Assessed the Google Pixel 10 Pro: Surprisingly Superior Performance Compared to Initial Impressions
The Google Pixel 10 Pro, the latest addition to Google's premium smartphone lineup, has hit the market, and we've put it through its paces to bring you a detailed analysis.
Charging and Battery Performance
The Pixel 10 Pro delivers good overall charging performance with 30W wired charging, although it takes five minutes longer to charge to full compared to its predecessor, the Pixel 9 Pro. However, its battery life has shown significant improvement over time, with reports of around six hours of usage after a month.
Design and Storage
A notable design change is the absence of a physical SIM card slot, with the Pixel 10 Pro supporting eSIM only. The device features a larger 4,870 mAh battery, a three-percent increase over the Pixel 9 Pro's 4,700 mAh battery. Despite the larger battery, the base model starts with 128GB of storage, which some users might find limiting for long-term use.
Display and Camera
The Pixel 10 Pro sports a 6.3-inch OLED display, boasting a slightly increased peak brightness of 3,300 nits. The camera performance is similar to that of the Pixel 9 Pro, delivering vibrant, detailed, and natural photos. The device also introduces a new AI-powered 100x zoom to compete with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, although it maintains a 5x optical zoom, unlike its competitors.
Performance and Battery Life Impact
The Pixel 10 Pro is built on the 3nm process with the Tensor G5 chipset, a shift from Samsung Foundry to TSMC. While the Tensor G5 offers improvements to the camera's ISP and up to 34% higher CPU performance, it struggles with graphics and scores poorly compared to many of the best phones in GPU benchmarks. The extensive use of AI features such as Magic Cue and those in the camera app significantly affects the battery life of the Pixel 10 Pro.
Magnetic Charging and ProRes Zoom
The Pixel 10 Pro supports Pixelsnap magnetic wireless charging, which is the first native Qi2 magnetic charging solution. The device also offers the ProRes Zoom feature, providing great zoom performance at both 30x and 100x. However, it only features 15W magnetic charging, not the faster 25W Qi 2.2 charging offered by the Pixel 10 Pro XL.
Competition and LTE Performance
Direct competitors of the Google Pixel 10 Pro with larger zoom cameras are the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, both positioned as flagship devices with advanced camera systems offering extended zoom capabilities beyond the Pixel 10 Pro's 5x optical zoom and 100x AI-supported zoom. The Pixel 10 Pro's battery saver mode completely disables the 5G radio on the phone, which can potentially weaken LTE performance in key areas.
Weight and Variations in Battery Life
The Pixel 10 Pro is slightly heavier than the Pixel 9 Pro, weighing eight grams more. The battery life of the Pixel 10 Pro has varied during the reviewer's eight-day usage, ranging from four to six hours of screen time, with some days lasting less than four hours, particularly when using the camera.
In conclusion, the Google Pixel 10 Pro offers a solid performance with its improved battery life, AI-powered zoom, and magnetic charging solution. However, its competitors, such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, offer extended zoom capabilities, which might be a deciding factor for some users.
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