Google Pixel 10 Pro XL review: I love it, but here’s why I can’t justify it

The Pixel 10 Pro XL is the biggest non-folding Pixel 10 phone, but does that automatically make it the model to buy? It’s really going to come down to how much you want the bigger screen, because outside of this, the 10 Pro XL has a hard time standing out from the other Pixel 10 phones.

This isn’t a negative, and as you’re about to find out, there’s a lot to like about owning and using a Pixel 10 phone. The trouble is, spending less on a Pixel 10 Pro may be the best plan.

Staff pick

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

9
/
10

SoC

Google Tensor G5

RAM

16GB

Storage

256 GB / 512 GB / 1TB with Zoned UFS / 1 TB with Zoned UFS

Battery

5200mAh

Google has a serious winner on its hands with the Pixel 10 series, and the Pixel 10 XL is the biggest, non-folding model. Outside of the 6.8-inch screen, it shares many other features, from the Tensor G5 processor to the triple camera system, with the Pixel 10 Pro.

Pros & Cons

• Sleek, modern, and durable design
• Excellent camera and editing features
• Qi2 wireless charging and magnets
• Reliable, customizable software
• Seven years security/OS updates

• New AI features disappoint
• Limited appeal over Pixel 10 Pro

$1199 at Amazon
$1199 at Google Store
$1199 at Best Buy

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Specs, price, and availability

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL is available to buy now in the U.S., U.K., and many other regions. It starts at $1,199 or £1,199 for the entry 256GB version, while the 512GB model costs $1,319/£1,319. There is a 1TB version of the Pixel 10 Pro XL available, and it costs $1,519/£1,519.

You can buy the unlocked phone directly from Google, and it’s also available from all the major carriers, although not all of them stock the big 1TB model. How does this compare to the competition? The price has not been increased over the Pixel 9 Pro XL and matches the price of the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, but crucially, it is $100 less than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The OnePlus 13 remains a considerable bargain at $900.

More importantly, when it comes to price, the Google Pixel 10 Pro starts at $1,000, and therefore represents quite a saving compared to the very similar Pixel 10 Pro XL. Perhaps even worse news for the Pro XL is the $800 Pixel 10’s upgraded camera specification. It all means the Pixel 10 Pro XL has a lot to prove if it’s going to justify its price.

More of the same design

No bad thing

If you’re coming to the Pixel 10 Pro XL from a Pixel 8 series or earlier, it’ll feel both familiar and wonderfully new. It neatly recalls the groundbreaking Pixel 6’s visor-equipped design, but updates it with a sleek and modern frame, and the iconic visor has morphed to become a stadium-shaped island.

Sounds good, right? Indeed, but all this is different again if you’re coming from a Pixel 9 series, because the design has been almost entirely carried over. The dimensions — 162.8 x 76.6 x 8.5mm — are identical, but it’s a little heavier at 232 grams, plus it retains Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 over the screen and the rear panel, and has the same IP68 dust and water resistance rating.

As you’d expect, it’s a few millimeters wider and taller than the Pixel 10 Pro to accommodate the 6.8-inch Super Actua Display, which provides almost the same specifications as the Pixel 9 Pro XL — 120Hz refresh rate, HDR support, 2992 x 1344 pixels — but gets a slight bump in peak brightness from 3,000 nits to 3,300 nits. Will you notice? Possibly, and I’ll note it has been highly visible even during periods of bright sunshine.

I spent a lot of time with the Pixel 9 Pro, and found its sensible size almost perfect for everyday use. The Pixel 10 Pro XL has been a pleasant surprise, as it hasn’t felt ungainly like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra can, which is almost certainly due to the lovely curve between the frame and glass panels. It more closely resembles the shape and in-hand feel of the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, another phone with which it shares very similar dimensions.

There’s very little to call “new” in the Pixel 10 Pro XL compared to the Pixel 9 Pro XL, and the screen size is still the prime reason to choose the XL over the regular Pro. I’m used to using phones of this size, and have found its shape to be fairly easy to manage, along with appreciating the well-balanced weight distribution. It is quite slippery and there’s often a risk of it making a break for the floor when using it with one hand, so a case may be a worthwhile accessory.

Getting tense over the Tensor

Is this a gaming powerhouse?

Big-screen smartphones are often touted as gaming, media, and/or multitasking powerhouses, featuring top processors to match. The Pixel 10 Pro XL has a big 6.8-inch screen, but is the Tensor G5 a top-spec processor? If you’re directly comparing it to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, then the answer will probably be no. If you’re comparing it to just about every other processor out there, then it holds its own just fine.

It’s all about perspective. The Tensor G5 has been fully designed by Google, and built by industry giant TSMC using a 3nm manufacturing process, giving it a serious pedigree. For the most part it uses overclocked versions of the same cores found in the Tensor G4, which are great for balancing power and efficiency, along with a new PowerVR GPU.

