Smartphone review
Can Google’s bulkier Pixel 10 win the flagship race?
With seven years of Android updates, better zoom, and a sub-$900 price, the Pixel 10 bets on brains over looks.
Top line
The Google Pixel 10 is somewhat heavy and bulky. It doesn’t look as sleek as today’s ultra-slim devices, and its design is far from striking. But in terms of performance, it delivers a compelling package: an excellent screen, a high-quality camera, and a wide range of AI features seamlessly integrated into daily use.
At its current price, the Pixel 10 undercuts flagship rivals like Samsung’s Galaxy S25 and Apple’s iPhone 17, while still offering comparable capabilities.
Details
Google dominates the smartphone world as the developer of Android, the operating system that powers most of the world’s phones. Yet as a hardware maker, it remains a relatively minor player. Its Pixel devices have a modest market share and trail far behind Samsung, Xiaomi, and other manufacturers.
That’s partly because Google officially sells the Pixel in only a limited number of countries and avoids competing too aggressively with Android partners.
As Google’s “home” device, every Pixel comes with the latest, unmodified version of Android, clean, fast, and free of third-party interface layers. Pixel phones also benefit from exclusive features that other Android devices don’t receive. Google recently launched the Pixel 10 lineup, and we tested the base model, provided courtesy of the GoMobile network.
Design and build: Everything stays the same
The Pixel 10 looks almost identical to its predecessor, with only a fraction of a millimeter added to its thickness. Unlike the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air, it doesn’t chase ultra-thin design. Compared to those models, the Pixel 10 looks noticeably chunkier, though the numerical difference is smaller than it appears.
The screen remains 6.3 inches, and the device gained about 6 grams, tipping it over the 200-gram mark. It feels heavy, just as the previous generation did after its own weight increase. The design remains otherwise unchanged, including the distinctive camera bar across the back.
Durability is solid, with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back and IP68 certification for dust and water resistance (up to 30 minutes at 1.5 meters deep).
Hardware: A needed upgrade
The Pixel 10 runs on Google’s new Tensor G5 processor, an upgrade over the G4, and pairs it with 12GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. Performance is smooth in daily use, and the phone handles heavy games, though the frame does warm up during extended play.
The screen is excellent, with brightness strong enough for outdoor use, similar to last year. The stereo speakers deliver impressively powerful sound, among the best heard on a smartphone.
The battery capacity has grown slightly to 4,970mAh. Charging is faster: with a 65W charger (sold separately), the phone charged from 15% to 50% in 20 minutes and reached full power in about an hour and a half.
Software and interface: More AI than ever
As with last year’s model, the biggest innovations are in software. The Pixel 10 ships with Android 16 and promises seven years of updates. Familiar apps return, including Pixel Studio for generating images and stickers via text prompts, alongside new additions.
Among them: NotebookLM, an AI tool that compiles information into a virtual notebook, which can then be transformed into a podcast, explainer video, or other formats. It integrates with other Pixel tools, such as transcription, though not yet in Hebrew.
Gemini is also tightly integrated, including into the camera app. Its “Photo Assistant” can analyze images and suggest improvements, though the process takes several seconds, making it impractical for fast-moving shots. Another feature lets you seamlessly add people into group photos, eliminating the need for Photoshop.
Cameras: A real zoom upgrade
The Pixel 10 now features three rear cameras: a 48MP main lens, a 10.8MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom, and a 13MP ultra-wide. Daylight photos are sharp and vibrant, while night shots capture significant light but can occasionally blur.
Google markets its 10x digital zoom as “optical quality”, and while that’s a stretch, the image processing is so strong that results remain impressively sharp and readable.
Video editing is enhanced with on-device audio controls. The system automatically identifies voices and background noise, allowing each to be boosted or reduced individually, all without external software.
