The Pixel 10 proves Google still hasn’t solved its video problem.
Snap a photo on a Pixel, and the magic happens instantly. Switch to video, though, and the shine quickly fades — that’s been the story of Google’s phones for years.
The Pixel 10 series is now the hottest release on the market, with Google hyping it up in its August 20 event as having the best camera system available. But I find that hard to believe when the company is still leaning on one of its clunkiest, least reliable features: Video Boost.
First introduced with the Pixel 8 Pro, Video Boost was pitched as the breakthrough that would finally bring Google’s AI wizardry to video, the way HDR+ once revolutionized Pixel photos. Two years later, though, the reality hasn’t changed much. The Pixel 10 family still delivers fantastic stills, its new AI zoom pushes to 100x (with questionable results), but when it comes to video, Google is still banking on Video Boost — and it still doesn’t work the way it was promised.Whether you were filming in a dim bar, on a busy street at sunset, or under harsh indoor lighting, Video Boost would elevate the footage to a level no phone could match. At least in theory.The reality, as we found in our late 2023 testing, was messy at best. On the Pixel 8 Pro, processing even a 30-second clip with Video Boost took hours. A simple 90 MB video ballooned into a 1.2 GB file, quickly eating up storage.Worse, boosted clips couldn’t always be transferred properly. Some lost their enhanced colors entirely once uploaded to Drive or YouTube. And despite being touted as a flagship feature, it only worked with the main camera — not the ultra-wide or telephoto, where it arguably could’ve made the biggest difference.
