I've been using the Pixel 10 Pro for 2 months — and I regret the upgrade

Back when I wrote my Google Pixel 10 Pro review, I said that, as good as the phone is, it doesn't actually feel like much of an upgrade over the Pixel 9 Pro. I've now been using the phone almost every day for the past two months, and now I can safely say that my assessment hit the nail on the head.

There's nothing particularly wrong with the Pixel 10 Pro. It's a fantastic phone with a lot of great features and software touches — but it is a textbook example of an iterative upgrade. No matter how good or impressive this phone seems to be, I can't help but think that there was nothing on offer that I couldn't do with the Pixel 9 Pro.

To the point where, if I had to make that choice, I'd probably just buy a Pixel 9 Pro and save myself a couple of hundred dollars. Here are my pros and cons of the new phone.

Google Pixel 10 Pro: The pros

Qi2 wireless charging

The one piece of hardware that has definitely changed is the wireless charging system. Google added Qi2 wireless charging this year, and not in the half-hearted way Samsung added it to the Galaxy S25 series. This has the new charging protocol and the magnetic ring, with no need for any kind of special case. Which I had done with Pixel 9 Pro, with mixed results.

While the wireless charging speed has been reduced on the 10 Pro (the 10 Pro XL is a different story), having Qi2 comes with extra benefits. The magnets, of course, offer improved alignment for magnetic chargers and the ability to snap on various accessories.

Not to mention the fact that the Qi2 standard is faster than Qi1 (15W vs 7.5W) and has adaptive charging, which ensures your phone is only taking as much power as it needs. All of which works together for a better and more efficient wireless charging experience.

Better AI features

AI is Google's main focus right now, and the Pixel phones often come with the latest and best AI features — some of which are exclusive to Google-made phones. The Pixel 10 Pro is no exception, and offers a bunch of AI features that haven't made their way to older devices just yet.

One of my favorites is Camera Coach. It may be simple, but it's an easy way to make sure your photo comes out looking better than it might have done otherwise. Likewise, the Magic Cue assistant, while subtle, can pop up at some useful points to help you figure out what's going on. Then of course there's conversational editing, which lets you tell Photos what kind of AI edits you need to make — rather than having to do it all yourself

I know that some of these features might come to other Pixels, including the Pixel 9 Pro, but for now, they're useful, albeit small, upgrades to the Pixel 10 series.

100x SuperRes Zoom

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While also technically an AI feature, the Pixel 9 Pro's 40x zoom can't compete with the 100x magnification offered on the Pixel 10 Pro. While the in-camera preview isn't anything to celebrate, once the generative AI processing gets involved, you end up with some extremely impressive photos of stuff your camera normally wouldn't be able to capture.

Is using generative AI cheating? Maybe. But as long as it's not hallucinating stuff that isn't there, it's one of my favorite new additions to the Pixel 10 Pro.

Google Pixel 10 Pro: The Cons

The cameras are the same

Google is all about the camera quality, especially with post-shot processing, but there comes a point where you can't make any meaningful improvements to photo quality without upgraded hardware. In my testing with the Pixel 10 Pro, I found that the photos it produced were more or less identical to shots taken with the Pixel 9 Pro.

They're good photos, don't get me wrong, but the fact is that you expect some kind of significant improvement between generations. Especially since Google has pushed the Tensor chips and made excuses for the weak performance, with the promise that they help improve camera quality (among other things).

Battery life is barely improved

Google phones have always struggled with battery life, especially in the years since the launch of the very first Tensor chip. Things have improved over the last few years, but the Pixel 10 series didn't get nearly as many gains as the Pixel 9s did last year. In fact, according to our testing, the Pixel 10 Pro only managed to get an extra six minutes of battery life compared to the Pixel 9 Pro, which is far from ideal.

The battery life isn't exactly terrible, but it's a long way off earning a place on our best phone battery life page. There are even days when I struggle to keep the phone alive, and have to do some recharging before I go to bed. A minor increase may be better than a loss of battery life, but it would still be nice for Google to keep making gains the same way Apple seems to be able to.

Performance is still weak

The big problem with the Tensor chips is that they suck at offering raw performance. The Tensor G5 may be more powerful than the G4, but the gains aren't particularly big — and it's still miles behind the likes of Apple's A-series and Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Google will tell you that it doesn't matter, and that the point of the Tensor series is to improve AI processing, photography and security. But, to be completely honest, Qualcomm and Apple can offer that too. And we're getting to the stage where I'm not sure if Tensor is going to be able to compete for much longer.

Bottom line

The Pixel 10 Pro is one of the best phones Google has ever made, but is it actually the phone you should be buying? It has a few extra things to offer, but it's certainly not a very exciting upgrade. When you consider how dull and iterative a lot of new phones seem to be, that is saying something.

If you still have a Pixel 9 Pro, then I recommend that you keep hold of it for a little longer. It's a great phone, has another 6 years of software support left in it, and isn't missing out on much so far. If you're looking to buy a Pixel, then the decision is a little trickier to make. But, considering the Pixel 9 Pro is still easily available, you might be able to pick up a brand new model that's on sale — getting you a similar Pixel 10 Pro experience without spending a grand.

Just make sure that your magnetic MagSafe/Qi2 case is good quality, or else you won't be able to use magnetic chargers. I made that mistake, so trust me on that.

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