Pixel 10 vs. Pixel 10 Pro/Pro XL – Which Should You Buy?

By Josh Teder

While Google’s Pixels this year don’t look all that different from the ones they released last year, aside from their new colors, there’s actually a lot more that’s changed here than meets the eye.

Display Quality: Super Actua vs Actua

First up, let’s talk about display quality. This year, you wouldn’t think there is actually a difference between the displays when you look at them in person, even though Google’s spec sheet shows the Pros have their Super Actua display and the regular 10 has just an Actua display. The Super Actua display can get 300 nits brighter at 3,300 nits, and the Pros also have a slightly higher pixel density, which in theory will make them look sharper.

But can you actually see that difference? Sure, if you have a macro lens like I do, but for our eyes, 300 PPI is typically thought of as the threshold where the human retina can’t distinguish between separate pixels when you hold the device around 10 to 12 inches away. This is hence why Apple popularized the phrase Retina display back with the iPhone 4.

There are, however, more important display differences like the refresh rate. Now all three phones can achieve a max of 120 hertz, but the Super Actua display here is actually what’s known as an LTPO display, so it can ramp its refresh down all the way to one hertz, making it more power efficient.

The Pros also get this special accessibility setting called “adjust brightness for sensitive eyes.” What this setting does is ramp up the pulse width modulation or PWM refresh rate from the base 240 Hz to 480 Hz, which matches the rate that other recent flagship phones have done like the S25 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max. And all three Pixels this year get adaptive tone, which makes their screen match your ambient lighting environment and makes the screen generally easier on the eyes.

Form Factor and Design

Next up is form factor and design. All three have relatively the same form, though the Pro has nice polished metal side rails and a matte back that won’t show fingerprints as easily and smaller bezels. The regular 10 also comes in more saturated bright colors like Indigo and Lemongrass compared to the more refined color palette of the Pros, which looks a bit more premium.

Camera System: The Biggest Differentiator

Now the camera system is probably the largest difference between the Pro and the regular Pixel this year. All phones now feature a triple camera system comprising of an ultrawide, wide, and telephoto camera. However, the big difference here is the megapixel count for these cameras. In general, the 10’s telephoto and ultrawide have significantly lower megapixels than the Pro.

The ultrawide camera is used on the 10 for macro shots. However, on the Pros this year, there’s a new dual camera system approach that will either use the ultrawide or the telephoto. In general, I have found the Pros’ macro shots to be generally better than the Pixel 10.

“Where the Pro stands out is really with better low light performance and overall sharper looking images, especially with the ultrawide, the telephoto, and the selfie camera.”

In general, while the color processing is mostly the same between the two phones—except for a few instances where they did look wildly different from each other, and I did prefer what the Pro did most of the time—where the Pro stands out is really with better low light performance and overall sharper looking images, especially with the ultrawide, the telephoto, and the selfie camera, which on the Pro is a 42 megapixel dual PD sensor. That’s compared to a 10.5 megapixel dual PD sensor on the 10.

Honestly, the selfie camera does look better on the Pro. But something to be aware of is selfies—to me at least, they still don’t look great on Snapchat with either phone. The coloring just looks a bit off compared to what you would get out of the Pixel’s own camera app or another phone, especially like an iPhone, which this year also got a pretty substantial selfie camera upgrade.

Also on the Pros, you get the new ProRes zoom up to 100x, while the 10 just gets the normal Super Res zoom up to 20x, which honestly is fine. ProRes zoom definitely feels a bit gimmicky. It’s using an algorithm to try to figure out what the photo should look like from the sensor cropped image that you initially took, and its results can vary drastically. Most of the time, it’s not really that usable to me at least.

Does the Camera System Difference Actually Matter?

So, does the camera system difference actually matter? Yes and no. If you shoot with the default 12 megapixel mode instead of the 50 megapixel mode you can shoot on the Pros, and you’re in good bright conditions, it’s probably not going to look that different in most situations with the main camera, ultrawide, or telephoto. Macro shots will probably always look better on the Pros, though.

However, where you will notice a difference is in medium to low light. The larger megapixel sensors can just do more with pixel binning to get better low light shots. And there are also some missing camera features that actually matter.

Video Boost is missing on the Pixel 10, which just kind of feels like a limitation imposed by Google to differentiate its phones. If you want to do any serious video work with a Pixel phone, Video Boost is an absolute must. It’s given me some truly great results over the past year or two. What Video Boost does is it takes a much larger video file and uploads that file to Google’s cloud for processing, and it’s an entirely different video pipeline than the one that you find on the Pixel. That processing can take anywhere from an hour or two, and then once it’s done, it’ll export a smaller boosted video back to your phone.

Now, one thing that can help you take better photos and videos with either Pixel is a camera gimbal like the iSteady M7 from Hohem, who sponsored this video. This AI tracking smartphone gimbal has completely changed how I create content. What makes the M7 special is this advanced magnetic AI tracker that works independently—no app needed, no Bluetooth connection required. You just attach it, select what you want to track, and the gimbal follows automatically.

Whether I’m reviewing tech products or getting outdoor shots of myself, or I need a shot where I’m in motion, the M7 keeps me perfectly in frame with professional-looking footage. It’s also really easy to attach to my tripod. The awesome detachable touchscreen remote lets me monitor my shots in real time from up to 33 feet away. I can see exactly what I’m filming and make adjustments on the fly.

