Pull up to the black [Music] window. My desk is like a mess and I don't seem to find my lighter. Can you see it by any chance? Yeah, I think I see it. [Music] The test is here. I spent a lot of time with this phone to make sure that my judgment is as accurate as possible. And here's what I came up with. The 10 Pro XL is a great phone, but there are a lot of unjustified compromises that don't fit with the price tag. On this table, you see three phones that cost the same amount of money, $1199. The 16 Pro Max, the S25 Ultra, and of course, the 10 Pro XL. With the Pixel, you get the same aluminum frame since forever versus a grade 5 titanium on the other two phones. That's why the 10 Pro XL is now the heaviest. You will also find that Apple and Samsung excel in their own ways to differentiate themselves unlike Google that didn't take any step to justify the high price tag.
The Galaxy is using the exclusive Gorilla Glass Armor 2 while the Pixel is still using the same Victus 2 of last year. The 16 Pro Max has an IP68 rating of up to 6 m underwater for 30 minutes versus 1.5 m on the Pixel. Both the iPhone and the Galaxy have thinner bezels to give you a screen to body ratio of 91.4% and 92.5 respectively versus 88% on the Pixel. So, did Google use the money they saved on the materials to give us the fastest and most efficient CPU in the world? The answer is no. Tensor G5 has the lowest benchmark scores in the CPU and GPU with no rate tracing support while the other two have it. But benchmarks don't represent actual performance, right? Maybe they invented the magic performer that adds extra performance using AI. Still no. The 10 Pro XL delivered the worst performance and efficiency in my heavy workload test. Looking at this comparison, I don't see any point to pay the same $1199. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the 10 Pro XL is a bad phone.
It actually has a gorgeous and unique design. It feels premium in hand. The battery is good enough to finish the day and it does what I need well, but it's not as capable as the competition. So, it shouldn't be priced the same way. I would say that the price tag of this phone should be between $900 to $1,000 max. And next time, if Google wants to get paid like others, just use the latest technologies like them. Give me the grade five titanium, the thinner bezels, the same performance, battery, and efficiency. Because I don't need to compromise anything, even if you offer the best AI features in the world. You know why? Because first of all, the AI features are quality of life features.
They make things easier, but everyone can live without them. Second of all, after a short period of time, Google will release these features to the masses to make more money out of them. Take Magic Editor as an example. It's now available on iPhones and Android phones for free with a limited number of edits. And if you pay as low as $2 a month for a Google 1 subscription, you can enjoy unlimited edits like any Pixel. So, there is no way to convince me that all these compromises in the hardware make any sense. My advice to you, if you can get this phone for $900 to $1,000 with discount, go for it. But for $1199, you better look elsewhere. That's my honest opinion about the 10 Pro XL. So, let's put this aside for now and go through every aspect to tell you what I liked and didn't like about this phone. Starting with the design and building quality, here are my favorite changes. The first one is the bigger camera visor and Gro. Even though they don't add anything meaningful, but to me, the phone looks aesthetically more pleasing.
I'm also glad that Google listened to the feedback and replaced the loudest speaker on the right side as it always been in all previous models except for the Pixel 9. By this, it's less frequent to cover it with my fingers when I hold it in landscape orientation. And for those who live outside the US, the SIM tray is now located at the top. Google should take a Genesis record for the number of times they change the SIM tray placement.
Third, this moonstone color is on point. It's elegant yet not as boring as the Obsidian color. Also, the tented camera visor and the meta rail works really well with it. Other than this, it's the same phone as last year in terms of buttons, materials, dimensions, and the IP68 rating, except for the extra 11 g, probably because of the built-in magnets of Pixel Snap, which is a nice feature for those who use their phone without a case, which is not me. As I'm currently obsessed with aromat fiber cases and this banks case made with DuPont kevlar is no exception. It's super thin, light, strong, has a lot of grip, precise cutouts with a unique and elegant design. Plus, it has its own built-in magnets. So, I'm getting the protection with no added bulk, an amazing look, and still enjoy my Macsafe accessories. You can check it out using the link in the description.
