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The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is a fine Pixel phone but less than the sum of its parts

7:00 pm | August 20, 2025

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold: Two-minute review

The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is a phenomenal smartphone, and one of the best foldable phones you can buy, but after reviewing the phone for a week, I was left wanting more… or maybe less. Big tablet foldable phones still have a hard time justifying their mountain-peak prices, and while I love Google’s latest Pixel 10 family, as a foldable phone, it just doesn’t offer enough extra appeal to justify paying so much more for the privilege of a Google tablet inside.

Before I talk about what I like or dislike about the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, I need to get the price out of the way, because this is one of the most expensive phones you can buy, and it’s even more expensive than most laptop computers. It gives you an outer display that is nearly the same as the display on the Pixel 10, but the new Pro Fold costs $1,799 / £1,749 / AU $2,699, which is $950 / £750 / AU $1,000 more than the Pixel 10 Pro.

How could a foldable phone possibly justify costing twice as much as the flat phone from which it evolves? You can buy a Pixel 10 Pro and two iPad mini tablets for the same price as a Pixel 10 Pro Fold. If the Fold is going to be worth the high cost, it needs to be special. It needs to be a better choice than buying a phone and tablet separately.

That means it needs to be thin and light – impossibly so. The magic trick of producing a tablet from within your smartphone is dazzling, but it only works if the folded phone is the size of a normal smartphone.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold in Jade green outside at a flower garden on a sunny day — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Sadly, Google hasn’t made the Pixel 10 Pro Fold any thinner this year. It’s even taken a step back, while Samsung has blown us away with its super-thin Galaxy Z Fold 7. To be fair, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold was the thinnest phone you could buy when it launched in 2024, but this is the year for thin phones, and the new Pixel Pro Fold has been snacking between meals.

A foldable phone also needs to do things that a flat phone cannot do. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold doesn’t just have a bigger display inside. It also folds in the middle, so you can use the two sides for different functions. You can also use the inner and outer displays simultaneously.

I wish there were a lot more features that took advantage of the unique foldable design, but sadly, Google hasn’t added much excitement to the Fold over the past few years. Now, when you open the camera on the big inner display and take a photo, you’ll see the pic you just took on one half of the screen with the camera app on the other half. Big deal? Hardly.

There is nothing the Pixel 10 Pro Fold lacks – nothing missing that I loved on the Pixel 10 Pro. The flat Pixel Pro phone is one of the best you can buy. But without adding standout features that take advantage – and justify the cost – of the folding display, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is much harder to recommend than its flat siblings.

If you’re settled on a foldable tablet, there are only two phones worth considering – the Pixel 10 Pro Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. I have both of these phones (that’s almost $4,000 worth of folding glass in front of me), and the differences are more interesting than I imagined.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is technically superior in many ways – it's faster and has much better cameras than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold – but Google has some distinct advantages that are firsts for a foldable of this size.

Foremost is the IP68 rating, which means the phone won’t be destroyed by dust and sand. I don’t know how Google did it, but the new hinge is more tightly sealed than ever before, and that means you can take the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to more places than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Google also includes its new Pixelsnap magnetic charging on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which opens a world of accessories, including charging stands, wallet cases, and magnetic tripods. That also means my Pro Fold fit neatly into my world of iPhone MagSafe charging and accessories. The Galaxy can’t do that.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold HANDS ON — The Pixel 10 Pro Fold (left) next to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 (right) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Finally, my disappointment over the lack of big-screen features aside, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is much more attractive and comfortable to hold than other big foldable phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It keeps most of the Pixel 10 family design – a winning look that Google refined this year – and offers more durability and better battery life instead of shaving off another millimeter.

I’d recommend the Pixel 10 Pro Fold over other foldable tablets like the Z Fold 7 because I like those priorities – durability and battery life – and because Google’s version of Android remains the most polished and friendly on any phone, foldable or flat.

Still, despite its advancements, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold struggles to justify the premium price for its unique form factor, making the more affordable and traditional Pixel 10 Pro a better choice for anyone who doesn’t have money to burn.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Price & availability

Starts at $1,799 / £1,749 / AU $2,699 for 256GB of storage and 16GB RAM
Available in Jade or Moonstone, but 1TB size only comes in latter

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the most expensive phone you can buy… from Google. It keeps the same price as last year's 9 Pro Fold, while Samsung raised the price on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, making the latter the most expensive smartphone you can buy (outside of China, where the tri-fold Huawei Mate XT laughs at our poverty).

This is the third Pixel Fold, but that sticker price is no less shocking. You can get a Pixel 10 Pro and an iPad mini with a cellular connection for the same cost, and still have hundreds left in your bank account. Is it really so convenient to have both devices in one? Yes, but not twice-the-price convenient, and certainly not more than that.

Of course, most people won’t pay full price, and I’m seeing carrier deals that will drop the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to around $25/month in the US – if you sign a three-year contract. Google is promising seven years of Android OS updates and security patches, but I’m sure this phone will feel aged in three years, considering the super-thin new phones just hitting the market.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold pricing
Storage	US Price	UK Price	AU Price
256GB	$1,799	£1,749	AU $2,699
512GB	$1,919	£1,869	AU $2,899
1TB	$2,149	£2,099	AU $3,289

Value score: 2 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Specifications

With a Google Tensor G5 chipset inside, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold doesn't veer far from the rest of the Pixel 10 family, and it isn't a major upgrade from last year, at least not on a spec sheet. Durability and resilience count for more than megapixels, in my opinion.

The numbers to compare will be the camera specs. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold features a 48MP main camera and a 5x optical zoom. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 steals the 200MP sensor from the Galaxy S25 Ultra. I'm the first to say that megapixels don't matter as much as sensor size, and the Galaxy also uses much larger sensors than Google on all three cameras: wide, ultra wide, and zoom.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold specifications
Dimensions:	Open: 155.2 x 150.4 x 5.2mm Closed: 155.2 x 76.3 x 10.8mm
Weight:	258g
Inner Display:	8-inch 120Hz OLED
Outer Display:	6.4-inch 120Hz OLED
Chipset:	Google Tensor G5
RAM:	16GB
Storage:	256GB / 512GB / 1TB
OS:	Android 16 (7 years of Android OS updates)
Main cameras	48MP wide; 10.5MP ultra wide; 10.8MP 5X telephoto zoom
Selfie camera:	10MP
Battery:	5,015 mAh
Charging:	30W wired; 15W Qi2 wireless
Colors:	Moonstone, Jade

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Design

Kind of like the Pixel 10, with a camera block instead of a bar
This design was impressively thin last year

We can't expect phone makers to come up with new designs every year, so I don't fault Google for making the Pixel 10 Pro Fold a more refined, more durable version of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Unfortunately, in the interim, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 arrived and redefined what I expect from a foldable tablet.

A foldable tablet is the thinnest phone you can buy, at least when it's unfolded, but which foldable tablet is actually the thinnest? Last year it was the 5.2mm Pixel 9 Pro Fold. This year, the Fold gains a hair of thickness, while the Galaxy slips under the gap with a 4.2mm frame that, while closed, is nearly as thin as an iPhone 17 Pro.

Tick-tock, maybe next year Google will win. Maybe it will be Samsung. Maybe Apple will have a foldable phone that's thinner than the iPhone Air. Don't let these complaints distract you. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is already thinner than the iPhone Air when it's open.

Even though it's thicker and heavier than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 – by a noticeable degree – the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the nicer looking phone. It has gently curved corners, pleasantly rounded edges, and a beautifully machined camera block, atop the gorgeous Jade green or alluring Moonstone blue-grey. The Galaxy feels sharp and edgy by comparison.

Design score: 5 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Display

Excellent displays inside and out, sized perfectly
I wouldn't mind less bezel on the big display, not gonna lie

Both of the displays on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold are excellent; they're bright and colorful even on a sunny day. I loved using the inner display to take photos with the camera – I'm definitely the dork who wished my old iPad had much better cameras. The camera also has more dual-screen features than any other app, so it was the most fun app to use during my review.

The outer display is pretty much the same screen as the Pixel 10 Pro. It's the exact same size and resolution, unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which still uses an unusually narrow cover display. I was always happy to use the front screen on the Pixel – it felt natural. On the Galaxy, the front display is just an appetizer for the big main course inside.

The inner screen on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is enormous. I love using it for reading, and web pages get blown up so much bigger than on a normal flat phone that it's an entirely better experience. Then I open the crossword, or doomscroll my socials writ large, and this foldable tablet wins me over.

Display score: 5 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Software

Excellent Pixel software is the most refined version of Android you'll see
Not enough Fold-specific features, and too many bugs

I love Google’s Pixel software, from the way it handles notifications to the way it answers my phone calls for me. The latest Android 16 version of the Pixel interface is gorgeous yet refined, with bubbly clocks and other widgets that change color to match your wallpaper, then get subtly darker as the sun goes down. I'm just scratching the surface; I really like what Google is doing with Pixel.

What Google is doing with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold specifically? Not so much. Like, there isn't much that takes advantage of the big screen inside. Not even one big widget that would span the whole display. Zilch.

Take my Calendar (please!). I can place a widget showing an entire month, but it will only fill half the big screen. I can't stretch it further. This is convenient when I close my phone and I only have half the area to work with, but I want a full-screen widget or two. I'd also like to place a widget across the crease, but widgets lie on one side or the other, never on the gap.

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I want a lot more features to make the Pixel 10 Pro Fold feel truly special – more than the sum of its parts. Otherwise, I'd recommend buying a Pixel 10 Pro and an iPad mini – you'd save money and you won't feel let down by either.

Maybe I should count my blessings. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is very buggy right now. I'm hoping future software updates fix these glitches, but I had trouble during my review time.

The app taskbar at the bottom of the big display would occasionally persist and block my view of important app features. Google-owned Waze would sometimes stop showing me buttons or information, but only when I used it on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. A few times, my timer would go off, but when I asked Google to stop it, it would say – on top of the alarm sound – that I had no timers ringing or music playing.

These are minor inconveniences that are usually resolved in an update or two, but the first Pixel Fold had similar software glitch problems. You hate to see it.

Software score: 3 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Cameras

Not the best camera phone, especially for a Pixel
Camera Coach is fascinating and worth exploring

In the past, I might have been more forgiving of sub-par image quality from a foldable phone, but Samsung had to destroy expectations by slapping its full-grown 200MP sensor on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. So, now I want my $1,800 phones to have a good camera, is that so wrong? The Pixel 10 Pro Fold camera is fine, but it isn’t very good.

Google is using the same sensors as last year, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Apple famously uses the same Sony sensors for years on its iPhone models, and with experience, its Camera developers continually refine the images you get from those cameras. That’s not the case with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

What I like about the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, like the Pixel 9a, is that Google seems to be carefully tuning its cameras so they produce images that all look alike. A photo taken with the Pixel 10 Pro XL will have the same color balance and lighting as a photo taken with the Pro Fold. Zoom in close and you’ll see the problems.

Google is applying a heavy dose of AI enhancements to its photos. So much so that I wonder if every photo from the camera shouldn’t come with Made with AI Content Credentials.

When you zoom in on a photo, especially photos taken at night, it looks smoothed out and painted over. On the phone screen, images look clearer when taken with the Pixel Fold versus other foldable phones, like the Galaxy Z Fold 7. When you zoom in, however, that clarity starts to look artificial.

If you don’t need the absolute best photos from your smartphone camera, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a fascinating new Pixel feature that could make you a better all-around photographer. When you have your shot lined up, instead of pressing the shutter, press the Camera Coach button, and Google will use its AI to analyze your photo and offer advice.

I don’t mean simple advice, either, like ‘use Portrait mode.’ Rather, Camera Coach is an AI instructor. First, it gives you three or four suggested themes for your photos. Then, it takes you step by step through the shot. It highlights the right camera mode to select, and it tells you where to move for the best angle.

In the end, it really did help me take better photos if I was willing to take the time to walk through the steps. Camera Coach is one of Google’s newest and most advanced AI features. Sometimes it simply would not load, complaining of bad network problems, even though I had a few bars. Other times, I just got a generic error.

When it did work, Camera Coach was impressively astute, and it produced interesting results, so I’m willing to be patient and hope this feature improves over the next few updates.

Camera score: 5 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Camera samples

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Photos taken with the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

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Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold camera sample of a flower in portrait mode — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Performance

Better benchmarks than the rest of the Pixel 10 family, for what it’s worth
Some performance lags on the camera and AI features

Pixel phones aren’t known for top performance, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is unimpressive if you rely on benchmark scores alone. In my real-world testing, I found the Pro Fold to be smooth and responsive, especially when switching apps back and forth between the outer and inner displays. That doesn’t mean there weren’t hiccups.

Google’s biggest performance offense is letting the camera lag. If you have too many features enabled, the camera shutter button will stop working between one photo and the next while the phone thinks about things. It happened fewer times on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold than on the Pixel 10 Pro, but that’s probably because the Fold doesn’t have as many megapixels to count.

I also saw things slow down considerably when I tried to use the new AI features. Perhaps someday these AI tools will be a natural extension of the Android OS, but for now, every time I used one of the more advanced AI features, it felt like an event. An event with a line out front and a bouncer who has to check my name off a list.

I can’t blame the network because I had plenty of bars on AT&T, and the phone performed admirably on my new Wi-Fi 7 network. As more of these AI tasks are handled on the phone itself, hopefully we’ll see those response times improve.

Performance score: 3 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: Battery

Battery life wasn’t great, but it beats the competition
I love having wireless magnetic charging on a foldable

I’ll admit that battery life isn’t a huge priority for me these days as my home, car, and office are littered with wireless chargers, so I’m continually topping up my battery. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold makes doing so especially easy with Google’s Pixelsnap magnetic charging. It’s the first foldable that will stick to my iPhone’s MagSafe charging gear without a special case.

Magnets aside, battery life wasn’t terrible, but a smaller battery is the second sacrifice every foldable tablet makes, after the cameras. Well, a smaller battery than you’d want on an 8-inch tablet. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold actually packs a capacity of around 5,015mAh, which is a big battery, but having two displays will drain that juice quickly.

In our Future Labs battery tests, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold lasted 12 hours and 16 minutes. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 lasted only 10 hours and 44 minutes, but the Pixel Fold comes with an ounce more weight and an extra millimeter around the waistline.

An Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max is thinner than a closed Pixel Fold, weighs more than an ounce less, and managed 5.5 extra hours of battery time – 17 hours and 54 minutes, in fact – in our rundown tests. That’s how long an expensive smartphone should last.

Battery score: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold?

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold scorecard
Value	Not the most expensive phone you can buy (more like 2nd-most expensive), but it does little to justify its sky-high price tag.	2/5
Design	Doesn’t just have the Pixel 10 Pro’s good looks, it also has IP68-rated durability that means dust and lint won’t ruin the hinge. The Galaxy Fold can’t say that.	5/5
Display	Excellent displays inside and out. The outer display feels like a great Pixel phone, and the inner display is the biggest on any foldable tablet.	5/5
Software	The best Android software makes this a great all-around phone, but not enough features take advantage of the unique dual-display design, or even the bigger inner screen.	3/5
Cameras	Cameras get a big boost from AI processing and it shows when you see them up close. Camera Coach is a fascinating feature, especially when you’re using the big inner display to take pics (like a Boss!).	4/5
Performance	Pixel performance keeps lagging behind the competition. You may not notice, unless you use the camera, or the AI features, or… okay, you’ll notice.	3/5
Battery	Good battery life for a foldable phone, but its the Pixelsnap magnets that push this phone over the finish line every day. Magnetic charging on a foldable tablet - it’s about time.	3/5

Buy it if...

You must have a foldable tablet
If you want a big foldable, the Pixel is more refined and nicer to use than the competition, despite its performance drawbacks.

You want to do AI stuff on a bigger screen
For AI features like photo editing, live language translations, and talking to Gemini, the Pro Fold gives you the biggest and best experience.

You’ve waited too long for the iPhone Fold to arrive
Are you an iPhone fan thinking of converting? All your MagSafe gear will work with this phone, and you might even love the software.

