My favourite Pixel 10 feature so far will eventually come to every Android

Google’s Pixel 10 series will hit store shelves in Canada tomorrow, and ahead of general availability, I wanted to share my favourite feature so far.

I’ve had a few days to play with a Pixel 10 that Google sent me to review, but this isn’t my full review of the device. You’ll have to wait a little bit longer for that, as there are a ton of new features I need to test, and I haven’t had time to try them all in the few days I’ve actually had the phone. (Not to mention that some features, like Magic Cue, require a few days to ‘cook’ before they start showing up, so I’ve only just gained access to them.)

So far, I’ve really loved Google’s new software design, Material Expressive. This might not be new for anyone who’s spent time playing with the Android 16 betas, however, I skipped the betas this year. So when I made the initial jump from the Pixel 9 Pro to the Pixel 10, it truly felt like a new experience.

I’m a big fan of the new status bar icons, fonts, and quick settings panel, which now allows for resizable buttons. That means I can cram more of my frequently-used quick settings into one page for less swiping around. I also love how the phone makes better use of colour in themes, particularly in dark mode. Previously, dark mode was all shades of grey or black with small accents of colour, but now dark mode leverages colours throughout the interface. For example, I’m using a blue wallpaper on my Pixel 10 to match the blue shade of the phone, and in dark mode, the whole interface takes on a wonderful dark blue colour.

Of course, it’s not perfect. Not all of Google’s apps have adopted the new Material Expressive look yet, leaving parts of the software experience feeling disjointed. And don’t even get me started on non-Google apps, most of which likely won’t make meaningful use of Material Expressive. Really, consistency is the only critique here. The status bar icons feel inconsistently sized and positioned — the battery icon feels too large compared to everything else, for example. The new fonts appear sporadically. But, in time, I think these small things will get ironed out.

Beyond the software, there are some initial thoughts I can share while I work on the larger review. My initial experience with the battery life has been positive, thanks likely to the much larger 4,970mAh power cell. However, MobileSyrup devices editor Dean Daley hasn’t had the same experience with the Pixel 10 Pro XL. Plus, this early in our testing, features like Adaptive Battery likely aren’t running at full effectiveness, so it’s too early to make a judgment call on this.

The hardware is really nice, but it’s on par with what Google launched last year with the Pixel 9 series—nothing groundbreaking here. I do prefer this year’s Pixelsnap cases to Google’s Pixel 9 series cases. This year’s cases have the right balance of grippiness, while last year’s cases felt almost sticky. Speaking of Pixelsnap, the new magnetic accessory system works about as expected, but I’ll have more to say in the full review.

However, there are a ton of things I haven’t had a chance to test thoroughly, or even try at all. As I mentioned up top, Magic Cue only just started working in the last day or so — Google’s support page notes it needs 24 hours to ingest data before it can start offering suggestions, but I also had some other issues that I think further delayed the feature from working (again, more on this in the full review). And that’s only scratching the surface, with other features like the new Daily Hub not showing up yet at all for me or Dean. There are also tons of camera hardware and software changes that need deeper testing before I can pass judgment.

So, with all that said, stay tuned for the full Pixel 10 and 10 Pro/Pro XL reviews from myself and Dean. And if you have any burning questions you want answered, drop them below or contact us directly via email or on social media.

Curious how much the Pixel 10 series costs in Canada? Check out our pricing breakdown for all the details.