Back to the 10 Pro XL. The real added value of Pixel Snap, in my opinion, is the supported first-party accessories. My biggest disappointment with Google cases in the past was the lack of Maxafe support. So, I used to stick these ugly metal sheets to my Google case to make it work, which I no longer need. Plus, the magnetic wireless charger and ring stand look very promising. Overall, Google's design language since the Pixel 9 is perfect in terms of the looks, comfort, and uniqueness. Plus, the small refinements they made this year, like repositioning the loudspeaker, the new moonstone color, and bigger camera visor and G logo, added further improvements.
But they missed an obvious opportunity, which is the titanium frame to be on par with the competition, especially when they charge the same amount of money. So, what about the display? We got three main improvements with the 10 Pro XL. The peak brightness is up from 3,00 to 3,300 nits and from 2,00 to 2200 in HDR. In this sideby-side comparison under direct sunlight, I can see the difference, but it's not that big. The 3,000 nits of the 9 Pro XL are still more than enough. I would go for the slimmer bezels of the 16 Pro Max and the S25 Ultra over this extra brightness. But what really made a noticeable difference in my experience is the long overdue adaptive tone feature that adjusts the screen to warmer or cooler tones based on the ambient lighting. Apple and Samsung had this feature for years. We even had it in the Pixel 4 back in the day, but for some unknown reason, it disappeared since then and made a comeback with the Pixel 10.
To me, this feature gives less eye strain and makes the colors pop. The third and last improvement is the upgraded PWM dimming. Under settings, then accessibility, you will find a new toggle called adjust the brightness for sensitive eyes. This feature doubles the frequency from 240 to 480 hertz that matches the 16 Pro Max and the S25 Ultra, but is still far behind some of the Chinese makers like the Honor Magic 7 Pro that reaches 4,320 Hz and the OnePlus 13 that can go up to 2160 Hz. But it's a step in the right direction. For the rest of the specs, everything remains the same. The display size, the resolution, the 120 Hz refresh rate with LTPO support that can go as low as one herz to save battery and the same screen to body ratio. Overall, the 10 Pro XL has an amazing display. It delivers great colors, high brightness, and the smoothest scrolling same as the 9 Pro XL with even more brightness, higher PWM dimming, and the adaptive tone support.
But as expected, they have to miss something, which is the thinner bezels. It's not a showstopper for me as the display still looks great. But again, the price is what makes me ask these questions. Why am I paying the same $1199 and I'm not getting the same thinner visit? [Music] Now, let's talk about the performance. And the question is, what does the 3 nanometer tensor G5 manufactured by TSMC brings to the table? In daily usage, I didn't notice a major difference when compared to Tensor G4 in the 9 Pro XL. It performs pretty much the same, but I created two videos trying to figure out what's the edge of Tensor G5 over its predecessor and the competition. In the heavy workload test against the S25 Ultra and the 16 Pro Max, it didn't deliver the results I hoped for. It consumed the biggest amount of battery. It was the hottest. The game FPS and the screen sharing were not the best either. Plus, it couldn't finish the whole 30 minutes of the test. The only thing it did better is the screen brightness. If you want to check the full video, you will find the link in the description.
But I know that heavy usage is not for everyone and most people use their phones normally. So I created another video to check how fast is the new chip in normal tasks. And here is what I found. The 10 Pro XL was a lot faster than the 9 Pro XL in video editing to finish the same task in 33 seconds versus 47, but it was 6 and 5 seconds slower than the iPhone and the Galaxy respectively, which is not the end of the world.
