Pixel devices are always a reflection of how Google sees Android and are a platform that shows off the advancements in its own apps and technology. In today’s era, this vision includes Google’s consumer AI suite. Google wants Pixel owners to live and breathe Google AI in all aspects of their lives through new devices.
While many people talk about AI as a paradigm shift, businesses know that mobile phones are still the best way to reach consumers.
Google wants people to believe in their phones, and AI tools are the best. They even hired Jimmy Fallon to tell you about it.
In terms of hardware, the pixel lineup has not undergone any dramatic changes this year.
Most notable was that the base pixel 10 would probably acquire a telephoto camera. Another notable addition was Google’s Magsafe version of Pixelsnap with chi2 charging. This unlocks many accessories, including chargers and stands.
I’ve been using the Pixel 10 Pro for the past few days. This is a device with a new, brighter screen, more RAM and a Pro camera.
The company’s announcement essentially focused on the new tensor G5 chip, created by TSMC on behalf of Samsung this year. Google is promoting the new chips being superior in AI performance and running the latest Gemini Nano models. (After using the phone for just a few days, you cannot faithfully review its performance.
Google’s software capabilities have long been the mainstay of Pixel phones, but with AI, its tilt becomes more pronounced.
System AI Functions
All companies pack AI technology references in their device presentations. However, when customers get their first time with a device, they often only get a partial version of these promises. For example, I use Indian pixel units. This means that some AI features are not available immediately.
Notably, Daily Hub, a feature that shows a summary of your day with other content suggestions, and photo conversation editing support is only available in the US at this time.
Meanwhile, Magic Queue is one of the marquee AI features of the year. Displays information contextually from one app to another.
It is designed to express information such as restaurant reservations, flights, hotel reservations and more in a contextual way. This means that if you’re talking about lunch with a friend, you could surface lunch recommendations or the flight details when you’re calling the airline.
In the test, Magic Cue showed contact details when he received a text asking someone for a contact.
I also offered “Love Is Blind” suggestions when I opened YouTube for previous screenshots and messages. Additionally, I gave coffee shop recommendations when I opened the map.
However, when I received a text asking if I had ordered cat food, Magic Queue missed the opportunity to add context from Gmail based on the delivery confirmation email.
Currently, this feature works mostly across Google apps, including messages, Gmail, Keep, calendar, screenshots, contacts, and more.
It will be interesting to see if other apps can use it and how much context it can draw in. That promise is very similar to what Apple’s 2024 AI-enabled Siri preview was supposed to be.
So far, the magic cues seem to be off to a good start, but only long-term use and testing prove their effectiveness.
Call translation is another important AI feature that arrives at pixel 10, especially when communicating with people who speak different tongues or have international colleagues. Google has advertised that this feature will retain your voice in the translated language, apart from language translation. The argument is largely true, but language support for translation is limited.
For me, the phone call with a French-speaking friend when I spoke English worked well on both ends. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about Hindi calls. (Indeed, Hindi support is still in preview, but translations often flatten.)
Gemini Live, which can highlight objects in video views, was a pixel 10 hit or miss upgrade. He successfully identified Sprigatito’s toys and showed me the spoon to use to measure coffee.
However, I misidentified the Pixel 9 Pro XL as a OnePlus phone, suggesting that the SIM tray is on the left.
There is some other information about AI throughout the system, including the ability to add music to music recordings. This could be useful for musicians. Screenshots and audio transcript sharing to Notebooklm. This is now a pre-installed app. Gboard’s audio editing and writing tool.
Camera and Image AI Features
The Pixel’s camera hardware is solid and requires a signature punchy photo. There are not much noticeable changes to the camera hardware, but Google has added many software updates.
In an age where companies, including Google, are adding AI to phone camera photos, Google is trying to teach people how to use a feature called Camera Coach to take good photos.
If you are using a rear camera with a new pixel, tap on the slightly sparkly camera icon in the top right to activate Camera Coach. We will analyze frames in focus and suggest several options for taking photos in different styles.
When you choose a style, the camera coach will provide tips for selecting lenses, framing objects, and moving up and down to adjust the level through a multi-step process. While some tips may feel common, sometimes camera coaches provide a handy context for framing, even if they know a little about how to take photos.
The camera coach, known as “Get Inspired,” also has the option to show variations in pose and positioning using generated AI. Sometimes I saw unrelated suggestions (see the first suggestion in the screenshot below, it’s not my cat). For example, when I was trying to create inspiration for people’s photos, one of the suggestions was to open my eyes wide in strange ways, or put my hands in strange ways.
New to the Pixel 10 Pro, the Super Res Zoom is one of the most impressive camera features to use.
Previous pixel phones can get 30x zoom, but with the Pixel 10 Pro you can get up to 100x zoom. The company uses AI models to upscale the photos it took, and the results are impressive. This feature allows you to create distant objects in the image rather than seeing noisy blurs. The debate is that this is because AI fills in the details. However, mobile phones store both AI-made and unmade photos to show the difference.
One problem with taking photos with 100x zoom is that you have to stabilize your hands, and it’s not an easy task.
Google also ships an updated portrait mode with the ability to capture 50 megapixel images. The new mode allows you to take photos at a higher resolution, but the separation of subjects is not always correct. You may still see people and animals focusing on blurry parts.
The company uses several frame masking techniques to take great group photos with the new AI-powered best take features. When you take a photo of a group, the pixel captures multiple photos and picks the best photo where everyone has opened their eyes and looks at the camera. If the phone can’t find the right photos, they try to fuse multiple images to make everyone look better.
One of the photo modes I used would be wanting to try more. With Action Pan, it focuses on moving objects, and Pixel’s software and camera system creates blurry backgrounds.
So, which pixels should you buy?
So why do you want to buy pixels? Maybe you are already a pixel user, your phone is old and you want to upgrade to a new one. Maybe you were using an iPhone and wanted a Google Android experience. I heard about Pixel’s Advanced Photography and liked what I saw. These are all good reasons to buy new pixels.
Still, the hardware bumps are progressive year-on-year, but like other flagships, you’ll feel a difference, especially if you’re jumping off a phone that’s more than two years old.
The good thing about the Pixel 10 Pro is that you won’t miss too much unless you choose the Pixel 10 Pro XL. Apart from screen size and battery life, the XL has access to 25W QI charges, but that’s about it. Google has done well to have functionality and hardware parity on both Pro devices.
However, during competition, it is part of AI. The promise of “AI Phone” is that your experience will improve over time and your company will be able to ship more features. So, Google has launched Pro Phones such as the free AI Pro plan for a year, so you can use Google’s AI even more and feel that your phone is better.
However, as we learned from Apple’s ordeal last year, we announced that AI features could not make it (or make it on time), and that it might feel redundant. Users from different regions of the world also experience a variety of experiences. This is because some AI features may not be available or may not work well in languages or locales.
Google portrays an epic version of AI, but not everyone lives in AI utopia. Google’s AI is currently in pixels everywhere, but it’s not always necessary.
