The ‘best phone Google has ever made’ has £300 off for Black Friday

Google Pixel 10 design

If you’ve seen a Pixel 9, you’ve seen a Pixel 10. Google has carried over last year’s design almost wholesale, retaining the flat-edged frame and the distinctive pill-shaped camera island. Honestly? I’ve no complaints. The Pixel 9’s redesign was a welcome change from the older camera visor layout, and the Pixel 10 remains a beautiful, impeccably built device. It feels premium in the hand, and the soft-touch matte glass back simply refuses to be smudged by grotty fingerprints.

There are a few subtle but welcome hardware refinements. The biggest is the introduction of Qi2 magnetic charging, which allows the phone to snap onto Pixel accessories as well as the existing ecosystem of MagSafe-compatible gadgets. It’s a quality-of-life improvement that’s long overdue in the Android world, unlocking a range of chargers, stands and clip-on gizmos previously exclusive to the iPhone.

The speakers have also been noticeably improved, with a pair of downfiring speakers on the bottom of the device delivering a richer, fuller sound. The under-display fingerprint sensor is a touch faster and more reliable than the Pixel 9, too, while the display is brighter. They’re small tweaks – and chances are that nobody will notice you’ve even got a new phone – but they add up to a more polished overall experience.

Google Pixel 10 performance and AI

At the heart of the Pixel 10 is the Tensor G5 processor, a chip specifically designed to handle Google’s ambitious on-device AI workloads. In terms of raw speed, navigating apps and menus feels just as snappy as last year’s model. But the Tensor G5’s real advantage – on paper at least – is its ability to power the next generation of Google’s broad suite of AI features, without the need to access the cloud.

The flagship feature is Magic Cue, an AI assistant that pulls data from across your apps to proactively float suggested replies based on the context of what you’re doing. For example, if a friend asks where and what time you’re supposed to meet, Magic Cue instantly pulls information from your inbox and calendar to pop up a button with the answer.

It’s a brilliant idea and, when it works, it feels genuinely useful and impressive – but at launch it’s limited to working within Google’s own messaging app. Literally everyone I know uses WhatsApp or social media DMs, not Google Messages, which means Magic Cue remains frustratingly dormant in everyday use. If I could click my fingers and move all my friends to SMS, I would – but for now, Magic Cue remains largely consigned to an app I rarely open.

The ‘At a Glance’ widget is more consistently useful, subtly floating live sports scores or the status of your Uber to your lock screen. It’s a lovely, glanceable bit of UI design, but like many of the software features, it runs on Android 16, which has been rolled out to existing Pixel devices. This is the core issue with the Pixel 10’s software proposition: while the experience is novel and fresh, so much of what makes it great isn’t exclusive to this new hardware.

Google Pixel 10 camera

The Pixel’s camera has always set it apart from the best Android phones, and the Pixel 10 continues this legacy with some impressive capabilities, particularly when it comes to telephoto photography. The Pro models now boast a staggering 100x ProRes zoom, using a combination of the 5x optical periscope lens and some mind-bending AI trickery to generate detail in long-distance shots.

The results are astounding, and literally too good to be true. The Pixel 10 invents fresh detail at 100x zoom, using AI to essentially paint in definition that the camera lens can’t physically resolve. You’d feel uncomfortable sharing your zoomed-in shots as fact, but for capturing a clear shot of a distant landmark or some wildlife, it’s impressive and a lot of fun to play with.

The standard Pixel 10 also gets a camera boost, finally receiving a dedicated telephoto lens. This closes the hardware gap between the standard and Pro models, making the cheaper handset a much more compelling option for most people. In general, photo quality remains best-in-class across the board, with that signature Pixel look: sharp, detailed and perfectly processed, especially in challenging lighting conditions.

Google Pixel 10 price

At launch, the Pixel 10 cost £799, while the Pixel 10 pro cost £999. But, in light of Black Friday, both handsets have been reduced to record low prices. The Pixel 10 is now £597, and the Pixel 10 pro is £899.