GoKawiilIn one hand, I hold the Xiaomi 17 Ultra — a powerhouse driven by Qualcomm’s benchmark-dominating Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. In the other, Google’s Pixel 10 Pro XL, powered by the latest Tensor G5 chip. On paper, Google’s latest flagship looks far less impressive in terms of raw performance, a fact Pixel fans have just come to accept over the years and one that’s a constant thorn in the side of those who love a bit of mobile gaming every now and again.
But benchmarks don’t always tell the full story — we seldom notice the extra 5% or 10% difference while browsing the web or scrolling feeds. Likewise, modern Android games aren’t always built to push cutting-edge silicon to its limits, and real-world performance often depends just as much on optimization and framerate caps as it does on brute force. So the question is: does Google’s Tensor still lag as far behind as the synthetic numbers suggest, or can the Pixel 10 Pro XL punch above its weight where it actually counts?
To find out, I put both phones through a series of real gaming tests. For a little housekeeping, I updated both phones to the latest stable builds available from their manufacturers. No betas here, these are the numbers consumers will see.
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Real game performance tests
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
I wanted to start right out of the gate, showing where the most noticeable differences lie when it comes to demanding graphics and high frame rates. So I opted for COD Mobile’s Battle Royale mode and its high frame rate mode.
However, COD Mobile limits the Pixel to 90 fps and only allows the graphics to be set to medium with a frame rate above 60. Meanwhile, Xiaomi can run at up to 120 fps with graphics set to Very High. I tested both graphics settings to see if the Snapdragon is really capable of hitting that frame rate with graphics maxed out, since previous models didn’t have these options when I last tested.
It turns out not only can the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 hit 120fps on medium graphics, but it can do so on very high as well. Both settings hold very stably around 120 fps. The Pixel 10 Pro XL isn’t far from its 90 fps target on average, but its consistency is worse: 5% of frames fall closer to 80fps or below, while the Snapdragon is undoubtedly smoother, both in average and in the worst frames.
As an aside, the Pixel 10 Pro XL also drew far more power, clocking in at 5.8W on average compared to 3.9W for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra on medium settings and 4.8W on very high. While there are lots of variables here, from display to networking, it’s an interesting and potentially significant difference as well.
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