure to get a higher storage capacity because the internal AI chipset takes up a lot of space by default and you can't disable or remove it.

Phones have reached the point where actual usability improvements are so few that it's a waste of money to buy a new one, if the old one is working fine. And sometimes, you end up with unforeseen added features that are ridiculous and contribute to battery drain. Perfect example is AI. IMO, the bulk of it is not really helpful and so buggy that it is often frustrating and just in the way. And if a feature works well, Google is quick to remove it or make it not worth having.

Another big problem with the entire Tensor lineup is that battery life still isn't good. Efficiency is still bad compared to the flagship competition, leading to worse battery life at the same price tag. I also have no idea why Google chose to downgrade the GPU. They could've chosen something like an Immortalis and get very close to class-leading.

I disable a lot of the AI crap. Other than that, it's the best phone out there. Clean stock Android is the most important thing. Besides that, it's got a great camera. Screen, battery, etc are all pretty standard for a modern flagship.

Unfortunately Googles lack of innovation and insistence on AI features no one really asked for has resulted in a software and hardware experience that sucks. My pixel 6 pro was awesome compared to the competition at the time. Now I'm using a 10 pro Fold... And its just underwhelming.

I got the Pixel 10 Pro XL in September, so far one of the best phones I ever owned. It looks and feels premium, the SoC is surprisingly good and probably the first actual efficient Tensor chip, the TSMC architecture really did the difference this time around, it's powerful (don't mind the shit behind benchmark scores), the phone literally never heats up and keeps a stable temperature even during prolonged use sessions.

I love the P9 which is essentially a slightly cut down P10. Honestly, I love it so much. The design is so clean and unique. I love that it has its own identity and is immediately recognizable as a pixel phone. To me it's the iphone of Android which is a big praise in itself. The camera is amazing, the UI is top notch, and the performance is sufficient for me. AI features are neat and handy at times. All in all, its a lovely phone. I will stick to pixels from now on.

I think it's mainly a pricing issue. It's just a mid-range processor with a flagship MSRP. If the tensor was priced according to its performance, then it would be an excellent value. It's one of the reasons it constantly goes on sale in order to compete. No one is paying $800 for a 128gb Pixel 10 when you can get an iPhone 17 for the same price with 256gb standard.

I just feel like you don't get what you paid for with a Pixel if the software doesn't fully work. Speaking strictly hardware wise, at the same price you get much better phones. But yeah the UI is also one part that made me pick pixel in the first place.

Had a P10PXL since September and it's the best phone I've ever used. Zero complaints.

I've been using Pixel since Pixel 1, and I am very disappointed with 10. They cut cost on so many different things that made the phone not appealing.

Coming from a 6a. Love it. Better battery life. Better signal. Better camera. Better performance.

I have the pixel 10 pro xl. I have had it for less than 24 hours and it already has mystery scratches, and deep ones. Get a screen protector on this phone immediately because the quality of the screen is pretty awful.

Reason I'm not upgrading from 7 to a new pixel is the battery. My 7 is just over 3 years old and the battery has become hugely annoying. That's at least 1 year too little. And looking at phone comparisons the 10 series still has the worst battery life of any comparable phones and I have zero confidence that longevity is improved. Huge shame. I love the phone otherwise. Takes photos on its own. Super fast and responsive. No clutter. Clean UX.

My experience with the 10 Pro XL was MUCH worse than when I had the 9 Pro XL. I think it's partly due to the change in GPU. It's just not running up to par from what I've seen. I should note that I am from Wisconsin in the U.S. and I'm a pretty heavy user. I would say I much prefer the 9 series in all honesty.

Pictures on this device were amazing, but app issues and Bluetooth connectivity killed it for me. iPhones just work and I wanted to love the pixel but I went back after 4-5 months.

I went from a Pixel 6 (regular) to pixel 10 (regular) and I really can't tell a difference, which to me is shocking since there is a 3 model difference. I'm on day 3 of using it and nothing at all sticks out as a 'wow' factor. Not the battery life, not snappier, nothing.

Got it about a month ago, it's a good phone. Solid battery life (for my usage), good cameras overall and almost compact design. Came from S25 ultra and before that p8. It's not a groundbreaking device but I find pixels doing the ordinary stuff really well, and that's what I need.