Don't buy it if...

You don’t have enough money to buy two phones
This phone costs more than twice as much as most phones I recommend, and it doesn’t work hard to justify that high price tag.

You want to play games on a big phone screen
The Pixel Fold has advantages over the Galaxy, but raw performance and graphics aren’t among them. It kind of lags.

You’re already a good photographer looking for the best camera
These cameras aren’t great, but Camera Coach might be a cool tool for novice photographers looking to improve.

Also consider...

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
If you want a foldable that actually has great cameras, try the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, though you’ll also pay dearly for that privilege.

Read our in-depth Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review

Google Pixel 10 Pro
If you can skip the big inner display, the Pixel 10 Pro has everything you get on the Fold, plus better battery life and better cameras.

Read our in-depth Google Pixel 10 Pro review

	Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold	Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7	Google Pixel 10 Pro
Price	$1,799 / £1,749 / AU $2,699	$1,999.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,899	$999 / £999 / AU $1,699
Display(s)	6.4-inch OLED 8-inch OLED	6.5-inch LTPO AMOLED 8-inch LTPO AMOLED	6.3-inch Super Retina
Main Camera	48MP, f/1.7, 0.5-inch sensor	200MP, f/1.7, 0.76-inch sensor	50MP, f/1.7, 0.76-inch sensor
Battery Test Results (HH:MM:SS)	12:16:31	10:44:44	13:43:30

How I tested the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold

I used the Pixel 10 Pro Fold for a week as my primary work phone, transferring my AT&T eSIM from my Pixel 10 Pro XL to this phone. I used the phone almost equally open and closed, for similar tasks including messaging, reading, playing word games, taking photos, and much more.

I connected the Pixel 10 Pro Fold to my car through Android Auto using USB-C and wirelessly. I connected Bluetooth headsets and my Xbox wireless controller. I also attached the Pro Fold to a large number of MagSafe accessories, including charging docks from Anker, magnetic wallets, and more.

I tested Google AI features using a Google One AI Premium account for Gemini Live Pro 2.5 and other Pro features.

I've been testing phones for more than 20 years, since the days of BlackBerry and Palm OS smartphones and Samsung flip phones. I've tested hundreds of devices myself, and our Future Labs experts have tested hundreds more.

Future Labs tests phones using a mix of third-party benchmark software and proprietary, real-world tests. We use Geekbench, CrossMark, JetStream, WebXPRT and Mobile XPRT, and 3DMark for performance testing. We test a phone's performance on video editing tasks using Adobe Premiere Rush. We also measure display color output and brightness.

For battery testing, we have proprietary rundown tests that are the same for every phone, which we use to determine how long it takes for the battery to run down.

First reviewed October, 2025

The Pixel 10 may look the same as before, but what’s inside will change Android forever

7:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Google Pixel Phones Phones | Comments: Off

The Google Pixel 10 takes a winning formula from last year and adds just enough to make it even more compelling, and make this phone a true competitor to the iPhone 16. In the past, Google's phones have been polished and enjoyable, but never cutting edge. With the Pixel 10 family, Google pushes its way to the front, with features you won't find on either the iPhone or the latest Samsung Galaxy phones. That's new territory for Google, and I'm excited to spend more time with this phone after my morning-lon hands-on session.

What can the Pixel 10 do? It can stick to magnets, for one thing. The new Pixelsnap feature – and extension of the Qi2 wireless charging standard – might seem familiar to iPhone owners who’ve enjoyed MagSafe since the iPhone 12 launched in 2020. The Android world is finally catching up.

Magnets may not seem like a major feature, but Pixelsnap will open a new world of accessories and convenience for Android fans. I keep my iPhone 16 Pro Max charging on a magnet stand, and it's the best bedside clock I've owned. Then I slap a magnetic wallet on the back as I leave my house. I'm always using the iPhone magnets, and I'm relieved that Google and Android are hopping on board.

Google Pixel 10 horizontal on Pixelsnap charging stand showing time — The Pixel 10 on Google's new Pixelsnap charging stand (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Besides Pixelsnap, the Pixel 10 features a real, optical 5x zoom camera. The iPhone 16 doesn't give you any optical zoom, and the Galaxy S25 offers only a 3x zoom lens with a smaller image sensor.

That could give the Pixel a huge advantage in photography, especially if the Tensor G5 chipset, with its new image processor, delivers the goods.

Some of the biggest new Pixel features will rely on AI, of course, and I didn't have time to test most of those, while some of the most interesting, like the Camera Coach, weren't available yet on the demo units I tried.

Some of those AI features seem very cool and potentially useful. I saw a live translation feature in action that was like nothing I've seen – it was almost frightening.

I'm also a Pixel user as well as an iPhone user, so I know the Pixel does the best job of screening phone calls and managing notifications. I'm curious to see how the new Magic Cue features will offer more AI functionality, but I always suspect the AI is being overpromised until I see it in action. Will the Pixel 10 really get to know me? Will it really pull up my flight details at the perfect moment? Time will tell.

Google Pixel 10 in blue showing USB-C port — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

We’ll have a full review of the Pixel 10 coming soon, after the phones have undergone extensive testing in Future Labs. If you have a Pixel 9, I think you can hold off the upgrade for now – the differences are slight, and even Pixelsnap can be mimicked with a case that has MagSafe magnets.

Of course, it’s hard to find a new feature that will stay cutting-edge for long. The Pixel 10 may beat the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 16 when it comes to cameras, but those models are half-a-year to a year old – middle-aged by smartphone standards. The Galaxy S26 will surely have magnets to fit its Qi2 credentials, and who knows what the iPhone 17 will bring.

If you’re coming from an older Android or if you’re a curious iPhone owner, we’ll know soon if the Pixel 10 can hold its own as a camera phone, and whether the new AI features inspire more creativity or existential dread. Has the Google Pixel 10 truly leapt ahead of this year’s best phones, or will it soon fall behind what’s to come? Check out more of my hands-on first impressions below, then come back for our full review.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Price & availability

The entire Pixel 10 lineup in every color on a marble slab — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 costs the same as last year’s Pixel 9, and the base model features the same 128GB of storage and 12GB of RAM inside, which may be falling behind the requirements of the upcoming AI features. I’d certainly like to see more storage, at least.

The phone is available in black (Obsidian), light blue (Frost), green (Lemongrass), and bright blue (Indigo). The Indigo will be Google’s hero color, but I think the Lemongrass also stands out nicely. The Frost color looks closer to the Pixel 10 Pro’s Moonstone shade than the name suggests.

My big caveat with Pixel phones is that Google’s pricing takes a rollercoaster ride throughout the year, with the first drop coming around the US holiday shopping season. Last year’s Pixel 9 launched in August at $799 in the US, and dropped to $649 in November. It spent more than half the year priced at $150 under the original price, and it dropped to an all-time low of $499 around the last Amazon Prime Day in July.

In other words, if you want the Pixel 10, you may want to wait until it’s available for less – although if you wait too long Google might drop a Pixel 10a on us, just to confuse matters.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Specifications

Google Pixel 10 showing back and camera bump in frost — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Google Pixel 10 uses Google’s Tensor G5 chipset, just like every other member of the Pixel 10 family. It comes with 12GB of RAM, which was a respectable amount in the days before on-device AI processing, but now is probably only just enough.

The Pixel 10 gains a 10.8MP, 5x zoom camera this year in addition to the 48MP wide camera and the 13MP ultra-wide. That’s not just more zoom than the Galaxy S25, it also comes with a bigger sensor, regardless of the megapixel count.

Oddly enough, the Pixel 10 comes with a slightly larger battery than the Pixel 10 Pro, at 4,970mAh vs 4,870mAh. It charges at 30W, just like the Pixel 10 Pro, with Qi2 wireless charging at up to 15W.

Google Pixel 10 Specifications
Dimensions:	152.8 x 72.0 x 8.6mm
Weight:	204g
Display:	6.3-inch Actua display
Resolution:	1080 x 2424 pixels
Refresh rate:	60-120Hz
Peak brightness:	3,000 nits
Chipset:	Google Tensor G5
RAM:	12GB
Storage:	128GB / 256GB
OS:	Android 16
Wide camera:	48MP; f/1.7; 0.5-inch sensor
Ultrawide camera:	13MP; f/2.2; 0.33-inch sensor
Telephoto camera:	10.8MP; f/3.1; 0.31-inch sensor
Selfie camera:	10.5MP; f/2.2
Battery:	4,970mAh
Charging:	25W wired; 15W wireless Qi2
Colors:	Indigo, Frost, Lemongrass, Obsidian

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Design

Google Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro devices from the side showing side buttons — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 looks just like last year’s Pixel 9, aside from some minor changes to the color, materials, and finish. That’s not a bad thing at all – the Pixel 9 was one of my favorite new phone designs, and it was the biggest refresh we saw among all the major flagship phones last year. I’m happy the Pixel 10 isn’t a huge departure.

After all, the Pixel 9a was somehow a butt-ugly cheap relation of the Pixel 9, and I was worried that its flat design foreshadowed this year’s flagship phones. Never fear! The Pixel 10 keeps the same pill-shaped camera bump as last year’s model, with the same improved durability. It’s a great phone design, and it even looks good in a case.

There is still room for improvement. Did Google not see the iPhone 16’s Camera Control button? I suspect future Pixel phones might have a matching button in the future. They already got MagSafe, why not go all the way?

Speaking of magnets, the Pixel 10 with Pixelsnap held a very strong connection to all of the accessories I tried. You couldn’t shake the phone off of the wireless charging puck, which is a hidden part of the new wireless charging stand. I’ll be excited to use Google’s new phones with all of my MagSafe accessories, like my wallet and my magnetic photo tripod.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Display

Google Pixel 10 showing home screen and widgets — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Google quietly makes the best displays you’ll find on any smartphone, and I’m shocked the company doesn’t spend more time bragging about it. The Actua displays on previous Pixels have always been among the most bright and colorful screens I’ve used, and the Pixel 10 seems like another improvement, if only a subtle one.

The Pixel 10 has a variable refresh rate from 60-120Hz, which means things should look nice and smooth when you’re scrolling through long menus or social feeds. Unfortunately, that also means it won’t get the full-color always-on screen you’ll find on LTPO phones like the Pixel 10 Pro.

I’ll need to spend a lot more time with the Pixel 10 to decide if the screen is as great as it seems. I’m hoping the long-term experience will be just as pleasing.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Software

Google Pixel 10 showing home screen and widgets in dark blue — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Google is, for now, leaving us with more questions than answers when it comes to Pixel software. Gemini works in more places – the onward march of AI progress – but there are many other features that are going to require a deep dive.

I’m very curious about the Magic Cue features available during phone calls. Google says the Pixel 10 will pull up details about your travel plans when somebody mentions AirBnB, for instance. I’m curious how far it will go, and whether this feature will seem like a privacy invasion or a useful sidekick.

There are also new camera features to try, which I’ll discuss below, but Google is moving beyond editing and generating images to offering tips and instructions. I like this direction. I would rather have a phone that can anticipate my needs, and offer helpful suggestions, than a phone that makes nightmare images of copyrighted cartoon characters committing crimes, as past Pixel phones have done.

Google Pixel 10 showing Gemini Live screen with welcome saying Hello, Magnus — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

One of the most impressive new features is the live translation. While other phones, like Samsung’s Galaxy S25, can live-translate a foreign language speaker during a conversation, the Pixel 10 family has a new trick: it makes the translation sound like the voice of the speaker.

If I speak to you in English while you speak Hindi back to me, the Pixel 10 will translate my words into Hindi, and it will make the Hindi speaker sound like a version of me. The TechRadar team got a demo of this feature with our Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff speaking, and at the other end what we heard was a Spanish-speaking version of Lance sounding like a native-born speaker. It was uncanny.

Google also says this process happens mostly on the device, which should settle some privacy concerns. Still, I’m wary of a computer that can instantly talk in a voice that sounds like mine; even though it only happens in a foreign language, it still gives me pause.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Cameras

Google Pixel 10 next to Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

I’m most excited to try the new camera features on the Pixel 10, because the cameras sees like the biggest improvement on this phone. First of all there’s the new 5x telephoto lens, which is paired with a respectable 0.33-inch image sensor. That’s bigger than the zoom sensor on the Galaxy S25, and is closer to the telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro.

Second, the Tensor G5 chipset has an all-new image signal processor, and that component is often the silent partner in making the best camera phones. A new ISP usually means faster processing – so higher-resolution video recording and better night photography. It could also mean other image enhancements.

Google Pixel 10 showing camera app — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Google is talking up the Super Zoom features, but we’ve seen AI zoom before. It may save an otherwise useless 30x zoom pic, but it’s not going to help the Pixel 10 create long-distance images you’ll want to hang on the wall.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Performance

Google Pixel 10 showing back and camera bump in obsidian — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

How will the Tensor G5 perform? Undoubtedly, it won’t be winning any benchmark races, but that’s never been the point of Google’s Tensor chips. Google builds accelerated chips that work better with its own AI and machine-learning features, like the Magic Editor in Google Photos and the AI transcriptions in the Recorder app.

This time around, Google says the Tensor G5 enables features like the aforementioned live translation that sounds like the person speaking, along with a host of new photography features like the Camera Coach.

The good news is that Google processes more of its machine-learning tricks on the phone than most other phone makers. That means you aren’t burning fossil fuels to feed a server farm for those AI features. It also means you have a better chance of protecting your privacy when it comes to your AI demands.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Battery

Google Pixel 10 blue showing USB-C port — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

I can almost forgive whatever battery life I get from the Pixel 10 because I’m excited to use the Pixelsnap feature to keep the phone charged. I have MagSafe chargers that I use next to my bed with my iPhone, but Apple’s device will now get the USB-C cord while my Pixel 10 takes over the magnetic stand. It isn’t a fast way to charge, but my phone will be there all night, so I don’t need to hurry.

I’m curious to see if the Tensor G5 chip will offer any battery life improvements. Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset has been a powerhouse not only in terms of performance but also efficiency. Every Snapdragon 8 Elite phone has been able to last much longer than the generation before, and I hope I see the same benefits from the Tensor G5 when I conduct a thorough review.

I reviewed the Google Pixel 10 and it’s the closest Google has come to hitting the iPhone bullseye

7:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Google Pixel Phones Phones | Tags: AI, Google Pixel, RAM | Comments: Off

Google Pixel 10: Two-minute review

The Google Pixel 10 is Google’s best Pixel yet, and the most competitive Pixel so far if you’re considering switching from an iPhone to Android. The design is cool and refined inside and out, from the great colors to the sharp design to the appealing interface and easy software. This is a great Pixel that nails everything Pixel phones do well.

The display on the Pixel 10 is spectacular. It’s really one of the best displays you’ll see on any smartphone, and I don’t think Google brags enough about the bright, clear screens on all of its Pixel phones. The Pixel 10 was easy to use in any conditions, and the bright display is especially helpful for seeing the screen when I’m taking photos in bright sunlight.

The Pixel 10 also takes fantastic photos, and Google has done a great job of tuning the cameras on this less-expensive Pixel, to the point where it takes photos that look remarkably like images captured with the Pixel 10 Pro XL – which is one of the best camera phones you can buy, and maybe the best overall.

There are new AI features, and some of them are simply mind-blowing. Like the Pixel 10 Pro, the Pixel 10 has the new Live Translation feature that not only translates your voice into another language, but makes that translation sound like your original voice. This feature works shockingly well, even though the processing is all handled on the Pixel 10 itself, and none of your conversation or the sound of your voice are kept on Google’s servers.

There’s also Magic Cue, which is Google’s quiet attempt to insert AI into many, many more screens in the Android interface. When it works, it's imminently useful, and it might save you a load of frustration and time. Unfortunately, like most AI features phone companies have made extravagant claims about over the past couple of years, Magic Cue doesn’t deliver on everything it’s supposed to do; and if it isn’t consistent (and may not be accurate), why does it exist?

