If your cell plan is close to ending or you’re getting a little tired of your Pixel 8 Pro, is it now time to go out and get the Pixel 10 Pro XL? Well, hopefully, here’s everything you need to know.
What about the Pixel 7 Pro?
With one more year of support available, the Pixel 7 Pro isn’t a bad phone. It is starting to show its age, and although support was extended and it has been a decent device, it has some problems that might be starting to become irksome. If you are using the Pixel 7 Pro and looking enviously at the Pixel 10 series, an upgrade is 100% worth it. You will get many improvements that will improve your day-to-day experience.
It has better connectivity, a vastly superior fingerprint scanner, and the whole package is just more refined. Switching will not be a painful experience, nor will you regret it. It’s a no-brainer.
Hardware improvements
The biggest physical change from the Pixel 8 Pro to the Pixel 10 Pro or Pixel 10 Pro XL is the lack of soft corners. Ergonomically, the Pixel 8 series was vastly superior to the boxy Pixel 9 and 10 series. With a case on this is more pronounced, as the Pixel 10 Pro has sharper corners, and cases are bigger around the edges. I think a lot of people discount this, but it is a reason to stick with a phone because if it gets sore to hold, then you don’t want to use it.
Do edges provide grip? Well, yes, but there is something a little more compelling about those curves for lots of people. Where you fall will ultimately depend on what you want more from your phone. The rest of the design is a bit more of a remix. The camera bar on the Pixel 10 looks slightly different and is less prone to scuffs than on the Pixel 8.
Pixelsnap is the headline inclusion to the Pixel 10 series, beacuse you don’t need to use a third-party case to be able to throw on accessories that’ll magnetically attach to the back of your phone. Maybe this inclusion is overhyped. I personally believe it’s a great addition as more accessories for Pixel phones are always a good thing, given how small the userbase is compared to the biggest Android players.
Another big upgrade is the display tech as the Pixel 10 Pro XL has a, frankly, incredible screen. It gets almost eye-searingly bright, and the Adaptive Tone works better at tuning to the lighting conditions in your environment. Better contrast, better handling of reflections, and the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner plus enhanced speakers. On paper, things aren’t as pronounced. In real life, the difference is noticeable and quite obvious. That said, the Pixel 8 Pro has a fantastic screen.
Software and performance
Another cold, hard truth about the Tensor G5 is that it isn’t exactly a quantum leap, even over a phone that is now two generations old. The actual performance gain is quite minimal from the Tensor G3 in the Pixel 8 Pro to the G5 chip in the Pixel 10 Pro. It’s hard to defend that, but there are at least some noticeable benefits here.
Firstly, things like image and video processing appear to be faster, but only marginally. Certain tasks that rely heavily on AI processing are also much faster than before. The addition of UFS 4.0 storage on the 256GB variants of the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL is where you can start to see some gains over the Pixel 8 Pro. Things do load faster, apps can refresh quicker, and the system is snappier when doing lots of things simultaneously.
That’s not even accounting for the extra RAM overhead. Sometimes, the Pixel 8 Pro can get bogged down, like when downloading lots of apps simultaneously. This isn’t quite as prevalent on the Pixel 10 lineup. However, that is an edge case and not something most people will do all that often.
Gaming performance is almost identical. If you want to do this on your phone, you are better served elsewhere. Maybe in the future, we’ll get Tensor chips that can compete with the best Snapdragon chips in raw performance, but for now, it’s business as usual.
Android 16 QPR1 is the perfect showcase for what all Pixels can do. It’s hard to ascertain if it runs better on either phone, but logically, it would be smoother on the Pixel 10 Pro over the Pixel 8 Pro. I just can’t see a difference when using both of these phones side by side. So, at least in the overall Android feel, you might be left disappointed as the jump is barely noticeable. My personal gripe is that the Pixel 8 series still runs a little hot.
Camera
To be clear, the entire rear camera system is identical spec-for-spec. For selfies, the Pixel 10 Pro slaps the Pixel 8 Pro, but for the most part, a bit more tuning, the new ISP, and some software tricks make the difference.
Highlight control is handled differently and, as you would expect, zoom photos and video favor the Pixel 10 series. There isn’t a quantum leap in photo quality, which is arguably one of the biggest disappointments for anyone who would make the switch. Again, it’s a testament to how good the Pixel 8 series camera system is. In many cases, you might prefer the older phone’s stylized look rather than the sometimes overly processed Pixel 10 images.
With Pro Res Zoom, you can get some cool shots, but there are times when this effect can be too much. Personally, I don’t think you should take photos at 100x. Instead, you get better and cleaner images within, say, 20 feet at higher zoom levels. The AI processing just fine-tunes rather than attempting to plug all the gaps that a small sensor can’t capture. If this matters to you, you’ll love the new function.
It’s worth noting that the Pixel 10 Pro has more options for recording with Video Boost, up to 8K resolution now and 24fps framerates are supported. Still no room for LOG video, but maybe that is something Google can add in a future update.
Battery and charging
We’re not going to dedicate too much time to battery longevity, as a two-year-old device will not be as good as a brand-new one. The major difference here is supported charging speed and flexibility.
Qi 2 gives you 25W charging with the Pixelsnap magnetic charging puck, but the 45W wired charging isn’t all that much faster in the real world due to the charging curve of the Pixel 10. Both devices claim 0-50% in around 30 minutes and 0-100% in around 90 minutes. Not exactly the fastest on the market and no real upgrades to speak of.
Is it worth ditching the Pixel 8 Pro for the Pixel 10 Pro?
In most cases, you’ll have a great time switching from the Pixel 8 series to the Pixel 10 lineup. However, because Google is focusing on Gemini and AI integration, you might not see major gains, like from the Galaxy S23 to the S25.
Visually, it’s quite a big shift, but functionally, there are fewer major compelling reasons to make that jump unless you want or need some of the features like Magic Cue to speed up and simplify certain day-to-day tasks. The Pixel 8 Pro is the last of the “old” designs in that it is soft, approachable, and has a fun aesthetic. The camera isn’t that much of a step down.
For most people, a switch from the Pixel 8 Pro to the Pixel 10 Pro or Pro XL probably isn’t significant enough of an upgrade in the sense that it feels so similar in all but a few key places. I don’t know about you, but that’s not a negative in my book. The experience is so consistent that you’re not missing out unless you want the ambient AI features – some of which will not be useful unless you use Google’s first-party apps like Messages.
Simply put, if I were still using the Pixel 8 Pro, I don’t think there would be one majorly compelling reason to switch to the Pixel 10 Pro unless the price were low enough to consider it.
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