The stuff Hacker News actually recommends.

Phones · Google Pixel

Google Pixel 10 Pro

29owners with an opinion
71%of verdicts positive
15/6positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

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

What owners wrote

Neutral
Android actually does have a desktop mode when you connect an external display. I'm not sure how much this is standardized / merged into AOSP, but I use it with my stock Pixel 10 Pro. I would describe the experience as... passable. Historically it was quite glitchy but recent OS updates have improved it. The biggest issues resolve around apps which do not scale their UIs correctly.
Likes it
Golden gate has been ok-ish for me. I am more annoyed by the constant render stutters in iOS. It got worse with iOS 26 (tested on iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air) and it is still pretty bad with iOS 27 (tested on iPhone Air and iPhone 18 Pro). Some apps like the App Store or Mastodon are a complete stutter fest, even when you let them preload all assets. But it even happens in very basic apps like the Settings app. Meanwhile my woefully underpowered Pixel 10 Pro (on par with a flagship from a few years ago) with GrapheneOS is butter smooth in nearly every app.
Likes it
Both the UI and UX are rough compared to the polish of iOS. Sorry, but no. I also have an iPhone for $REASONS. Both my prior iPhone Air and my new iPhone 18 Pro still frequently stutters. Even scrolling some settings screens (which are very simple), I can often see frames getting dropped. Apple apps like the App Store are one huge frame-dropfest (even if you let it preload all assets). Apple can't get a nearly 1500 Euro phone with the fastest single-core performance and probably the fastest GPU to render normal window chrome smoothly anymore. My P10P with GrapheneOS, which only has a midrange SoC by modern standards (don't believe what Google tells you) and it is buttery smooth. iOS got even more terrible with Liquid Glass, so many things are badly readable, even with the slider set to completely opaque in iOS 27. iOS used to be premium compared to Android. But Apple enshittified iOS over the last few years. Even most Apple pundits agree. Since people seem to disagree because they simply cannot see it, here are two recordings at 0.5x speed so that even people who are not sensitive to stutters can see it: https://drive.proton.me/urls/S24N1S17XG#56iNGffWKqZr https://drive.proton.me/urls/DH527V6GRR#625BpPuAcYPb
Likes it
I’m in the process of switching from an iPhone to Graphene on a pixel 10 Pro. I can load apps from the web (disabled by default iirc), the local file system, a sandboxed instance of the Play store, Obtainium, f-droid, wherever. Took some getting used to, but it’s nice feeling like I actually control and can choose how my phone works.
Likes it
My recently-purchased Google Pixel 10 Pro has an unlockable bootloader. (Although it may be locked if you buy it through a provider). And, for a nominal one-time payment, you can register as a developer, and compile, install and run absolutely anything you want on a non-rooted Android phone with a locked bootloader (within the constraints of the security system, which is, of course, A Good Thing).
Doesn’t like it
Performs so well is... Subjective but generally what matters here surprisingly is not CPU speed but GPU driver quality (all on Chromium) I tested a bunch of stuff before this post went live Apple M1/M2/M3/M4 on macOS Sequoia, good Apple M5 and prior chips on tahoe, bad due to a known GPU regression (this is actually why my personal machine runs sequoia) Windows on ARM Qualcomm Adreno X1 driver - bad to usable performance Ubuntu 26.04 Aarch64 upstream mesa with freedreno - works really well but encounters artifacting Pixel 10 Pro - doesn't work here at all Intel HD4600 on Windows 11 i7-4790k- works quite well up to 2 tabs where the renderer starts really suffering
Likes it
The Pixel 9 had a vastly improved modem and the 10 switched to TSMC for their Tensor SoC, resulting in better performance and better battery life/less heat. It's true that the SoCs are not that great for an expensive flagship phone, but the trick is buying a Pixel halfway the cycle, when the prices go to mid-range. For instance, currently in my country: - Pixel 10 is 350 Euro off (currently 549 Euro). - Pixel 10 Pro is 360 Euro off (currently 739 Euro). - Pixel 10 Pro XL is 360 Euro off (currently 939 Euro). - The Pixel A series are less interesting currently, because it's still early in the cycle, but the 9a is 200 Euro off (349) and the 10a is 120 Euro off (428). It's a shame that they switched to last-gen SoCs and modems now on the A-series now. I know that the Pixel 100 is coming soon-ish, but the 10 series have floated around those price points since 5-6 months after the release. the 10 is eSIM only Looking at my P10P with physical SIM. I guess you are in the US?
Likes it
How timely, I'm writing this from a Pixel 10 Pro Fold I bought in January. Last night I opened it to find the inside screen having dead pixels in the center by the bend. I love foldable phones. I use it all the time in both modes, but now I'm currently procrastinating looking up my best buy warranty plan specifics. For a small percentage of mobile superusers, I really do believe foldables are the future. Having the ability to use desktop mode by default, or multitask, is huge.
Doesn’t like it
+1 on having little hope Google can pull this one up well. Recently my Android auto updated to use Gemini instead of their legacy voice command, which already sucked, and it got significantly worse, it's trying to play songs on Audible and Libro.fm at random, while I even have Spotify running. And I'm on Pixel 10 Pro! When asking to play a soundtrack of a movie, it starts to play random cover instead of the official thing, just no idea how it can be so bad.
