Google Pixel 10 Pro XL Review: The Pixel Ultra I’ve wanted

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

MSRP $1,199.00

Released August 2025

Score Details

“If you’ve been waiting for Google to release a true Galaxy S25 Ultra competitor, look no further: the Pixel 10 Pro XL offers the best of Google in every area, including the 100x zoom in the camera.”

Pros

• Excellent fast 45W charging
• 25W Qi2.2 wireless charging
• Large Super Actua display
• Outstanding 100x zoom
• Fantastic all-around camera
• A battery life champion

Cons

• Tensor G5 isn’t the fastest
• Phone does occasionally freeze
• AI features don’t always work

Instant Insight

The Pixel 10 Pro XL is the best phone that Google has ever made. I love my Pixel 10 Pro for its smaller size, but the Pixel 10 Pro XL offers the same great experience, while fixing the key areas where the Pixel 10 Pro struggles: battery life and charging.

The 5,200 mAh battery is the largest in a Pixel to date, and while the smaller Pixel 10 Pro has inconsistent battery life, the Pixel 10 Pro XL consistently delivers solid battery life. In several days with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, it never failed to last a full day with 20% to spare, and battery life averaged between six and eight hours of screen time. 

Google knows how to make the best phones, as the Pixel 10 Pro XL proves

The battery offers a solid experience, but where the Pixel 10 Pro XL shines is in the charging improvements. The 45W charging is excellent, and can charge the phone from empty to 70% in around 32 minutes, just slightly shy of Google’s 30-minute claim. A full charge takes around 78 minutes, which is just shy of the Galaxy S25 Ultra at 70 minutes, although these equate to similar overall charging rates.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL has a key upgrade over the Galaxy S25 Ultra when it comes to wireless charging: it’s the first Android phone to feature magnets to support the Qi 2.2 magnetic wireless charging standard. This means the Pixel 10 Pro XL charges at the same 25W as the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, and is compatible with the same accessories.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL is the new best Google phone, and it turns out to also be one of the best Android phones. The camera alone is a star, but the great battery life and fast wireless charging are both welcome upgrades. Google clearly knows how to make the best phones, as the Pixel 10 Pro XL proves. 

Specs

The Pixel 10 Pro XL camera is fantastic

There are two key areas in which the Pixel 10 Pro XL stands out from other phones, but one of them is the same as found on the Pixel 10 Pro: the camera. Simply put, it’s my favorite smartphone camera right now as the new zoom is fantastic, if not somewhat artificial. 

The Pixel 10 Pro XL features the same great camera that you’ll find in the Pixel 10 Pro. The hardware is the same as found in last year’s Pixel 9 Pro, but there’s one key addition: a 100x zoom feature. It’s taken ten generations, but Google is finally challenging Samsung’s flagship feature on the Galaxy S25 Ultra lineup.

The result is an excellent zoom feature, although it may be displeasing if you prefer natural-looking photos. At up to ten times zoom, the Pixel 10 Pro XL captures vibrant, pleasing images that are rich in color, although they are slightly overexposed (as is the rest of the lineup). 

Once you zoom past 10x, AI starts to take over to improve photos through tasteful touches. Once you reach 20x and beyond, the resulting image is more AI-generated than natural, although the amount of detail added by AI is astonishing.

Consider the photos above: all were captured on the Pixel 10 Pro, but they show exactly what Google’s AI is capable of. It’s wonderful, and I love that Google includes the AI edit and the original side-by-side in the Photos app.

Beyond the zoom camera, the rest of the Pixel 10 Pro XL experience is equally excellent. This is a refined and polished smartphone camera that won’t disappoint, and the Tensor G5 offers an improved color science compared to the Pixel 9 Pro XL. If you want the best smartphone camera you can buy, the Pixel 10 Pro XL is a great choice.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL’s performance is hit or miss

Google spent considerable time focusing on its new Tensor G5 processor during the Pixel 10 launch event. Although it offers significant benefits to on-device AI performance, it falls short of the peak performance of last year’s Tensor G4 processor.

