TECH

Pixel 10 Pro: Powerful smartphone with weak heart

The Pixel 10 Pro achieved a very good result in our review, but it does have a few unnecessary weaknesses, particularly in terms of performance. We'll summarise everything for you again.

The Google Pixel 10 Pro is a compact premium smartphone with high-quality materials, good workmanship and IP68 certification. Minor weaknesses such as minimal gaps and a slight crunch when twisted do little to detract from the otherwise high-quality impression. The features are modern, with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, UWB and the new ‘Pixelsnap’ magnet. However, there are still some limitations: the USB-C port only supports FAT32 and exFAT, not NTFS, and the UFS 4.0 storage is slow.

The software side is particularly strong. Android 16 comes with seven years of updates and numerous AI features such as Gemini, Circle to Search and live translations. However, the latter seem immature and often deliver incorrect results. On the positive side, Google is committed to recycled materials, plastic-free packaging and promises repairability via iFixit – although spare parts are not yet available at the time of testing.

The OLED display impresses with high brightness and good colour reproduction, but suffers from PWM flickering, which is not always alleviated despite the 480 Hz option. Overall, the camera delivers very good images and a powerful zoom, but shows weaknesses in details, low-light shots and AI-assisted zoom results. New features such as the Camera Coach offer little practical added value.

Tensor G5 lags behind the competition...The Google Pixel 10 Pro is equipped with the Tensor G5 processor and boasts a relatively generous 16GB of RAM. System performance is very good and not particularly stellar, but benchmarks show that it lags significantly behind most competitors.

The Pixel 10 Pro also doesn't make any significant leaps in graphics performance, barely faster than the Pixel 9 Pro. The integrated IMG DXT-48-1536 processor isn't capable of ray tracing.

With Google's focus on AI performance, the day-to-day speed of its phones has always lagged behind other Android flagships. However, thanks to the Tensor G5, the Pixel 10 line has significantly closed that gap thanks to CPUs that are over 30% faster than before. Even without the ability to run some of our traditional tests, like Geekbench 6, I noticed significantly faster load times in some of my favorite games.

The difference between the Tensor G5 and its competitors is more pronounced. The Pixel 10 Pro runs smoothly in everyday use, but benchmarks and gaming tests reveal clear shortcomings. Demanding titles such as Genshin Impact do not always run smoothly, and ray tracing is completely absent. Battery life is decent, but charging speed is only average at 30 W wired and 15 W wireless.

The bottom line is that the Pixel 10 Pro impresses with its long update promise, solid everyday usability and many AI extras. However, performance, display flickering and charging speed prevent it from competing at the very top of the high-end class.

Performance Weaknesses:

-Graphics Performance (GPU): The Tensor G5's biggest drawback is its raw graphics performance. Benchmark tests show that the G5's GPU significantly lags behind competitors like the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the Apple A18 Pro. Graphics performance is even worse than the Tensor G4 in some tests, making it less appealing for demanding games.

-Competition with High-End Processors: In synthetic benchmarks like AnTuTu, the G5 can't keep up with Qualcomm's top-of-the-line chips. Although the difference in CPU performance is smaller, its graphics performance and overall score are well below those of its competitors.

The bottom line is that the Pixel 10 Pro (buy here on Amazon) impresses with its long update promise, solid everyday usability and many AI extras. However, performance, display flickering and charging speed prevent it from competing at the very top of the high-end class.

mundophone