Google’s “Same But Different”: A Deep Dive

In the last two weeks I had the opportunity to test the new Pixel 10 smartphone and now I have made time to tell you what the impressions are after I used it intensively, replacing (already) the old Pixel 9 Pro. Finally, I am able to say what can do good, what not and if it is a good investment.

And to answer the above questions I will discuss four aspects: construction (design, materials, how to hold), camera, utility and autonomy/performance, not necessarily in this order.

About Google Pixel 10

Hardware: the same but different

I have to start with the way this phone looks and is built because from here everything leaves: it is fixed the construction found on the Google Pixel 9 Pro, almost the same dimensions, slightly thicker and harder: 152.8 x 72 x 8.6 mm (last year’s model was 8.6 mm thick) and weighs with a few more grams (204g vs. Original Google de Pixel 10 case will have no problem putting P on Pixel 9 Pro.

Look below about what I speak: Left is Pixel 9 Pro, right is the new pixel 10.

Is there anything bad in this thing? By no means, both looks very good.

Being the cheapest model in the Pixel suite this year, Pixel 10 has an aluminum and glass and rear (bright) housing, compared to the PRO models that are more matte. It is a certified IP68 for water and dust resistance, but do not abuse no point, it is what I recommend regardless of the brand.

The system of the cameras remains defining, which this time comes with three on the basic model Pixel 10, compared to only two last year.

The edges of the housing are beautifully rounded, as well as those of the screen, with a slightly more pronounced border:

Beyond the fact that now the basic model of the Pixel series has three rooms and seems identical to Pixel 9 Pro, has a stereo speaker system, and the SIM slot is at the top and not in the lower one.

The buttons (starting/stop and volume) are kept on the right side of the device:

The display on Pixel 10 is an updated one, 160 mm, a resolution of 1080 x 2424 (422 PPI), lower than on the Pixel Pro series. But it has a dynamic frequency display support 60-120 Hz, although it cannot go down to the minimum values, as is the case on the pro variant.

I really like how this screen is seen and I think it’s the good combination of resolution/diagonal for a phone in its category. The colors are seen exceptionally well, in most of the lighting conditions and the black is perfect. I really woke up admiring how the information can be seen on this screen, especially in the conditions in which I chose a dynamic theme that with the help of AI automatically changes the colors of the icons. I recommend you to do this, because I am sure you will like the harmony of colors.

In the images above you can see how the screen curve follows the case. On the other hand, if you want to change the standard resolution settings, the text size will wake up with each application/screen has other font dimensions. The maximum shine of the screen goes to 3000 nits, with 2000 HDR and this contributes to a very good experience that will make you stop the phone.

And Pixel 10 has a fingerprint sensor under the screen, which I saw is going pretty well – I used biometric unlock with fingerprint sensor and facial recognition and for the first time I had no delays in unlocking the phone whenever I needed it.

Pixel 10 comes in four color variants: indigo, frozen lilac, light green and black – the model tested by me is the black one, but I really like the blue version.

Before ending the display part I also tell you that Pixel 10 has the opportunity to use AOD (Always on display) and with Android 16 you can ask him to display interesting things (including pictures from the Google Photos collection) when he is uploading. I usually do not use AOD, I left it actively during the test period and I didn’t feel sorry.

Google has tried to change things at the hardware level in the Pixel 10 series to have reason to say it is a new device. Obviously, the most important is the Tensor G5 chipset, with the Octa-Core system (1 × 3.78 GHz Cortex-X4 & 5 × 3.05 GHz Cortex-A725 & 2 × 2.25 GHz Cortex-A520) Morned with a PowerVR DXT-48-1536 and 12GB RAM (I read that in a constant 4GB mode are used for AI) with AI) 128/256GB for storage, still without support to expand the storage capacity. Do we need that? Apple and Google tell us that they do not give us, online, for money, a job they do not agree with.

Another change is that the bigger idea – 4970 mAh, versus 4700 mAh on Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro. Does the difference feel? I would say not too much, but I talk about it a little further. The package does not come in the package, only the USB Type-C cable and you have to rely on what you have at home-the novelty is that for Pixel 10 Google says it has introduced support for QI2, with 15W charging, compatible with Magsafe accessories.

So in terms of Google Pixel 10 look it is fixed … Pixel 9/9 Pro, but … differently, exactly as Apple likes to say every year.

Autonomy/Performance: Something better than last year’s model

We expect that every year the phones will be faster and more efficient than those of the previous year, without exception. Well, Google, bringing the new Tensor G5 chip and a new GPU (PowerVr instead of Mali) really brings a performance increase in speed and say autonomy. It’s just minimal.

