I put the iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro through a 7-round face-off — here’s the winner

Now that the iPhone 17 Pro has arrived, it's time to compare it to some of the biggest rival flagships of the year. In this case, we're looking at the Google Pixel 10 Pro — arguably the most "iPhone-like" of all Android handsets in a lot of ways. Particularly when it comes to the speed at which they receive new software.

But which phone is actually the better one? On paper, they come out with reasonably similar specs, especially in terms of the camera hardware, display capabilities and the overall look. Plus, both place a heavy emphasis on AI, albeit with wildly different methods of offering those features at times.

But there's only so much you can glean from raw specs. Which is why we put iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro through a seven-round face-off to see which phone is the one you should be buying.

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Specs

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Price

Both the iPhone 17 Pro and Google Pixel 10 Pro are available right now. Google's flagship arrived on August 28, while the iPhone 17 Pro went on sale on September 19.

While it looks as though Google has the price advantage, considering the Pixel 10 Pro starts at $999 compared to the iPhone 17 Pro's $1,099, that comparison isn't entirely fair. Apple scrapped the 128GB storage option in favor of a 256GB point of entry, whereas Google has kept the 128GB option on the Pixel 10 Pro.

That means that while the cheapest Pixel 10 Pro is $100 cheaper, you're also getting half the storage. Bump that storage up to 256GB and you end up having to pay the same $1,099 price tag as the iPhone 17 Pro.

Winner: Draw

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Design

The iPhone 17 Pro has an all-new design this year, with the aluminum unibody and the "forged plateau" camera bar with all the lenses squeezed onto the left-hand side of the phone. Meanwhile, the Pixel 10 Pro keeps the same camera bar as the previous generation with a horizontal line of camera lenses.

Both are pretty distinct and sizable, though how visually appealing the designs are is pretty subjective. Needless to say, both have their respective positives and negatives.

The forged Plateau is new and controversial as a result, on account of its being huge and somewhat ugly. Meanwhile, the Pixel 10 Pro's camera bar is also pretty blocky and not quite as sleek as you'd hope from a flagship phone.

Plus, while the iPhone has the excuse that the camera bar helps regulate heat, the new "scratchgate controversy" means that it may pick up more noticeable damage along the edges of the raised area. That's something Google hasn't had to deal with.

The rounded edges offer a fairly similar profile from the front, but the iPhone is ever so slightly shorter than the Pixel and slightly thicker. Though the two weigh roughly the same at 7.3 ounces and 7.27 ounces.

Winner: Google Pixel 10 Pro

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Display

Both phones offer a 6.3-inch display, with an adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate that offers that silky smooth look. Whether I'm playing games like PUBG Mobile or watching hit shows like Alien: Earth on Hulu, I can't fault the performance on either screen.

However, if I were to pick, I'd say that the visuals do look better on the iPhone, even in the muted gray tones of the Alien universe. Though it does bug me that there's a much larger cutout, on account of Face ID and the Dynamic Island.

Needless to say, the screens aren't identical, and our testing shows just how different the output of each screen actually is.

The Pixel 10 Pro easily wins in the brightness department, pulling in a reading of 2,017 nits compared to the iPhone 17 Pro's 1,555 nits. While that's still noticeably lower than their official brightness ratings, it's clear that the Pixel is the one to have if you value all the benefits of a bright display. Of course, the iPhone 17 Pro does have an air-reflective screen, which may help make up for that shortfall in bright environments.

When it comes to covering the DCI-P3 color spectrum, Apple comes well below the Pixel 10 Pro when it has adaptive mode switched on. That said, switching the Pixel to Natural mode reduces that coverage to almost 4% below the iPhone. The iPhone 17 Pro also wins in color accuracy, with a Delta-E reading of 0.23 compared to the Pixel's 0.32 and 0.25 readings — since the lower the reading is, the better the accuracy.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Cameras

On paper, the two phones have fairly similar camera hardware and capabilities. But specs only tell us half the picture, especially since there's been a push towards software-processing after the camera has done its work. So, which camera actually performs the best?

Over on the main lens, we can see that the Pixel 10 Pro seems to do a better job of picking up the foreground details compared to the iPhone, especially with the nuances in my dog's fur coloring.

