Pixel 10 Pro, Pro Fold Hands On: Minor improvements

Google has just announced the Pixel 10 series, which includes the Pixel 10, 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL and 10 Pro Fold. While the Pixel 10 got a pretty big upgrade with its new telephoto lens, the Pro devices got left behind with nothing all that new on the hardware side.

Focusing on the 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL and 10 Pro Fold, when you hold them side by side with the predecessors, there are virtually no differences. For the 10 Pro/XL, the SIM tray has moved to the top of the handset, and a second speaker grill now occupies that space on the bottom. Otherwise, the only other physical differences I noticed were the colours. And while not visible, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold moves to IP68 water and dust resistance, which is definitely an upgrade from the 9 Pro Fold’s IPX8 dust protection.

Even spec-wise, we’re not looking at anything too different than its predecessor, aside from the new Tensor G5 processor and bigger batteries — and now the Pixel 10 Pro XL starts at 256GB instead of 128GB. However, cameras, RAM, display size, screen resolution, and even the dimensions are pretty similar, except that the 10 Pro Fold has a slightly bigger front screen at 6.4 inches versus 6.3 inches.

Thankfully, alongside bigger batteries the 10 Pro models are also getting faster charging speeds. The Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro Fold both offer 30W charging, the 10 Pro XL features 45W charging; however, you may not see those charging speeds without a proprietary charger, sold separately.

Of course, this isn’t a full review, so I didn’t get the opportunity to try out the bigger battery, play around with the processor, listen to music with the second speaker grill, or try out other things.

If you want to learn more about the base Pixel 10 or the Pixel Watch 4, check out Jon’s full hands ons.

Snap

Despite not looking new, or having a lot of updated hardware, the Pixel 10 Pro/XL do have some new things to look out for.

For instance, there’s Pixelsnap, the Pixel 10 series’ new magnetic technology — essentially, Google’s take on Apple’s MagSafe. Pixelsnap lets you snap wireless chargers, stands, grips and other accessories for your Pixel device, and even while using Pixelsnap cases. There’s even a new Pixelsnap Ring Stand that lets you make video calls, or watch videos while the phone is on the stand, either vertically or horizontally. We didn’t get to try out the Pixelsnap, but we had a MagSafe accessory that we played with, and it attached and detached easily.

The Pixelsnap Charger starts at $55, the Pixelsnap Charger with Stand starts at $99, the Pixelsnap Ring Stand starts at $49, and the Pixelsnap cases start at $69.

Take a Cue

There’s also the new Magic Cue, which allows Gemini to work proactively. I’m pretty happy about it — I literally said to Sameer Samat, the president of the Android ecosystem, during Google I/O that Gemini wasn’t proactive enough. Magic Cue brings up useful information, like if you’re calling your airline, it’ll bring up your ticket information, or if your friend asks about dinner plans, it’ll surface that information.

We saw a demo of it in action and it seemed to work quite quickly and was easy to use. We learned that it works in apps like Google Messages, Phone, ride-service apps, and more. It can access information from places like Gmail and Contacts. Google says that Magic Cue is on-device only, and that it’s taking security and privacy very seriously.

I like the idea of this and hope that Google expands Magic Cue to more apps; however, I’ll have to try it out to see if it’s as useful as I hope.

Camera Coach

Another demo we saw at Google is called Camera Coach. This uses Gemini to read the scene in your viewfinder and suggests the best angle, lightning and setup for the picture you want to take. It was cool, and if you’re an amateur photographer, this might be useful for you. Another functionality is called Auto Best Take, though we didn’t see this in action. It can automatically combine similar photos to take the best one, I’m looking forward to trying this out because I hate when I go through pictures I took during the day, and I notice one of my friends had their eyes closed.

Google’s Pixel 10 Pro/XL also have new 100x Pro Res Zoom, which uses the upgraded 5x telephoto camera with optical image stabilization and AI to take high res images at 100x zoom. I didn’t get to try this out myself, but am excited to take it for a whirl when reviewing the handset, and would love to compare this to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

10th anniversary

This is Google’s 10th Pixel device, and while I enjoyed my Pixel 9 Pro XL and 9 Pro Fold a lot, I was hoping for bigger updates this year. Maybe a slimmer handset like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge or rumoured iPhone 17 Air, new camera setup with even better camera hardware, or even throw in a gimmick — I really miss Active Edge.

While the changes that were made are smaller, they will improve the experience, especially if you’re upgrading from the Pixel 8 series or earlier. Google says the Tensor G5 is the most powerful processor it’s launched, and is 34 per cent faster than before. Some of the biggest issues people have with the Pixel series are with the Tensor chipset, so I’m hoping to really push it to the limit and test out this new chip, and hopefully it’ll succeed where other Tensor G-series chips have failed.

Additionally, with new AI features and Material 3 Expressive, the handset should offer an altogether better experience. I haven’t been able to play around with Material 3 Expressive yet on the Pixel 10, but I’ve tried out the QPR1 beta on the Pixel 9 Pro and it’s pretty nice so far, but I plan to dive deeper when reviewing the 10 Pro series.

A bigger battery on all four handsets is quite delightful, and it means you should be able to use these devices for longer, which should only improve your daily life

While I definitely wanted something a bit more from Google’s latest series of Pixel smartphones, perhaps these small refinements are all thats needed for the Pixel 10 Pro series to be the best flagships on the market. We’ll let you know before the handsets official release.

Pixel 10 Pro starts at $1,349, and Pixel 10 Pro XL, now with 256 GB base storage, starts at $1,629.7 The phones are available in Obsidian, Moonstone, Porcelain, and Jade. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold starts at $2,399. They’re available in Moonstone and Jade. The Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL come out on August 28 and those interested in the Pixel 10 Pro Fold have to wait until October 9.