What the reviewers said
Tech Advisor
3.5/5Sep 18, 2026A curious phone with a superb camera system and display, undermined by software bugs, weak battery life, uneven gaming, and a pointless HiLight feature at a higher price.
- Superb, versatile cameras
- Excellent display with high brightness
- Brilliant IP68 build quality with durable glass
- Slick Android 17 software and useful AI features
- Magic Capture is surprisingly good
- Lots of software bugs
- Battery life could be better
- Hit-and-miss gaming performance at max settings
- HiLight light feature is pointless
- PWM flicker at 240Hz may cause eye strain
Digital Trends
8/10Sep 15, 2026Compact, well-built flagship with a great camera and matte finish, but weak sustained gaming and only adequate battery life at $1,099.
- Reliable and versatile camera system
- Compact, premium all-matte design
- Useful Camera Looks and AI tools
- Clean, polished Android 17 software
- Bright display with smooth 120Hz refresh
- Tensor G6 lags badly in sustained gaming
- Battery life is merely adequate
- 120x zoom is mostly a novelty
- Surprisingly heavy and slippery at 204g
- $1,099 price is hard to justify
A solid, Pixel 10 Pro-like phone with refined software and better brightness; the price increase and smaller base RAM are drawbacks. Best for older Pixel owners or those considering switching.
- All-day battery life
- Magic Capture is genuinely useful
- Base storage now starts at 256GB
- Brighter display, up to 3,600 nits outdoors
- Tensor G6 performance is solid for daily tasks and gaming
- Base price rose $100 despite same 256GB price as predecessor
- Base model drops to 12GB RAM
- HiLight notification light is currently pointless
- Design nearly identical to Pixel 10 Pro
- Proactive Assistance features unproven in real use
Tom's Guide
3/5Aug 19, 2026Not bad phones, but minimal upgrades, weak performance and battery life, and a $100 price hike make them hard to recommend.
- Brightest display Tom's Guide has tested, peaking at 2,877 nits on XL
- Improved ultrawide and telephoto camera sharpness
- Useful AI features like Magic Capture and Instant Night Sight
- 256GB base storage on the standard Pro model
- Minimal upgrades over the Pixel 10 Pro
- Battery life is mediocre, worse than last year on Pro
- Performance trails Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max
- 12GB base RAM, reduced on cheapest models
- Price rise of $100 over predecessor
The Verge
8/10Aug 19, 2026A great phone with solid hardware and good cameras, but its flagship software features like HiLight and Proactive Assistance underdeliver.
- Incredible build quality
- Rambler is a game changer
- Camera Looks is a step in the right direction
- Magic Capture is a great feature
- Best-in-market voice-to-text, per the reviewer
- Less RAM for base model than last year
- More expensive base model
- HiLight is a huge disappointment
- Proactive Assistance only works in very narrow circumstances
Verdicts, pros and cons are short summaries in our words of each publisher's review; scores are as the publisher gave them. Specs are taken from the reviews' spec boxes — where they differ, we show the value most of them give; price is the US launch price of the base model. Read the originals for the full picture.