Google Pixel 10 in Lemongrass against a bubbly backsplash — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Of course, this isn’t the best Pixel you can buy this year; however, despite this being the cheapest handset in Google's lineup I'm disappointed that it misses out on so many of my favorite Pixel 10 Pro features.

Phone calls on the Pixel 10 Pro get some great AI assistance, like call screening for numbers you don’t recognize, and Call Notes that will transcribe notes during a call – great for talking to the doctor, or getting an athletic practice schedule over the phone. The Pixel 10 gets none of those features, which is troubling in more ways than one.

It's not just that I miss those features. What troubles me is the Pixel 10 is supposed to get seven years of major Android OS updates, but it’s already being left behind. If the Pixel 10 can’t even handle AI call-screening features like the Pixel 10 Pro, what happens in four years when my phone’s AI is even more amazing? How much farther behind will the Pixel 10 be?

If you like the Pixel 10, you’d be wise to hold off on buying if you can, because Google tends to drop the price of its base-model Pixel phone throughout the year. The Pixel 9 and Pixel 8 often saw discounts of $150-$300 in the US, and both spent about half of their first year on sale at a discounted price.

The Pixel 10 is a great phone with a unique look that's durable and functional, and it’s one of the easiest Android phones to use and enjoy. It takes great photos, and it has some (but not all) great AI features that make AI seem useful, not frightening.

The Pixel 10 Pro is the better phone to buy, not just for its better cameras but also because it already seems more future-proofed, but it’s much more expensive. If the Pixel 10 is on sale for a great price, I’d recommend buying it with confidence; but if you can swing the Pixel 10 Pro instead, that’s the phone that will pay off in the years to come.

Google Pixel 10 review: Price & availability

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL in Porcelain against a blue background with a green neon Android figurine in the background — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Starts at $799 / £799 / AU$1,349 for 128GB and 12GB of RAM
Bright colors include Indigo and Lemongrass, alongside black and white

The Pixel 10 starts at $799 / £799 / AU$1,349, which is the same price as last year’s model. That’s a relief, as phone prices have crept up this year. The phone still packs only 128GB of storage at this price, which is enough if you don’t load too many apps or games, and you keep your photos and videos stored in the cloud.

You can get the phone with 256GB of storage, though for only a bit more you can get the Pixel 10 Pro model, and that’s the upgrade you really want (unless you want bright colors, in which case I’d stick with the Lemongrass Pixel 10, like my review unit, or the Indigo color that most Googlers I met were carrying).

The Pixel 10 price is fine, but I like this phone better at a discount, and every Pixel phone before has dropped in price around the November US holiday shopping season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a $150 discount later this year – so if you don’t need a phone immediately, you may want to wait.

Google Pixel 10 pricing
Storage	US Price	UK Price	AU Price
128GB	$799	£799	AU $1,349
256GB	$899	£899	AU $1,499

Value score: 3 / 5

Google Pixel 10 review: Specifications

The Pixel 10 gets a big boost over last year’s Pixel 9 – on paper at least. The phone gets magnetic charging built-in with the new Pixelsnap feature. It has a larger battery than before, and it even gets a new camera, a telephoto option that you won’t find on the competing iPhone 16.

This year’s Pixel phone features a 5x zoom camera, a third lens in addition to the wide and ultra-wide cameras. Unfortunately, all of the cameras are shrunk a bit to make room, both in terms of megapixels and sensor size. In my experience, the photos were still very good, but if you want the absolute best Pixel photos get the Pro model.

Google Pixel 10 specifications
Dimensions:	152.8 x 72.0 x 8.6mm
Weight:	204g
Display:	6.3-inch Actua display
Resolution:	1080 x 2424 pixels
Refresh rate:	60-120Hz
Peak brightness:	3,000 nits
Chipset:	Google Tensor G5
RAM:	12GB
Storage:	128GB / 256GB
OS:	Android 16
Wide camera:	48MP; f/1.7; 0.5-inch sensor
Ultrawide camera:	13MP; f/2.2; 0.33-inch sensor
Telephoto camera:	10.8MP; f/3.1; 0.31-inch sensor
Selfie camera:	10.5MP; f/2.2
Battery:	4,970mAh
Charging:	25W wired; 15W wireless Qi2
Colors:	Indigo, Frost, Lemongrass, Obsidian

Google Pixel 10 review: Design

Sleek and durable, just like last year’s Pixel 9
Actually, it’s exactly the same as the Pixel 9 – and that’s good!

The Pixel 10 is a sleek, attractive phone that keeps the same design as last year’s model. Actually, it’s pretty much the same as last year’s Pixel 9 and this year’s Pixel 10 Pro – so close that you can use the same case for each of those phones. That’s not a problem – the Pixel 10 has a great design, and it’s one of the more appealing smartphones you could carry.

The biggest difference between last year’s model and the Pixel 10 are the magnets inside the new phone. You can’t see the magnets, and the Pixel 10 isn’t thicker, but you can feel them. Google has made its Pixelsnap feature with very strong magnets, and Googlers demonstrated the phone’s ability to hold fast to the various Pixelsnap accessories, even if you shake it around a bit.

Surprisingly, the Pixel 10 isn’t thicker than the Pixel 9, but it did gain 6g of weight. It’s a heavy phone. The Pixel 10 is more than an ounce heavier than the iPhone 16, and an ounce-and-a-half heavier than the Galaxy S25.

The Pixel 10 also has a slightly larger display and a larger battery than the iPhone 16 or Galaxy S25, but the larger battery doesn’t equate to longer battery life, so I can’t give Google credit here.

Google will be marketing the bright blue Indigo color heavily, but I prefer the bright green Lemongrass, which was the color of my review sample. The Frost color is more of a very light blue than a white; kind of a friendlier version of the Pixel 10 Pro’s Moonstone color.

Design score: 5 / 5

Google Pixel 10 review: Display

Incredibly bright and very clear
Not as sharp or colorful as the Pixel 10 Pro display

The Google Pixel 10 has a remarkable display, one of the brightest you’ll find on any smartphone today. In our Future Labs tests, the Pixel 10 was brighter by far than the iPhone 16 or Galaxy S25, and in my real-world time with the phone it was incredibly easy to read in every situation, especially when I was taking photos in bright outdoor sunshine.

Google’s Pixel displays have quietly taken the crown as the best screens you’ll find – at least on the day they're launched. Screens are getting brighter with every new phone, but for now Google’s Pixel 10 phones have the brightest, most pleasing displays you’ll see.

The Pixel 10 Pro does have an edge in our testing: it was more colorful than the Pixel 10, and it’s more sharp with a higher pixel density. The Pixel 10 is still no slouch, and the display is a standout feature on this phone. If you mostly read and watch videos with some gaming on the side, the Pixel 10 would be a great choice for you.

Display score: 5 / 5

Google Pixel 10 review: Software

New Magic Cue has promise, but isn’t fully baked
Pixel 10 misses out on some important AI features

Software on the Pixel 10 isn’t just about AI, though there is more AI working on this phone than you might think. From the start, the latest Pixel 10 phones are about simplicity, and more elegance than you’d expect from an Android phone. Google has been improving Android for its phones, and unlike some competitors it hasn’t been afraid to remove useless features and unnecessary bloat to make the experience better (I’m looking at you, Samsung).

The home screens are easy to set up with app shortcuts and plenty of great-looking widgets. I love that Google’s widgets now color-coordinate to the theme of your phone, and can even change color to darker hues as the sun sets and night begins.

Settings menus are still a mess, with a jumble of disorganized features popping up in long lists of options. You can avoid most of it, but not every feature Google talks about is turned on from the start, so you might miss out on some AI tools if you don’t dig through the Settings menu, for better and for worse.

Every Pixel 10 phone gets the latest Google AI, of course, and that includes the fascinating new Magic Cue feature. When it comes to AI assistants, every phone maker starts with this same basic promise: the phone will now read your messages and listen to your conversations so that it can help you recall important information about your life.

Mostly these features have flopped. Apple ran advertisements for its version starring the actor Bella Thorne, then had to pull the ads because the features didn’t exist. Other phone makers like Motorola and OnePlus rely heavily on screenshots and other information gathering.

Google, with its access to your Gmail, your Google Calendar, and many other Google tools, has a unique advantage… as well as a unique challenge. Thankfully it doesn't read all of my Gmail. I think I’ve had my account for 20 years – that’s a lot of messages.

In practice, Magic Cue is kind of… charming? For an AI, at least. I’m used to AI features that are pushy and obtrusive – many of the Google Gemini features get in the way by constantly asking if I want to revise my email or ask questions about my own photographs. Magic Cue is quiet, almost anonymous. You may use it without knowing you’ve used an AI feature at all, and that should be the goal of every AI feature.

What can Magic Cue do? The list of things is growing, but you don’t have to do anything at all. Magic Cue will simply make suggestions in a small oval window in a place you can see them. They won’t be in the way. They will light up with a rainbow for a second or two, then they will sit quietly.

If a friend sends you a text message asking about a dinner reservation you made, it might offer you a button that opens the email you got from OpenTable, or a link to Google Maps where it will locate the restaurant’s address.

If your friend John wants to meet your friend Susan, Magic Cue will give you Susan’s phone number and contact card to send to John, if you wish. It will save you some steps.

In some ways, Google may have overpromised Magic Cue’s abilities. Google said it would offer relevant information about travel, but when I had a conversation about an upcoming trip, I got no suggestions from Magic Cue. I asked Google about this, and Magic Cue experts told me it only looks through a month or so of my email. My travel reservations were made three months back – perhaps if I forward the email from Vrbo.com back to myself, Magic Cue might pick it up again and start offering that information. We shall see.

Google Pixel 10 Pro — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Even if it isn’t perfect, I’m not mad about it because it isn’t in the way. It isn’t rewriting my News headlines with fake news, or summarizing my notifications in hilariously inaccurate ways. It’s just giving me a button here or there that I can press to recall more information, or take a quick action that would normally involve opening a second app.

I expect Magic Cue's capabilities will expand dramatically, to the point where it will someday be a major part of the Android interface. My hope is that it will work so reliably well that I won’t ever need to know what it can do; I'll just assume that it will offer me the information I need and help with the actions I want to take.

Unfortunately, the Pixel 10 doesn’t get all of the software features that the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL phones can run. The biggest disappointment for me was losing all of my favorite calling features. I will often use my Pro Pixel to screen calls from numbers I don’t recognize, or take notes during important work conversations. The Pixel 10 Pro can also do these things, but the Pixel 10 cannot.

This has me worried. The Pixel 10 is scheduled to receive seven years of major Android OS updates and security patches. I’ve always wondered what those updates would look like – will the Pixel 10 still get the same version of Android as the Pixel 15? Or the Pixel 17? I worry about what features will be missing, and whether it will still be recognizable as Android.

The Pixel 10 has already been left out. It can use Magic Cue and the amazing new live translation features, but it can’t do everything. The Pixel 10 can’t listen to phone calls that might be a scam and warn you when it thinks you’re being conned. It can’t take notes during a call with my doctor.

These features don’t seem that advanced – so why can’t my Pixel 10 do these things? I worry about what it won’t be able to do in the future, and how Google’s seven-year promise might change over time.

Software score: 4 / 5

Google Pixel 10 review: Cameras

Takes photos that look almost as good as those from the Pro Pixel phones
Camera Coach offers useful tips… but where are they from?

The Pixel 10 isn’t the best camera phone of the new Pixel bunch, but you might not notice the difference. Google has done a great job of tuning its least-expensive Pixel so that it takes photos that look just like similar shots from the Pro models. You don’t get the same resolution, but the color and lighting on these photos looks remarkable, and nearly identical to the balance you’d get shooting with a Pixel 10 Pro.

There’s a fascinating new Camera Coach button in the Pixel 10’s camera app, in addition to an improved version of last year’s Add Me feature, which can add the photographer back into a group photo using some AI cut and paste tricks.

The Camera Coach is more passive than I expected. I thought it would interrupt my photography with useless AI tips, but that’s not what it does at all. When you line up your shot, if you press the Camera Coach button instead of the shutter button it will create a step-by-step process to help you improve your shot, and your photography in general.

First, it will suggest a theme for your scene. Take a photo of a flower and it might ask if you want a close-up on the flower’s details, or a photo that highlights the flower growing amongst the roadside clutter, or a photo that skips the flower and focuses on the blooming buds the AI noticed at the bottom of your frame.

Then it thinks for a few seconds, and soon suggests steps. Move your camera there. Aim up instead of down. Zoom in close, or get farther away. After four or five steps, it leaves you to take the photo… and that’s it. Then it goes away until you press the button next time.

I actually liked the Camera Coach, but as with all generative AI features, I have to wonder about the cost. Sure, it might make interesting suggestions for framing, or teach me to use the zoom lens on my phone more often, but where did it learn those tips?

Camera Coach doesn’t offer links to its sources, and I have to wonder if experts at sites like TechRadar unwittingly fed their tips to a generative AI that's now being used to replace them. I could have read an article about taking better flower photos, but instead I let the Camera Coach tell me what to do, and the expert doesn’t get my clicks.

So I’ll pass on Camera Coach, but I won’t judge you for using it. It really does work, and it sometimes offers suggestions I hadn’t considered. I’ll bet our Cameras Editor considered them, though.

Camera score: 4 / 5

Google Pixel 10 review: Camera samples

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Google Pixel 10 camera image samples — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

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Google Pixel 10 review: Performance

Slow performance, on par with phones from a couple years back
Not slower than the Pixel 10 Pro in our benchmarks

The Pixel 10 is a slow phone by benchmark standards, but most users will never notice. For daily tasks and navigating the phone’s menus, it felt plenty fast to me, even zippy. It opened apps quickly, and the menus and home screens flashed by as I swiped through them.

There was some slowdown when playing intense games that require a lot of graphics or processing power. The Pixel 10 stutters if you try to play Call of Duty Mobile with all of the performance settings maxed out, or if you run through Vampire Survivors with hundreds of enemies on the screen at once. If you don’t play a lot of games, I promise you won’t notice any performance problems.

Google’s AI features load more snappily on this phone than on previous ones, and that’s probably because the Pixel 10 is running many more machine-learning models on the device itself – using Google's Tensor G5 platform – than we’ve seen on previous Pixels. The more the phone can rely on its own power instead of tapping the cloud for help, the faster the phone will feel.

Strangely, the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL did not outperform the Pixel 10 in our benchmark tests, even though they have 16GB of RAM instead of 12GB, and they use a faster storage technology. In some cases, the Pixel 10 was actually faster than both of those phones. There are other tangible benefits to buying the Pro models, but it makes me wonder why Google held back great features, like the call-screening tools that I use every time I get a spam call, from the Pixel 10.

Too many AI features are only available on the Pixel 10 Pro, even though benchmarks suggest that the Pro model has no apparent benefit… yet. That extra RAM may come in much more handy over the next seven years of software updates as more AI features are added – so if you care about the longest long term, you may want to go Pro instead of buying the Pixel 10.

Performance score: 3 / 5

Google Pixel 10 review: Battery

Battery life is fine, but not excellent
Qi2 is very convenient for keeping the phone charged

If you buy a Pixel 10, do yourself a favor and get a magnetic Qi2 (or MagSafe) charging stand. It’s so easy to simply pop your phone on and off a magnetic stand that you’ll make a habit of it, and you won’t worry about the disappointing battery life or slower charging speeds you might otherwise experience.

The Pixel 10 battery life is fine – it usually lasted through a full day of testing, unless I was hitting the Camera app extra hard. Excessive AI use didn’t seem to drain the phone any faster than normal.

In our Future Labs tests, the Pixel 10 was about average, but other recent Android phones have been exceptional. Every phone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset inside has lasted hours longer than the generation before, while the Pixel 10 shows no improvement over last year’s Pixel 9.

In Future Labs tests, the Pixel 10 lasted around 13 hours and 15 minutes, which was a few minutes less than the Pixel 9 managed. The Samsung Galaxy S25, which has a smaller battery inside, lasted two hours longer than the Pixel 10. At least the Pixel 10 beat the iPhone 16 by over an hour, because the iPhone has a much smaller battery inside.

