Google Pixel 10 Pro

At Rs. 283,999, the Google Pixel 10 Pro is priced as a flagship, so its strengths need to justify that money.

What you get: a well-built, premium-feeling body, 16GB RAM on every version, a main camera that excels in daylight and at night, Pixelsnap Qi2 magnetic charging, and Google's promise of seven years of OS updates, security updates and Pixel Drops.

What you give up: the Tensor G5 trails Snapdragon flagships in CPU and falls much further behind in graphics, wired charging is slow at 30W, and the base 128GB model has no memory card slot to fall back on.

Buying in Pakistan: US-market units are eSIM-only with no SIM tray, while other versions take a Nano-SIM plus eSIM, so confirm which version a shop is selling and its PTA status before paying.

Verdict: good value for buyers who care most about clean software, still photos and long update support; poor value for gamers and spec-focused buyers, who get more raw power for the same money elsewhere.

Official specs: a 6.3 inches LTPO OLED panel with 1280 x 2856 pixels resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support and brightness rated at 2200 nits (high brightness mode) and 3300 nits peak, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

In hands-on use: the screen is brighter than last year's and easier to read outdoors. High refresh rate stays on, so scrolling and app animations feel fluid.

Limitation: the phone ships on a High resolution setting. Switching to Max resolution made text and images a little sharper, but one test noticed a few dropped frames afterwards. The bezels are no thinner than on the previous model.

The Pixel 10 Pro runs the Google Tensor G5, the first fully Google-designed Tensor chip, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC, paired with 16GB RAM.

Everyday use: apps open quickly, multitasking is smooth and the phone feels fluid in daily tasks. GSMArena's testing agrees that it feels snappy despite weak benchmark scores.

Benchmarks and gaming: this is the weak spot. One hands-on test measured the CPU at about 30% faster than last generation but still well behind Snapdragon flagships, with an even larger GPU gap; Google itself quotes about 34% faster. The chip also lacks hardware ray tracing, so demanding games are likely to run behind similarly priced rivals.

Heat and sustained performance: GSMArena found performance fairly stable under long stress tests, but the frame gets noticeably warm during heavy work.

Long term: how well the phone ages over a year or two has not been tested yet.

Official specs: a 50 MP main camera, a 48 MP periscope telephoto with 5x optical zoom, a 48 MP ultrawide and a 42 MP selfie camera. Video goes up to 4K, plus 8K through cloud-based upscaling.

Main camera: daylight shots are sharp and detailed, with strong dynamic range and the familiar contrasty Pixel look. Night Sight is still among the best.

Ultrawide: usable, but soft around the edges with more chromatic aberration than expected.

Zoom: accounts differ.

• One hands-on test found most zoomed photos soft and 30x to 50x shots almost cartoon-like, calling 5x to 10x the sweet spot.
• Another found Pro Res Zoom results up to 100x polished and less artificial than expected, and the phone also saves an unprocessed copy.

Portraits: the Pro can shoot 50 MP portraits, but edge detection is still weak; in one test it cut off the subject's ears and twice missed focus entirely.

Video and app: video is a step behind top flagships, and the camera app still lags while zooming. The sensors are essentially carried over from the Pixel 9 Pro, with slightly better stabilisation.

Official specs: a 4870 mAh battery, 30W wired charging (Google claims 55% in 30 min) and 15W Qi2 magnetic wireless charging. Reverse wired charging and bypass charging are also listed.

Real-world battery life: in hands-on use, mostly on this Pro model, the phone lasted a full day with around six hours of screen-on time at high brightness, ending the day close to empty.

Charging speed: slow by flagship standards. GSMArena roughly matched Google's 55% in 30 min claim, but a full wired charge took close to an hour and a half, and wireless charging took well over two hours.

Pixelsnap is the highlight: built-in magnets snap onto MagSafe chargers, car mounts and power banks, and the hold felt as strong as, or slightly stronger than, an iPhone's MagSafe.

Compromise: GSMArena noted a Battery Health Assistance feature that adjusts charging as the battery ages and cannot be switched off.

The Pixel 10 Pro ships with Android 16 and Google's new Material 3 Expressive design: colourful, clean and smooth, with lots of room to customise quick settings and widgets. Some apps now use very large buttons, which can feel wasteful, though others find them easier to tap.

Update promise: Google confirms seven years of OS updates, security updates and Pixel Drops; our database lists up to 7 major Android upgrades.

AI features:

• Magic Cue brings details from Gmail, Calendar, Messages and other apps into chats and calls. In testing it often just offered a link to the app, sometimes picked the wrong details, and sent replies without letting you edit them.
• Camera Coach suggests framing, modes and poses, but needs internet.
• Voice Translate translates phone calls live in your own voice, but in one test four of five calls went badly wrong.
• Conversational photo editing handles text requests surprisingly well, though it is coming to other phones through Google Photos.
• Daily Brief was of little use in testing, and Journal and NotebookLM come preinstalled.

Regional limits: some features reach certain regions first or not at all, so availability in Pakistan is not guaranteed.