Though I wouldn't say that the details on the iPhone are so bad that they ruin the whole picture. Especially since Apple's camera picked up the background details a lot more clearly, and offered more true-to-life coloring compared to Google.

Taking the action indoors, with this Lego model of the Great Deku tree from The Legend of Zelda, and it's a similar story. The iPhone offers much more detailed coloring and shadows, while the Pixel seems a little more washed out by comparison. Though at the same time, the in-focus areas do seem to show a little more detail on Google's camera.

The ultrawide lens is almost the complete opposite. The Pixel 10 Pro's photo is brighter and more vivid, with a lot less warping around the edges than the iPhone 17 Pro seems to have. In terms of quality, both of them look more or less the same. So this one certainly goes to Google.

I'm honestly not a fan of either selfie here, and not just because my hair is in disarray. The iPhone has been affected by the nearby sunset, and while that offers nice dynamic range, it's added this weird haze to the entire photo.

The Pixel 10 Pro is more detailed, especially in the foreground, and hasn't let the ambient light get in the way of that. But the whole photo is washed out and almost makes me look a little sickly. Again, Google is showing its relative weakness in the background, just like the main lens.

Portrait mode flips things on its head again, and I'm honestly very happy about how both these photos came out. While the coloring is slightly different, thanks to the darker hues on the Pixel, both phones have picked out the detail and natural coloring that was present at the time.

The Pixel 10 Pro did pick up more details of the entire dog, with the iPhone 17 Pro seemingly blurring up everything below his face. However, the iPhone did a much better job with the bokeh, minimizing warping around the dog compared to the Pixel and making it clear that he is front and center in this photo. The Pixel picked up just a little bit too much of the surroundings, including Dog #2.

Macro photography was kind of a bind on the iPhone 17 Pro, and I really struggled to get the camera to actually keep macro mode switched on and focus on what I wanted.

It's still a mixed bag here, though, because while the Pixel has the right coloring and light, the iPhone managed to pick up more detail in the acorn itself.

With it set to 4x magnification, it's pretty clear that the iPhone 17 Pro is the overall winner. Not only is the photo brighter and more true-to-life, but it also captured a lot more detail from both my dog and the grass around it. The Pixel seemingly just blurs it all together to the point where it's far less distinct.

Moving up to 8x zoom, which the iPhone apparently offers "optical quality" photos up to, and things aren't so clear cut. The iPhone's photo is darker, with almost a sepia quality to it, which makes it harder to pick out those details.

Meanwhile, the Google Pixel 10 Pro may not be the most detailed shot in the world, and looks pretty washed out, but you can still pick out more from the shot.

At 40x magnification, which is as far as the iPhone 17 Pro can go, and it's clear how much the tables have turned. The Pixel 10 Pro has, by far, the better image with a clear, colorful view.

But this is all down to the phone using generative AI to enhance the final image.

As you can see above, the actual photo the Pixel 10 Pro took is noticeably worse than the iPhone 17 Pro. While the iPhone did not produce a particularly good shot, this emphasizes just how much heavy lifting AI is doing to make up for the shortfall of the Pixel's telephoto lens.

Low-light photography produces some very similar results on both phones. Again, the Pixel is a little darker, despite Night Sight getting six seconds to take in light compared to the iPhone's three. That means some aspects, like the gravestones in the shadows, and the greenery in the foreground, don't come out quite as clearly.

But overall, and in the context of the church itself, these are both pretty even shots.

So which camera is actually better? It's hard to say, because the performance of both phones was a little all over the place. But I'd say that the iPhone 17 Pro probably clinches it, by the simple fact that its performance is good all round — and the zoomed-in shots are so noticeably better than what Google produced.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Performance

In a result that should be absolutely no surprise to anyone, the iPhone 17 Pro absolutely obliterates the Google Pixel 10 Pro in performance testing. Considering how far Apple has been pushing performance the past several years, and how far behind Google's Tensor chips have lagged behind, this is like declaring that the sky is blue.

But we have the test results and numbers to show just how far behind Google's raw performance actually is.