I ran a few benchmarks to see what and how-as every year, the test model ‘do not see’ any benchmark application before the official availability on the market, so I had to install them manually-about the fact that we will soon wake up that this will not be done if Google continues with the initiative, one that has a good thing, which has a good one.

As you can see above, Pixel 10 gets the following results:

• 15577 points in PC Mark Work 3.0
• 1758 Single-Core / 5410 Multi-Core in Geekbench 6
• 12420 in Wid Life and Max-out results in Sling Shot Extreme (almost 50% better on GPU)

They position it over 10% better than last year’s model (see here how Pixel 9 Pro) tells us that it will cope with any operations that you will start, including some games – again I remember that in my use scenario they have no work. I run something from time to time to have an idea whether or not it warms up, yes, it warms up on games and massive traffic on WiFi (it has 6E support), but on the GPU area, thanks to the new PowerVR, it is 50% better than its predecessor.

I struggled a little to measure the autonomy with PC Mark because under the conditions I have been using for 20 years (ie without connection to the net, the brightness to the minimum and the variable display frequency, the battery consumption on the car) the application has been blocked several times. I managed to finish it only with the brightness on the car and I had a result of 14 hours and 38 minutes, with an hour less than I took Pixel 9 Pro, last year, which makes me believe that Pixel 10’s autonomy is still there.

Google says it takes a whole day and agree: if you use it intensely with the screen on the car, 5G, the Bluetooth connection permanently started to communicate with a smart clock/ring, you can pass a day without uploading it, but it is about the limit. It can be loaded with cable, on fast loading, at 30W.

Camera: 3 rooms and a lot of you

Whoever looks at the presentations that Google makes is probably familiar with the fact that any new product is intensely praised on the photo side. It was a time when this was confirmed in the normal use, those who buy the product.

Pixel 10 is the cheapest smartphone in the Pixel range, which is why it does not have all the elements that Pro models, especially opposite cameras, have. For a picture to go well, it takes three elements: a user who knows what to do, a good photo system and a quality sensor and newer … you have a lot. Because the first condition is not common, Google comes and tells us that the AI ​​Plus Hardware on the Pixel series works wonders.

It may do, but not on Pixel 10.

Despite the fact that there is now a three -room photo system:

• 48 MP, f/1.7, 25mm (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
• 10.8 MP, f/3.1, 112mm (telephoto), 1/3.2″, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom
• 13 MP, f/2.2, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/3.1″, PDAF

brought to replace the old combination:

• 50 MP, f/1.7, 25mm (wide), 1/1.31″, 1.2µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
• 48 MP, f/1.7, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.55″, dual pixel PDAF

The results do not seem sensational to me. The 50MP and F/1.7 Wide Wide camera has now become 48sqm and the 48mp ultrawide has left the place of a combination of 13MP/10.8 MP. I do not say this because we have to read only the specifications but because we can understand certain things if we put in context all things.

On good light things are just ok, with well -represented details and colors:

On less light we have interesting grandparents and colors:

That until he gave me a head to try to photograph the moon, with zoom (I took 3 pictures to be sure that something is coming out) and nothing came out, with or without:

Maybe I’m too pretentious, being too close to the moment I used Huawei Pura 80, but the pictures taken by Pixel 10 did not convince me. That’s why I propose that the next weekend I try to take another photo tour, including Pixel 9 Pro.

I said at the beginning that for good pictures the user, hardware and software matters. I talked about the first two, now I go to the last: software. For some time Pixel is about software, initially with unique focus on the photo side, more recently, with the wave, gemini is everywhere. Good part: Google Photos has a lot of tools that can help you take much better pictures on the editing side, including with AI data commands. That is, select a picture and tell the Photos application what you would like – more light, clarity, etc. – It’s just that it doesn’t go to Europe. It’s a function of Google brought on the Pixel 10 series, but not for Europe.

But we have the Camera Coach’s help option to take better pictures, which goes simple: straighten the camera to what you would like to photograph, press the special camera button and the star to tell you to guide you. An analysis of the image will be made and you will be proposed things that Gemini has learned to be done, from analyzing similar pictures.

Does it have an effect? I would say that there will be situations where they will help you, but if you have no idea of ​​photography, do not expect miracles.

Instead, the part with which you can handle the pictures and get fake photos to boast about friends: eliminating people and objects or adding things. That only this is the AI ​​in the pictures: to do something that otherwise you cannot. However, compared to others, Google has announced that it offers Watermark support, through C2PA technology, to delimit the images manipulated with AI by the real ones (or edited with other applications).

In other words, do not hope to get results in the photo area with Pixel 10. I think Pixel 10 Pro is better, it remains to convince myself.