Why do iPhone fans accept paltry battery life? Because MagSafe makes it easy to top off your phone throughout the day and forget about long charging sessions. You don’t need to worry about how long the battery lasts if you charge it for 15 minutes twice a day – you’ll have more than enough power to last.

Battery score: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Google Pixel 10?

Google Pixel 10 scorecard
Value	The Pixel 10 isn’t bad value, but Google has a strong history of discounting its Pixel phone around the US holidays, so maybe wait for the best deal. The Pixel 9 was discounted for half of its first year.	3/5
Design	Not much has changed since the Pixel 9, and that’s a good thing because the Pixel design is stellar. The brighter Indigo and Lemongrass colors are especially appealing. Hidden magnets add weight but not thickness.	5/5
Display	One of the best smartphone displays you’ll see (until you see the Pixel 10 Pro). This screen is very bright and sharp, and a joy to use. Google should brag more about its screens.	5/5
Software	The interface design is crisp and colorful without looking silly, and many of the latest AI features are actually useful without being annoying. Watch out, Apple – Google is delivering on software promises the iPhone couldn’t keep.	5/5
Cameras	The Pixel 10 isn’t the best Pixel camera, but it takes photos that could have come from a Pro model (if you don’t zoom in too close). Camera Coach offers a unique and helpful tool, but I worry it’s putting experts out of work.	4/5
Performance	Not a top performer, though the Pixel 10 does all the Pixel stuff very quickly. The interface and features are super-snappy, but don’t expect to dominate mobile games that require a heavy graphics load.	3/5
Battery	Battery life should be much better – there’s no improvement over the Pixel 9. Thankfully, Pixelsnap (and MagSafe) charging make a big difference and will help you keep this phone powered up all day and then some.	3/5

Buy it if...

You liked the Pixel 9 but wish it were more iPhone-y
With magnetic charging and its sleek, simple interface, the Pixel 10 should be the first stop for iPhone switchersView Deal

You see it discounted
The Pixel 10 is competitive at this price, but Google often gives its base-model Pixel phones strong discounts throughout the year – we’ll keep you posted if we see a good deal.View Deal

You want Pixel cameras for less money
The Pixel 10 doesn’t have the resolution of the Pro Pixel cameras, but it takes photos that look very similar to shots the Pro phones take.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You can afford the Pixel 10 Pro instead
The Pixel 10 Pro is a big step up, and not just in terms of camera hardware. It gets some very useful AI features that the Pixel 10 lacks.View Deal

You have a Pixel 9 already
The differences between last year’s model and the Pixel 10 are minor, and you can copy the magnet features with a magnetic case.View Deal

You play a lot of hardcore mobile games
I didn’t have a big problem with the Pixel 10’s lackluster performance, but if you’re looking for the top performer, keep looking.View Deal

Also consider...

Apple iPhone 16
The iPhone 16 is about to be superseded, but it's still a great iPhone, with all the best iOS 26 features coming.

Read our in-depth Apple iPhone 16 reviewView Deal

Samsung Galaxy S25
The Galaxy S25 gets better battery life and performs faster than the Pixel 10, so if you want a gaming powerhouse, I’d check out Samsung’s latest.

Read our in-depth Samsung Galaxy S25 reviewView Deal

	Google Pixel 10	Apple iPhone 16	Samsung Galaxy S25
Price	$799 / £799 / AU$1,349	$799 / £799 / AU$1,399	$799 / £799 / AU$1,399
Display	6.3-inch Actua display	6.1-inch Super Retina display	6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display
Cameras	48MP wide, 10.8MP 5x zoom, 13MP ultra-wide	48MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide	50MP wide, 10MP 3x zoom, 12MP ultra-wide
Battery Results (HH:MM:SS)	13:13:01	12:13:28	15:22:06

How I tested the Google Pixel 10

I tested the Google Pixel 10 for a week, alongside the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL. I used the Pixel 10 as my primary work phone for half of that time, and as a backup phone and camera for the remainder. I loaded the phone with more than a hundred apps, and multiple Google accounts.

I used the Pixel 10 as a camera, testing every photography feature. I used AI features to ask questions and generate sample images. I connected Magic Cue to all of my personal Google account information, and I fed the Pixel 10 a regular diet of screenshots of all of my personal dealings for the Screenshots app.

I connected the Pixel 10 to my Pixel Watch 3, my Pixel Buds Pro, and various other Bluetooth headsets and devices. I used Android Auto in my Kia and my friends’ Acura and Subaru cars, and connected to Bluetooth in an older BMW.

For battery testing, we have proprietary rundown tests that are the same for every phone, which we use to determine how long it takes for the battery to run down.

First reviewed August 2025

The Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL finally bring my most-used iPhone feature to Android – here are my hands-on first impressions

7:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Google Pixel Phones Phones | Comments: Off

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Price & availability

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Specifications

Oddly enough, the Pixel 10 comes with a slightly larger battery than the Pixel 10 Pro, at 4,970mAh vs 4,870mAh. It charges at 30W, just like the Pixel 10 Pro, with Qi2 wireless charging at up to 15W.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL Specifications
Dimensions:	152.8 x 72.0 x 8.6mm
Weight:	204g
Display:	6.3-inch Actua display
Resolution:	1080 x 2424 pixels
Refresh rate:	60-120Hz
Peak brightness:	3,000 nits
Chipset:	Google Tensor G5
RAM:	12GB
Storage:	128GB / 256GB
OS:	Android 16
Wide camera:	48MP; f/1.7; 0.5-inch sensor
Ultrawide camera:	13MP; f/2.2; 0.33-inch sensor
Telephoto camera:	10.8MP; f/3.1; 0.31-inch sensor
Selfie camera:	10.5MP; f/2.2
Battery:	4,970mAh
Charging:	25W wired; 15W wireless Qi2
Colors:	Indigo, Frost, Lemongrass, Obsidian

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Design

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Display

I’ll need to spend a lot more time with the Pixel 10 to decide if the screen is as great as it seems. I’m hoping the long-term experience will be just as pleasing.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Software

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Cameras

Google Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro top to top showing camera bumps — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Performance

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Battery

A Pixel 10 in frost stacked on a Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel. 10Pro XL in moonstone — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

I spent a week testing the Pixel 10 Pro and it’s worth the premium over the Pixel 10 thanks to bonus AI features I didn’t expect to love

7:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Google Pixel Phones Phones | Tags: AI, Google Pixel | Comments: Off

Google Pixel 10 Pro: Two-minute review

The Google Pixel 10 Pro is the phone I never expected Google to make – a smartphone that is more desirable than the best iPhone. In almost every way, Google’s flagship smartphone takes aim at its biggest competitor (and business partner) and hits the mark. It looks stunning, it takes stellar photos, and it’s a joy to use, with surprising features that make life easier. The Pixel 10 Pro delivers on promises Apple has failed to keep, and iPhone fans should take note – it might be time to consider an Android.

The Pixel 10 is also a nice phone, but the Pixel 10 Pro is a big step up in every way, inside and out. You don’t just get better hardware; even Google’s software is more capable on the Pixel 10 Pro, and the bonus features are ones I use all the time.

I’ve only had the Pixel 10 Pro for a week before this review posted, but I say all the time because I’ve been using the Pixel 9 Pro as my primary work phone for most of the past year. It doesn’t have all of the features or customization you’ll find on a Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus, but it offers the most useful tools I’ve found – and they actually work.

Remember when that used to be the saying for Apple: it just works? Not any more. My Pixel 10 Pro is the phone that makes my life easier. It screens my calls effectively, takes notes on important calls, and even translates my voice into another language seamlessly – in a voice that sounds eerily like my own! It really works – I tried it and it blew me away.

The new Magic Cue tries hard to be helpful. Mention a dinner reservation in a text message and a small, totally unobtrusive bubble will link to your OpenTable email. If somebody asks you for a friend’s phone number, Magic Cue will bring it up from your contact list in a small window, right in Messages.

You might not even notice it’s happening, and that’s the way AI on a phone should be. It should happen in the background and make my life easier. It shouldn’t make silly photos or rewrite my notifications. It should be helpful, but limited. So far, that’s Magic Cue.

I’ve seen more extravagant AI promises from Apple, Samsung, and even Motorola, but Google is delivering the most useful AI to help me get things done with my phone. I’ve talked to Google about how Magic Cue will improve in the months ahead, and I think it might be one of the most useful AI tools you’ll use – even if you won’t always know you’re using it.

The Pixel 10 Pro isn’t just a software powerhouse; it delivers on the best Pixel hardware features. I don’t think Google gets enough credit for its amazing phone displays, and the Pixel 10 Pro somehow improves over last year’s Pixel 9 Pro with a display that's brighter and more sharp than any other phone screen you’ll see. It looks great in all conditions, even when I'm taking photos outdoors in bright sunshine.

Those photos will look fantastic as well, and the Pixel 10 Pro (and the Pixel 10 Pro XL, which has the exact same cameras) might be the best camera phone you can buy. I tested the Pixel 10 Pro against the iPhone 16 Pro Max in my review period, and the Pixel took photos that were just as colorful and often more detailed. It handled low-light night photography like it was broad daylight, creating the clearest nighttime photos I’ve ever taken.

I haven’t even gotten to the magnets! I love the magnets in the Pixel 10 Pro, and I used the magnet Pixelsnap features every day during my testing. Google sent along a Pixelsnap charger in addition to the phones, and I used that charger on my desk, but I have plenty of other MagSafe chargers for my iPhone, and the Pixel 10 Pro worked with all of these.

It’s a delight to snap my Pixel 10 Pro onto my fancy Anker MagSafe charging stand, then pull it off and attach my UAG kevlar wallet when I leave. If I run out of battery when I’m out, I can use a MagSafe battery pack – even the original Apple MagSafe battery works with the Pixel 10 family.

It feels like a good time to be a Pixel owner, and the Pixel 10 Pro is definitely a better choice than the base-model Pixel 10. I still think the Pixel 10 Pro XL offers enough extra benefits, with its larger display for great photography work, and its slightly faster charging, that I’d opt for Google’s biggest Pixel if money was no concern. But the Pixel 10 Pro is just as capable in all the ways that count, and it’s the most refined and appealing Pixel phone I’ve ever used.

Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Price & availability

Starts at $999 / £999 / AU $1,699 for 128GB of storage and 16GB RAM
Available in muted, professional-looking colors

The Pixel 10 Pro starts at $999 / £999 / AU $1,699 for 128GB of storage and 16GB of RAM. It's avaiable to order immediately. You can get the Pro models with up to 1TB of storage inside, but that capacity is only available on the (boring) black Obsidian model.

While I like the Pixel design very much, I do miss the days when Pixel phones came in unique color combinations, with two-tone options and unique shades. Today’s Pixel 10 Pro comes in a nice Lemongrass green, the color of my review sample, as well as a bunch of muted tones. Googlers seemed to like the Moonstone color best.

Unlike the Pixel 10 Pro XL, the Pro model starts with only 128GB of storage inside, and I’d recommend an upgrade – especially if you shoot a lot of photos and videos. You can get away with 128GB if you mostly use cloud storage and don’t download large gaming apps, but the Pro model should really start at 256GB. The 1TB model would surely be overkill unless you really have a need for that much storage, like video production.

Thankfully the Pixel 10 Pro has 16GB of RAM inside, though I didn’t see a huge performance boost over the 12GB Pixel 10 model. I suspect that RAM will be even more useful down the road, as AI features that bounce between the phone’s chipset and the cloud for computing tend to use a lot more RAM than basic apps.

The Pixel 10 Pro is priced competitively considering it has almost all of Google’s best features (I wish the charging speed was faster). It costs the same as an iPhone 16 Pro, and it’s less expensive than a Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge or Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Google Pixel 10 Pro pricing
Storage	US Price	UK Price	AU Price
128GB	$999	£999	AU $1,699
256GB	$1,099	£1,099	AU $1,849
512GB	$1,219	£1,219	AU $2,049
1TB	$1,449	£1,440	AU $2,399

Value score: 4 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Specifications

Google Pixel 10 Pro in Jade with checkered tile backsplash background — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

After the Pixel 9 Pro overhauled the Pixel design last year, I didn’t expect a major spec bump this year. Instead, we get minor, meaningful improvements like the Pixelsnap magnetic features, which a great upgrade, even if they don’t make the phone faster.

The camera lenses and sensors have remained unchanged, but Google says the new Tensor G5 chipset features an improved image signal processor, which results in better photos and a better shooting experience.

Compared to other phones at this price, the Pixel 10 Pro holds its own. The iPhone 16 Pro also has three cameras, but it uses smaller sensors on the ultra-wide and telephoto lenses. If you really care about specs, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus gives you a bigger, sharper display, and all the cameras and features you might want – that doesn’t make it a better phone, though.

Google Pixel 10 Pro specifications
Dimensions:	152.8 x 72.0 x 8.6mm
Weight:	204g
Display:	6.3-inch Actua display
Resolution:	1080 x 2424 pixels
Refresh rate:	60-120Hz
Peak brightness:	3,000 nits
Chipset:	Google Tensor G5
RAM:	12GB
Storage:	128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
OS:	Android 16
Main cameras	50MP wide; 48MP ultra-wide; 48MP telephoto (5x zoom)
Selfie camera:	42MP
Battery:	4,870mAh
Charging:	30W wired; 15W Qi2 wireless (magnetic)
Colors:	Obsidian, Porcelain, Jade, Moonstone

Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Design

Nearly identical to the Pixel 10, which is a good thing
Keeps things simple (with one little exception) – also a good thing

The Google Pixel 10 Pro has a polished, solid feeling that exudes a premium quality. With every generation of Pro Pixel phone the edges seem more polished, the gaps between components more tightly aligned.

I’m using the case that Google supplied with the Pixel 10 Pro – a lemongrass case perfectly matched to my green Pixel 10 review sample. The same case fits both phones, and in fact even my older Pixel 9 case fits the Pixel 10 Pro perfectly. It’s a good design, and I’m happy to see it stick around for another year or so.

The Pixel 10 Pro seems unfussy compared to the latest iPhone 16 Pro. There’s a volume rocker button and a main button that activates Google Gemini, or opens the camera with a double-press. There’s no Action Button, no wonky Camera Control. When did the Pixel become the exemplar of ease and simplicity, and the iPhone the epitome of excess?

To be fair, the Pixel 10 Pro still has the temperature sensor, which is one of the most useless bits of hardware on any smartphone today. It does not work properly. I heated a pan in my oven to various temperatures and checked with a cheap infrared thermometer as well as the Pixel 10 Pro. The Pixel 10 Pro never got the temperature right, and the $15 thermometer was always more accurate.

At least I can ignore that sensor, unlike the extra buttons on my iPhone 16 Pro. I hope Google some day adds a real shutter button to its Pixel phones to complement the excellent cameras – I also hope Google does it right, unlike Apple’s overwrought Camera Control.

Design score: 4 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Display

Excellent display is very bright and colorful
Even more sharp than the Pixel 10 Pro XL

I can’t recommend the Pixel 10 Pro display strongly enough – it exceeds expectations and makes the Pixel 10 Pro one of the top phones for screen quality. Whether you’re watching clips, taking photos in bright sunlight, or just scrolling through menus and doom, the Pixel 10 Pro is one of the best displays you’ll use.

I do prefer the Pixel 10 Pro XL overall, because I just want more display on my Pixel, but the Pixel 10 Pro has its advantages. Google has packed more pixels per inch onto the 10 Pro, making the display technically more sharp than the Pro XL's screen. I didn’t really notice the difference, though, and both displays are very crisp.

The Pixel 10 Pro also performed admirably in our Future Labs tests, and roasted the competition with its display power. All phone makers brag about a theoretical peak brightness: Google claims the Pixel 10 Pro can hit 3,300 nits, Samsung claims its phones can peak at 2,600 nits, while Apple says the iPhone 16 Pro can reach 2,000 nits. None of those numbers are real.