Neutral
The only thing that keeps me from switching to GrapheneOS on my Pixel 10 pro is satellite SOS which isn't supported on GrapheneOS. It's something important to me as I do mountain sports and in some locations there is no network signal. I know that in the US Verizon and Tmobile customers have access to satellite connectivity and it's possible to get this feature working on a GrapheneOS phone if you are one of their customers, but I am in Europe and European providers don't provide satellite connectivity.
Likes it
HN is mostly US and apparently in US even geeks have given up on Android. Anyway, here is my experience when I upgraded from a Pixel 8 to Pixel 10 Pro: login to my Google account, let the backup restore happen then my new phone was identical to the old one. I only had to do the login process to a few messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp, and my home settings on Smart Launcher had to be manually imported but that's pretty much it. Basically, a lot of what OP lists as "bare minimum requirements" are just preferences. If he used his Android phone like an iPhone, and like most people use it (with minimal tinkering) then the migration would have been just as smooth.
Doesn’t like it
I tried switching to graphene after frustration with the latest direction of iOS. Yes I could use Firefox and ublock to get around YouTube ads, but it actually worked worse than using Orion browser on iOS to do the equivalent. The Pixel 10 Pro couldn’t manage 2x without audio stuttering even at 360p. My iPhone can do it with 4K YouTube video, not that I need that. iOS natively supports self-hosted contacts and calendars. No hoops. Android needs a separate app that may or may not work (my experience: it doesn’t work and doesn’t give useful feedback when it doesn’t work). The app quality is so much worse on Android I had to go back. No forward gesture in apps and browsers - insane omission. There are literally only two calendar apps on Android that allow touch-based event editing - Business Calendar 2 Pro (paid subscription) and the Samsung exclusive calendar. How does a modern smartphone not ship with a decent calendar?? Or touch friendly web navigation? The rendering engine of the browser is far down the list of priorities compared to supporting basic daily workflows.
Likes it
I've used GrapheneOS on a Pixel 3a, 5, 8 and 10 Pro so far and it's worked really well. I couldn't imagine going back. The only things I'm missing (which don't exist in other OS'es either): - Being able to configure contact scopes in such a way that the app in question only gets access to the phone numbers of the contacts belonging to the label I specified, e.g. "WhatsApp", nothing more. Yes, one can of course add contacts' phone numbers to the contact scopes "by hand" but 1) there is a limit on the number of contacts/phone numbers configured this way, and 2) AFAIK there is no way to back up that list. - Being able to install browser extensions in Vanadium. - Being able to configure multiple VPNs at once, e.g. for Tailscale, ad filtering, blocking HackerNews during times when I should be doing something more productive :) etc., especially since the Vanadium browser doesn't support extensions (see above). I was hoping that the Rethink app might implement something like this ( https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app/issues/1047 ) but it doesn't look like it's coming and it'd probably be much better to do this at the OS level.
Neutral
In the US, many refurbished Pixel phones are Verizon variants which disallow OEM unlocking. When was in college and had Sprint this was a nightmare since then I wanted root for unlimited hotspot (Sprint made it easy that way), but most refurbished Pixels were Verizon variants. And I couldn't just use OnePlus because they were only designed GSM networks or later Verizon CDMA-less. Then, new Pixels were unaffordable for me, but parents insisted on using Sprint. I ended up getting a Pixel 3 off Mercari (which I still own) just to keep root. Now, I can afford a Pixel 10 Pro new (which I am right now), alongside spare Pixel 9 and OnePlus 13R units. But even then (a) my income is lower than when I worked at Microsoft and (b) The OnePlus was from a trade-in deal.
Neutral
No phone is perfect, It's the overall complexity of the systems that is causing the multiple issues. I moved from iphone 13 to pixel 10pro and it wasn't such a great transition. It's totally not "better". Each have their own disadvantages. Android: - Pixel really sucks at apps and sharing content in app/ between apps. This is really killing me, because it's impossible to share more than image from whatsapp to telegram e.g. No image copy in apps. - The apps are not as polished - The gaming performance not even close to apple (or samsung for that matter) - Wifi / GSM doesn't feel as reliable or fast as it was on my 4yo iphone - Videos cameras switching is unreliable, photos colors are washed out and dead - You can't compare Pixel watch and Apple Watch (same goes for Garmin with it's terrible sluggish UI) Iphone: - No Screen text translate in real-time like on Pixel. Currently the only deal breaker for me personally and reason I'm using the Pixel. - The keyboard is dumb. But speech recognition is ok. - Duplication of photos between icloud and google photos. The Google Photos is crazy good in comparison to the icloud.
Doesn’t like it
