Google’s Pixel 10 and 10 Pro are lasting us through the day, but the bigger 10 Pro XL sees a return of that dreaded Pixel battery anxiety.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been thoroughly exploring all three of the new Google Pixel 10 models across the Android Authority team and have come to the joint conclusion that battery life could, frankly, be better. Thankfully, we’ve all been reaching the end of most days without desperately dashing for a charger. However, some models are definitely better than others, and the phones certainly haven’t closed the gap on rivals that offer longer screen-on-time.
Surprisingly, despite its larger battery, the Pixel 10 Pro XL has fared worse in our testing than the two smaller handsets. Anecdotally, we’ve struggled to reach much beyond four hours of screen-on time with the XL, while the regular Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro manage closer to five hours — or even a little more with lighter use. That’s a pretty significant discrepancy, and one we certainly didn’t expect.
Compounding our sense of disappointment is that pre-launch expectations were high. Google’s switch to TSMC’s smaller and more efficient 3nm process (from last year’s 4nm Samsung Foundry chips) was supposed to bring major power savings for the Tensor G5, putting it closer to the efficiency we expect from Apple and Qualcomm. Pair that with slightly larger batteries across the Pixel 10 lineup, and it looked like battery life might finally take a decent step, if not a leap, forward.