In game launching speed, it was faster than Tensor G4 in three games out of five, but worse than the competition as usual. While in app launching speed, the 9 Pro XL was faster. Plus, it was the second best overall. While the 10 Pro XL was the worst overall for some unknown reason. In contrast, the 10 Pro XL was faster than the 9 Pro XL in snapping photos. It was able to process 58 photos in 15 seconds, which is noticeably better than the 42 photos of the 9 Pro XL, but worse than the 70 photos of the S25 Ultra in the same test. I also compared the speed of Magic Editor in Google Photos in that video, which is not the right decision as Magic Editor is cloud-based. But either way, the 9 Pro XL did finish all the edits faster than the 10 Pro XL even though both were connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
And I did the test around the same time. But for the sake of this video, I did further comparisons to see how faster is the 10 Pro XL in ondevice AI tasks versus the 9 Pro XL. So I turned on airplane mode on both and used Magic Eraser, which is an ondevice feature. So let me try three photos to see which one is faster. [Music] In the three photos, the 9 Pro XL was still faster than the 10 Pro XL and both delivered the same exact results even though Google claims a faster ondevice AI. Let's also compare the ondevice speech to text using Gboard's assistant voice typing. [Music] [Music] As you saw, Both were transcribing at the same rate with the same mistakes too. Let's also try the writing tools in Gboard.
I gave both the same long text to process. So let's see which one is faster. [Music] [Music] [Music] As you saw, they were about the same. Sometimes the 9 Pro XL is faster and sometimes the opposite. So, here are my final thoughts about the performance after a lot of testing. Tensor G5 is only faster than G4 in video editing, image processing, and launching games, but still slower than the competition. Other than this, it's either the same or worse than G4, which is a bummer. And I personally didn't feel the upgrade in my daily usage. So, Google needs to change this annoying mindset of Pixel phones are not designed for high performance.
If that's the case, here is my question. If your phones are slower than the competition in your own software and AI features, so what are they designed for? To be slower in everything and ask for the same price. Is that what makes sense to you? Anyways, let's talk about the battery, which is also another disappointment since day one and I'm not able to reach the same 7.5 hours of screen on time on the 10 Pro XL like I did on the 9 Pro XL when I first got it.
This phone is only capable of 6 hours no matter how many chances I give. It's delivering 6 hours in a world where phones easily reach 8 to 9 hours of screen on time. So, Google is stepping back here. And I have a lot of evidence to show you. I got this phone on the 28th of August. So, here is my battery usage on the 29th. I got 5 hours and the 24 minutes of screen on time with 11% battery remaining. And the apps I used are very basic as shown in this screenshot. But I know phones need some time to optimize. So, I waited for two more days. And here is my usage on the 31st of August. I got 6 hours and 5 minutes with 10% battery left. I was mainly using the navigation for about 2 hours and 18 minutes and playing music over Bluetooth on my car's stereo plus 1 hour of chatting on WhatsApp, 10 minutes of Google Photos and used the camera for 16 minutes. Then on the 2nd of September, I took the 10 and 9 Pro XL to make a camera comparison.
This day I got 5 hours and 20 minutes of screen on time with 2% battery remaining. The camera used for 2 hours and 44 minutes which consumed 76% of the battery. I also used ways for 1 hour and the rest of the apps used for 10 minutes or less. But when I compared this to the 9 Pro XL after using the camera for 2 hours and 7 minutes, it only consumed 22% of the battery, which is a huge gap between the two. And the last day I tested was the 7th of September, which is 4 days after receiving September patch on the 3rd. I got 6 hours and 15 minutes with 5% battery left. My usage this day was very similar to the first day. A lot of navigation and YouTube music, plus the same apps I always use like photos, YouTube, Chrome, etc.
So, I gave it many chances and waited for September update to give you a solid idea about the battery life. The second thing to talk about is the standby time. On September 5th, I compared it to the 9 Pro XL and both were running September patch. At 8:08 a.m., the 9 Pro XL was at 73% battery and the 10 Pro XL was at 49%. Both were connected to the same Wi-Fi network at home. Both have a SIM card inside. I also turned off the always on display wallpaper on the 10 to match the 9. Then I slept for 5 hours. The 10 Pro XL went down to 42% which is 7% of usage while the 9 Pro XL consumed only 5%. So even the standby time is worse than G4. Keep in mind that the 10 Pro XL has a 5200 milliamp battery, which is larger than the 5,000 milliamps of last year's model, yet it did worse in everything. Last but not least, the charging speed. If you may know, the 10 Pro XL now supports G2 wireless charging, which is capable of 25 W. This is more than double the 12 W of the 9 Pro XL. Unfortunately, I don't have a compatible charger to test it in real life, but you should see faster wireless charging.