Under our most stringent lab conditions, we got the Pixel 10 Pro to blast more than 2,500 nits of brightness from the display. That’s far from the 3,300 claim, but much brighter than the competition. The Galaxy S25 Ultra couldn’t reach 1,900 nits, and Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro was stuck at just above 1,500 nits.

In other words, it wasn’t just my eyes seeing a brighter screen on the Pixel 10 Pro; our tests prove that Google’s Super Actua display is the brightest smartphone screen among all the best phone makers.

Display score: 5 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Software

Useful AI features you won’t find elsewhere (not even on the Pixel 10)
Magic Cue seems useful, or you can just ignore it

The Pixel 10 Pro has a polished interface that complements the thoughtful hardware design. It’s very easy to set up the phone and use every feature. Google continues to enhance and improve its Pixel version of Android in subtle but meaningful ways, like the surprisingly fun AI wallpaper maker, and the dramatic themes that slowly change the colors of your widgets and app icons as the day progresses.

Google’s latest AI feature is Magic Cue, a tool that offers helpful suggestions with information straight from your Google apps. It will read your messages, your email, your calendar, and many other sources you specify. Then, when you need a specific phone number, or you need the address of the restaurant where you have a reservation, Magic Cue will offer a quick button to that info. You can tap the button or ignore it, that’s that.

Magic Cue works directly on your phone, so you don’t have to share anything with Google – it scans your Gmail, and other apps and data, but the AI modeling is handled on your phone. That means it consumes less power and less cellular data, and it keeps your information private.

I wish it all worked as advertised. Unfortunately, a few of the promised Magic Cue features never worked for me – it could never find my hotel reservations for an upcoming trip. Google thinks I might have made those reservations too long ago – Magic Cue only searches the last month or so of your Gmail, not your whole history.

Is Magic Cue a big feature? I think it’s one of the biggest steps forward for a phone interface that integrates AI, and the best thing about it is that you may never know you’re using it. Unless you long-press on one of its suggestions, you won’t even see the name ‘Magic Cue,’ or have to open a Magic Cue app to make it work. It happens quietly, and it offers useful tools. I think this is the future of smartphone AI, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

In addition to Magic Cue, the Pixel 10 Pro and the Pixel 10 Pro XL get some AI features the Pixel 10 doesn’t have, and I find these invaluable. I've been using a Pixel 9 Pro as my primary work phone this past year, and I let it answer and screen all of the calls from phone numbers I don’t recognize.

The Pixel 10 Pro has the same great call-screening feature, as well as an effective note-taking tool that will transcribe your phone conversations as easily as it transcribes a business meeting. It warns everybody on the call that it’s taking notes, so there are no privacy concerns.

Google’s Pixel 10 Pro is packed with features, but unlike on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 devices these don’t get in the way. While Samsung literally has pop-up windows and slide-in panels that appear from nowhere and take up screen space, I appreciate that you can take or leave most of Google’s latest features, and they won’t bug you too much. Even Apple can get tiresome with its Journal app reminders, while the new Google Journal app didn’t seem to bother me as often.

Software score: 5 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Cameras

Cameras make better images than my iPhone 16 Pro
New AI features are interesting, but have too many drawbacks

The Pixel 10 Pro features some of Google’s best cameras ever on a Pixel phone, which makes this one of the best camera phones you can buy. I tested this phone against my iPhone 16 Pro, and it usually produced images that were just as colorful but more detailed than what the iPhone cameras could manage.

For low-light photos, there was no contest. The Pixel simply blew the iPhone away with more visibility, sharper focus, and better colors at night.

The Pixel 10 Pro has a 5x optical zoom lens, and you can use AI to zoom in much further. If you switch to the 12MP resolution, the Pixel 10 Pro will zoom in to 100x, which is honestly farther than the phone can handle – at that range, there was not enough image stabilization to keep my subject in frame while my hands shook slightly.

The Pixel 10 Pro created zoomed images that looked more clear with less noise than similar shots taken with the iPhone 16 Pro and its 5x lens and 25x digital zoom.

Sometimes the Pixel 10 camera went too far and smoothed textures I would have liked to keep, but the end results were always more pleasing and more impressive for sharing than my iPhone and Galaxy shots, in spite of what was lost.

There’s a new Camera Coach feature that uses an AI tool to analyze your shot and offer suggestions to make it better. I talk about this in much more detail in my Pixel 10 review, but the upshot is that it’s an interesting teaching assistant that can give you some useful photo framing tips. The usual AI warnings and caveats about stealing human knowledge without attribution still apply.

Google has also improved its editing tools in Google Photos. Instead of editing a photo yourself, you can use natural language to describe to Google’s AI what you want done to your photo. You might say “remove that bystander” or “make the sky more dramatic,” and Google will do its best to match your request. In my experience, it got two-thirds of my edit suggestions right.

The final results are still very good, but if you have any experience with photo editing you can probably perform simple edits and tweaks faster yourself. The delay waiting for the edits was frustrating when the final results weren’t what I wanted.

Camera score: 5 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Camera samples

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Camera image samples taken with the Google Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

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Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Performance

Performance lags behind all other phones at this price
It’s not even faster than the Pixel 10? Not so Pro…

Like every Pixel for the past five years or more, the Pixel 10 Pro will disappoint smartphone buyers looking for the fastest phone around. The Tensor G5 chipset inside is frankly a bit slow, and while it doesn’t make a difference in most use cases, there are times when the Pixel 10 Pro suffers.

Browsing the new Material 3 Expressive interface designs, swiping through long menus of apps and lists, and launching my apps were all remarkably fast. I was expecting more delay, but the Pixel 10 Pro navigates its own interface like a race car.

The only real delay I saw was when using the more advanced camera features. Shooting basic photos at 12MP resolution, I had no trouble, but when I upped the resolution to 50MP, or if I added more features like Top Shot or motion photos, there was often a long delay.

After I pressed the shutter button, I couldn’t take another shot for a few seconds, which feels like a lifetime when I’m trying to snap the perfect picture. I definitely missed shots because of this delay.

This isn’t a new thing for Pixel phones. I noticed the same problem on my Pixel 9 Pro last year, though it happened more frequently on last year’s phone. Maybe Google’s performance is improving, but if the Tensor G5 isn’t even fast enough to keep up with the Pixel 10 Pro’s camera, then Google needs to seriously rethink its processor strategy. It’s time to ask Qualcomm for some help, or maybe even MediaTek. Anything would be better than another Tensor chip in a Pixel phone.

The strangest performance anomaly is the Pixel 10 Pro’s benchmark scores compared to the Pixel 10 base model. With less RAM – 12GB instead of the 16GB on the Pro model – the Pixel 10 still beat the Pixel 10 Pro in many benchmark tests.

On CPU tests like Geekbench 6.4, and on graphics tests like the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited test, the Pixel 10 scored higher than the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL. That seems like terrible tuning on Google’s part. There should be no reason why the less expensive phone beats the Pro models with more RAM, faster storage technology, and other supposed benefits.

Performance score: 3 / 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro review: Battery

Battery life should be much better – I blame the Tensor chips
Magnetic charging helps a lot, but charging is still a problem

The Pixel 10 Pro lasted through a full day of use on most days in my week testing the latest Pixel phones. There were only two days when I needed to charge the phone before bed time, and those were both days with lots of video shooting, such as my day at the Orange County, New York air show – shooting airplane videos drains the battery faster, apparently.

What makes this so frustrating is the Pixel 10 Pro hasn’t improved much over the Pixel 9 Pro. In Future Labs battery tests, the 10 Pro lasted about 15 minutes longer than last year’s Pro model. I expected much more improvement.

Why? Because every other Android phone has improved dramatically this year, if they are packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite inside. Phones like the Galaxy S25 or OnePlus 13 that upgraded to Qualcomm’s latest chip also saw hours of battery life improvements.

Qualcomm changed my expectations for what a new chipset could offer, and if I was already disappointed by the Tensor G5’s performance then the mediocre battery life is just the double whammy that should put the nail in the Tensor coffin. Let’s try something new next year, okay, Google?

Having magnetic charging helps, mostly because I also have an iPhone and I’ve been collecting MagSafe chargers and accessories for a few years. They all work perfectly with the Pixelsnap magnets in the Pixel 10 Pro, so it was easy to keep my phone topped up with power throughout the day. I just popped it onto my desk charger, or connected to my bedside charging stand.

I have these magnetic stands everywhere, and the convenience outweighs the slower charging they offer. Stock up when they go on sale, you’ll be thankful when your phone always seems to have just enough juice.

Battery score: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Google Pixel 10 Pro?

Google Pixel 10 Pro scorecard
Value	A more refined and interesting phone than similar flagships like the iPhone 16 Pro or Galaxy S25 Plus, but there is plenty of scope for Google to offer more (or drop the price for the holidays).	4/5
Design	Excellent design refines the Pixel look even further, with great materials and color options that are classy and durable. No need to change anything here; the Pixel was already a great-looking phone.	4/5
Display	The Pixel 10 Pro’s standout feature. Google’s phone displays are always a knockout, and this screen is brighter and more sharp than any other display I’ve seen (and I’ve seen them all).	5/5
Software	A mix of useful new tools and questionable AI additions. The Pro model is worth the upgrade, thanks to AI features you won’t find on cheaper Pixel phones, but some new features like Magic Cue didn’t work the way Google promised.	5/5
Cameras	Some of the best camera you can buy on a smartphone, with unique AI tools and helpers. The AI goes too far sometimes, but the end results are more impressive than what your friends are shooting.	5/5
Performance	Lackluster performance from the Tensor G5 chip. Most features run fast enough, but I found lag in the camera between shots, and the chipset wasn’t as fast or efficient as any other recent Android flagships.	3/5
Battery	Battery life was fine, but every other Android phone saw major gains with faster chips inside, while the Tensor-powered Pixel was left behind. Pixelsnap and magnetic charging help bridge the gap, and keep the phone charged enough to last you a day.	3/5

Buy it if...

You want to be productive with your Pixel
The Pixel 10 lacks some of the best Pixel 10 Pro features, like AI call screening that takes notes and makes sure you don’t miss detailsView Deal

You can’t be seen with a brightly colored phone
These days, Pro means subdued, and the Pixel 10 Pro comes in colors that are appealing but not as bright as the Indigo or Lemongrass Pixel 10View Deal

You want the best camera phone… maybe
The Pixel 10 Pro took photos that were better than the shots my iPhone 16 Pro took… most of the time. We’ll do a lot more testing before we call this the best, though.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You don’t plan on buying any magnetic accessories
Pixelsnap charges slower, but the convenience makes the Pixel 10 Pro a much better experience, especially considering its poor battery showing.View Deal

You play a lot of mobile games with intense graphics
I didn’t have too much trouble with the slow performance of the Tensor G5 chipset, but serious gamers may want a Snapdragon instead.View Deal

You really want the best camera phone
The 10 Pro has the same cameras as the Pro XL, but the XL’s larger screen and battery make the bigger phone the better camera pick.View Deal

Also consider...

Pixel 10 Pro XL
For a bit more moolah, you get a bigger display and battery, faster charging, and more storage inside. The XL is my first choice for Pixel fun.

Read our in-depth Google Pixel 10 Pro XL reviewView Deal

Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Apple has stiff competition, but if all your friends carry iPhones, you’ll miss the iOS-specific features that keep the cult of Apple together.

Read our in-depth Apple iPhone 16 Pro reviewView Deal

	Google Pixel 10 Pro	Google Pixel 10 Pro XL	Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Price	$999 / £999 / AU $1,699	$1,199 / £1,199 / AU $1,999	$999 / £999 / AU $1,799
Display	6.3-inch Super Actua	6.8-inch Super Actua	6.3-inch Super Retina
Charging	30W wired; 15W wireless	45W wired; 25W wireless	30W wired; 25W wireless
Battery Results (HH:MM:SS)	13:43:30	14:20:57	14:07:53

How I tested the Google Pixel 10 Pro

I tested the Google Pixel 10 Pro for a week, alongside the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro XL. I used the Pixel 10 Pro as a work phone with my high-security work accounts. I loaded the phone with more than a hundred apps, and multiple Google accounts.

I used the Pixel 10 Pro as a camera, testing every camera feature. I used AI features to ask questions and generate sample images. I connected Magic Cue to all of my personal Google account information, and I fed the Pixel 10 Pro a regular diet of screenshots of my personal dealings for the Screenshots app.

I connected the Pixel 10 Pro to my Pixel Watch 3, my Pixel Buds Pro, and many other Bluetooth headsets and devices. I used Android Auto in my Kia and my friends’ Acura and Subaru cars, and connected to Bluetooth in an older BMW.

For battery testing, we have proprietary rundown tests that are the same for every phone, which we use to determine how long it takes for the battery to run down.

First reviewed August 2025

I tested the Aukey Spark Mini 20000 and it looks smart but doesn’t do much to set itself apart

3:00 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phone Accessories Phones | Comments: Off

Aukey Spark Mini 20000: review

The Aukey Spark Mini 20000 has simple yet elegant looks, with its soft edges helping to make it more sleek. Aside from grey and silver, there’s also a pink colorway if you want something a little more vibrant.

However, the materials don’t look especially premium, and it’s not as solid as some of the best power banks, with considerable flexing in the front panel, which can even trigger the power button if pressed too hard.

Thankfully, the bottom section is much sturdier, as well as looking more refined thanks to its matte finish and slightly soft texture. This is also the thickest and heaviest part of the unit, but thanks to its overall compactness, the Spark Mini 20000 is quite portable – although carrying it in your pocket might prove a little too onerous.

There’s no real interface, aside from a power button and five small LED dots: four to indicate remaining charge and one to indicate that charging is active. This is quite useful, as it allows you to check whether your device is actually charging with a mere glance.

The Spark Mini 20000 features just two charging ports: one USB-C and one USB-A, the latter of which serves as an output as well as an input for charging the bank itself. This limited selection is a little disappointing, as there are many other 20K power banks with three or four ports to choose from.

At least simultaneous charging is supported, and each port provides enough power for fast charging. The USB-C port supports the PD standard, providing 20W of power for charging the best iPhones and other smartphones quickly, while the USB-A port provides 22.5W of power. A USB-C-to-C cable is included in the box, but it’s quite short, so you’ll need your device close to the bank when charging.

The Spark Mini 20000 managed to charge my Google Pixel 7a from empty to full in about two hours, which isn’t a spectacular performance, but is still within the bounds of what you would expect given its power delivery. However, charging the bank itself from empty to full took over five and a half hours, which is pretty slow going, even for a power bank of this capacity.

About average for a power bank with this size, the Spark Mini 20000 costs $35.99 / £26.37 (about AU$55). However, there are power banks with similar prices that offer more features, such as the INIU Carry P51L-E1 Power Bank 22.5W 20000mAh.

This bank has the same 20,000mAh capacity, but includes an integrated USB-C cable in addition to two ports. It also features a digital display and a flashlight, but still manages to be about the same size as the Spark Mini 20000.

Side view of Aukey Spark Mini 20000 on plinth with pink wall and plant in background — (Image credit: Future)

Aukey Spark Mini 20000 review: price & specs

Price	$35.99 / £26.37 (about AU$55)
Capacity	20,000mAh
Total wattage	22.5W
Number of ports	2
USB-C	1
USB-A	1
Wireless charging	No
Weight	11.4oz / 322g
Power-to-weight	62mAh/g

Close-up of ports on Aukey Spark Mini 20000, on plinth with pink background — (Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Aukey Spark Mini 20000?

Buy it if…

You want something simple
The Spark Mini 20000 is a simple case of plug and go, and the LED to indicate charging is active is a simple but useful touch.

You want something compact
The Spark Mini 20000 makes for a great travel companion thanks to its small dimensions, even if it’s a little thick.

Don't buy it if…

You have more than two devices to charge
With only two ports, the Spark Mini 20000 is limited compared to similarly capacious power banks, which can include three or four ports – and even integrated cables.

You want more features
With no digital display or integrated cables and the like, the Spark Mini 20000 is about as simple as it gets – and similarly priced rivals offer more.

