Google Pixel 10 Pro XL The Pixel 10 Pro XL is, hands down, Google's best flagship to date. It makes the most of its maxed-out body, picking up a bigger battery, brighter display, louder speakers, and shiny new camera features. Sprinkle in a suite of new AI features, magnetic accessories, and the same great software support, and it's easy to recommend the Pixel 10 Pro XL to just about anyone.
Barely a year ago, I wrote that the Pixel 9 Pro XL was everything I hoped for out of a Google flagship and then some. It felt like everything I’d always wanted from a Pixel came together with everything Google was already doing right, and the finished product was even better than the sum of its well-polished parts. I spent several months throughout the year dipping back into the most premium Pixel whenever I got the chance between testing other phones, and I felt like it just kept improving with each passing update.
Eventually, though, I started looking to the future. I wondered how Google could follow its best launch ever and worried it might push too far and lose the magic. And then I got the Pixel 10 Pro XL in my hands, and my fears (mostly) melted away. Here’s how this maxed-out flagship earned a place in my small-phone-loving heart.
The one with everything (but a SIM tray)
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
A lesser (or more efficient) Pixel 10 Pro XL reviewer might sit here and tell you that if you’ve seen the Pixel 9 Pro XL, then you’ve seen the Pixel 10 Pro XL. And, on at least a base level, they’d be right. This phone looks a lot like its predecessor — like, a lot. It has a similar camera bar that’s become a camera island, a familiar glossy frame, and a few color options that all feel like I’ve seen them before. And, you know what? I love it — even if my old cases won’t fit.
Then again, that should come as no surprise because I loved the Pixel 9 Pro XL. I waxed poetic about it immediately after launch, calling it the best iPhone ever made, and I could copy all that praise and paste it here without a second thought. Well, I’d need to make a few tweaks, but only because the Pixel 10 Pro XL pushes slightly further than its predecessor. It’s brighter, it’s louder, and its glossy frame is just a bit smoother — quite literally since there’s no longer a physical SIM tray.
Thankfully, though, that loss of a physical SIM tray is my only bone to pick with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, and it’s only because it makes my own life difficult. As a reviewer, there’s no easier way to swap phones than to pry a SIM card out of one device and slot it into another. As a consumer, I wouldn’t mind having one fewer moving part on a phone that I’ve just spent over $1,000 on.
Anyway, back to the positives. As long as you can live without that SIM tray, the Pixel 10 Pro XL has everything you could ask for from a flagship, and then some. Its 6.8-inch LTPO OLED panel is functionally the same as last year’s, but it now tops out at 3,300 nits over the previous 3,000, and is a little brighter in high-brightness mode (2,200 nits instead of 2,000), too.
The Pixel 10 Pro XL is, hands down, the best-made phone I've used this year.
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