Skip to playerSkip to main content
Google Pixel 10 _ 10 Pro Hands on - Too Much Google

#GooglePixel10 #GooglePixel10Pro
Transcript
00:00I've just tested the new Google Pixel 10 phones and I'm a little bit worried by what I've seen.
00:05So it's four new devices, the $799 Pixel 10, the $999 Pixel 10 Pro, the $1199 10 Pro XL,
00:11and then finally the $1799 Pixel 10 Pro Fold. And it really feels like Google is doubling down here
00:17on what makes the Pixel different, but that's both in a good way and a bad way. The good is that in
00:23classic Google fashion, there are a sprinkle of new software features here that actually do feel
00:29just a little bit magical, like camera coach. So when you're about to take a photo on a Pixel 10,
00:34you can tap here and your phone will analyze your scene and your subject and guide you towards
00:38taking your final shot. It does need internet, but when you use it, you can kind of see why.
00:43Because first, it suggests a number of different directions that you could go in with your photo.
00:47And these, by the way, are not always real images. Your phone will literally be AI generating
00:51expressions and poses on this person in your frame that haven't even happened yet. They're
00:56fabricated just to inspire ideas while you're shooting. And once you decide on one you like,
01:01it opens up this multi-step process that involves suggestions on all kinds of things. Everything
01:06from which mode and which zoom level to use to how you should step to the side to avoid shadows being
01:11cast on what you're shooting. It even told me to try pulling a different face while I was in the shot.
01:15Would I use it? No, probably not. Photos are very subjective and I don't really trust that my
01:22phone's AI has a better idea of what I want to shoot than I do. But could I see this helping my
01:27parents to take better photos and then also start to teach them what makes those better photos?
01:33Actually, yeah. Magic Q is another pretty instant hit. It means the AI on these phones can pop up
01:39relevant information when it thinks you need it. And you'll know it's doing it when you see these
01:42colorful little outlines around things. So let's say, for example, someone asks you when you're coming
01:47home from a trip. Your phone can retrieve your flight details from your email and put them right
01:51in front of you so you can just tap to send them immediately. Which, if you think about what it
01:55would take to do that manually, that is saving you quite a bit of just messing around inside your apps.
02:01Or even if you're calling, say, a restaurant, your phone should be able to pick up which restaurant
02:05you're calling and then actually surface up details that are relevant. Like, for example,
02:09what time the reservation is that you've currently booked. In practice, the feature is pretty limited
02:14right now. There's a lot of asterisks about what kinds of situations it does and doesn't work in.
02:18But what an insane idea. It really makes you feel like Google's attention is focused on fixing real
02:24life user issues and making the phone experience feel proactive, not just reactive. And then it's
02:30also cool to see just how much the company is squeezed out of their zoom camera with ProRes Zoom.
02:35So Google Pixels for a while now have had super-res zoom, which when you capture can take lots of
02:40not-so-great-quality shots and merge them together to make one pretty great-looking shot at either 20
02:46times or 30 times zoom. And this is what the base Pixel 10 still has. It can do 20 times. But this
02:51year, for just the Pro phones, Google is also sprinkling a little bit of AI into the mix to let
02:56you go all the way to 100 times. And this is not something that we haven't seen before from other
03:00phones, but it's executed well. The results look polished, pretty crispy for a 100 times zoom photo,
03:06and less AI-like than I was expecting, given how much AI is clearly being used. And I also like
03:12the fact that if you then decide afterwards that you actually want nothing to do with the AI,
03:15you will also get the unprocessed version along with it. There's a couple of entirely new Google
03:20apps like Ask Photos, which is yet another chatbot that you can ask to now edit your photos in whatever
03:27way that you want. It sounds like an interesting idea, but I do feel like whether or not this is
03:32useful, completely hinges on how much it gets you and your preferences. Because I feel like
03:37actually having to spell out how much extra brightness I want to add to an image or exactly
03:43which people I want to get rid of in the background, it sounds to me like exhausting,
03:47like way more effort than it's worth. And then secondly is Pixel Journal, which is basically Google's
03:52equivalent to the Apple Journal app that we got a few years ago, but it's for Europe and in English
03:58only apparently. And it's all packaged together with some improvements to the hardware on these
04:02phones. Every Pixel 10 generation phone has a bigger battery than last gen. And this is great
04:07with all four of these phones very closely clustered around that healthy 5,000 mAh capacity mark. There's
04:13better speakers, especially on the pros, brighter screens and Qi2 wireless charging with magnets,
04:19which I have just one thing to say about. Finally. Flipping. Finally. MagSafe for Android is here.
