The stuff Hacker News actually recommends.

Phones · Google Pixel

Google Pixel 10

50owners with an opinion
54%of verdicts positive
22/19positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for ease of use and software; criticized for reliability and performance.

What owners wrote

Doesn’t like itOwned 0.08 years
Pixel 10 was so bad I had to trade it in after using for a month. The version I got was 128GB for a whopping $600. This was my first Google device after Nexus days and I was bitterly disappointed with weird performance bugs and battery drain issues. The software does little to make up for the issues. The replacement I got is a Motorola razr ultra folding phone.. similar perf point with 16G RAM and 512G storage. This phone is legit.
Likes it
Or like me: Eventually you get used to -and learn to appreciate- nearly anything? I switch Android/iOS (and once Windows Mobile) every time I get a new phone (which is when it breaks, usually after 5-6 years), it's always a bit of pain, like now I really miss some iOS features, but my Pixel 10 with GrapheneOS has some cool things, like a desktop mode! I'm beginning to appreciate the (in screen) fingerprint reader, but indeed, at first I really missed face-id. Overal Android (at least GrapheneOS) is more like a full computer than iOS. I also feel a switch to KDE/Konveyor coming up after years of vanilla Gnome...
Likes it
I love my Pixel 10 Fold and can't imagine ever going back to a non-foldable now. The larger screen is great for productivity. Reviewing PRs on the larger screen is way more comfortable than a normal phone size. The built-in terminal app also works nicely with herdr and Tailscale to let me connect to my work machine. I can interact with my agents and get real work done on the go. I also have saved split views so I can quickly launch two apps side-by-side. I do mobile app development, so being able to have the app I'm developing open side by side with Slack or Linear to create issues or discuss with people is very convenient. I don't know if terminal access is as easy on iPhones, but the utility is there for many work related use-cases. I do think the more square-like form factor of the Pixel to be better for productivity than the rectangular form of the Duo, but the latter is nicer for videos.
Likes it
Yeah, on Android there used to be some parties that supported the open NFC stack, ie bunq comes to mind. At the moment there is still Curve (have it installed but need to configure it, I still forget my passes from time to time). But this sounds much better and more "fundamental", as in, will support any bank. I'd commit immediately to the 3 euro/month to get rid of my passes in the magnetic pouch on the back of my GrapheneOS Pixel 10 :)
Likes it
Base install of Graphene on Pixel 10 is pretty close to dumb-phone (I speak from experience). Just get the APKs of Signal and Google Cam (or just use Graphene's cam app, it's not bad, supposedly). Pixel 10 has 3 camera, wide/normal/tele. Pretty decent imho.
Doesn’t like it
I have stock Android on a Pixel 10 and RCS group texts don't work here either. Some people just can't be added to the group and some people just don't receive the texts. It's so bad.
Neutral
T-Mobile recently had a trade-in promotion where you could trade in any phone and get a pixel 10 for "free". The free is in quotes because what actually happens is you get signed up for device financing which spreads the cost of the phone over 2 years, and then they give your account a credit each month for the same amount charged by the device financing. So they'll end up charging you $33 per month and crediting you $33 per month, resulting in the phone actually being free. The catch is it locks you into 2 years on T-Mobile because if you cancel the account or pay off the phone early, you forfeit all the remaining credits. Since it was free and I had no plans on leaving T-Mobile in the following 2 years, I went ahead and did the trade-in with an old Pixel 3a. What I didn't realize is since the phone is on a payment plan, the phone is not only carrier-locked (which would be fine) but also bootloader-locked until the end of those 2 years, so I cannot install GrapheneOS on it until ~2028. My free pixel 10 is sitting in its box gathering dust until 2028. Here is a reddit thread discussing the trade-in promo as proof that it existed: https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/1r0by30/pixel_10_f...
Likes it
Yeah I lost my phone some months ago. Quite the panick because I am also MS365 admin for 2 orgs... 3 hr later a trucker called my wife using the iPhone emergency contact feature (what a hero). Now I bought an iPad that stays at home and has all the apps. Honestly, I should also put a second phone somewhere else. Also frees me up to experiment a bit more on the Phone side (just got a Pixel 10 with GrapheneOS), although, so far it all just works (with Google Services of course).
Doesn’t like it
