Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Review

Google secures the crown for smartphone cameras; better image quality is hard to find elsewhere. The brightness of the large OLED display has increased again and is at an exceptionally high level, impressively enhancing image reproduction. The battery has grown slightly, but this has hardly any impact on battery life. Fortunately, battery life was already excellent with its predecessor, so the Pixel 10 Pro XL proves to be a real marathon runner as well.

The features are appealing and now include Bluetooth 6. Only Google's own processor remains a weak point. While the performance of the Tensor G5 is more than sufficient for all common applications, it can't quite keep up with Snapdragon and similar processors. All in all, the new Google flagship is still an excellent high-end smartphone.

Many improvements, but no mobile phone revolution

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL stands as the pinnacle of the current Pixel lineup, delivering a top-tier experience that just edges out the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro in our evaluations. While improvements over its siblings are marginal, they are sufficient to secure its position among the top ten smartphones currently available. The main story is refined excellence rather than groundbreaking change.

Essentially, the flagship smartphone does nothing differently than its predecessor, the Pixel 9 Pro XL. Of course, Google has predictably updated the hardware, but aside from the routine refresh, there are few surprises. The design remains unchanged from last year's model.

Display with immense brightness

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL has the largest display of the three Pixel devices, measuring 6.8 inches diagonally. Thanks to its high resolution, the image remains sharp (487 ppi). Contrast and colors are excellent. It also features an adaptive refresh rate that dynamically adjusts the display between 1 and 120 Hz. This eliminates distracting effects while scrolling, and the Pixel 10 Pro XL can still conserve power because the display doesn't have to operate at full refresh rate constantly.

Google uses the term "Super Actua" for the displays of its Pro models, with brightness being its key feature. Google specifies the maximum brightness of the OLED panel as up to 3,300 cd/m². However, you'll likely rarely see this peak brightness in everyday use. In our more realistic test, we still achieved a brightness of 2,525 cd/m². This makes the Pixel 10 Pro XL one of the brightest smartphones of the current generation.

Strong performance, but it can be better.

As is now customary, the new Pixel generation introduces a new Google processor. The Tensor G5 shows a clear performance boost, but in our test, it still narrowly misses a "very good" rating. There are good reasons why Google uses its own chip, not least the lower costs. However, the Tensor still can't compete with the expensive Snapdragon Elite or Apple's iPhone chips.

In everyday use, the Pixel 10 Pro XL handles even the most demanding apps and games effortlessly. In terms of pure processing power, we measured an improvement of around 15 percent compared to the Tensor G4. The improvement in graphics performance is somewhat less pronounced: In the GFXBench (Manhattan) test, the processor achieves 107 frames per second (fps). Last year, it was 101 frames per second. The Snapdragon 8 Elite sometimes achieves almost twice that. However, the increase is more significant in the Aztec scenario of GFXBench: 55 fps compared to 43 fps for the previous model.

Great battery – with automatic throttling

Google has slightly increased the battery capacity of the Pixel 10 Pro XL: from 5,060 mAh, it now holds 5,200 mAh – an increase of almost three percent. This translates to just under one percent more battery life. In our comparison test, the phone showed a small increase of 11 minutes. However, this isn't significant: in the end, it achieved 17 hours and 6 minutes of continuous use. That's an impressive result and will easily get you through the day, if not several.

The battery can be fully charged via USB cable in 83 minutes, a significant improvement over its predecessor. After 30 minutes, more than half the battery is charged. More interestingly, however, the Pixel 10 Pro XL now supports the new Qi2 standard for wireless charging. This means Pixel devices also have a magnetic connection to Qi2 charging pads, similar to Apple's "MagSafe" technology.

With the Pixel 9a, Google introduced a new mandatory "Battery Health" feature. On the other Pixel 9 models, this feature was optional. The Pixel 10 Pro XL, however, behaves like the Pixel 9a: the feature cannot be turned off. The effect is that after 200 charge cycles, the maximum battery capacity is automatically reduced to protect the battery. Battery life will then gradually decrease. The time it takes to reach 200 charge cycles depends on usage. Some users might reach this limit after just one year.

Currently, the best mobile phone camera

The outstanding image quality has been the hallmark of Pixel phones for years. Even a year later, the Pixel 9 Pro (review) and Pixel 9 Pro XL still top our smartphone camera rankings. Google has achieved a level of quality that is virtually impossible to surpass, and when our experts at the CHIP test center compared the photos taken with the Pixel 10 Pro XL to those of its predecessor, the only conclusion was: "They look exactly the same."

Therefore, we can only reiterate that the photos have a superbly natural appearance, with extremely realistic colors, contrasts, and details. The Pixel 10 Pro XL can only improve upon this in objective measurements, specifically in terms of noise, resolution, and detail accuracy. All in all, at the time of testing, it's enough for the smartphone camera crown: the Pixel 10 Pro XL is the new benchmark device in our ranking. Last year's Pixel devices follow closely behind.

The telephoto lens has a 5x optical zoom. New this time is the up to 100x digital zoom, which was limited to 30x in the previous model. At high magnification levels, Google uses "Pro Resolution Zoom," which employs AI image enhancement to produce a sharp image. In our tests, this looked quite good (see image gallery), but the question remains how "real" the resulting photo actually is.

Since there's hardly any room for improvement in image quality, Google is focusing more on supporting users with their photography. To this end, they've introduced the AI-powered "Camera Coach." This analysis examines the subject and offers suggestions for taking better photos. This is in addition to the camera features introduced last year, including the "Add Me" function and general image enhancements and expansions enabled by AI calculations.

The camera hardware is nominally unchanged. It consists of a 50MP main sensor, a 48MP ultrawide-angle lens, and a 48MP telephoto zoom lens. Video recording is possible in up to 8K resolution, but then only at 30 frames per second. For 4K recording, you can use the full 60 fps. The front camera, equipped with a 42MP image sensor and convenient autofocus, captures good selfies, just like its predecessor.

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