Google Pixel 10 announced — and it's the biggest upgrade of the year

It may not have Pro or Fold in its name, but the Google Pixel 10, just announced at Made by Google, may be the pick of Google’s latest smartphone announcements. And that’s all thanks to a generous slate of upgrades over previous Pixels without a price hike.

You’ll pay £799 or $799 for a Pixel 10, exactly what you'd pay for last year’s Pixel 9 when it launched. And if you’re already sold on it, Pixel 10 pre-orders are available from now until the retail launch on August 28th.

The design remains familiar, with a satin finish on the aluminum side rails, a horizontal camera bar across the top third of the phone, and a choice of Obsidian, Frost, Lemongrass and Indigo colorways. That last one is a throwback to the first-gen Pixel that launched a decade ago, which itself came in blue.

When lit up, the 3,000-nit Actua display promises to be one of the brightest available on any phone (although we'll wait for our lab testing to confirm that). Upon that screen you'll be able to check out Google's new Material 3 "Expressive" design in action, which promises to make moving around apps and menus feel more lively and enjoyable to use.

The cameras on the back include a 48MP main sensor and a 13MP ultrawide one. But the big news is that Google's added a 10.8MP 5x telephoto camera, the first on a base Pixel model. This is a generous upgrade considering the phone's no more expensive than before, but puts the Pixel 10 on par with the Galaxy S25 in terms of size and features.

A new chip, the Tensor G5, drives the Pixel 10. This is Google's first 3nm chip, a technology bump that should improve both performance and battery efficiency, areas where the Pixels have lagged behind rival Android phones. Fortunately, the 12GB RAM should mean the Pixel 10 has no issue at all with app multitasking or AI features.

Google promises over 30 hours of battery life from the Pixel 10, and a refuel from 0-55% in half an hour with 30W wired charging. If wireless charging is more your thing, you can use Qi2 magnetic charging via Google's new PixelSnap accessories. On top of the Pixelsnap charger, the new peripherals line includes a ring stand and magnetic cases to help pair those accessories with protection.

You aren't short of AI features with the Pixel 10 series. New additions this time include live call translation using an AI version of the speaker's voice, a new Pixel Journal app with suggestions for entries, integration with Google's NotebookLM tool and updates to Writing Tools and Pixel Studio.

To help you ask questions about the world around you, Google introduces an improved Visual Overlay with Gemini Live that lets you share your camera viewfinder with the chatbot. A new audio model promises to help Gemini respond to your questions in an appropriate tone too.

The most useful-looking new AI tool is Magic Cue. This looks like an evolution of the autofill tool you've likely used for passwords or contact details on your phone in the past. But by hooking into your Google Calendar and Gmail, Magic Cue can draw on more pieces of information, like flight details or restaurant reservations, and display them for you to share or refer to while you work on something else. It can apparently even make suggestions based on these, such as calling to reschedule your table when your dining partner messages to tell you they're running late.

We've still not got onto the AI-powered creativity tools. The Pixel 10 comes with a Camera Coach feature to help you improve the composition of your images and a smarter Guided Frame feature to help users with low vision set up their shots. And once your image is taken, there's a new Ask Photos feature to try, which lets you make generative edits using text prompts.

Like with the past few years of Pixel phones, the Pixel 10 still gets seven years of OS and security updates, the longest-lasting support available or any phone on the market right now. You should be able to keep the phone intact for that long too, given that Google is using Gorilla Glass Victus 2 to protect the back and front of the Pixel 10.

If you want to know our thoughts on this particular Pixel, our Pixel 10 hands-on will explain all. Make sure you check out our thoughts on the Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL and Pixel 10 Pro Fold, as well as the Pixel Watch 4 too, and stay tuned for our full reviews coming soon.

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