Experience of use: Best Android possible plus a lot of you

I left the end what I liked the most about Pixel 10: the experience of use. It is the phone that reopened my appetite for Android, even version 16, whose design dislikes me. The experience of using a pixel 10 is … something else. From the way you configure it, you personalize it to be yours and to represent you and how the applications and speed it offers you and how Google solutions are integrated.

Maybe that’s why Google has a specialized application called Pixel 10 in which it comes to present all the fine things you can do with your new device. Of course, a lot of AI with which you can become better, smarter, more efficient, as they like to say – your best version.

Here are detailed most of the new functions with Pixel 10 – Camera Coach, Auto Best Take (automatically the processing of several pictures and a combination of them is made, that everyone goes well – another fake, as I said), adding music in the recorder, generating automatic translations, in their own voice, in a few languages ​​(which can not be used, which can not be used, smart, including with the generation of photos and video, etc.

I used some of the functions, especially the conversation part with gems directly in Romanian, but because I did not give it complete access to my data from YouTube, Gmail, phone etc. The experience is not personalized and still we need to pay close attention to what we ask, how we ask for them and how we discern what is true and what is not.

Strictly on the test side I would have wanted to experience how to edit the pictures with text commands – the new paradigm in which you orient yourself and finish, instead of trying to understand how to do it. It’s somewhat normal: we drive a good, economical car, without necessarily knowing how the engine goes or what it has inside, right?

It bothers me that in Europe the elements you have brought by Google on the Pixel 10 series are precarious Photo Studio, I could activate the Daily Hub (a similar thing to what Samsung offers through the Now Brief function, in which relevant information you should do or you will do) through the forced reinstallation of packages Do this because you expose your smartphone to malware infections), photo editing texts do not appear, etc.

I see that on Android 16 the weather forecast with AI Weather is hidden behind Discovery and it’s harder to get to it.

Good – you understood the idea: it is a lot, some options work completely, others do not. Let’s say that it depends on each one to choose and how much it will open to Google and let Gemini read and manipulate personal information.

And even leaving aside all this, Pixel 10 is still a very fine Android smartphone, which moves very well and starts to look. Personalizing the theme on the smartphone-the main screen, the background image, the icons, the lock screen with the help of AI EO that I like from the perspective of color harmonization, not necessarily for design and if you leave the default resolution and font size settings, it looks good. Material 3 expressive appears on more and more Google applications and it seems.

Let us not forget that it is the first smartphone to come with Android 16, the update from August and that Google offers 7 years of Android updates-new versions and security patches, something that only Samsung says it will offer, but not for all models.

Conclusion: A subtle update, with more you have

In conclusion, how is the job with Pixel 10? As you probably intuition, who already has a pixel smartphone in the 8 or 9 Series, has little reason to look at Pixel 10, especially the basic model. Because hardware changes are subtle and I would not necessarily say it is justified for the money given. As Apple would say: It’s the same, but different! This time, in the Google version. Moreover, Pixel 9/8 owners will receive as soon as AI changes while performance update is not necessarily a reason for upgrade.

However, for those who want to change their smartphone and does not have a big budget and wants Android freedom, Pixel 10 is a choice that you have to consider, especially if they follow a complete solution, with which to stay for many years. Pixel 10 seems to me a smartphone that gives the ordinary user fixed what seems correct to me: a personalized, complete use experience 7 years (probably how much life), decent hardware and good autonomy. In terms of skiing, an efficient alloen allound.

I already said: I liked the experience of use. How you hold it in your hand, the bright display and real colors, the fact that the applications integrate properly, that it keeps you one day, that the sound is decent, that you always have the newest Android and that … it is yours. You customize him to look as you want and do what you tell him. Including working with AI to look smarter.

What I don’t like? That without giving the access to your data, it is inefficient (normal) although I think there are areas that should work and without learning things about you. I do not like it to warm up on heavy traffic on WiFi/5G. And that I expected the photo system to work better.

Despite all these shortcomings is an Android smartphone that makes its money, especially if we think Apple brings something similar, but without all the AI ​​offered by Google.

Information: Google

Price: 4700 lei

PS: Because Google brought with the Pixel 10 series support for Magsafe devices and in addition, that Pixel 10 has a glass back, exposed to storage of fingerprints, my recommendation is to use a case with which you shoot two rabbits at once. I had the opportunity to see Google Case, but also this IMAK case, with Magsfe support, which can be found on our MobileDirect partner’s website.

It protects the edge and screen very, being slightly over it. It is made of soft, transparent silicone, to highlight the color of the phone. Cover the photo system completely and the most important is that it does not keep fingerprints!

The Transparent Magsafe Magsafe model can be purchased from here.