On the other hand, I was able to compare the wired the charging that also got a bump from 37 watts to 45. So, let's compare it to last year's model. I plugged both to the same 45 W Samsung charger with 5% battery left under the same conditions I mentioned before in the standby time comparison. After the first 30 minutes, the 10 Pro XL did reach 42% while the 9 Pro XL was at 39%. Which is not bad considering the bigger battery that delivers worse screen on time. Anyway, after 1 hour and 47 minutes, the 10 Pro XL charged to 100% while the 9 Pro XL took 1 hour and 55 minutes. So, we are talking about 8 minutes difference, which is nothing. I honestly don't know what to say here. Google is releasing a phone in 2025 that delivers 6 hours of screen on time feels like a joke to me. Did we wait for Tensor G5 all these years to get 6 hours of screen on time and 8 minutes faster charging? This is beyond insane. So, let's talk about the camera which finally has some positive things to say. I would like to start with the portraits as they got major improvements. The most notable one is the subject isolation and the blur effect.
All day and night portraits have better subject isolation, especially around my hair and ears. It's also better in identifying the small gaps between my arms and legs. Also, the blur effect improved and instead of blindly blurring everything, it gradually blurs based on how far is the object from the camera. I also noticed that the 10 Pro XL photos are brighter with less contrast. On the other hand, my only concern with the 10 Pro XL portraits is the oversharpening. But the 10 Pro XL can take 50 megapixel portraits, which wasn't the case before. And once activated, this oversharpening issue disappears with more details than the 9 Pro XL. It's also worth noting that the 50 megap mode seems to struggle at night, producing a lot of noise and softer images, especially when you look at my black t-shirt.
So, you better use the 50 megapixel mode in the morning. and 12 megapixel at night. Another improvement is the ability to take on 1x portraits. So, you are no longer limited to 1.5x as before. And here are a couple of examples day and night to see the difference between the two. Now, you can go a lot wider and the subject isolation is still works well. With the front camera, they look almost identical in everything except for the better subject isolation of the 10 Pro XL, which is obvious when you look around my hair. At night, the 10 Pro struggles a bit with the subject isolation. There are some imperfections around my neck and hair, but it's so much better than the 9 Pro XL that removed my left ear and a small portion of my head. So, that's it with the portraits.
Now, let's talk about the normal photos. Starting with the ultra wide, both look very similar at the first glance, but when you look closely at the dark areas, you will see that the 10 Pro XL has brighter shadows. Other than this, they look identical in terms of details, white balance, and colors. And the same applies to the 50 megapixel photos. The same brighter shadows as the 12 megapixel ones. And what I like is the results are very consistent at both resolutions, which is something Pixel phones used to struggle with in the past. Now, you get the same look regardless the resolution. At night, when I took photos in the same place, the results came out identical. Even the shadows match. There is no way to tell them apart if you don't know which phone is which. But when I took more photos at a darker place, the 10 Pro XL unlocked its full potential.
It balanced the highlights and shadows a lot better than the 9 Pro XL. That brightens up everything. The 10 Pro XL photos look more natural and well processed. You can see the difference when you look at the dark areas. And here are three more 50 megapixel photos at night to show you how better is the 10 Pro XL in processing night images. This is one of the changes I wanted to see in the camera and I hope the 9 Pro XL will get the same as it uses the same lenses of the newer model. Switching to the main camera, you will see the same differences of the ultra wide but not as frequent. Most of the time they look exactly the same. Also, the 10 Pro XL is leaning towards warmer tones. So, let me slide show the best photos I took using the main camera. [Music] You got feel. [Music] [Music] You all [Music] feel it. Talking about the telephoto, the 10 Pro XL is better in four main things. The HDR, sharper details, sometimes less struggle with the focus, and the more accurate colors in some situations. So, you can say it's better in everything.