During the Geekbench 6 performance tests, the iPhone 17 Pro came out with a single-core score of 3,834 and a multi-core score of 9,988. Meanwhile, the Pixel 10 Pro was leagues behind, with a 2,335 single-core result and 6,375 from the multi-core testing. But it doesn't end there.

WildLife Original Unlimited scores had the iPhone 17 Pro hit an average frame rate of 158.37 frames per second, while the Pixel 10 Pro averaged out at 79.29 frames per second — roughly half what the iPhone achieved.

While you could say that benchmarking tests only favor certain criteria, we account for this by putting phones through a video transcoding test to see how long it takes to convert a 4K video to 1080p with Adobe Premiere Rush. This is to simulate what real-world performance is actually like on these devices. The iPhone 17 Pro managed this in just 22 seconds, while the Pixel 10 Pro took 2 minutes and 19 seconds. Which is, frankly, just embarrassing for Google.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Battery & Charging

Battery is another thing Apple normally excels at, while Google typically does not. Pixel longevity has improved over the last few years, but has it caught up to the same heights as Apple's handsets? Well, no, not according to our testing.

In our custom battery test, we found that the iPhone 17 Pro lasted 15 hours and 32 minutes on a single charge. In the same testing conditions, the Pixel 10 Pro only lasted 13 hours and 43 minutes. Which is not a bad performance, but it is almost two hours less than the iPhone can achieve.

The iPhone 17 Pro is capable of charging faster, too, assuming you use Apple's new Dynamic Charger brick. It was able to hit 72% charge in 30 minutes, while the Pixel 10 Pro was only able to hit 55% in the same amount of time.

Both phones should offer an all-day battery life with basic everyday usage, but if you plan on using your phone far more than the average user will, then the iPhone is the clear winner.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Software & AI

Both iOS and Android have some serious design changes this year, as a result of the new Liquid Glass and Material Expressive 3 design languages. They're both pretty distinct, with Liquid Glass offering a slick transparent overlay across the software interface, and Material 3 Expressive comes through with what Google describes as a more "personalized and reactive" look.

iOS 26 introduced a bunch of new features, including Call Screening, Live translation, and a brand new and redesigned camera app. This makes the new update feel considerably fuller than what Google has offered. While the desktop mode is more than welcome, features like Live Updates are so minimal that their presence is barely felt.

That said, the lack of new Apple Intelligence capabilities really put the iPhone 17 Pro at a disadvantage. There are some strong features in there, like Visual Intelligence and its new screenshot searching feature, but Apple can't really compete with all the AI-centric upgrades Google has brought to the Pixel 10 Pro.

You've got the new Magic Cue, which is supposed to piece together important dates or information in relevant Google apps — and while subtle, it can prove useful once it actually gets going. Camera Coach is basic, but it has the makings of an app that can improve your photography capabilities.

The real start is conversational editing, which lets you ask Google Photos to make AI photo edits for you — rather than being forced to use all the tools yourself. This is a game-changer for generative AI editing.

Plus, Google has a lot of the good stuff that Apple introduced in recent years. Gemini Live, Hold for Me, its own call screening and so on. All in all, it seems that, as unimpressive as Android 16 actually is, the Pixel 10 Pro has a lot more new and interesting stuff to offer on the software side of things.

Winner: Google Pixel 10 Pro

iPhone 17 Pro vs Google Pixel 10 Pro: Verdict

Overall, the iPhone 17 Pro pushes ahead of the Pixel 10 Pro in a number of key areas. While the camera face-off was touch-and-go for a bit, that doesn't change the fact that the iPhone 17 Pro offers better performance and battery life than Google has managed to muster.

I'm not saying the Pixel 10 Pro is a bad phone, but it seems as though Google is continually neglecting the same areas while Apple steams on ahead with its typical yearly enhancements.

But at the same time, it feels as though Apple has really dropped the ball on the software side of things. Sure, Liquid Glass is a very big change compared to Material 3 Expressive, but that doesn't change the fact that Apple is lagging where features and AI are concerned.

So the iPhone 17 Pro wins this face-off overall, but the Pixel 10 Pro is definitely worth considering if you prefer Android and you want your phone to simply do more.

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