Same here with a Pixel 10 Pro. Having seen issues that others have been struggling with, I’m shocked at the poor quality controls. It’s not only hardware, the software breaks every now and then. Looks like every patch introduces some bugs or bricks some Pixels. According to Gemini, it’s all known and has been discussed for a long time. I checked Pixel bug reports, some of them closed with wont-implement states, while users still struggling. This was the first time in two decades that my smartphone broke, and it could only be replaced. In the end, to me it’s really too much maintenance with Pixels and Android devices in general. Really don’t get it why people prefer Android. It’s like desktop Linux. Not there yet.
Likes it
Just finished my switch. Dumped my iPhone + Macbook Pro + iPad Pro + Apple Watch + Airpods setup for a Framework 13 + GrapheneOS Pixel 10 Pro + Seiko watch and wired earbuds. I run NixOS, it's incredibly easy to do anything I want by just pointing Claude at my dotfiles and telling it "I want this", applying, and then reverting if I don't like the results. The switch came more from a realisation that Apple devices are becoming media/slop consumption devices, rather than devices that run my workflows for me.
Doesn’t like it
I’ve been an iPhone owner for a while, but recently was required to get an Android phone to be a secondary work device. I got a Pixel 10 Pro—- brand-new, Google’s flagship device—- and within about a week there was a rattling noise from the camera module any time the phone moved. The consensus online appears to be “oh, yeah, that’s the OIS module, you have to expect it, they all do that”. Well, iPhones also have OIS and they don’t do this. Android might be “good enough” in hardware now but it’s definitely still behind.
Doesn’t like it
This is the best solution. Actually, if you have money, in my experience, the best is to have an iPhone dedicated to that. Sometimes even on stock Android (Pixel 10 Pro) you get weird incompatibilities. E.g. trying to connect to a DJI drone, paying with Google Wallet, getting a train transit card in Japan… An iPhone supports all daily life use cases with predictability. So my solution right now is to have one iPhone where I keep things clean, and one Android where I do whatever I want. :) (I do get the odd look when I take out my second phone to do something else in public and questions about it :))
Doesn’t like it
I loved my Pixel 10 Pro until it broke just a week after purchase (screen went unresponsive all of a sudden and I needed to learn to factory reset it). Pixel Android doesn’t support disabling the control center when locked in lock screen, and widgets are also available. I saw all of that reported just recently too, so obviously not a single issue. The screen issues are known across several Pixel generations. The screen lock since 2013. I don’t know whether I’m going to touch anything Pixel in the next couple of years, it’s not mature enough yet.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
I have both T-Mobile via a family plan and US Mobile (AT&T MVNO) via a yearly plan. US Mobile serves as my data eSIM, where it gives me unlimited hotspot 20GB of roaming/month. Previously I bought eSIMs when traveling since T-Mobile is only 5GB/mo hotspot/roaming and earlier at 256 Kbps. T-Mobile is better for calls and international texts, due to it being unlimited. I also prefer keeping a non-MVNO as my call/text number so I can go to a T-Mobile store and activate a spare phone if I lose mine (which I never did), or my phone fails. With US Mobile, I'm not sure how I'd recover a lost phone. Since the Pixel 10 Pro lacks a SIM card slot, this is important. But hey, I used my Pixel 3 on Sprint with eSIM; I went T-Mobile 3 months before they merged. US Mobile has done well with me, although anything not-T-Mobile is really slow nowadays.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
I buy Pixel for GrapheneOS, but the hardware is terrible for the price. They charge flagship prices for what are mid-range SoCs. They are very heavy for the size (e.g. the 10/10 Pro are around 205g) and the weight distribution makes them feel like a brick. Battery life is very mediocre, even with almost no apps or other crap installed. They have also had a lot of hardware/software issues in recent years - spicy pillows, display issues, camera bars that fall off, software updates that resulted in boot loops for many people, etc. In (most of?) Europe, they farmed out repairs to another company and often reject warranty claims if there is as much as a scratch on the case. I would only recommend Pixel if you want to run GrapheneOS. GrapheneOS is stellar and until next year, getting a Pixel is the only way to run it. Also, wait until midway the cycle of a model to get a large discount. If you do not want to run GrapheneOS, do yourself a favor and either: 1.) Get a Samsung S series (or maybe A5x). It's the only phone besides Pixel that does reliable monthly updates, QPR2 and rolls out major updates fairly quickly. They have a separate secure enclave (Knox Vault). Also, after a few months the pricing is really good (e.g. an S26 with 256GB storage costs 620 Euro here now). You can pretty much remove all of the bloat, including Gemini, Google hot words, Bixby, etc. with UAD. The SoC, battery life, etc. will blow Pixels out of the water. 2.) Get an iPhone. The most secure phone after G…
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
Finally! Pixel hardware is a joke, the pixel 10 pro has the performance of a three year old phone, with battery life worse than the iPhone Air (according to shortcircut/ltt tests). Even the cameras are starting to fall behind. I had a pixel, and it just stopped working out of nowhere. I just can't justify spending 800$+ on a phone with mid-range hardware at best Yes their software is the best, but with such hardware it just can't compensate anymore. I don't think I will be able to wait til GrapheneOS announces their new supported phones, probably will pick up a OnePlus with battery life that doesn't suck.