And the same applies to the 50 megapixel photos. At night, there is a massive difference in the details in favor of the 10 Pro XL. Plus, the 9 Pro XL has more noise. the images are blurry and sometimes it's smudgy. The only thing I didn't like in the 10 Pro XL photos is sometimes it brightens up the image a bit too much, but other than this, it's a lot better in everything. But in the 50 megapel photos at night, both produce blurry images with a lot of noise. But the 10 Pro XL is still noticeably better. I've been tracking this issue for a long time and it doesn't seem to go away.
My 8 Pro doesn't suffer from this issue, which only started after the release of the Pixel 9 models. Now, let's talk about the updated super res zoom. The 10 Pro XL can now take 100x zoomed photos, but instead of using an extra sensor to achieve this, it uses generative AI to enhance any photo taken at 30x or more with the help of an ondevice model that you can locate under the camera settings, then model download. You can uninstall it if you want, but in this case, your zoom will be limited back to 30x, same as the 9 Pro XL. The problem with this feature is it's a hit or miss. Sometimes it works really well and sometimes the details are fake, but I started to like it more over time as it delivered great results in some scenarios.
To show you what I mean, I will also include the S25 Ultra in this comparison. So, let's start with the 30x photos on all three. The perfect scenario for this feature is not to use it with people or text like in this shot. I would say that it did better than the 9 Pro XL as the building is still visible at this zoom level. So, the AI didn't need to figure out anything. It just added extra details. The S25 Ultra did oversharpen the image, but it looks the most natural. In the second scenario, it looks a lot better than the 9 Pro XL, but the problem here is the 10 Pro XL saturates the colors a bit too much, which makes the image look unrealistic. The S25 Ultra also has the oversharpening issue, but overall the 10 Pro image is still acceptable. In the third scenario, the 10 Pro XL has the best overall look and details if you prefer the saturated colors.
But weirdly enough, the AI made the text unreadable even though it's already readable in the other two photos. And that's one of the reasons why this feature needs some optimization. At 100x, that's when the new super resoom unlocks its full potential. Like in this scenario, I will definitely go for the 10 Pro XL shot here. I know there are some fake details, but overall the margin of error is acceptable and it did work well in a lot of other scenarios too. For example, when the sign or text are big enough at this zoom level, the AI will do a great job in enhancing the details like in these examples. If Google can make the colors and texture more accurate, that will certainly help. At night, things become very challenging for all phones. But I was really impressed by this feature at night. As you see, the 10 Pro XL nailed this one with no fake details.
In the second shot, it was better than the S25 Ultra, but the light flares are too much. And don't ask me what the 9 Pro XL is doing here. In the third shot, the 10 Pro XL did the best, but both pixels had the wrong sign color. It should be the same as the S25 Ultra. At 100x, it was miles ahead of the S25 Ultra. I didn't expect it to perform that well at night, and thankfully the text and logos appear in all photos are 100% accurate, which is impressive. But in this last shot, the S25 Ultra showed zero details, while the 10 Pro XL tried really hard to make up any details, and I was able to reach the real doors to show you how it looks versus what the Pixel 10 Pro came up with. Honestly, it did better than what I expected considering what the S25 Ultra came up with.
So, that's it with the super res zoom. Now, let's talk about the selfies that look identical in everything. The colors, HDR, details, and exposure with the same field of view, and the same applies to night photos. So, don't expect any improvement here. The last thing to talk about before comparing the videos is the 5x panorama shots, which is a new feature to the 10 Pro. It has a lower quality than the 1X as it's a digital crop from the main camera, but it's a nice to have feature for situations where the scene is a bit too far from you. Plus, it doesn't have the same fisheye effect of the 1X. But when I compared the 1X of the 9 and the 10, they look exactly the same.