Aukey Spark Mini 20000 review: Also consider

INIU Carry P51L-E1 Power Bank 22.5W 20000mAh
The P51L-E1 has a similar capacity and power output to the Spark Mini 20000, but has an integrated USB-C cable, which also functions as a carrying loop. It also has a flashlight and a digital display, although the latter is a little sparse in the information it provides, but is clear to see. It’s also about the same price as the Spark Mini 20000, so ultimately it makes for better value. Read our full INIU Carry P51L-E1 Power Bank 22.5W 20000mAh review.

I was thankful for this Ugreen power bank’s retractable cable, but its 20,000mAh capacity wasn’t enough to charge my laptop fully

1:00 am | August 18, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phone Accessories Phones | Comments: Off

Ugreen Nexode Power Bank 20000mAh 165W: review

The Ugreen Nexode Power Bank has 165W of power and a 20000mAh, as well as a few features aimed at improving convenience.

In line with the range in which this power bank sits, the Nexode has a dark grey finish with black accents, making it slightly more interesting to look at than other power banks. The smooth matte finish also adds a hint of elegance, giving the impression that this is a premium product.

However, this belies the actual build quality of the Nexode. Despite its heaviness, some of the panels can flex slightly; they aren’t as solid as those you’ll find on many Anker power banks, for instance, which are some of the best power banks around in terms of construction.

Still, the Nexode should suffice for travel purposes. What’s more of an issue when traveling is just how bulky it is. It might have a relatively short length but it’s quite thick, and personally I would’ve preferred the compromise to be the other way around, as a thinner bank is easier to tuck away into a bag.

However, I did appreciate the rubber feet on the back panel. I haven’t noticed their absence on other power banks before, but seeing them here has made me realize how useful they are for protecting the bank and supporting surfaces from scratches. They also prevent the bank from sliding around.

The Nexode also has a large display, although unfortunately the readout is considerably smaller than the space appears to allow for. It’s also quite dim, which, combined with the reflective screen, can make it even hard to see.

The information it does provide, though, is quite useful. As well as the battery life percentage, there’s also estimated charging times for connected devices or the bank itself, as well as an indicator showing which connections are currently active and their wattage. Pressing the power button takes you to a second screen, where you can view the voltage and amperage of each connection, too.

Perhaps the standout feature of the Nexode, though, is the retractable USB-C cable. This is easy to use, although it does have a tendency to twist around, which can make it awkward to put back in. It’s also quite thin and doesn’t feel particularly hardy, but Ugreen does claim it can endure over 25,000 retractions and over 10,000 bends.

In addition to this cable, you also get two USB ports: one Type-A and one Type-C. Like the retractable cable, the latter port is both an input and an output, while the former is output only. Both USB-C interfaces are capable of receiving and delivering 100W each, although if both are used at the same time, the port will drop to 65W. The USB-A port delivers 33W maximum.

The Nexode also supports three-way charging, but in such cases the two USB ports drop to 10W, while the retractable cable retains its 100W capability. There’s also a trickle charging mode for charging smaller devices with more sensitive batteries, such as wireless earbuds and smartwatches, activated by holding the power button for five seconds.

Using the retractable USB-C cable, I managed to charge my Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 4, which has a 57Wh battery, from 5% to 90% in under 90 minutes, before the Nexode depleted completely. This is quite fast, but it’s a shame it ran out before making it to 100%, and means you can’t even get one full charge out of it. Charging the bank itself from empty to full took about one hour and 40 minutes, which again is a respectable time.

The Nexode is expensive for a power bank, even one with this much power, retailing for $99.99 / £79.99 (about AU$150). The Anker Laptop Power Bank is about the same price, but has a greater capacity and two integrated cables. It’s also slightly thinner and better made than the Nexode.

We have seen it around for less than its original price, though, and if you can catch it in a sale, the Nexode might still prove a solid pick for charging your large devices.

Ugreen Nexode Power Bank 20000mAh 165W leaning on plinth with in-built USB-C cable pulled out, on desk with pink background — (Image credit: Future)

Ugreen Nexode Power Bank 20000mAh 165W review: price & specs

Price	$99.99 / £79.99 (about AU$150)
Capacity	20,000mAh
Total wattage	165W
Number of ports	3
USB-C	2 (1 x built-in)
Wireless charging	No
Weight	18.9oz / 535g
Power-to-weight	37.4mAh/g

Close-up of ports and retracted USB-C cable on Ugreen Nexode Power Bank 20000mAh 165W, on plinth on desk with pink background — (Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Ugreen Nexode Power Bank 20000mAh 165W?

Buy it if…

You want plenty of power
Most modern laptops don’t need 165W to charge quickly, and the fast two- and three-way charging times are also welcome.

You want useful charging information
Aside from the usual battery percentage, the display on the Nexode also provides wattage, voltage, and amperage figures for each active connection.

Don't buy it if…

You want something thin
Personally, I prefer a power bank to be as thin as possible, as this makes it easier to pack away. Unfortunately, though, the Nexode is quite thick.

You want full laptop charges
The 20,000mAh capacity doesn’t cut it for multiple charges of large devices – sometimes not even one full charge, in my experience.

Ugreen Nexode Power Bank 20000mAh 165W review: Also consider

Anker Laptop Power Bank
If you’re after another high-power, high-capacity power bank, the Anker Laptop Power Bank is a stellar alternative. Not only does it feature a retractable USB-C cable like the Nexode, but it also features another integrated USB-C cable that acts as a carrying loop when not in use. It also has a better display and build quality, as well as being thinner, which I find makes it easier to transport. Read our full Anker Laptop Power Bank review.

The Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro takes on the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro with comparable power, incredible battery life, and a much cheaper price tag

6:25 pm | August 8, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phones | Tags: OIS, OS, UFS, UI | Comments: Off

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro: Two-minute review

If the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro is too much of an investment for you, there are cheaper ways to get your mobile gaming kicks. The Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro offers a comparable gaming experience for literally half the price.

As the first phone to run on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version chipset, paired with a bolstered cooling system, the Red Magic 10S Pro can technically outperform any other phone on the market, even if that fact doesn’t particularly manifest itself in general use.

The phone also features a fine 6.85-inch 144Hz AMOLED display offering a blissfully unimpeded view of the action – though you’ll pay for that with terrible selfie pictures.

Indeed, Nubia’s phone continues to be suboptimal for those who don’t prioritize gaming above all else. Its camera system is fine, but not competitive with the best midrange smartphones. Meanwhile, its design, while nice and flat, is big and heavy, with a gamer aesthetic that remains an acquired taste.

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro product shots — (Image credit: Future)

In a similar vein, Nubia’s UI remains a little on the clumsy side, with ugly icons and too much bloatware. With that said, its gamer-focused features are as potent as ever, and the company’s software update promise has taken a big step forward – especially in the EU.

The phone’s level of stamina is truly outstanding, thanks to the inclusion of a huge 7,050mAh battery. This thing could conceivably get you through two days or even more, at least when you’re not indulging in those epic gaming sessions. You’ll be able to get up to speed nice and quickly, too, with an 80W charger included in the box, though you’ll have to make do without wireless charging.

The Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro remains a very specific tool for a very specific job. As impressive a value proposition as it is, we wouldn’t dream of recommending it to anyone who isn’t intent on doing a serious amount of gaming on the go. Most flagship or even midrange phones will probably be a better pick for most people on balance.

For that narrow slice of mobile gamers, however, Nubia’s top gaming phone offers the best bang-to-buck ratio out there.

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: price and availability

Released on June 17
Priced from $699 / £579 / AU$649

The Red Magic 10S Pro hit shelves on June 18, 2025, with prices starting at $699 / £579 / AU$649 for the matte black Nightfall model, which comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The model tested here is the midrange option with 16GB/512GB, which will set you back $849 / £709 / AU$799

The range-topping 24GB/1TB model costs $999 / £879 / AU$999.

As always with Nubia’s gaming phone range, this represents excellent value for the level of raw performance you’re getting here. Our pick for the best gaming phone on the market, the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, costs $1,199 / £1,099.99 / AU$1,999.

Value score: 5 / 5

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: specs

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro specs

Dimensions:	163 x 76 x 9mm
Weight:	229g
Display:	6.85-inch Full HD+ (1216 x 2688) up to 144Hz BOE AMOLED
Chipset:	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version
RAM:	12GB / 16GB / 24GB (LPDDR5X)
Storage:	256GB / 512GB / 1TB (UFS 4.1)
OS:	Android 15
Primary camera:	50MP Samsung OV50E 1/1.55-inch sensor w/ OIS
Ultra-wide camera:	50MP Samsung OV50D 1/2.88-inch sensor
Macro camera	2MP
Front Camera:	16MP under-display
Battery:	7,050mAh
Charging:	80W wired
Colors:	Nightfall, Dusk, Moonlight

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: design

Toughened glass and aviation aluminum middle frame
Completely flat with no camera bump
520Hz capacitive shoulder trigger buttons
Dedicated gaming mode switch

Suggesting that the Red Magic 10S Pro sports a similar design to the Red Magic 10 Pro is underselling things somewhat.

They’re identical to look at and hold, barring a couple of very minor cosmetic touches: a subtle chevron finish rather than a dappled one; a Red Magic logo switching to a different side; a new ‘Leading Version’ decal reflecting the new chip type, and so on.

This is another large, flat, straight-sided phone measuring 163 x 76 x 9mm and weighing 229g. Once again, it features an “aviation aluminum” frame with toughened glass to the front and back. And, once again, perhaps the most pleasing element of this is the total lack of a sticky-outy camera module.

The aesthetic is the same, too, with a slightly cheap-looking semi-transparent effect that shows you elements of the phone’s internal workings – or at least, elements that broadly represent the internal components.

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Nubia still hasn’t managed to bolster the water and dust resistance rating beyond IP54, likely thanks to the continued presence of whopping great vents on either side of the phone. These facilitate the phone’s physical cooling fan, which kicks in during gaming and charging, and which is highlighted by several RGB lighting elements.

The right edge of the Red Magic 10S Pro is particularly busy. Besides the aforementioned cooling vent, it also houses a volume rocker, a circular power button, and three extra gaming-oriented controls.

There’s a pair of capacitive 520Hz buttons that can be mapped to game controls – particularly handy in competitive shooters like Call of Duty: Mobile and Delta Force. You also get a physical Gamespace switch here, which instantly brings up Nubia’s gaming UI.

Another gaming-oriented inclusion is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top edge. This negates the issue of audio lag, which even high-end wireless headphones will struggle with, to varying degrees.

The Red Magic 10S Pro, like its predecessors, sports a striking all-screen design with extremely small display bezels and an under-display selfie camera, producing a high 95.3% screen-to-body ratio. This doesn’t leave room for dual front-firing speakers, which means you can cover the speaker on the bottom edge with your hand.

In terms of sound output, you’re looking at speakers that get plenty loud and offer decent stereo separation, but which are somewhat piercing and lacking in low-end depth – certainly compared to many flagship phones.

Design score: 3.5 / 5

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: display

6.85-inch OLED
1216 x 2688 ‘1.5K’ resolution
144Hz refresh rate
2000 nits peak brightness

After changing things up with the Red Magic 10 Pro, Nubia has gone with the exact same display for the 10S Pro. This is a large 6.85-inch OLED with a nicely balanced ‘1.5K’ resolution, which works out to 2,688 x 1,216.

This also produces a 144Hz maximum refresh rate. The list of games that can actually support such fluidity is pretty slender, but it’s one of the few use case scenarios for such a spec. The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro has it beat at 185Hz, but then, you’re paying double the money for such diminishing returns.

In peak HDR scenarios, this display is capable of hitting 2,000 nits, though in general use, you won’t get anywhere near that mark. It’s bright enough for clear outdoor usage, however.

As we’ve already discussed, the Red Magic 10S Pro Display is notable for being completely unhindered by a selfie notch. Experiencing video and gaming content in such an unobstructed way feels good, and you might question why more phones don’t take such an approach.

The answer to that question is very simple indeed, but we’ll leave off answering it until the camera section.

Display score: 4 / 5

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: cameras

50MP main with OIS
50MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro
16MP in-display selfie camera still terrible
Up to 8K/30fps video

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the camera system here is identical to that of the Red Magic 10 Pro.

There’s the same 50MP 1/1.55" OmniVision OV50E main sensor with OIS and a 7P lens. This is accompanied by a 50MP 1/2.88" OV50D ultra-wide, and an all-but-pointless 2MP macro sensor. There is no dedicated telephoto camera.

You also get the same 16MP in-display front camera.

There’s an unspoken deal you strike with every gaming phone manufacturer: they will give you an extremely fast phone with a level of sustained performance and stamina well in excess of your average flagship phone. In return, you will give up any expectations of taking really good photographs.

That holds as true with the Red Magic 10S Pro as it did with its predecessors (for the record, the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro takes decent shots, though it’s well short of the very best camera phones). This is a competent mid-range performer, though you could spend about £100 less on the Google Pixel 9a and have a much better time if photography is your priority.

With that main sensor, shots look sharp and contrasty in good lighting, if a little over-processed and unnaturally vibrant. Night shots look nice and clear, though again, there’s a slightly false note to the level of brightness.

Ultra-wide shots take a notable hit to quality, with a drabber, flatter look compared to the main sensor. This can occasionally work in its favor, producing more natural-looking shots, but in general, the disparity is just distracting.

Zoomed shots all crop in on that main sensor, but they’re not worth using beyond 2x. Even at 4x, the drop-off in detail is stark.

It’s a familiar story by now, but the decision to go with an in-display front camera results in flat-out terrible selfies, lacking in detail and contrast. Nubia claims that the AI algorithm has been upgraded here, and I suppose if I were being charitable, I’d concede that the selfies I took were the best I’ve seen from a Red Magic phone.

But you have to understand that this is a very low bar indeed, and almost any affordable phone released in 2025 should be able to top it in the selfie stakes.

Nubia is one of those manufacturers that implements a couple of annoying settings straight out of the box. One is an inexplicable watermark (as you can see in some of my sample images), while another is an obnoxious beautifying mode for selfies. You can turn both off easily enough, but it should really be this way out of the box.

Video recording is very solid here, with Nubia putting that flagship chip to good use in supporting 8K recording at 30fps or – more practically – 4K at 60fps. Footage shot using the latter configuration was nice and smooth, courtesy of that OIS.

Camera score: 3 / 5

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: camera samples

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Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro camera samples — (Image credit: Future)

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Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: performance

Souped-up Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version
12GB, 16GB, or 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM
256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage
Sustained performance takes a step back, though average performance is still better

The one component that explains and even justifies the Red Magic 10S Pro’s existence is the move to a new chip. Kind of.

In fact, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version found here is merely an overclocked version of the chip from the Red Magic 10 Pro – and most other 2025 flagship phones, for that matter.

Nubia claims that it supplies a 30% power boost, with the CPU clock speeds moving up from 4.32GHz to 4.47GHz and the GPU from 1,100MHz to 1,200MHz. The NPU, meanwhile, provides an AI performance boost of 40%.

This is supported by a bolstered Liquid Metal 2.0 cooling system, which rejigs things for a 5°C reduction in temperature compared to the 10 Pro.

None of this is noticeable in day-to-day performance, nor even when gaming. There’s a very simple reason for that: the Snapdragon 8 Elite was already more than enough to handle the very best games that the Google Play Store has to offer.

Graphically advanced games such as GRID Legends already run fabulously on the Red Magic 10 Pro, while you can blast opponents on Call of Duty: Mobile at high frame rates and graphical settings.

Indeed, even using our usual suite of benchmark tests, the Red Magic 10S Pro performed no better than its predecessor. That still positions it as one of the fastest phones on the market, of course, but know that the main advantage to buying this phone is performance headroom.

Sustained performance was unimpeachable on the Red Magic 10 Pro, and it seems Nubia hasn’t quite managed to maintain such a high level here. A score of 84.8% in 3D Mark's Solar Bay Stress Test falls 15% short of its predecessor, suggesting that it can’t quite maintain peak performance across an intensive 20-minute workout.

