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Google has launched its latest product Pixel 10 seriesincluding the standard and more powerful model Pixel 10 Proback in September, offering frequent hardware upgrades and new AI features. But for those of us who love consuming battery life while playing games on premium phones, there’s another concern: How will gaming fare on the Pixel 10 Pro?
your Flagship phone With the strongest specs Google has ever put into a (non-foldable) phone, the Pixel 10 Pro exceeds basic expectations for a $999 phone. (As I write this, you can Buy the Pixel 10 Pro for $799 – $200 off.) It has a sharp OLED display and high-performance specs, so it doesn’t have much trouble playing the latest games.
But some of Google’s hardware choices leave the Pixel 10 Pro limited in ways it shouldn’t OnePlus 15 and iPhone 17 Pro Not – i.e. in storage and shipping. The Google phone also has a lot to live up to in its gaming capabilities, as previous Pixel phones weren’t known for their processing power and graphics display, and regularly scored lower in performance benchmarks than flagship phones from Apple and OnePlus, which have some of the most powerful processors available today. In the end, the Pixel 10 Pro isn’t the best choice for gaming among the best phones you can buy today.
However, there are several ways to make your phone shine better, if not literally brighter. Android phones and iPhone. Its gaming capabilities add value to an already powerful phone with great photography and AI capabilities.
The Google Pixel 10 Pro fits snugly over the Backbone One Controller, providing easy-to-use button controls for precision-demanding games like Dead Cells (pictured).
How it feels to play games on the Pixel 10 Pro
On a basic level, the Pixel 10 Pro is great for streaming games and playing to your heart’s content. Its design is easy to hold, with flat metal sides and curved corners that fit my fingers well when I rotate the phone horizontally to play most games. When I want more analog control with buttons and triggers, the phone slides securely into my device The backbone is one external controller.
Gaming on the Pixel 10 Pro is a sight to behold. The 6.3-inch OLED display displays sharp details with a resolution of 2856 x 1280 pixels, and colors are vivid with HDR10 Plus support. Action is smooth thanks to the screen’s 120Hz refresh rate, whether in slower platformers or fast-paced first-person shooters like Call of Duty: Mobile.
Best of all, the maximum brightness of 3,300 nits makes the screen easily visible in daylight and virtually illuminates the room in complete darkness. This makes colors really pop in vibrant games like Dead Cells – it really outshines other smartphones with displays that don’t get as bright. The latest premium phones have become similarly bright ( iPhone 17 Pro Max up to 3000 nits), but even phones a year or two older are considerably dimmer, in my personal estimation iPhone 15 Pro Max Reaches a brightness of up to 2000 nits.
The Pixel 10 Pro’s Tensor G5 chip may not have topped our charts in benchmark tests, where it’s more in line with performance from 2024 flagships, but it’s powerful enough to run the games I tested it on. The phone’s 16GB of RAM contributes to this smoothness: I ran Genshin Impact to the maximum graphics settings, and despite being warned that my phone might overheat (I didn’t notice it getting hot) Which warmer), it handled 60fps gameplay well.
The phone’s other capabilities were good for gaming, including serviceable speakers and respectable battery life. The latter surprised me, as older Pixel phones seemed less efficient and drained faster than competing premium phones — and indeed, the Pixel 10 Pro ranks under the top 10 phones with the best battery life released last year, according to our report. Extended battery tests for 2025 phones. While gaming, the battery didn’t drain very quickly, losing about 2% per 4-5 minute match in Call of Duty: Mobile.
The Google Pixel 10 Pro handles graphics-intensive first-person shooters like Call of Duty: Mobile well, though it doesn’t quite achieve high frame rates like other phones.
The Pixel 10 Pro’s gaming challenges and where it stands for us
The Pixel 10 Pro’s biggest gaming drawback is storage space. It’s quite shocking to see it starting at $1,000 and yet it only has 128GB, while most other premium phones have bumped up their starting storage capacity to 256GB for the exact same starting price.
When some mobile games reach 50GB or more, that’s a trivial amount, which shrinks quickly for people who take a lot of photos and videos in high resolution. While I was loading games on my Pixel 10 Pro, I was shocked that I ran out of space to download Call of Duty: Mobile’s graphical extras and had to delete some of the videos I’d captured.
Watch this: The Pixel 10 Pro XL does everything you need and more
The least problem is keeping the phone charged. The Pixel 10 Pro’s battery life is decent but not amazing, with a capacity of 4,870 mAh which is outdone by many of its premium competitors, especially the 7,300 mAh. OnePlus 15.
But charging Google’s flagship phone takes time, as it has a maximum wired charging speed of 30W or 15W wireless charging. This likely means it will take more than an hour to fully recover from 0%, which takes significantly longer than some of the faster-charging phones out there, like the OnePlus 15, which went from 1% to 73% in half an hour thanks to its 80W wired charging rate. Compare that to the Pixel 10 Pro, which added 44% in the same time period.
Read more: The OnePlus 15 is one of the best mainstream phones for gamers
Unlike some other premium phones, the Pixel 10 Pro has its own MagSafe-like magnets aligned in a circle on its back cover, called Pixel Snapwhich is suitable for wireless charging, even if it is slow. Google fans can get faster charging with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, which supports 45W wired charging and 25W wireless charging, though they’ll have to pay more for the larger phone.
Neither of these issues represent major setbacks that hamper the Pixel 10 Pro’s gaming ability, as there’s nothing about its features that makes it stand out from other premium phones, aside from its bright, vivid display. This isn’t surprising, as Google’s phone excels in non-gaming aspects, including AI photo features like Auto Best Take and Camera trainer.
If you are a Pixel fan and also play games, you will enjoy playing it on the Pixel 10 Pro, which is a good all-around device. For those who want a phone with better features specifically for gaming, there are other phones that will satisfy them, like the OnePlus 15.