So, the 5X is the only improvement here. Now, let's talk about the videos. Starting with the unboosted ones. The differences I noticed is the 10 Pro XL has brighter shadows, less contrast, less noise in the dark areas, and the exposure is more stable when the light changes, but I like the more contrast of the 9 Pro XL. The lens switching remains the same. I don't see any improvement in this area. But the exception here is the telephoto quality is not as good as before. [Music] [Music] [Music] Testing the image stabilization. The ultra wide and the main are about the same. No major difference between the two. Moving [Music] to the telephoto, the 10 Pro XL has a lot better image stabilization. It doesn't weirdly jump like the 9 Pro XL, but the quality is a lot worse in everything else. The video is grainy, the colors are muted, and the details are a lot less.
So, it seems like Google is trading off the quality for a better stabilization instead of improving both, which is disappointing. The front camera videos share the same changes. Brighter shadows, less contrast, less noise in the dark spots, but the details and the MG stabilization remain the same. Let's also do a quick mic comparison. I'm not using speech enhancement yet and the environment is slightly noisy. I have some wind and the ships behind me are also making some noise. So, you can hear the difference between the two. And I will try again with the speech enhancement to show you the difference. Here's another microphone test, but this time I have the speech enhancement activated. I have the same exact conditions, but maybe it's slightly more noisy now because some ships are passing by as you see here behind me. So, you can hear the difference between the speech enhancement and without the speech enhancement on the 10 Pro XL and the 9 Pro XL side by side. And also we can have a look at the front-facing camera video quality.
And that's it. The 10 Pro XL is slightly louder, but the sound is identical with and without the speech enhancement. So, please let me know in the comments what do you think. I also want to talk about the cinematic blur videos. They are still limited to 1080p with no front camera support, but what's even more exciting is the colors and the quality are worse. I see more noise in the shadows and the muted colors. Google is the only company that steps back in some areas which gives you this sense of uniqueness. If all companies improve over time, they do the opposite to be different. Jumping to night videos straight out of the camera, you will see the same differences I talked about in the morning videos.
Brighter shadows and less contrast. And I think they are trying to hide the noise you see in the 9 Pro XL video, but the end result is not great as the video lost its night look. Overall, I prefer the colors and contrast of the 9 Pro XL day and night. They need to find a way to hide the noise without impacting the look. Other than this, the image stabilization, details, and lens flares of the wide and main cameras are the same. The telephoto at night stutters a lot on both devices while panning, which is very annoying. The colors of the 10 Pro XL are still muted with worse details than the 9 Pro XL, but it's only better in keeping the camera steadier while walking. And here are the front camera videos at night.
Same as the morning ones, you get brighter shadows, less contrast and noise, but the image is softer, and the overall look is flat. Overall, disappointing video results. So, let's compare video boost to see what's new. There are two main improvements here. The first one is the ability to use it with the ultra wide, which wasn't the case before. In this sideby-side comparison, you can see the difference between the normal ultrawide video of the 9 Pro XL and the boosted version of the 10 Pro XL. Now, it has the proper colors and contrast I wanted to see in the normal videos with a lot more details than the 9 Pro XL. The ultra wide needed this and I'm happy to see it supported. And at night, the differences are massive. Look at how much better are the details, stabilization, colors, contrast, and exposure.
The boosted version is closer to the 9 Pro XL in terms of colors and white balance, but brighter, unlike the normal version of the 10 Pro XL that didn't show the same. The second improvement is the ability to shoot in 24 frames per second to get a cinematic look. And here are some of the samples using the main and telephoto lenses, which is also possible with the ultra wide, but it looks better with those two lenses. And here are the night samples. [Music] [Music] So, these are all the photos and videos I have, but there are two more features Google added to the camera. The first one is camera coach. I don't think anyone will ever use this feature as it takes a very long time and effort to follow along. First, you need to wait for the AI to analyze the scene and give you some suggestions. When you pick the one you like, it overlays the steps on the screen. So, you have to read the step, take the action, then hit next. Then read the next step, take the action, and hit next. You need to do this five times to snap a single shot.