However, it’s worth digging deeper into the figures here. A peak loop score of 12568 is quite a bit higher than the Red Magic 10 Pro’s 10032. Indeed, the 10S Pro could beat that with its lowest loop score of 10654. In other words, the Red Magic 10S Pro can’t stay at its maximum level as long as the 10 Pro, but its output is still better at any given moment.

Needless to say, general navigation and day-to-day use don’t pose a problem for the Red Magic 10S Pro. Especially not with the 16 GB of RAM that my test model comes bundled with.

Performance score: 5 / 5

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: software

Red Magic OS 10.5 on Android 15
UI is ugly but solid enough
Dedicated Game Space gaming UI
Up to 5 years of OS and security updates

In keeping with the Red Magic 10S Pro’s half-step nature, it ships with Red Magic OS 10.5. It’s much the same as Red Magic OS 10 in the previous model, sitting atop the same Android 15 operating system.

That’s not necessarily a positive, as Nubia’s UI still needs a lot of work. It’s a fairly clunky experience, with ugly icons and wallpapers, and an unnecessarily huge fan widget. Nubia’s Google Feed replacement to the left of the Home Screen continues to be a tacky collection of random news stories and apps.

While it’s a lot less buggy and janky than it used to be, there are still some rough edges. On my test model, that manifested itself most obviously with a pair of app icons on the second Home Screen mysteriously labelled ‘Unknown’.

I’m not sure why, but I was required to dive into Gmail’s Settings just to make this default email app sync up.

Bloatware is still an issue, too. Even deselecting all the terrible games at the set-up phase doesn’t clean things up completely. Rather hilariously, there are two dedicated folders filled with download prompts for said unwanted apps.

TikTok, Facebook, MoboReader, MoboReals, WPS Office, and Booking.com are all there at set-up, whether you like it or not.

With all that said, Red Magic OS 10.5 runs snappily, and Nubia's Game Space game management UI remains a comprehensive way to organize and manage your gaming. Flip that switch, and you’ll enter a landscape interface that lets you tweak performance, screen sensitivity, screen ratios, and individual game plug-ins that verge on the cheat-y.

Google Gemini is pre-installed, alongside some now fairly standard AI tools for photo search, image editing, real-time translation, and the like. Circle to Search is also here.

Ongoing support continues to fall behind the best, but is now much improved over the Red Magic 10 Pro. There are now three years of OS and security updates in the global and US models, and five years in the UK and EU models.

Software score: 3.5 / 5

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: battery life

7,050mAh battery
Multi-day usage
80W wired charging

Nubia really stepped things up with the Red Magic 10 Pro, squeezing in a huge 7,050mAh battery. The 10S Pro has the same, and it remains one of the biggest cells on the market.

With this battery on board, I was able to blast through two days of moderate usage, and even well into a third before I felt compelled to plug it in.

When the phone finally did run out of juice entirely, the bundled 80W charger got me back up to 72% in just 30 minutes. A full charge took me 45 minutes, which isn’t too shabby at all given the battery’s capacity.

There’s no wireless charging here, which we’ve come to expect from Nubia’s gaming sub-brand. That’s not to say it should be let off the hook entirely – the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro includes a wireless charging provision – but it’s an understandable omission in the name of prioritizing gaming-friendly features on a strict budget.

Indeed, it’s probably a more apt criticism to note that there’s no secondary USB-C port on the long edge, which makes charging while gaming so much more viable in the ROG.

Battery score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro?

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro score card
Attributes	Notes	Rating
Design	It’s big and unwieldy, and the gamer aesthetic grows a little tiresome, but it’s also nice and flat.	3.5 / 5
Display	This screen is big, sharp, fluid, and it gets reasonably bright. It’s also unobstructed by a bothersome notch.	4 / 5
Performance	As the first phone to feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version, this is one of the very fastest phones around.	4.5 / 5
Camera	It’ll take solid pictures in good lighting, but you don’t buy a gaming phone if you’re seriously interested in great photos.	3 / 5
Battery	This phone has one of the largest batteries around, and it’s good for multi-day use.	5 / 5
Software	Nubia's custom UI is reasonably fast and fluid these days, but it’s still ugly and cluttered.	3 / 5
Value	You simply won’t find this level of performance at this price anywhere else on the market.	5 / 5

Buy it if...

You're a gamer who doesn’t have cash to burn
The Red Magic 10S Pro offers top-level gaming performance, but it costs about half the price of our favorite gaming phone, the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro.

You’re anti-notch
Sick of display notches spoiling the view? The Red Magic 10S Pro doesn’t have one.

You want the biggest battery possible
At 7,050mAh, the Red Magic 10S Pro's battery is the biggest on the market.

Don't buy it if...

You like selfies
That in-display front camera might look cool, but it takes truly terrible selfies.

Subtlety and style matter to you
Nubia’s design language is big, brash, and slightly tacky.

You prefer a clean UI
Red Magic OS is ugly, cluttered, and a little glitchy.

Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro review: also consider

The Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro is a great-value gaming phone, but there are some excellent alternatives if you want to spend more or less.

Nubia Red Magic 10 Pro
The previous model should be available at a lower price right now, despite being only six months older and broadly as capable.

Read our full Nubia Red Magic 10 Pro review

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro
This step-up option gives you similar gaming performance, but a lot of quality-of-life features on top – albeit at a much higher price.

Read our full Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review

How I tested the Nubia Red Magic 10S Pro

Review test period = 1 week
Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, gaming, streaming video, music playback
Tools used = Geekbench 6, GFXBench, 3DMark, native Android stats, bundled Nubia 80W power adapter

First reviewed: June 2025

Weeks testing the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 convinced me flip phones are the best phones – and I won’t be going back to flat

7:25 pm | July 23, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phones Samsung Galaxy Phones | Tags: Samsung Galaxy | Comments: Off

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: Two-minute review

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue in hand showing basic widget info. onthe cover display — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is a great flip phone that gives you the best of Samsung’s mobile might in a package that’s innovative and polished. To say it’s an improvement over past Galaxy Flip phones would be an understatement – this is the Flip I’ve been asking Samsung to make for years.

It’s not quite the best flip phone you can buy, but that’s because flip phones have gotten really good; and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 makes a perfect argument for why flip phones may be today’s best form factor.

Think about it, what’s better than a flip foldable? The Galaxy Z Flip 7 has a huge screen – the same 6.9 inches as the mighty Galaxy S25 Ultra – but it’s smaller and lighter in every way, even before you fold it in half. And instead of the Ultra’s questionable S Pen, the Flip 7 gives you a whole second screen to use. On top of that, it costs $200 / £200 / AU$550 less than an Ultra.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue open at a 3/4 angle showing the back — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Flip phones just make too much sense, so what’s stopping them from being more popular? First, there’s the durability question. The seventh generation of Samsung’s flip phones still can’t keep dust out, though it can handle being dunked in water thanks to its IP48 rating.

Second, there are sacrifices required to make a folding phone, and the cameras are a downgrade from other Galaxy phones. This year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 got a 200MP main camera, but the Flip 7 keeps its 50MP cameras on the back. There’s no zoom, only wide and ultra-wide. A 200MP sensor would have alleviated the disappointment of not having a 3x telephoto lens or better.

Finally, the battery takes a hit with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 – maybe too big of a hit. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 doesn’t last long enough. I think this is more of a Samsung problem than a flip phone problem, because the Moto Razr Ultra offers great battery life, though it is marginally thicker and heavier than the Flip 7.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue next to a Moto Razr Ultra botrh showing TechRadar.com on the cover display — A Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 (left) and Galaxy Z Flip 7 (right) with TechRadar on the cover displays (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

It’s impossible to avoid comparing the Flip 7 to the Motorola Razr Ultra / Razr 60 Ultra, which is its biggest competitor (for now, Apple?). Samsung should be thrashing the Razr, but Motorola has been consistently eating Samsung’s lunch in the flip phone café.

With the Flip 7, Samsung finally catches up to Motorola on the cover display. Its cover display doesn’t just fill the front of the phone, it features the thinnest bezels Samsung has ever used on a Galaxy phone screen.

The Flip 7 can also, albeit with some difficulty, use every app on the cover display. You can navigate with AllTrails maps, watch some TikTok, and play Vampire Survivors without opening the phone.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue with Vampire Survivors on the cover display — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Still, as Samsung takes a big leap forward, Motorola continues its slow and steady pace as the flip-phone frontrunner. Today’s Razr Ultra is faster than the Galaxy Flip 7 in every way. The processor is faster; games run faster; the screen refreshes faster; the battery even charges faster.

Does all of that speed matter? Yes, but some folks will appreciate Samsung’s deep feature set and customization options more than a bit of extra speed.

Samsung’s One UI 8 is a powerhouse, especially if you mix business and pleasure on your smartphone. The Flip 7 also ships with Android 16, and this is the first time Samsung foldable buyers haven’t had to wait for an upgrade to the latest version of Android.

Samsung promises seven years of major Android updates and security patches, more than any competitor except Google. It has a good track record of delivering on such promises, while many Motorola fans are still waiting for promised updates for past Razr phones.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue partially open showing TechRadar.com on the display — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Is it time to consider a flip phone? Absolutely. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m a fan of flip foldables, and the Flip 7, with its versatile cover display, rock-solid design, and hefty set of features, offers more value than the sum of its parts.

In fact, I think most people would appreciate the Flip 7, with its unique benefits, more than other phones that don’t make the same sacrifices.

Ask yourself, does your phone need that tiny zoom camera? Wouldn’t you rather have a phone you can slap shut and slip in your front pocket? And I use the cover display on my Galaxy Z Flip 7 far more than I use the S Pen on my Galaxy S25 Ultra.

I’m rooting for flip phones – and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is an exceptional flip for serious smartphone users.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 review: Price and availability

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 on display with numerous devices showing New York City scenes on the cover display — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Starts at $1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,799 for 256GB of storage
The best color – Mint – is a Samsung online exclusive

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 starts at $1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,799, which is the same price as last year’s Z Flip 6. The price seems reasonable to me, considering that you’re getting two displays for the price of one, plus glass that bends in half like a dang magic trick.

Galaxy Z Flip phones used to seem pricey, but the rest of the phone world has slowly crept up to meet Samsung, and now $1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,799 actually seems fair, especially if you’re getting this phone from your carrier with a steep discount (most US carriers offer it for free with a new contract).

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 costs more than an iPhone 16 Pro (except in Australia, where it’s the same price), and less than an iPhone 16 Pro Max. It costs the same as a Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, or Samsung’s new and thin Galaxy S25 Edge.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue next. toa Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 in wood — The Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 (left) is more expensive than the Galaxy Z Flip 7 (right) (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Most importantly, the Flip 7 costs less than the new Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 in the US, where the Razr Ultra starts at $1,299. In the UK, the Razr 60 Ultra costs the same: £1,099. Motorola claims it has been outselling Samsung in flip phones, and its cheapest flip, the Razr 2023, is available for $349 in the US.

At launch, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 only comes in four colors, while last year’s Flip 6 was available in seven hues. Mint and Coralred are exciting (the former is a Samsung web store exclusive); Jetblack and Blue Shadow are more staid. I wish Samsung would try something unique with its materials and finish, but it likes to dress the entire product family in the same sweater for holiday portraits, so all the Galaxy phones look alike finish-wise.

Value score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 review: Specification

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue showing the Quick Setting drop down menu — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

When Samsung admitted that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 would use its own Exynos 2500 processor instead of the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy found in every other flagship Galaxy phone this year, it was like a record scratch moment from a comedy show. Rumors suggest this could have been the CPU inside every Galaxy S25 phone, but Samsung changed its plans late in the game on those phones. Instead, this new Samsung chip debuts in the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Samsung claims the Exynos 2500 is more powerful than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy that’s in last year’s Flip 6, and this lets the Flip 7 use Samsung DeX, a feature that was oddly omitted from last year’s Flip. I don’t buy it. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 had the same processor and the same RAM, and the Fold 6 could run DeX. Heck, even the Galaxy S24 FE with its mid-range Exynos 2400e chipset could run DeX. I’m calling shenanigans on this claim.

The display is bigger this year, up to 6.9 inches for the internal display from 6.7 inches last year, and the phone is 4mm wider to accommodate this. Otherwise, the specs are mostly unchanged from the Flip 6 – 12GB of RAM; a 50MP wide camera and a 12MP ultra-wide; Wi-Fi 7; Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back cover. The battery is larger this year, but maybe not as big as it needs to be.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 specs
	Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
Dimensions (folded):	85.5 x 75.2 x 13.7mm
Dimensions (unfolded):	166.7 x 75.2 x 6.5mm
Weight:	188g
Main display:	6.9-inch LTPO AMOLED 1080 x 2520 pixels 1~120Hz adaptive refresh 2,600 nits peak brightness
Cover display::	4.1-inch Super AMOLED 948 x 1048 pixels
Chipset:	Samsung Exynos 2500 (3nm)
RAM:	12GB
Storage:	256GB / 512GB
OS:	Android 16 / One UI 8
Primary camera:	50MP f1.8
Ultrawide camera:	12MP f2.2
Selfie Camera:	10MP f2.2
Battery:	4,300mAh
Charging:	25W wired; 15W wireless
Colors:	Blue Shadow, Jetblack, Coralred, Mint

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 review: Design

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue folded like a tent — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Big and beautiful cover display with ultra-slim bezels
Nice colors, but design is a bit bland for a flip phone

After years of me complaining that the Galaxy Z Flip wasn’t using enough of its cover space for the front screen, Samsung finally listened (I’d like to think). The 4.1-inch screen on the front of the Galaxy Z Flip 7 takes up every possible inch – Samsung says it has the thinnest bezel ever on a Galaxy phone.

The Flip 7’s cover screen looks like the future of phone displays, and I’m excited for the internal screen to catch up, with a bezel this slim.

Otherwise, the phone is a standard 2025 Galaxy model. It has flat sides, with the power and volume buttons on the right. The power key acts as an effective fingerprint scanner, though it’s more recessed than the power button on other Galaxy phones, and it was hard to find in the dark.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue close up on the hinge and bending glass — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue showing a close up of the cover display bezels and camera lenses with a dirty filthy dog named Beesly on the display — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue close up of the two camera lenses — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

My review sample is Blue Shadow, and the blue certainly has a nice depth to it, though I still wish the color had more pop – there’s not much room for color on a flip phone. Only one half of one side of the phone is actually blue; the rest is all display. Three quarters of the phone is a screen. Is that worrisome? Maybe it should be.

I’ve had the Galaxy Z Flip 7 a week and I’ve been using it extensively. I throw it into my bag with my car keys, and let it bang around with my cameras and other phones in my pockets.

I don’t have a case on it, but some friends at UAG are sending an armored case my way. It may be too late. My back glass – a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 panel – already has noticeable scuffs and scratches marring the shadowy blue. I don’t see any nicks on the screens, so that’s a plus, but I should have gotten that case before I started using this phone. Consider yourself advised.

Design score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: Displays

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue in hand showing four widgets on the cover display including weather, now brief, calendar, and health monitor — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Big inner display is super-bright and clear
Cover screen is a showstopper – it’s the future of displays

I could rave about the new cover display again, but I’ll start with the impressive inner screen, because the Galaxy Z Flip 7 has been very satisfying to use thanks to this exceptionally bright and clear AMOLED. It was always a joy to open, even in bright outdoor light.

Don’t worry about the crease on the inner screen. It’s completely invisible when you’re using the phone, and it never bothered my fingers when I was swiping across the screen. After all these years it still feels like a magic trick to fold a piece of glass in half, and it still shocks friends who haven’t seen a flip foldable in person before.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7’s cover display is, as I’ve mentioned, also spectacular. The ultra-thin bezels make it seem to disappear, and you get plenty of room to work with apps and widgets on the 4.1-inch space. It’s a great improvement to the Flip line, and one I’ve been impatiently waiting to see.