This is crucial for the hardcore gaming crowd, as the GPU doesn’t support high-end features like ray tracing. It won’t matter to everyone, but some will see this as a reason the G5 is not a flagship-tier chipset. What does this mean in the real world? While my colleague Stephen Radochia isn’t a fan of benchmarks, I find results from the 3DMark benchmarking app always tell an interesting story about efficiency, thermal management, and outright performance.

Run the 20-minute Steel Nomad Light Stress test on both the Pixel 10 Pro XL and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and there are some subtle but important differences. The Pixel 10 does not get overly hot during the test run, but it’s certainly warm to the touch, and it’s good to note the battery consumption — a sensible 10% — remains consistent even after running multiple tests almost back-to-back. The Pixel 10 Pro XL’s frame rate is lower than the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s, but more consistent, as are its overall “Loop Scores,” showing the Tensor G5 runs along nicely without taxing itself. In other words, it knows its limitations.

Settling down to play some games reveals it’ll work really well for even the most committed casual player. Dream Road, on its highest graphics and frame rate settings, is fast and smooth, while side-scrolling shoot-em-up Flying Tank looks and plays really well too. Unless you’re really going to push the Pixel 10 Pro XL with games like Genshin Impact for hours, I doubt you’ll have many complaints about the Tensor G5.

During general use, the Pixel 10 Pro XL doesn’t seem to suffer from heat issues, there’s no obvious throttling of performance, and it has run every app I’ve tried. Calls sound brilliant, the spam detection works well, and I love the many and varied haptic buzzes you get throughout the system. It may not be a gaming superstar, but it’s not far off, and the rest of the phone’s performance is top-notch.

Out taking photos

Always a Pixel strength

It’s hard to pick holes in the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s camera, as from the simplicity of the camera app to the capabilities of the editing suite in Google Photos, it’s a powerful and versatile system everyone will enjoy. You don’t need to be a camera expert to get the most from it, either.

However, if you’re looking for hardware differences between it and the Pixel 9 Pro XL, you won’t find much outside of optical image stabilization on the 48-megapixel telephoto. It’s also the same camera system on the Pixel 10 Pro.

Photos are filled with rich and natural colors, the 5x optical zoom brings out masses of detail, and the main camera has a lovely depth of field. White balance can be a little off in places, and the wide-angle camera’s contrast levels are a touch too strong, but those are my only real complaints after a few hundred photos.

The Google Photos editing suite makes it easy to give photos your preferred look, and I found the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s shots benefited from a tweak of the Pop setting, just to give them a great social media-friendly style. Google’s AI-driven Sky filters are fun, and Magic Eraser remains one of the best ways to remove unwanted people and objects from photos.

There are two special features worth mentioning. The first is Pro Res Zoom, which uses AI to enhance zoom shots over 30x, and it’s surprisingly effective. I’ve gone into detail about how it works and the results to expect in this article. The other feature is Google’s Camera Coach, where AI helps guide you to take the best possible photo.

Any concerns Camera Coach would be the death of photographic creativity have been pushed from my mind, as the Coach is pretty basic at the moment, with its advice ranging from turning the camera to portrait orientation, to moving closer to the subject. I understand not everyone knows the best way to take a photo, but Camera Coach’s advice can often be so generic it borders on insulting. Also, it requires data to provide guidance, so if the phone signal is poor, it doesn’t work.

AI silliness aside, the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s superb camera and varied photo features make it one of the few available that I know I’d be satisfied with using as my only camera, and for years to come, too.

What about all the AI?

It’s as niche as ever

Google wants you to think of the Pixel as a delivery system for Gemini, and boasts about how its AI will transform your life, helping you out with everything imaginable and beyond. From the new Daily Hub feature to Magic Cue, Gemini is pushed as the top reason to buy the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

Perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t find any of it helpful in my day-to-day life. It’s not just Gemini, I find the same with Samsung’s Galaxy AI and Apple’s Apple Intelligence. It’s all very clever, but rarely does it do anything I really need on a regular basis.

Take Daily Hub. It’s hard to believe, but it’s actually worse than Samsung’s similar Daily Brief feature. It’s supposed to live at the top of the Discover page and show, um, tips or updates. In reality, it shows me the weather, and sometimes a calendar entry or two, and that’s it. It does so little and is so unhelpful, I still question if it’s working at all.

Magic Cue lives in the background and is supposed to simplify your workflow by proactively monitoring your actions and giving relevant suggestions to save you time. However, it only monitors certain Google apps, including Gmail, Messages, Calendar, Keep, and Pixel Screenshots. Brilliant if you use these apps, rubbish if you don’t.

