Google Pixel 10 & Pro XL Hands-On - Watch BEFORE You Buy! (seriously...)

0:00 You know how Apple made the iPhone 10 launch? Like a really big upgrade, brand new design that kind of ushered in a new era. We had the first OLED screen. We had Face ID. Big upgrade. Well, hey, it's Google Pixel's turn. Happy birthday, Pixel series. Although, this one's a bit more of a quiet stay at home with your M and Dad kind of birthday party. And hey, there's nothing wrong with that. And the Pixels have been quietly getting better and better over the last few years. And this year, it's a bit of a mixed bag, actually. Let me walk you through it. see what you think. So, we have four new phones. The Pixel 10, the 10 Pro, the 10 Pro XL, and the 10 Pro Fold, plus a new Pixel Watch and Pixel Buds, but I'm going to focus on the phones in this video. And across the board, we have new colors. We have a new chip, the Tensor G5, new cameras. Well,

0:47 sort of. With the regular Pixel 10 now getting a third telephoto lens just like its big pro brothers, we get brighter screens, better speakers, bigger batteries, a whole bunch of new AI features, including a very nifty new long range AI camera zoom for the Pro phones. We also have these new magic cues, which might just be the smartest thing I've seen on a phone in quite a long time. And also a well slightly awkward new live translation tool mimicking your tone of voice. >> How do I get? Hello, I'm saying I'm doing well. your day. >> Although, to give you some context, this hands-on where I got to film the phones for about an hour was about 4 weeks before launch. So, very, very early software. Obviously, things will get better. And also, you'll notice I show a lot of the lock screen and the design because we couldn't actually unlock the phones and play around with them except

1:33 for where the Google uh professionals were showing off their demos. It was a a bit of a weird hands-on, but hey, you don't care about that. What you probably will care about is this Pixel Snap. Essentially, Google's answer to iPhone's MagSafe ecosystem. So you can magnetically attach chargers and wallets and cases and all those lovely things. And also across the board, the Pixel 10 series supportsQi2 wireless charging. And even faster, Chi 2.2 on the Pro XL. So while there's maybe no crazy chuck your current phone in the bin, rush out and buy one, put your hat on feature. Mixing my metaphors there. There's no one like single thing except maybe Pixel app that's like, "Holy crap, I want to buy a Pixel 10 series." But there's lots of little upgrades that add up to quite a nice refinement. Prices have stayed the same, at least here in the UK. And as always, being Pixel phones, they will always be the first to get new Android

2:20 software. Google promises seven years of updates, and there's no ugly third-party skins or bloatware. I like a Pixel. I really do. But I think they could have done a bit more with the 10 series, and I'll explain why in a second. But first, we have to talk about the most important thing when it comes to new phones. That's right, the colors. The regular Pixel 10 comes in indigo, frost, obsidian, and lemongrass, or as I like to call it, radiated piss yellow. >> It's tip top. It's just I'm not sure about the color. >> The Pros come in a very nice jade and moonstone, as well as the usual obsidian and porcelain with the 10 Pro Fold in Moonstone and Jade. I reckon I would get the indigo, Pixel 10, and probably the Moonstone for the Pro or the Fold. But what do you reckon? Design-wise, it's

3:05 all very similar to last year's Pixel 9 series. And that's fine. I think Google have a good thing going here. It looks good. It's very comfortable to hold with these rounded corners. Feels a lot like an iPhone, if I'm honest. The biggest change really is just how similar the regular Pixel 10 and the Pros now look as they both have this triple camera system. Obviously, you've got the bigger one, that's the Pro XL, but aside from that, kind of hard to tell between them. So, I asked one of the Google chaps at the event and he said, "Well, the regular Pixel 10 has a matte finish on the frame. The Pro Series is glossy. You will also notice if I show you the bottom of the phone here, how it looks a little bit different to last year's phone because all Pixel 10s benefit from an upgraded top speaker by the earpiece, but the Pro XL, only the big one, also gets an improved bottom speaker. And I'll test the difference properly in my

3:50 full review. They're also all a touch heavier. The 10ens added 6 g, the Pro 8 g, Pro XL 11 g, which makes it 232. Basically the heaviest flagship out there. Fortunately, the fold's only 1 g heavier, and it is actually 0.4 millimeters thinner when folded, thanks to a new gearless hinge, which they promise will last more than 10 years. So, hey, make sure you like and subscribe, and I will see you in 2035 for my long-term review of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Oh, and speaking of the Fold, this is actually the first foldable to get an IP68 dust and water resistance rating, which matches the rest of the lineup. It also has tougher screens and slightly thinner bezels, although they didn't really make it easy for us to see as all the phones were restricted to the lock screen outside of the specific demos. Now, while everyone and their dog

