Ryan Haines / Android Authority
I spent a good couple of years complaining that the 30x Super Res Zoom on Google’s premium Pixel lineup wasn’t good enough. I mean, with Samsung offering 100x Space Zoom as far back as the Galaxy S20 Ultra, could you blame me? Honestly, I just wanted my favorite smartphone to provide the best possible camera experience, and I didn’t mind what it would take to achieve that. And then, Google introduced AI-powered 100x Pro Res Zoom on the Pixel 10 Pro lineup — and I still wasn’t happy.
Instead, I decried the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL for leaning too heavily on AI processing. I complained that they wouldn’t treat photos of humans simply because Google wanted to avoid inaccuracies, but it had no problem using a little too much imagination while recreating signs, animals, and buildings. Overall, I dismissed the whole idea as nothing more than a gimmick meant to push AI forward.
Now, though, I think I was wrong. The point of 100x zoom isn’t to max it out all the time; the point is to get much better results at slightly shorter focal lengths. Here’s what I mean.
Just because you can go to 100 doesn’t mean you need to
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Think about it — how often do you actually max something out? Unless you’re using your phone’s speakers to play music while you shower, probably not very frequently. I doubt you’re cranking your TV as loud as it can go, just like you’re probably not driving your car at top speeds (maybe because it’s not legal). I’m starting to think of Google’s Pro Res Zoom in much the same way — just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Instead, much like a car or a speaker, I think the sweet spot is just a little shy of that maximum. It’s the same reason that the Pixel 10 Pro XL offers haptic feedback as you zoom in to 30x and 50x, ensuring you know when to stop. And yes, you can think of me saying this as simply making excuses for Google. Maybe I’m doing precisely that — if only a little bit.
However, like all things, I prefer to back up my assertions with at least some data, so I put Google’s long-range zoom up against its current closest rival, the iPhone 17 Pro. I walked down the street from my apartment, found a spooky little scene (some ghosts suspended from a tree), and zoomed in from across the road. Only, I didn’t zoom to Google’s default lengths, I zoomed to Apple’s. I bumped into 20x and then 40x zoom to see how the Pixel 10 Pro XL fared at its rivals’ limitations.
iPhone 17 Pro - 20x zoom Pixel 10 Pro XL - 20x zoom iPhone 17 Pro - 40x zoom Pixel 10 Pro XL - 40x zoom
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