It freezes a Pixel 10 on Chrome, Webviews and Brave..! I tried several webview-based browsers, Chrome, and Brave, with them the phone completely freezes (except that the audio keeps going for a bit). I tested webview browsers because by chance the first place I ran it on was Telegram's internal browser (on which the phone does freeze). It doesn't do anything on Firefox though, and weirdly enough not even on the Chromium-based Cromite (after enabling WebGL). I only tried waiting for a few minutes, but it wasn't giving signs of life. If someone wants to try, keep in mind that to force restart a Pixel you have to press the power button for 30 seconds (during which you might break out in a cold sweat).
Doesn’t like it
It was removed from the whole non-folding Pixel 10 series in the US. It still has the SIM card slot elsewhere. We had to return a Pixel 10 bricked due to a firmware bug and it was the US model since we'd bought it in the US and sent it overseas with a forwarding service. Google's repair partner shop was quite confused about the lack of a SIM card slot to get the IMEI and we only had a serial number but they figured out using the serial number instead. There's still dual SIM support either way and you can store dozens of inactive eSIMs. The main downside of eSIMs is widespread lack of transfer support by carriers.
Likes it
Yep! Having just got the Pixel Fold 10. I've been wanting a tablet for casual browsing and video watching but I knew I wouldn't use it because it's not my phone. The apps data would be different logins are annoying. If I'm getting another device out I'll just get my laptop. This thing is great though. There can't be a more seamless transition. The multitasking is pretty good and with coding agents it's actually turned out fairly production to have two apps side by side.
Doesn’t like it
I have a 10 and find the AI to be more annoying than anything else. Mostly I see it when I accidentally hit something and it pops up since they want it to be quick to access but I essentially never want to use it. The fact that they are going to be replacing the perfectly fine Google Assistant with the Gemini which when I tried it out was so much worse at doing the simple things I actually use it for has me regretting buying a Pixel.
Neutral
I used the Microsoft Surface Duo, and the experience was terrible. I carry a Pixel 10 Fold, and 90% of the time I use it closed. But when I want to watch a video, or I want to show someone something. The bezel very much ruins that experience. And the Duo went even further by having hidden pixels, which made some UIs completely unusable. That said, I hardly think that foldable is the peak. I'd prefer a rollable phone that I can expand the screen on, with maybe an edge display. And the price is the real kicker. For the vast majority of the Android population, a phone at a price point about $1000 is just a non-starter.
Doesn’t like it
Hijacking this comment because of this line that reminded me of something: "There is a crazy amount of image processing going on behind the scenes in each smartphone" I bought the Pixel 10 because it said it had great zooming capabilities. After 5X (that means 10X), it's completely stupid. Basically it takes a very blurred photo and then tries to reconstruct it with AI. The final results are completely awful and really distant from reality. Any advice in how to improve that?
Likes it
I got a Pixel 10 during prime day and installed GrapheneOS with Cape for the provider. So far, it's been mostly great. The only setback, for me, is the lack of support for tap to pay. I haven't been able to get any wallet app to work. I keep my iphone with minimal service mainly to still have tap to pay and do facetime with my book club.
Likes it
This year I grudgingly switched from an iPhone 13 Mini to a Pixel 10, largely to get the full integrated Pebble experience, but having USB-C has been a surprising and delightful upgrade to my home/travel experience. For sources, I basically have an INUI battery bank and a 100W wall adapter, then everything is a USB-C sink: Lenovo X1, Pixel 10, Nintendo Switch, Sennheiser headphones
Likes it
Ha! Me too! Exact same. Bought a Pixel 10. Intended to do the default Android for a while. But it was filled with ads for “Wicked” which had me looking at my phone with a sneer on my face I couldn't erase - as if someone had smeared feces all over it and threw it on my bed. So I jumped straight to GrapheneOS, which was way easier and less extreme than I had been warned. So beautifully minimal, with no crap. Now my phone feels like a simple Linux (Void/Arch) PC. So wonderful.
Doesn’t like it
And phone companies are enabling telecoms by manufacturing devices that don't take physical sim cards anymore. I recently migrate from pixel 8 to 10, it only supports eSim. In order to migrate my sim to an eSim I had to provide voice, image, documents and info of the phone I was installing the eSim on. One of the worse companies in Brazil, Vivo, now have everything about me. I bet they keep it in a big excel file accessible via a secret but public link
Doesn’t like it
Easier said than done in the US. Even of the phones that allow for rooting (which is few and far between these days) you're at the complete mercy of the carrier for whether or not that ability is actually available to you. Even if the gracious lords may allow it, you have to engage in a long and drawn out Byzantine rite just for the privilege. Currently sitting on a Pixel 10 that will not let me have root. Give me a Linux phone with halfway decent modem drivers, or give me death.