4:36 will be talking about whether they love or hate the lemongrass color and pixel snap and all those things, I did a little bit of digging into the tech specs of the Pixel 10 series provided to me by Google. And it turns out they've dropped the SIM card, the physical SIM card support in the US, just like the iPhone. Outside of America, it's still available. But for my US friends, across the entire Pixel 10 series, you are now limited to eSIM only. That's a bit disappointing. Also, I noticed for whatever reason, the standard Pixel 10 is Wi-Fi 6E. Last year's Pixel 9 was Wi-Fi 7. It doesn't affect the 10 Pro series or the Fold, they're still Wi-Fi 7. And also, when we come to the cameras in a second, there's also another big downgrade. But first, let's talk about the new brightness, the higher brightness. We have the same screen sizes across the board. 6.3 in on the 10

5:23 and 10 Pro, 6.8 on the Pro XL. Same size, same resolution, same refresh rate with the Pros getting the more dynamic 1 to 120 Hz versus 60 to 120 on the base 10. Apple, are you watching? 120 Hz on the base phone. Come on. The Fold also has the same 6.4 in outer screen and 8 in inner tablet. And actually, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is only two millimeters thicker than a Fold 7, although it is significantly heavier. This is a chunky boy. But the good news is Google have bumped up the brightness across all phones by around 10%. The Pixel 10 goes from 1,800 nits in HDR to 2,000. The Pros go from 2,000 to 2200 with a similar jump for their peak brightnesses. Always good to see a improvement to the brightness, but unfortunately no mention of the PWM, the

6:10 pulse with modulation because currently I think with the Pixel 9 series, they're about 240 Hz PWM, which is the lowest really among all flagship phones. So, that's a bit disappointing we didn't see an upgrade there. Now, I think it's fair to say that Pixel phones have never been the fastest uh or the longest lasting or the fastest to charge. In fact, in my battery test, the Pixels typically come last or second from last. Well, then fingers crossed that the new Tensor G5 chip along with bigger batteries will give the Pixels a nice little boost. And in fact, if we talk about the batteries first, 4970, 4870, and 5200 mAh, respectively. Although, I'm a bit surprised the Pro has a slightly smaller battery than the base model, but we're still talking between sort of four and 6% higher capacity than last year. And

6:56 also confidently claiming the Pro XL has the longest battery life ever on a Pixel. Hey, I'm here for it, but I'm going to test all that in my full review. Also good news that the Pixel Fold, the Tempro Fold has a significantly bigger battery as well. We've gone up from what is it 4650 to 5,150 mAh, which makes it significantly bigger than the 4,400 mAh you get in the Fold 7. So, I'm expecting the new Fold to have the biggest jump in terms of battery life. As for charging, they all support 30 watt wired with the exception of the Pro XL, which enjoys a beefier 45 watts wired charging. Plus, they're all CH2 certified, which is still 15 watts wireless, but once again, the Pro XL comes into its own as it's the only one to get CHI 2.2, meaning it supports up to 25 watt wireless charging. So, what

7:41 exactly does Chi 2 do if it supports the same 50 watt charging charging as the current Pixel 9? Well, it's not so much about raw higher wattage, but efficiency and also access to accessories. The G2 standard effectively borrows the MagSafe magnets from the iPhone. They literally Apple gave the G2 certification board the same technology. So we have those essentially MagSafe magnets in the Pixel 10 series now which means it will support probably Mag Safe accessories. I didn't get to try it but at least the Pixel Snap accessories. So you know wallets, chargers, phone mounts, all these things wirelessly without having to put a case on it, which is the case if you buy one of these phones that say it's G2 ready. Uh that just means that it can support it if you put a case with magnets on it.

8:26 But then as I say the G2.2 two on the Pro XL also bumps up the wattage to 25 W. So, it's a newer standard. It's more reliable, more efficient, less heat, and you get access to a new ecosystem of magnetic accessories. But what about the G5 chip, the Tensor? Well, as you might expect from a brief hands-on, I didn't get any chance to play games or run any benchmarks. Boo. But Google, as you can imagine, are very excited about their new chip. The biggest upgrade to Tensor we've ever seen, they say. It's a 3 nanometer TSMC chip, which they're claiming is about 64% faster in terms of AI, about 30ish% faster, 34% faster uh for the CPU, and just generally they're saying double digits improved, which could be between 10 and 99% uh for the overall phone versus last year. So, hey,

9:11 we'll have to see, but they seem pretty confident it's a big step up. And of course, we're getting a new image signal processor, so that should impact the camera quality. And also, I'm assuming an improved modem for network connectivity. and also hopefully it's more efficient as well to help improve battery life. Lots of things that need to be tested in my full review. So, the G5 is paired with 12 gigs of RAM on the Pixel 10 and 16 on the Pros and the Fold and also 128 gigs of storage as standard. You have to go for the Pro XL or the Fold if you want 256 gigs of standard. Oh, and there is also a new one TBTE option for the new 10 Pro Fold if your name is Mr. Moneybags. So far so good then. But let's talk about this camera situation because we do have a bit of a situation here. I kind of feel like Pixel cameras have