04:27The magnetic connection is every bit as strong as it is on my iPhone. And that's going to give all
04:31four of these phones full compatibility with any MagSafe charger and a lot of MagSafe accessories.
04:37And then for some reason only on the 10 Pro XL, this phone is using the fastest wireless charging
04:43standard available, like the very latest version of this, which is Qi 2.2. So it can charge with a
04:49zippy 25 watts of power wirelessly. And then the actual devices themselves, while very similar
04:54looking to last year's phones, they're well built and classy. They feel like proper flagships in the
04:59hand, which is not something I've always been able to say about Google Pixel phones, with some
05:04kind of interesting color options too, including this ultramarine blue on the base Pixel 10 that
05:09they say is inspired by the blue color from the first Pixel. But I would be very surprised if this
05:14didn't have something to do with the fact that it makes the thing look almost identical to an iPhone 16.
05:19But yeah, this feels like a pretty solid, if not slightly safe upgrade to last year's phones.
05:24So what is there to complain about? Well, first up, while most of the new software features seem
05:29at least like they are heading in the right direction, one of the key ones, Voice Translate,
05:34worked pretty terribly in my experience. And it wasn't for lack of trying. The idea is that you
05:39should be able to have a real-time phone call with someone who is talking another language. And
05:43your phone will then live translate so that you can both hear each other's voices in your own
05:47language. But I had five different phone calls while using this. And for one reason or another,
05:52four of those five phone calls, it completely butchered in some pretty major way. Just
05:57persistent misunderstandings. Like we say, I want to go to the Louvre. It thinks I want to go
06:02to the Louvre. Or like for another example, what do you think of the weather today?
06:06Um, I'm staying stupid as I can't wait.
06:16Sorry, the publicist, excuse me, I'm sorry, I don't really understand that now. You can
06:21please say it again.
06:22And bear in mind, this is what was happening when we were on the phone with someone who
06:25understood both German and English, so could kind of recover it when it went off track. There's
06:31a lot more room for it to go very wrong when you're talking to someone who, say, only spoke
06:35German. I will say it does a good job of keeping your accent. So if I say, hey, how are you in
06:40English, they will hear the German translation of that, but as if it was me saying it. And also bear
06:45in mind, this testing happened about three weeks before launch. So there is some time for it to
06:50improve. But I don't think this is much of an excuse because, I mean, this is the version of the
06:54product that media has been specifically invited to test. And then the other thing with Google phones,
06:59right, is in my experience, they never really feel finished. And that's exactly the same
07:04case here, too. It is fantastic that you get seven years of software updates and new features via
07:09Google's pixel drops. But it does feel like Google uses this as a bit of a veil. It makes them happy to
07:15release things in their very simple, very beta stages, like Magic U. It makes them feel comfortable
07:20telling you how if a feature doesn't work well, like voice translate, well, that's just because you're
07:25testing it early and that it'll get better later. Or that key features are coming to some regions
07:30before others, if your region gets them at all, like the journal app. And it allows Google to
07:35reduce their accountability for things feeling unpolished. You know, like the camera app when
07:39you're zooming in, it's been laggy on all previous pixel phones, doesn't look like it's any better here.
07:44Or portrait mode, Google has tumbled from genuinely king of the hill to, frankly, C tier when it comes to
07:51portraits in recent years. And so this year, they bumped the resolution. This new Pixel 10 Pro can
07:55take 50 megapixel portraits, which is great, but they haven't actually fixed the issue, which is
07:59their edge detection. This phone still managed to chop off not one, but both my ears. And that's the
08:06one time it worked. The first two times we tried it, it bugged out and got me completely out of focus.
