The Pixel 10 Pro is great, but here’s why I’m sticking with the Pixel 9 Pro

I’m used to declaring Google’s latest and greatest its, well, latest and greatest. Most years, that means switching my SIM card into whatever Pixel Pro I can get my hands on and keeping it there for as long as possible between reviews. This year, though, I feel a little different.

I thought the Pixel 10 Pro would come in and sweep me off my feet — and to an extent it has — but it’s actually reminded me just how good the Pixel 9 Pro already was. Here’s why I think I’ll be sticking with age before beauty, at least for a little longer.

On paper, there’s at least one thing that hasn’t changed from the Pixel 9 Pro to the Pixel 10 Pro: The cameras. Sensor-wise, Google maintained the same mix of wide, ultrawide, and telephoto flexibility it had last year, but powered them up with a bit of help from the Tensor G5. The result is a trio that has gone from maxing out at 30x zoom to 100x zoom, with some help from AI processing.

The problem, however, is that Google’s Pro Res Zoom feels like a case of two steps forward, one step back. Yes, it’s far more flexible than before, and it works brilliantly on large, stationary subjects, but Google is so careful about its AI algorithms that you can’t really trust it with humans, text, or many other soft shapes, just in case it warps them. I, unfortunately, find that this usually means long-range photos with people in them typically come out looking like fuzzy stickers on sharp backgrounds.

With the Pixel 9 Pro, though, I don’t have that issue. I don’t have to worry that scenes I capture from across the harbor or far down the beach will come out with uneven AI. Yes, I might have to worry about Google’s unforgivable color science — which is a serious issue — but I’ve grown accustomed to adjusting colors and exposure after pressing the shutter button, and I don’t mind continuing to do so.

That said, I won’t pretend to know why Google hasn’t addressed the color science issue on its Pixel 9 Pro. Everything looks much better on the Pixel 10 Pro, as my colleague Rita explored, but I can’t imagine that it’s tied so tightly to the Tensor G5 that it couldn’t be fixed.

More important to me than Google’s cameras is the fact that most of its new Tensor G5-powered software features just don’t excite me very much. Yes, its Daily Hub, Magic Cue, and Camera Coach should all be technically impressive, and I would love to be wowed by each one of them, but I just haven’t found ways to trust them, let alone work them into my daily life.

I mean, look no further than the fact that Google put its Daily Hub on ice to know that maybe the Pixel 10’s updates aren’t as refined as they seem. Initially, I had hoped Google’s version of a daily check-in would be better than Samsung’s jumbled-up Now Brief, but it turned out to be just as disappointing, with unpredictable YouTube recommendations and search topics that I’m not actually interested in. It has since been put on pause, so I hope Google is working out the kinks, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Unfortunately, Google’s higher visibility features haven’t exactly wowed me, either. I’ve tried the Camera Coach a total of once to see how it worked, and that proved enough experience for me to give it a hearty “meh.” I once again like what Google was going for, but I’m not sure that the difference in composition or the amount of help that the Camera Coach provides is worth the cost of a new Pixel.

And then, there’s the Magic Cue, which, as you can see above, is pretty hit or miss. I’ve had it pick up on context, such as a reservation, once or twice since using the Pixel 10 Pro, but I’ve been at this for about a month. It simply doesn’t kick in nearly often enough for me to trust, let alone believe in Google’s flavor of magic. To hear Google tell it, the Magic Cue should kick in frequently while sending texts and emails, and it really just hasn’t.

So, if I don’t need Google’s new software tricks, why not stick with the Pixel 9 Pro that already has a mountain of features I know I like?

Honestly, though, the biggest reason I’ll be sticking with my Pixel 9 Pro is that I just don’t need to upgrade. I still have a ton of storage space left, my battery health is excellent, I have a physical SIM slot, and best of all, I still have a ton of updates coming down the pipeline. Google promised me seven years of support, and I still have six of them to go.

Granted, I’m a little bummed that my future updates will look just a little bit different than those that the Pixel 10 series will get. I’m concerned that Google’s latest features seem closely tied to the Tensor G5 chipset, as it means that even though I’m getting updates, I worry they’ll feel like little more than security patches. Yes, Material 3 Expressive has made everything look good, but I didn’t buy a phone for surface-level updates.

Anyway, I guess that’s a problem for future me. Currently, I’m excited to have reliable long-term support on an Android flagship that I adore. I’m perfectly happy to have Google trickle out support because I don’t feel like I’m missing too much just yet. I don’t care about not having Magic Cue, Camera Coach, or 100x Pro Res Zoom on last year’s phone because I got by just fine without them.

In the future, though, I’ll probably be annoyed. As the Pixel 10 series picks up features that rely on the Tensor G5, I’m sure I’ll cry foul. I guess I could already be doing just that about the Pixel 8 Pro and its Tensor G3 — after all, plenty of people bought that phone expecting it to get Google’s very best features for years to come. They’re probably looking at me with my Pixel 9 Pro and wondering when (or if) they’ll get the things I’ve praised in the last year.

But, you know what, I’m happy to save my money and wait to see what Google does with the Pixel 11 or even the Pixel 12. Give the Pixel 9 Pro a few more years of collecting updates, and I’ll probably be ready to switch once I’ve gotten my money’s worth.