When the majority of my communication happens through WhatsApp and Line, not SMS, and many things on my ever-changing to-do list are stored in my brain rather than in a screenshot, Magic Cue sits idle. It’s the same old problem that afflicts all AI features. They’re quite helpful in specific circumstances, but not in all.

Finally, a word on Material 3 Expressive and Android 16. The design changes in the default settings are quite subtle, which is excellent, as it’s possible to go crazy with the way Android looks on the Pixel 10, and I prefer it to be understated out of the box. Menus are springy, animations are smooth and fun, and the color palette is almost entirely customizable. But like a lot of other things here, it’s not dramatically different to the Pixel 9 Pro, which will also get the Android 16 update.

The software never feels laggy, provided you change one setting immediately. Google, in its wisdom, leaves the 120Hz refresh rate off by default, and it makes the phone behave very poorly. Dig into the Display settings and turn on the smooth display, and the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s screen and smoothness transforms. It’s baffling why it’s off by default, and even when it’s on, scrolling apps and content isn’t quite as smooth as it is on the Galaxy S25 Ultra or the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Battery, charging, and magnets

Full suite of battery tech

One possible reason to choose the Pixel 10 Pro XL over the 10 Pro is the battery and charging tech inside. It has a 5,200mAh battery and supports up to 45W wired fast charging, plus Qi2 wireless charging to 25W. It has magnets inside the phone to attach both Pixelsnap and Apple MagSafe charging products.

The Pixel does not come with a charger in the box, and in my experience, it’s quite sensitive about what charger it will accept. It refused to properly accept a charge from my Anker Prime 160W wall charger, which hasn’t been a problem for other devices. It charged at its maximum speed using the Twelve South PlugBug, though.

From almost flat, 50% battery charge arrived in 30 minutes, and it took just over 70 minutes to fully charge. The Pixel 10 Pro’s 30W charging speed will be a tiny bit slower, but probably not by much, and almost certainly not enough to make a dramatic difference to your day.

A 30-minute YouTube video at 1440p and full brightness takes 4% of the battery, and in general, with some light gaming, the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s battery lasts between four and five hours on a single charge. I found it has remained consistent throughout my weeks with the phone, and even at the start of my use, it returned a similar screen-on battery time. This also suggests that the Tensor G5 and Android 16 are an efficient pairing.

However, all this makes the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s battery and charging performance average, rather than stellar, placing it in the same region as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but missing out on the fast charging and impressive efficiency of the OnePlus 13. Because my use lets me charge the phone overnight, it has never reached a point where I’ve been concerned about it running out of power during the day. If you’re the same, there’s nothing to worry about with the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s battery.

Is the Pixel 10 Pro XL the new Pixel to buy?

Probably not

The Pixel 10 Pro XL is a brilliant phone, yet I’m about to say it’s probably not the one to buy. When I decided to wait a while before fully reviewing it, giving me enough time to use it for at least two weeks, I was already wondering why I’d get it over the Pixel 10 Pro. Yes, the screen is bigger and the battery has a tiny bit more capacity, but the software, performance, and camera are all the same.

As mentioned, I spent plenty of time with the Pixel 9 Pro, and during my time with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, I haven’t really felt I greatly benefited from the additional screen size. To be clear, it’s not a downside, and the 10 Pro XL’s excellent balance and weight distribution means it’s not a bother ergonomically either, but I do question if it’s worth an extra $200.

If you’re considering an upgrade, it’d be throwing money away to trade-in a Pixel 9 Pro XL, and I’d think very seriously about upgrading from the Pixel 8 Pro too. Anything earlier and you’ll notice genuine improvements in hardware and performance, especially when it comes to thermal management.

What’s my conclusion here? Rather than ask if the Pixel 10 Pro XL is the phone to buy, the more pertinent question is whether any Pixel 10 series device is one to buy. That’s when I’d give an emphatic yes, particularly if you’re a newcomer to the range, as it’s such a strong lineup. The fundamentals across all Pixel 10s are excellent, and if the 10 Pro XL’s price is a bit too spicy, then get the 10 Pro, and given the standard $800 Pixel 10 now has a telephoto camera, it’s also a great consideration.

Staff pick

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

9
/
10

SoC

Google Tensor G5

RAM

16GB

Storage

256 GB / 512 GB / 1TB with Zoned UFS / 1 TB with Zoned UFS

Battery

5200mAh

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL is a brilliant smartphone, due to the software being so easy to live with, the versatile camera, strong performance, and durable, modern design. However, it isn’t all that different to the smaller, cheaper Pixel 10 Pro, and hasn’t substantially evolved over the Pixel 9 Pro XL to warrant an upgrade.

$1199 at Amazon
$1199 at Google Store
$1199 at Best Buy

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