9:56 plateaued a bit over the last couple of years. Gimmicky new features in place of actually better hardware. I don't really love their portraits like I used to. So, you're probably thinking, "Oh, well, it's the 10th anniversary of Pixel. They've probably made some big improvements to the camera this year." Well, to kick off, the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL have exactly the same camera hardware. No change at all. Well, the main camera they say has slightly improved as image stabilization and also there's this new AI pro zoom which kicks in when you go beyond 30 times. This is exclusive to the new pro phones. And unlike some rivals, actually it's all done on device. You don't need an internet connection, but essentially it's just AI upscaling. So good for landscapes and buildings, not so good for text or people's faces. Let's talk about the base Pixel 10. The good news

10:44 is that it does now get a third lens. The telephoto essentially borrows straight from the Pixel Pro Fold with its five times optical zoom. Nice. But where Pixel giveth, they also take away because it appears the ultrawide cameras had a massive downgrade. 48 megapixels down to 13, a 1 over 2.55 in sensor down to 1 over 3.1. And it's lost autofocus support. And most frustratingly, the main camera on the Pixel 10 downgraded from 50 megapixels last year to 48. And the one over 1.31 inch sensor is now a much smaller one over two inch. That is the same main camera as the Pixel 9a. What's happening? So the Pixel 10 adds a telephoto but nerfs the other two lenses and the 10 Pro series stays the same. Great. Also, compared to the Pro models,

11:30 the base Pixel 10 doesn't give you 8K video recording option. Not the end of the world. Uh but also you do miss out on video boost and also night sight video. The other problem is that because the Pixel 10's and the Pros now basically look the same, at least in terms of the camera system. The average person going into a shop may think, well, that's the same camera. Well, they are definitely not the same cameras. If I put the specs side by side, on paper, there's actually a huge difference. I'm also a little bit confused by the Pixel Pro Fold's new camera. Google say that we have a new wide new main camera on the Pro on the Tempro Fold, but according to the specs, it's identical to the previous one. same resolution, sensor size, aperture, and that's along with the same 10.5 megapixel ultrawide and the same 10.8 megapixel telephoto as

12:16 before. However, the Pixel 10 series does have a few tricks up its sleeve in the form of the new ISP on the new chip and also some interesting new software features. Firstly, Google say that the color, detail, noise reduction, focus, zoom are all improved on the new Pixel phones, which of course are things that aren't really present on a spec sheet. They've also upgraded the portrait mode to make it more authentic looking. But also have a look at this. This is camera coach giving you tips and advice within the camera app for composition, for better angles, editing, basically getting the best shot. And this is using ondevice AI with Google Gemini. We also have this guided frame and accessibility tool which works on any scene and verbally describes what the camera is seeing. >> Smiles at the camera and holds his camera at arms length. They've also

13:03 improved best take to auto best take. So if you take a group photo, it can analyze up to 150 photos and then give you a composite with everyone looking their best. In theory, you can also now use natural language to ask photos to say fix lighting in this picture, change the framing, remove photo bomber on the Pro phones, the ultra wide lens can also now use vision boost. And of course, we now have this AI pro zoom. Last but not least though, the Pixels do of course ship with Android 16 and also we get their latest Pixel UI called Material 3. Obviously, this will be coming to older Pixels as well, but it is quite cool with these new live effects on the home screen. 7 years of software updates, and if you do buy a Pixel 10, they'll chuck in a year of Gemini Pro for free, which includes their V3 video generation. Also, coming to the UK and North

13:49 America, at least to start with, we have Magic Q, which uses Gemini to help give you relevant information. And so, for example, if you're calling an airline, it'll then pull the relevant information from your Gmail onto the screen or if your friends ask for information or pull from your calendar, and you'll see this little rainbow outline to show where Magic Q can help. And we also have this new live voice translate. So, when you're making a phone call, if you're speaking in a different language, it will translate, but actually keep your accent and intonation and style with the idea being you'll have a more natural conversation. But at least in the hands-on demo, it was a little hit or miss. would be say hi. >> Hello. I'm saying I'm doing well. I'll your day one. I've never seen a monies either. Maybe we can go there together.

14:34 >> Yes, let's do it. >> So, let's wrap this up because this was far too long for a hands-on first look video. I'm quietly excited for the new Pixel 10 series. I think if I was going to buy one, I would get the Pixel 10 Pro XL because not only do you get the bigger screen and the biggest battery, but also it has the cheap 2.2 charging. Both the top and bottom speakers have been upgraded and probably most importantly it comes with 256 gigs of storage as standard. 128 for the regular 10 Pro I just don't think is enough. But hey, I don't want to give buying advice just yet because I haven't reviewed them. I've only had an hour with them and there is a lot to test. So make sure you hit that subscribe button. But what do you make of the new Pixel 10s? Let me know in the comments below.