Base edition smartphones often have an understated appearance when compared to their Pro edition counterparts, and that’s primarily because they (typically) feature fewer camera lenses. Let’s take the Pixel 9 series, for example.
I can tell whether a person is holding onto a base Pixel 9 or a Pixel 9 Pro/Pro XL by simply looking at the camera bar on the back, though that distinction is set to become less apparent with the upcoming Pixel 10 series.
We’ve known for a while now that the upcoming Pixel 10 will be the first base Pixel to house a rear telephoto lens, and now, with the device starting to take shape, we have a better idea of what the camera upgrade will mean for the phone’s overall design.
New base Pixel 10 renders obtained and shared by the folks over at Android Headlines paint a strikingly familiar picture — one that’s reminiscent of the tech giant’s Pixel 9 Pro.
Expected to be available in Obsidian, Indigo, Frost, and Limoncello (in that order in the image below) colorways, the base Pixel 10, with its three rear cameras, looks exactly like the Pixel 9 Pro, barring the missing temperature sensor. For reference, these are the same colors that were shared by leaker @MysteryLupin earlier this month.
The new lens comes with trade-offs
Flash, power, and volume buttons retain their positioning, and the same goes for the centrally placed ‘G’ logo on the back panel. The base Pixel 10 is also expected to retain its predecessor’s curved edges, though not much else can be gleaned from the shared renders. However, we do know that Google is making compromises to be able to include a telephoto lens on the base model.
The device is expected to downgrade the rear primary shooter to a 48-megapixel sensor (from 50-megapixel), with the ultrawide going for a 12-megapixel sensor (from 48-megapixel). On the upgrade side, the base device is expected to feature a bigger 4,970mAh battery (up from 4,700 mAh), paired with wired charging speeds going from 27W max to 29W.
While not very different from its predecessor’s hardware, Google will likely knock it out of the park on the software side. The device will ship with Android 16 preinstalled, and as is the case with the tech giant’s flagships, 7 years of major OS upgrade support is a given.
Google will show off the base Pixel 10 alongside the Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and the Pixel Watch 4 on August 20th.
