Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
As much as I’ve loved using the zoom lenses on my Pixel phones since the Pixel 6 Pro, I’ll admit that it’s a pain to find the exact zoom level I need with Google’s silly camera UI. Pinching to zoom is not as precise as I like it to be, and I like round numbers, so you’ll never see me zoom to something like 6.4x or 12.9x. I’d rather move my hand or step forward/back to get a round number. The other reason is that Google allows for lossless zoom at specific levels; you get a quasi-lossless 12MP 2x shot from the 50MP 1x main sensor, and a 12MP 10x from the 48MP 5x telephoto sensor.
I used to swipe with a finger on the zoom slider to try and find the exact zoom I wanted, but even that is frustrating. You swipe left and right, make tiny movements to adjust the exact level, and just when you think you hit 10x, you lift your finger and see you inadvertently nudged it to 9.2x or 10.5x instead — argh!
The problem was especially annoying on the Pixel 9 and earlier phones, where there wasn’t a dedicated 10x button. Google has fixed that, adding a special 10x button on the Pixel 10 Pro phones, but that’s not enough in my opinion, at least not when the new phones can go up to 100x. I want more precise control, and this is why I’ve been using a simple trick to solve the iffy pinch-to-zoom and delicate zoom slider situation.
No more pinching or sliding — buttons are better
Instead of trying to hit the exact zoom level on a touch screen and failing repeatedly, I’ve switched to using volume buttons to control zoom on my Pixel 10 Pro. The buttons are pre-programmed to jump to exact zoom levels in the Pixel Camera app, avoiding any finicky pinching or sliding on the touch screen.
All Pixels have this option; it’s not new, but it becomes infinitely more useful with the advanced Pro Res Zoom levels from 30x to 100x on my Pixel 10 Pro. Here, the volume buttons jump from 0.5x to 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x, 30x, 50x, and finally 100x. That covers the camera’s entire zoom range and gives me a quick way to go up or down a step without having to use the on-screen zoom slider. No more precise pinching or sliding, just a button, and boom, I get to the next zoom level.
This is especially handy for the Pixel 10 Pro’s long-range zoom levels. From 30x onward, the Pixel 10 Pro triggers the Pro Res Zoom feature, where it captures the photo but also produces a second AI-enhanced version. At 100x, it works as well as you expect it to (i.e., it’s a mixed bag), but around 30x and 50x, it gives much more decent results because you’re starting with a more detailed photo from the sensor. And with the volume button jumping straight to 30x and 50x, it makes finding that sweet zoom spot so much easier for me.
Using the volume buttons to zoom works throughout the entire Pixel Camera app, too, in any mode where zooming is available: In Action Pan and Long Exposure, they go 0.5x > 1x > 2x > 5x > 10x > 30x.
In Portrait, they jump from 1x > 2x > 3x.
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