That usually takes about 5 to 10 seconds max. Google can make this feature a lot more useful by overlaying arrows and other visual cues rather than showing some text that takes time to read. And the last feature to talk about is auto best take. It works exactly the same as the previous one, but it automatically picks the right faces for you. Keep in mind that it only works when it detects two or more people in the shot. But for individual ones, you need to use the manual best take. Either way, those two features didn't make any difference in my day-to-day usage. So, that's it with the camera and here are my final thoughts. I liked a lot of the improvements when it comes to photos like the better subject isolation and 1x photos in portraits. The 10 Pro XL has better image processing in general, especially at night. The new 5x panorama and the generative AI super resume zoom only in some scenarios. In videos, the only thing that I can consider as an improvement is video boost.
Now, it supports the ultra wide, which is a huge plus, and the new 24 fps is another welcomed addition. But the normal videos don't look as good as before. Yes, they got some improvements, like the less noise and more stable exposure, but the brighter shadows and lack of contrast has a negative impact on the overall look. Plus, Google didn't improve any of the other video modes, like the cinematic blur still doesn't support the front camera. slow-mo didn't get the same 120 fps to be on par with the competition and the active stabilization is still the same. Plus, all of them are still limited to 1080p. I expected a lot more in this area, especially after the upgraded chip, but it seems like Tensor G5 is so overrated. It's still a subpar chip that cannot process higher quality videos. And now, let's talk about the software. I already covered all the exclusive software features that comes with the Pixel 10 in another video that you can check using the link in the description. Today, I will share my experience with these features. Starting with Magic Q. It's an AI feature that proactively shows the info you need based on what you're doing on screen, so you don't have to go find it.
For example, when a friend asks you about something related to a screenshot you took earlier or an email you received, you should see this information automatically suggested on a screen or when you call your airline customer service, your flight details pop in the phone app and so on. After spending the past 12 days with this phone, I found this feature to be useful sometimes. In one scenario, it's suggested to set a reminder for my car service based on a text message I received, which is very similar to the smart replies feature we already have.
But in another scenario, I sent myself a text message asking for my flight details to Egypt. It showed an open email suggestion in the notification that took me right away to the exact relevant email, which is very useful. I also sent myself a couple of messages asking about a copy of my ID and the moonshot I took with my Pixel 10 Pro XL. And in those two scenarios, it suggested a share photos action that opens my gallery without locating the actual photo, which is not very useful. But overall, this feature has a lot of potential, and I'm expecting it to be a lot better over time. The only downside is it doesn't do the same with third-party apps. The second one is Gemini Visual Cues. This feature lets Gemini highlight things when you use the live camera feed, which could be useful in some cases. So, let me show you a quick demo. Gemini, my desk is like a mess, and I don't seem to find my lighter.
Can you see it by any chance? Yeah, I think I see it. It looks like there might be a lighter inside that blue phone case. Google also released a brand new app exclusive to the Pixel 10 called Journal. If you are into journaling, you will find it useful. It also integrates with Google Photos and Health Connect, so you can add relevant photos or a health connect activity to your journal if needed. Plus, it gives you insights and ideas based on the topic with the ability to change the font and text color and more.
I'm not into journaling, so this feature didn't have any impact on my day-to-day usage. The fourth one is the new screen savers, especially the new clock designs that you can customize their layout and theme. They look very similar to the ones on iOS, but with no widgets or notification support like on iPhones. Additionally, we have one for the Pixel Weather, Google Photos, and Homes.
I personally liked the new clock screen savers and use them every day. In the recorder app, we got a new feature that will allow you to create music based on a specific rhythm from your recording. To achieve this, record anything like a specific beat or rhythm in any way you want. Then the app will create a music file that matches yours. In my case, I recorded the We Will Rock You beat by knocking on my desk. Then under the more menu, you will find the create music option. Here you can choose between six different featured vibes or under the your vibes tab, you can choose between different genres or feelings.
