I got the Pixel 10 for Christmas. We ordered it from Best Buy during their “Black Friday” sale at a cost of $549, when launched this phone cost $799. With an $80 trade-in of a Pixel 6a the total cost to me is $469, which is a very good price for a “flagship” phone.
Before I received the Pixel 10 I wrote this expecting it to be a blog post but I never published it, so now I am going back and I am going to put in quote format my original expectation and then my current point of view after one month of use.
I expect this to be a very worthy upgrade from the Pixel 7a that has been my every day carry for the last 2+ years. The Pixel 10 is slightly smaller than the Pixel 7a but has a larger display (6.3-inch vs. 6.1-inch) that can refresh as fast as 120 Hz; the Pixel 7a max refresh is 60 Hz. The Pixel 10 display can be significantly brighter going up 3,000 nits versus 1,000 nits, which means it will be easier for me to see the screen outdoors in sunlight.
The Pixel 10 battery has more capacity (4,970 mAh vs. 4,385 mAh), charges faster, and includes Pixelsnap wireless charging. Pixelsnap is Google’s magnetic wireless charging that is spec equivalent to Apple’s Magsafe wireless charging, and that means the Pixel 10 can use all of the Magsafe accessories that have been developed for the Apple phones over the last couple of years. For me Pixelsnap is the main feature that makes it worth moving from the lower cost “A” series Pixels to the flagship line.
For the price that I paid, I feel safe in saying the Pixel 10 is in fact a worthy upgrade, but I don’t think that would be the case at the original $799 price. If I am being honest, the most significant difference has been Pixelsnap having bought a Belkin charger and discovering Standby Mode Pro but I don’t think this feature alone is worth $200. It’s nice to have, but not necessary. The battery life is longer in so far as I have yet to have a situation in which the battery is at risk of being depleted; this is in part due to the larger size, but also due to using the Belkin wireless charger.
Another important difference between the two phones is that the Pixel 10 has 12 GB of RAM, which is needed to use all of the new AI functions that Google has been developing for phones. The 8 GB in the Pixel 7a and newer Pixel 9a means using the AI features may require sending data to the cloud, if you are able to use them at all.
So far I am not a big user of AI and so the greater AI capability of the Pixel 10 has not yet been realized. That said, I think I had my first experience with Magic Cue last week when I added a reminder to pick up a prescription at Wallgreens using Gemini and when it confirmed adding the reminder for the next it, without prompting, told me about when the Pharmacy was closed for lunch in the early afternoon.
The Pixel 10 has three camera lenses, adding a 10.8 megapixel telephoto lens to the main and ultrawide lenses of the “A” series line. The telephoto lens provides 5x optical zoom versus the 2x optical zoom in the main lens of the Pixel 7a. Google’s digital zoom software can go up to 20x on the Pixel 10 versus the 5x max on the Pixel 7a. I occasionally zoom in on objects when taking pictures so I think I will really like the telephoto lens.
As I alluded to, in comparison to the Pixel 10, the Pixel 7a is significantly limited in running the latest Google Pixel AI and camera software. There are a bunch of new photo editing capabilities with the Pixel 10 for me to learn, but I think I am most looking forward to “Edit with Ask Photos” that I think will enable me to tell the phone how I want a photo to be edited rather than figuring out how to manually do the edit.
I am not a photography snob, and so I probably have a low threshold for what I consider to be a good camera. I’ve felt that all of my phones have taken good pictures. With this being said, I will admit that I really like the 5x optical zoom that is a clear improvement over the Pixel 7a, and this is my second most used new feature next to Pixelsnap.
When I watched the Pixel 10 announcements I was immediately drawn to Pixelsnap. All of my gadget purchases are driven by utility and access to all of the different Magsafe stands, chargers, and wallets enables me to do more with the device. The problem is, I’ve historically avoided the flagship Pixels because I do not want to pay more than $500 for my phones.
Obviously, the price at launch is not going to be the only price for the phone forever. Google started selling the Pixel 10 in late August for $799 and by late November I was able to buy it at $250 less. Trade-ins bring the price down even more. I can buy last year’s flagship, the Pixel 9 now for $300 less.
To get the Pixel phones at the best price you do not want to buy at launch but wait for holiday sales, which I think results in a more realistic pricing of the Pixel line of phones. Right now one can buy from Google the Pixel 9a, which launched in the spring of 2025 for $399, the Pixel 9, which is the late summer 2024 flagship for $499, and the Pixel 10 (late summer 2025) for $599. Of course, other stores may have lower prices.
I have also noticed recently that Best Buy has started selling “returned/open box” Pixel 10s for as low as $250, which is a great price if you are lucky to snag one.
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