It’s like having a camera operator in my pocket. With its orthogonal three-axis stabilization, 360° infinite pan rotation, and 193 mm extension rod, I can capture dynamic shots that would be impossible with just my phone alone. Plus, the built-in CCT and RGB fill light ensures my footage looks great in any lighting condition. The M7 can take what you shoot to the next level, and you can get your own Hohem M7 today by using the link in the description.

Pro Camera Controls and External Mics

If you go with the Pixel 10, you’ll also lose out on the Pro camera controls, which if you want to take some seriously good photos, can sometimes be necessary. Sometimes the phone will just guess the wrong white balance, and I like that I can just go in and adjust the white balance so the photo you’re about to take will actually reflect the overall color you’re seeing with your eyes.

Now, another question you may have is, what about external mics like the DJI Mic 3 that you might have seen me using in some of our more recent videos? Both the Pros and the 10 allow you to plug in an external mic, and Google’s added this really great switch that you can tap at the top of the camera viewer, so you can easily switch between the audio being recorded from an external mic or your phone’s mic. Both the Pros and the 10 do allow you to shoot in RAW as well, so at least with the proper program, you can go back and edit the photos to your liking or make adjustments in case the white balance or something was wrong.

Other than that, the 10 gets the same great Google camera modes like Night Sight, Auto Best Take, Top Shot, etc.

Battery Life

Next up, battery life. You should get around the same battery life with the Pro and the 10 based on the reports I’ve seen, as well as with their battery capacity being almost identical—just 100 milliamp hours apart, which isn’t really that much. However, the Pixel 10 Pro XL will net you a good bit more battery life because it has a larger battery.

I’ve been seeing around 65 to 60% left at night with my normal phone days, which are anywhere from one to two and a half hours of screen on time, and then there’s typically one to two hours of background play from music and podcasts. And then on heavier days where I’m shooting a lot of footage and photos, battery life there has been closer to 40% at the end of the day.

And then for the Pixel 10’s battery life—this is its selfie camera, by the way, that I’m using to record this part of the video—for that battery life, it’s actually been pretty good. On a day where I had a little bit more than my typical usage, I ended the day at 56% battery, which for a phone of this size is quite good for me. And then on a day with more normal usage, I’ve seen the battery in the 60% range at the end of the day.

Fast Charging Differences

There’s also a difference in fast charging to consider. The Pixel 10 Pro XL can get you from 0 to 70% using a 45-watt USB-C PPS charger or higher. PPS stands for programmable power supply, and what that technology does is allow the charger to communicate with the connected device every few seconds to make tiny incremental adjustments, so heat is reduced. It helps improve the health of your battery and your device charges faster.

Many modern fast chargers now include this technology like my Anker 140W 4-port charger, which Anker sent me and I use all the time when traveling as well as to measure the fast charging capabilities of devices in the real world. The Pro and the 10 can get up to a 55% charge in about 30 minutes using a 30W USB-C PPS charger. The Pro XL can also charge up to 25 watts via wireless charging, while the other two can only charge up to 15 watts.

Performance and Future-Proofing

Performance is another area to consider. The Pro models can get 16 gigs of RAM, while the 10 has 12 gigs. That could matter if you plan to keep the phone for five to seven years, as with Android, having more RAM definitely gives you a bit more headroom to accommodate future, more intensive software updates or workloads.

“Five years down the road, it could matter depending on the use case because Wi-Fi 7 routers can produce speeds that are quite a bit faster than Wi-Fi 6E routers.”

While all phones have a Tensor G5 chip, one chipset difference to consider is the Pros have Wi-Fi 7, while the 10 supports the older Wi-Fi 6E standard. Now, today, this doesn’t matter quite as much since not everyone has switched their routers to even Wi-Fi 6E. But five years down the road, it could matter depending on the use case because Wi-Fi 7 routers can produce speeds that are quite a bit faster than Wi-Fi 6E routers. But for casual internet and phone users, I don’t think it’s going to make that much of a difference, to be honest.

Storage options are another differentiator. The 10 starts at 128 gigs and can only be upgraded to 256, while the Pros can be optioned up to 1 TB with zoned UFS, a technology that improves performance and extends the lifespan of the memory chip.

Price and Recommendations

And lastly, let’s talk price difference. The Pixel 10 starts at $799 and the Pixel 10 Pro starts at $999, and then the Pixel 10 Pro XL is $1,199. Check out our products link where you can see the current prices for all three models and check prices across multiple retailers.

So, which phone do I think you should get? Given the display quality is overall pretty similar, you get three cameras in the 10, which most phones at the 10’s price level do not get you. My first inclination would be to recommend getting the 10 for most people.

Now, for me and the way I use my phones, especially with YouTube stuff, that price difference is worth it, but I can’t recommend everybody make that jump because of that $200 price difference. If the Pro started with 256 gigs of storage, it would have been an easier upsell. So, if you don’t need a bit bigger battery or a larger display and you don’t want the nicer materials or Pro camera features and the high megapixel cameras themselves, then I’d go with the 10 this year.

For 6 Months Later, I’m Josh Teder. Thanks for reading