This isn’t a bad thing per se, but it does have some inadvertent drawbacks that impact the overall Pixel 10 Pro XL experience. Gaming and graphics aren’t as smooth, and the lack of Vulkan support means that the best games don’t run as smoothly. 

There are also several instances where the Pixel 10 Pro XL has frozen, just like its smaller sibling has, and the cases have been more apparent than you’ll find on many of its key rivals. The OnePlus 13 and all three Galaxy S25 models outperform the Pixel 10 Pro XL, although it remains a very capable phone.

Google has clearly moved from aiming for peak performance to aiming for a coherent experience, and here, the Pixel 10 Pro XL mostly delivers. It’s a solid experience that aims to prove you don’t need peak performance for a flagship experience; however, with its rivals outperforming in both benchmarks and real-world performance, Google still needs to optimize the Pixel 10 Pro XL experience further.

I like Google’s flavor of Android more than I expected to

The Pixel 10 Pro XL continues an interesting trend of me liking Google’s flavor of Android more than I expected to. Until the Pixel 9 Pro, I disliked much of Google’s smartphone interface; however, the Pixel 9 Pro introduced tasteful touches that made it much more appealing.

The Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL continue this trend, with two new software experiences that are particularly interesting. Magic Cue is designed to offer suggestive replies based on the contents of different Google apps, such as your camera, email, or Maps. The premise is that it can surface this information if asked about it in a message, but the prompt you receive must be incredibly precise; otherwise, it isn’t always reliable.

Then there’s Daily Hub, a useful way of seeing your day at a glance, or a great opportunity to reflect on the day that’s passed while you’re lying in bed at night. There isn’t an option to make this a permanent part of the Google screen to the left of your homescreen, but it’s very useful when it does show up. 

Neither of these is groundbreaking, nor does either work flawlessly, but both are signs of how useful and helpful Google’s flavor of Android has become. AI is eventually going to make it easier for our phones to do more for us, and Google is at the forefront of ushering in that future.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL has one further disadvantage

There’s another area where the Pixel 10 Pro XL is at a considerable disadvantage: the size. It measures the same 8.5mm thickness as the Pixel 9 Pro XL, but at 232 grams, it is 11 grams heavier at a time when smartphones are getting thinner.

Phones like the iPhone Air, Galaxy S25 Edge, and Galaxy Z Fold 7 have conditioned us to desire thinner and lighter phones, and the Pixel 10 Pro XL is the opposite of this: it’s both thicker and considerably heavier than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to be thinner yet. Yes, the Pixel 10 Pro XL and Galaxy S25 Ultra are the same height — and Google’s phone is 1mm narrower — but the smaller bezels on the Samsung make it feel more premium.

Then there’s the Pixel 10 Pro, and Google’s small flagship poses a big challenge to the larger Pixel 10 Pro XL. It offers an identical experience — aside from a slightly smaller battery and slower wired and wireless charging — including the fantastic 100x zoom in the camera, but it is less unwieldy in the pocket. 

Despite this, those small improvements in the overall experience are harder to ignore. The battery life, especially, is a considerable benefit that could make this trade-off with the size worthwhile. 

If you’re coming from another large phone, such as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, you likely won’t find any discomfort with the size of the Pixel 10 Pro XL. If that’s the case, then you’ll have one of the best phones available.

Should you buy the Pixel 10 Pro XL?

The Pixel 10 Pro XL offers the same overall experience as its smaller sibling. To dive deeper into the flagship Pixel 10 Pro XL experience, read our full Pixel 10 Pro review. 

You should buy the Pixel 10 Pro XL if…

• You want the best Google phone you can buy
• You want an outstanding smartphone camera
• You want a large, vibrant display

You should not buy the Pixel 10 Pro XL if…

• You want a phone you can easily use in one hand
• You want the best graphics and gaming performance
• You want a thinner or lighter flagship phone