Google has finally unveiled its new smartphone lineup, the Pixel 10 series. While each model in the series is better than its respective predecessor, I am going to buy the Google Pixel 10 because of these four upgrades.
4
Tensor G5 Processor
The Tensor chip available in the Google Pixel 9 is built on the foundation of Samsung’s Exynos processors. Unfortunately, the Exynos processors have so many drawbacks that even Samsung doesn’t use them and instead relies on Qualcomm to power its flagship devices, such as the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The use of Exynos processors has resulted in Google receiving more complaints than appreciation for its Pixel devices.
The Pixel 9 has always been in the news because of different issues, such as overheating even during regular usage, rapidly losing charge, and encountering various connectivity problems. However, in the Pixel 10, Google has used the Tensor G5 chip, which is most likely going to address all these issues.
The best thing about the Tensor G5 chip is that it’s Google’s first chip designed from scratch in partnership with TSMC. As a heads-up, TSMC is the same company behind the powerful iPhone A-Series chips.
Unlike the G4 chipset, which is built on Samsung’s 4nm architecture, the G5 chipset is built on TSMC’s 3nm architecture. The use of this new architecture has allowed Google to add more transistors to the chip, ultimately making the Pixel 10 more power-efficient. Furthermore, it makes the CPU 34% and the TPU 60% more powerful than those in the Pixel 9.
3
Big Battery Life
Google Pixels are not among the smartphones with the best battery life. However, by introducing a bigger battery in the Pixel 10, it seems that Google has finally started to give importance to its smartphones’ battery.
The Google Pixel 10 comes with a 4970 mAh battery, which is almost 5.8% more than what you get in the Pixel 9. That’s definitely not a big jump, but an upgrade is an upgrade after all. It’s important to note that the use of the new Tensor G5 chip, Exynos 5400 modem, and improved thermal system will complement the battery. As a result, you will definitely get more power backup than what you would expect from just a 5.8% increase in battery size.
The charging speed has also received an upgrade in the Google Pixel 10. In comparison to the 27W wired charging in the Pixel 9, the Pixel 10 offers 30W charging. The smartphones also support 15W wireless charging using Qi2. Interestingly, Google has installed the magnets right inside the phone. So, you simply need to take Google’s Qi2 charger, which Google calls the PixelSnap charger, and attach it to the back of the Pixel 10 to start charging it.
2
Telephoto Lens
The telephoto lens was previously exclusive to Pixel Pro models. But in the Pixel 10 series, Google has offered the telephoto lens in the base Pixel model as well.
The smartphone comes with a 5x telephoto lens that offers 10x optical image quality and Super Res Zoom up to 20x. This will allow you to take high-quality zoom shots. However, I didn’t like Google’s approach of downgrading the main and ultra-wide cameras. They have reduced the main camera from 50 MP to 48 MP and the ultra-wide camera from 48 MP to 13 MP. Perhaps Google will be able to compensate for that through software processing. I will definitely put that to the test once I get my hands on the Pixel 10.
1
Bunch of AI Features
This year’s Made by Google event was all about AI features in the Pixel 10 series, and I must say that I loved all of them. Let’s begin with the Magic Cue feature, which was the main highlight of the event, in my opinion.
The Magic Cue feature predicts and displays information on your Pixel screen. For instance, when you call an airline to inquire about your flight, the Magic Cue feature will automatically go through your email to find the flight details and display them on your screen.
Similarly, if you were chatting with your friend on Google Messages and they asked you to recommend a good restaurant near your area, then the Magic Cue feature would automatically go through your Google Search or Google Maps history to find restaurants you have searched for in your area and display those restaurant names as floating suggestions in the Google Messages app. You simply need to tap on a suggestion to send it. In essence, the Magic Cue feature ensures you quickly get the information you are looking for without having to manually search for it on your device.
The next AI feature is real-time voice translation, and as you would expect, it translates your voice as you speak in any language. Once you enable the voice translation feature, you need to choose the language into which you want your voice to be translated. For instance, if your primary language is English but the person you are talking to speaks German, then you select German as the language into which you want the AI to translate your voice.
Now, as you speak, the AI feature will translate your English into German, and the person on the other end will hear everything you say in German. Similarly, the German that the other person is speaking will be translated into English. This feature completely removes the language barrier when you are talking with someone who doesn’t speak your first language.
What separates Google’s voice translation from Apple’s Live Translation feature is that the translated voice on Pixel phones sounds similar to your own voice instead of a robotic AI sound, ensuring that the other person doesn’t feel like they are talking to an AI. Interestingly, all the translations happen on your Pixel phone, and the other person doesn’t need a Pixel device to hear the translated voice.
Camera Coach is another AI feature that you get in the Google Pixel 10. You will find it in the camera app, and as you would expect from a coach, it guides you to make your photographs look better. It uses the Gemini model to detect the area and objects you are capturing and offers different suggestions accordingly. For instance, you may see this feature recommending improvements to the lighting, composition, camera position, and more.
Since I’m purchasing the Pixel 10 mainly for taking photographs, I am looking forward to using the Camera Coach feature a lot.
AI features are coming to the Pixel 10 Google Photos app as well. While viewing a photo, if you think you need to remove an object from it, then instead of manually doing the editing, you simply need to type the edits you want to make in the Gemini search field that appears at the bottom. The Google Photos app will then apply the requested edits.
These were some of the reasons I am getting the Google Pixel 10 this year. The iPhone 17 series is just around the corner as well, but according to all the leaks that have come out till now, there isn’t any feature coming that’s going to make me ditch the Pixel 10 for the iPhone 17. Anyway, the pre-orders for the Google Pixel 10 have already started, and the device will start shipping from 28th August.