So, I decided to go with hip-hop genre for this one. And here is the result. [Music] To me, this feature is just a gimmick to be honest. Beside this, Google added some nice to have features like the ability to show your wallpaper on the always on display like other flagships. The camera app and Google photos now support the C2PA standard which maintains the history of AI and nonAI edits. So you can know how this image was made which is nice. Daily hub is another new feature that uses AI to give you a daily brief tailored to you. It includes the weather, some of the calendar events and other suggestions from YouTube, the web, or any other service you are subscribed to like Amazon Prime in my case. I found this feature to be useless. It recommends pretty much the same thing every day and the info provided is very basic or irrelevant. So hopefully things will change over time. Lastly, there are a couple of features that I couldn't get my hands on because they are Jestricted. The first one is ask photos to edit which allows you to edit photos using your voice.
You can give it a command like remove background clutter, remaster old photo, or make it a portrait and it will apply the edits for you without the need to locate the editing tools manually. Unfortunately, this feature is only available in the US, at least for now. So, I don't have access to it in the Middle East. The second one is live translate for phone calls. It translates your calls on the fly using a voice that mimics yours. As per Google, this feature is available in select countries without specifying the actual names, but anyways, I don't have access to it. So, here are my final thoughts about the software. Google didn't add any groundbreaking features this year, but my favorite one so far is Magic Q. It's helpful, but it doesn't always work. Plus, it doesn't support third-party apps, which limits its full potential, as most communication apps are third-party apps.
For the rest of the features, they are nice to have, but they either made no or a small difference in my daily usage. Now, let's end this video by talking about the basics, and I will start with the speakers. The 10 Pro XL is miles ahead when compared to its predecessor. So, here's a side-by-side comparison with the 9 Pro XL, the S25 Ultra, and the 16 Pro Max. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] For the haptics, it feels exactly the same as the 9 Pro XL.
I couldn't spot any difference between the two. When it comes to the modem, thankfully for those who live in the UEE, the 5G and voice over LTE works out of the box. And here's a quick speed test on the 5G and my home Wi-Fi versus other phones. But unfortunately, the 9 Pro XL is not included as the 5G is restricted for some unknown reason. It only works with the beta software, which is not currently installed. In the 5G test, it's slightly slower than the S25 Ultra, but a lot faster than the 16 Pro Max. In Wi-Fi, it's the fastest, followed by the 16 Pro Max, and the S25 Ultra couldn't beat that number. Even though I tried the test three times behind the camera and the number you see is the heist. Moving to the biometric, Google is using an upgraded ultrasonic sensor. It should be faster than last year's model, but what I've noticed is it works better with the screen protectors than the one used in the 9 Pro XL, while the Face ID is exactly the same.
So, that's everything you need to know about the 10 Pro XL. And here are my final thoughts. There are two ways to think about the 10 Pro XL. If you're going to ignore the fact that the competition exists and Google is the only company that makes smartphones, it's a lot easier to love it. It has a great design, feels premium, has a great display, great speakers, decent performance and battery life for day-to-day tasks, and the camera takes amazing photos and videos with video boost. But when you consider other options available in the market, it offers a lot less than the competition for this price.
I recorded most of this video before the announcement of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. And look at what Apple offers for the same $1199. The 16 Pro Max already takes better videos than the 10 Pro XL. It's faster and more efficient. So imagine what the 17 Pro Max will do when compared to this phone. So here is my message to Google. Forget that you are only a software company trying to make a phone that runs your own features. You better zoom out to see what others are doing. For many years, Google dropped it when it comes to innovation, and they started to catch up in everything.
The performance, the battery, the camera, and even the AI features. They are no longer proactive like they used to be, but they are reactive. By this, I'm done with my in-depth review of the 10 Pro XL. Please let me know what do you think in the comments. Stay tuned for even more videos when the 17 Pro Max arrives. But for now, thanks so much for watching and see you in the next.