Displays score: 5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: Software

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue at a 3/4 angle showing a home screen panel with the Edge Panels on screen — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The best flip for getting things done
Maybe too focused on productivity, not enough on fun

If you want a smartphone you can tweak and customize to your heart’s content, get a Samsung phone. If you prefer something simpler, you can still grit your teeth and ignore most of the settings, the pop-up features, and the extra steps required to make things work.

How bad is Samsung’s software? Take the cover display, for example. On the Motorola Razr, when you’re using an app and you close the phone, the app shows up on the cover display. That’s simple and intuitive. On the Galaxy Z Flip 7? Not even close.

To use an app on the front screen, you have to find the setting to enable apps on the cover display. This isn’t in the Cover Display settings menu; it’s in a menu called Advanced Settings, and then Labs.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue with a finger pointing at the Advanced Features Labs setting — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Labs. Can you imagine a more frightening way to hide a crucial feature? Why not just call it Dungeon?

And once you find Labs, you’ve only gotten started. You can enable a few pre-selected apps to work on the cover display – Maps, Messages, Netflix – or you can download another widget called Multistar from the Samsung Galaxy App Store.

Multistar creates a home screen that lives on your cover display, and on that screen you can add any app on your phone. On the cover, you swipe to the Multistar screen and tap the app you want to open.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue close up of the app icons on the cover display — Multistar on the Galaxy Z Flip 7 cover display (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Unfortunately, you can’t set any of this up on the cover display itself. You can’t even add widgets to the cover display without opening the phone. It feels like Samsung is still getting the hang of this whole cover-display thing, but the Flip7 is its best effort yet.

This complex procedure exemplifies Samsung’s software ‘philosophy,’ if it has one. The phone has lots of features, and they all work… somehow. Finding those features and making them work can feel like an endless chore, and then features work in a way that seems slapped together and haphazard.

I don’t want to open an app twice, on two different home screens, after loading a specialized widget hidden under three layers of settings. I just want to open an app, close my flip phone, and see the same app on the cover. Easy peasy.

Aside from those issues, I have many questions about Samsung’s AI strategy. The company has a habit of talking up features that never materialize. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 was supposed to have a special version of Google Gemini that could talk to me live while the flip screen was half closed, but I haven’t been able to find a mode that works that way.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue showing the Now Brief screen that says Wishing You Well Have a Special Day — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Samsung’s Now Brief home screen widget and app is also a key selling point for its AI features, but it’s truly a useless bit of software. It never offers me more than the weather and the first few appointments on my company calendar, which are always people who scheduled a day off.

Samsung promised that this Now Brief and its Galaxy AI features would offer highly personalized information as the AI gets to know you through your Samsung devices and usage behavior. I carry multiple Samsung phones and wear a Galaxy Watch Ultra, and I’ve never seen anything personalized for my interests or habits.

Software score: 3 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: Cameras

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue with cover display showing me taking a photo of myself — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Very good cameras with fun and useful features
Samsung is clearly tuning its cameras for more realistic photos

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 has a good set of cameras that took photos I enjoyed sharing. Images taken with Samsung cameras usually pop with bright colors and a highly-sharpened look, but I’ve noticed on the last couple of phones (this one and the Galaxy S25 Edge) that Samsung has been toning down this artificial look for a more natural photography style, closer to what the iPhone produces. I’m all for it.

Don’t worry, Samsung fans, you still get photos that look great, especially if you opt for Samsung’s specialized modes.

Samsung’s Portrait mode is probably the best on any smartphone. It isolated my subject neatly and blurred the background for a gorgeous look. Samsung’s Food mode is by far the best camera phone mode for taking food photos – I reach for my Galaxy phone whenever I bake something tasty and I want to share it.

Samsung’s AI editing features are also the best I’ve used on any smartphone. When you cut an unwanted person or object out of your photo, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 does a perfect job of filling in the gaps. If there are floor boards or vertical blinds behind them, it fills these in seamlessly.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue in hand showing the camera app interface — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Of course, the Galaxy Z Flip 7’s coolest camera trick is letting you use the cover display as your viewfinder for photos. You can take selfies at the full 50MP resolution when you point the main camera at yourself and use the cover display. You can also set the phone in an interesting position – way down low or hanging from up high – and then take shots with voice commands or by signaling the camera with a wave.

My only complaint is the lack of a real zoom lens. I have a kid who plays sports, and the digital zoom isn’t good enough to capture him on the field. If you take photos from far away often, you’ll miss the lack of real zoom. Maybe Samsung should try a zoom camera instead of an ultra-wide on the Flip 8.

Cameras: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: Performance

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue in hand showing Vampire Survivors Game Over screen — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Performance is adequate, but not superlative
Exynos is not going to win over any fans from Snapdragon

In my real-world tests, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 performed well. I used it for a variety of complex tasks, including running two apps with one at the top and the other at the bottom of the inner screen, and plugged the phone into my monitor for the full Samsung DeX treatment.

I like Samsung DeX because I have all of my work accounts for email, Slack, and Google Drive on my phone, so when I use my phone I don’t need to log in again, as I do when I use my laptop. I just plug my phone into my USB-C laptop dock and get a little bit of work done, then unplug and go. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 was great at this, and I’m happy to see DeX on the Flip 7 after missing it on last year’s Flip 6.

That said, in benchmark tests it’s clear that the Samsung Exynos 2500 lags behind the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it’s a shame that the Flip 7 and Galaxy Z Fold 7 run on different platforms.

In Future Labs tests, the Exynos 2500 did not beat the Galaxy S25’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy platform in a single test – not processor speed, graphics performance, web browsing, AI and machine learning tests, nor any other benchmark we run. In every way, the Exynos 2500 is inferior to the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Worst of all may be the chip’s power consumption, which I’ll get to in the next section. Samsung isn’t doing itself any favors by ditching one of the best mobile platforms I’ve ever used – the Snapdragon 8 Elite – and I hope it doesn’t ever make the same mistake again.

Performance: 3 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: Battery

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue lying flat facing the USB-C port on the bottom — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Battery life is unimpressive and charging should be faster
Could the Exynos platform be to blame?

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 usually lasted a full day in my testing, unless I used it extensively for taking and editing photos or playing games. On camera testing days, I needed to charge up to keep it going until bed time.

It could have been worse, but I wonder if the cover display makes a difference. After all, there were plenty of times when I used the cover when I might have used the full screen on a normal phone, and the inner screen certainly draws more power than the half-sized cover display.

The reason I was pessimistic about the battery life was the Galaxy Z Flip 7’s poor showing in Future Labs battery testing. The Z Flip 7 has a battery that’s 300mAh larger than the cell in the Z Flip 6, but it only delivers about 90 minutes more runtime in our rundown tests.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue folded with the always-on display showing the time on the cover display — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Compare that to the Motorola Razr Ultra, which uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. The Razr Ultra has a battery that’s 400mAh larger than the Galaxy Z Flip 7’s, but in our tests it lasted almost 6.5 hours longer than the Z Flip 7! The Z Flip 7 died in just under 12.5 hours in our lab tests, while the Razr Ultra lasted almost 19 hours.

I have to assume the Snapdragon is sipping power compared to Samsung’s Exynos chip, and that’s why the Razr Ultra lasts so much longer with only a slightly larger battery. Motorola’s displays are just as bright, and actually pack more pixels, which means they could draw more power. If it isn’t the display saving electricity, it must be the chipset.

Battery: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7?

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue in hand showing a firefly wallpaper that was generated by AI — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 score card
Attributes	Notes	Rating
Value	Solid value considering you get two displays for the price of one, plus all of the technology Samsung packs inside. There are cheaper flip phones, but none that can do as much as the Flip 7.	4 / 5
Design	A nice design that will be familiar to Samsung fans. I still wish it were more exciting, and some scuffs during my review time left me more concerned about durability than before.	4 / 5
Display	Excellent displays inside and out. The inner display is bright and clear and a joy to use. The cover screen has the smallest bezels ever, and it's more useful than before.	5 / 5
Performance	The Flip 7 can do more than ever, but Samsung doesn’t make it easy. Expect hidden features, extra steps, and hacked-together solutions. Also, the AI features don’t seem fully baked.	3 / 5
Software	Nice cameras that tone down the saturation for a more realistic look. The best camera modes in the biz, including great portraits and appetizing food shots. Solid AI editing tools remove artifacts flawlessly. I wish it had zoom.	4 / 5
Cameras	Disappointing performance all round thanks to the Exynos 2500. I’m being extra harsh so Samsung doesn’t make this mistake again and use an inferior Exynos chip when the Snapdragon is obviously superior. This phone should be faster.	3 / 5
Battery	Battery life isn’t terrible, but it’s disappointing considering other phones have seen huge advancements thanks to new battery tech and more efficient (Snapdragon) platforms. It still lasts a full day, most of the time.	3 / 5

Buy it if...

You want more phone in your phone
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 lives up to the flip-phone promise, giving you more than the sum of its parts. It’s two devices in one.

You can find a great deal on this phone
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is priced well, but Samsung phones see great discounts from wireless carriers and bonus offers for a good trade.

You want a flip but you’re a serious person
The Motorola Razr may be shiny and colorful, but it doesn’t have Samsung DeX or the full suite of software Samsung offers to get things done.

Don't buy it if...

You want simpler software
The Motorola Razr hews closer to Google’s Pixel version of Android, while Samsung’s One UI is feature-packed, but overcomplicated.View Deal

You don’t like the Samsung Galaxy look
The Flip 7 should have been a cooler-looking flip phone, but instead it looks like every other Galaxy, bent in half.View Deal

You hang out in very dusty places
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 has an impressive level of water resistance, but it can’t keep out dust smaller than a big piece of lint, so be careful.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 review: Also consider

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 in blue next to a Moto Razr Ultra from back mostly closed — (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Motorola Razr Ultra
The Razr Ultra is more expensive, but it beats the Z Flip 7 on almost every metric, including processor speed and battery life.

Read our in-depth Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 review

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
It costs $100 / £50 / AU$100 less and blows the Z Flip 7 away for battery life and performance, plus it comes with a 3x telephoto zoom lens.

Read our in-depth Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus review

	Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7	Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 / Razr 60 Ultra	Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
Price	$1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,799	$1,299 / £1,099	$999 / £999 / AU$1,699
Processor	Samsung Exynos 2500	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy
Cameras	50MP main; 12MP ultra-wide; 10MP selfie	50MP main; 50MP ultra-wide; 50MP selfie	50MP main; 12MP ultra-wide; 10MP telephoto (3x zoom); 12MP selfie
Future Labs Battery Test (HH:MM:SS)	12:24:30	18:57:12	18:46:04

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7

Review test period: two weeks
Testing included: everyday use, including web browsing, social media, photography, gaming, streaming video, and music playback
Tools used: Geekbench 6, and Nit-brightness-testing system

I tested the Galaxy Z Flip 7 for two week before writing this review, using it as my primary work phone for that entire period. I tested the phone using a T-Mobile account provided by Samsung for my review period.

I used the phone extensively for communicating with colleagues, using apps including Slack, Google Meet, Airtable, Gmail and more. I played games including Vampire Survivor and Call of Duty Mobile, and I connected the phone to an Xbox Wireless Controller for games.

I used Android Auto with the Flip 7 in my car, a Kia EV6, for navigation, listening to music and audiobooks, and sending messages using voice input.

I connected the Flip 7 to my Galaxy Buds Pro 3 earbuds, Moto Buds Loop, a Galaxy Watch Ultra smartwatch, and Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses. I used the phone for fitness tracking, snore and sleep apnea detection with the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and other health and fitness activities.

Future Labs tests phones using a mix of third-party benchmark software and proprietary, real-world tests. We use Geekbench, CrossMark, JetStream, WebXPRT and Mobile XPRT, and 3DMark for performance testing. We test a phone's performance on video tasks using Adobe Premiere Rush. We also measure display color output and brightness.

For battery testing we perform proprietary tests that are the same for every phone, which enable us to determine how long it takes for the battery to run down.

First reviewed July 2025

I reviewed UGreen’s 500W, 6-Port charging station – here’s my verdict on whether it’s worth its hefty price tag

1:30 am | July 21, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phone Accessories Phones | Comments: Off

UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger: review

If you need a ton of power for a ton of devices, the UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger could be the ultimate solution for you. This multi-port desktop charging station is equipped with five USB-C ports and one USB-A alternative, GaN smart tech, and a premium build. But the question is: should you really spend more than $200 / £200 to get hold of it?

Well, if you don’t have a lot of power-hungry devices like modern laptops, tablets, handsets, and more, the 500W maximum power output may mean the answer to this question is “no”. But if you’ve got a high-demand setup, I think you’ll get great value from this model.

Yes, if peak performance is what you’re after, it won’t get much better than this. You can activate 240W single-port charging for devices like gaming laptops or e-bikes, and even charge 5 laptops with 100W of power at once. I tried juicing up my Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, LG Tone Free T90S, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo, and the Marshall Kilburn III – and every device bounced back to 100% in no time.

Top 3 USB-C ports on the UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger — (Image credit: Future)

My 4,700 mAh Samsung phone charged in under 80 minutes with every port in simultaneous use, and something I picked up on was that the Nexode 500W never got too hot. That’s largely thanks to inbuilt sensors that execute real-time temperature monitoring for protection against overheating and support of secure, stable charging.

And there’s just so much tech rammed into this desktop charger. It harnesses the might of six GaN chips, helping it to offer maximum charging efficiency while also maintaining a compact build. There’s everything else you could want too, from short-circuit prevention through to electrostatic protection.

Still, given the high-spec nature of this charger, it’s quite hefty, weighing in at just under 5lbs (2.2kg). I’d argue it's compact, though, given its 500W of power, so unless you have a particularly small desk, it should fit your setup.

The only other aspects that could disappoint are the charger's lack of a display or companion app compatibility – something its main rival, Anker, has implemented into some of its desktop chargers. Additionally, there are no USB-C cables included – I would have really appreciated at least one, and I think many buyers would too.

Otherwise, I’ve got no complaints about this UGreen powerhouse. It has both a durable and premium feel, serving up excellent performance, and although the price tag is high, it has the capabilities to justify it.

Bottom 2 USB-C ports and USB-A port on the UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger — (Image credit: Future)

UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger review: price & specs

Price	$249.99 / £219.99
Total power output	500W
Number of ports	6
Port type(s)	5x USB-C; 1x USB-A
Dimensions	5.7 x 4.5 x 2.4 inches / 146 x 114.6 x 60.6mm

UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger with power cable — (Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger?

Buy it if…

You need a ton of power
If you want to charge multiple laptops simultaneously or simply juice up all the devices at your desk, the UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger is ideal. If you’re holding a meeting, say, and both you and your colleagues need to charge your devices, it’s a great solution thanks to its efficient, speedy multi-port performance.

You want access to 240W charging
A real draw of this model is its ability to deliver 240W of power through a single port. That means you can optimally charge some seriously power-hungry devices without compromise – think gaming laptops, e-bikes, or the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro).

Don't buy it if…

You don’t have an especially high power demand
500W, simply put, would be overkill for most people. This product is designed for those with intensive power needs – businesses and pro gamers, for example. If you’re an individual user, you may want something like the Anker Prime Charger (200W, 6 ports, GaN), which has enough juice to recharge your laptop, phone, and a handful of smaller devices. I use this one myself, and absolutely love it!

You’re on a budget
As a result of its gigantic power and high-caliber tech, the UGreen Nexode 500W is pretty pricey. Yep, at over $200 / £200, this isn’t ideal for those on a budget. Having said that, you can sometimes find this model on sale, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for a deal if you’re sold on it.

UGreen Nexode 500W 6-Port Charger review: also consider

Anker Prime Charger 6-Port Desktop Charging Station 250W
500W a little much? Looking for something a little cheaper, too? Then this multi-port desktop charger from Anker is an awesome option. You get 250W of power, six ports (4x USB-C; 2x USB-A), a useful display with power consumption info, and app compatibility. It’s also a fair bit smaller, making it ideal for smaller desks. Read our full Anker Prime Charger 6-Port Desktop Charging Station 250W review.

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