08:10But here's the crux of it. All of this stuff, you know, the odd feature being buggy, bits and pieces
08:14coming soon, or features limited to specific areas, it's nitpicky. And it wouldn't matter nearly as much
08:20if the hardware of the phones was stellar. The issue with Pixel phones, and I would argue more
08:26so with the Pixel 10s than ever before, is that the software features have to be incredible because
08:31the hardware is pretty lacking for what you're paying. The biggest thing is performance. Google's
08:36previous few flagship phones with their Google Tensor chips have not been at all close to their peers.
08:41Like last year, phones with Snapdragon chips had about a 60% performance lead over Google phones.
08:4760%. That makes the Pixels effectively mid-rangers. And so this time around, we have a new chip,
08:53the Tensor G5. And these are, of course, Google's fastest ever Pixel devices. I mean, credit where
09:00credit's due, it does seem a solid amount better in terms of AI and also CPU performance. They say about
09:0534% quicker than last year. And this chip is also now being made by TSMC instead of Samsung for the
09:11first time, which makes me expect some efficiency improvements. Expect this to pair very well with
09:17the slightly bigger batteries this time around for just much better endurance. But Google needed like
09:22an 80% performance improvement on this chip to start closing the gap with Snapdragon. This G5 is
09:28is just maintaining it. And the fact that they didn't even once mention the graphics performance of this
09:32Tensor G5 makes it seem pretty likely that it is falling even further behind the competition when it
09:38comes to gaming prowess. But that's not all. I find it absolutely crazy that the Pixel 10 and 10 Pro
09:43start at 128 gigabytes of storage still. Pixel 10, okay, fine, whatever. But the $999 Pro, I mean,
09:51128 gigabytes stopped being Pro about five years ago. That's about 80 gigabytes of actual space for your
09:59music, photos, videos for maybe the next four years of your use once you factor in the size of the
10:04operating system and your very, very basic starter apps. Plus, while it is good that the 10 Pro XL at
10:10least does start with 256 gigs, they're just copying what the iPhone does now, where you're not actually
10:15getting more storage for the money. You just can't buy the lower storage model anymore, which makes this
10:20phone start at $100 more than last year's. They called the Pixel 10 Pro's cameras award-winning in our
10:26briefing, which my first reaction was like, that's very strange. This product isn't even out yet. But then I
10:31realized the reason they can say that is because it is basically identical to the cameras on the Pixel
10:369 Pro. The image stabilization is a little better, but every single camera sensor is the same. And if
10:42we're being honest, now on the smaller side, especially considering the top tier pricing. And
10:47just to reiterate, Google's camera tuning used to be so far ahead of other companies that it didn't
10:52matter. But because Google's software processing lead isn't what it used to be, you notice the hardware
10:58more. And then for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, while it's awesome that it has an IP68 water and dust
11:04protection rating for the first time on a foldable, by the way, the actual body of the phone, the bezels
11:09on the front, the thickness of the thing, they're not in line with what other companies are offering
11:13now, especially when you factor in the slower chip and the fact that the thing's cameras are almost
11:18the same as a Pixel 10, a $799 phone. Thankfully, what does feel a lot more finished is the
11:25Opera browser our sponsor. Like it has a music player built into the sidebar and it is perfect
11:29because it means you're not fumbling around your tabs like where the hell is this music playing
11:32from. I've just set mine to be always here because the browser is so modular, as well as your other
11:37stuff like WhatsApp and Messenger. But it is also smart. Like the second you hit play on a YouTube
11:41video in any of your tabs, the music player knows that and it will actually slowly fade out what it's
11:46playing. Plus it then fades back in as soon as you stop playing that video. So you don't even need to
11:51control it. But if you wanted to, then all you have to do is to hover over it and you have your
11:55full media controls, but in like the least distracting way possible. Or for another example,
12:00the other day I decided I was a little bit bored of the way my browser looked. So I switched my theme
12:05over to Interstellar and it changes everything. It changes your home screen wallpaper, the color of
12:10your search bar, your sidebar, but also what you're doing on your browser instantly just goes dark mode.
12:15There's even sound effects that change, like listen to what happens when I open and close my tabs.
12:20Link below to download the Opera browser for free.
Be the first to comment
Add your comment

Recommended