So, here we are, it's been almost a week since I made the Pixel 10 my daily drive. And while I'm still formulating my review (I usually take a week to make my notes and then another week to write it down in something coherent... or as coherent as I can write; I've never been strong in English classes).
Before I get to that review, I wanted to cover some of the quick notes and highlights that I've come across for y'all. It's not going to be in depth with a lot of details - as I'm holding those off for the full review, or I may do short articles on specific features in the next bit.
Well, here we go; my initial impressions
- It's the Pixel 9 just slightly different. Really, put them both on my desk and they look so familiar. Only physical difference on the exterior is the speaker/mic grilles on the bottom and the sim tray on the top. I would have liked to have some minor physical differentiator (like the change in the visor over the years)
- Qi2 - yeah, there's no physical appearance differentiator, but I do love having the magnets baked into the phone. The downside to this tho' is that it prevents being able to use the phone as a reverse Qi charger (so no popping my Pixel Buds case on the back of the phone; or charging up my wife's phone anymore). This kinda sucks as I don't like losing anything, but I rarely rarely rarely used it.
- Speaking of wireless charging - there's no 'app' for the older Pixel Stands (how it can turn them into photo displays, or have Home items, or adjust the charging speed).
- And as for the battery... still underwhelming. I'm hoping it'll even out as I put it under heavy strain this week with set up and testings.
- The Quick Settings Panel is rearrangeable - as per norm - but it's now 'resizeable', so instead of mini widgets, you can make them 'buttons'; a 1x1 or a 2x1, letting you really lay out your quick panel
- There is AI everywhere. As I type, I get this green magic pen to help clarify my thoughts, or in Messages you get the Magic Write option... Gemini feels really suffused through this whole thing.
-
Magic Cues isn't happening .. maybe it's coming at a later date. But I
have had people text me "when is the next gig?" and I'm getting no prompts
... maybe those are different accounts than what I'm using Messages
with? I did get a 'Magic Cue' option on a phone call as I was dialing,
but it pulled up nothing.
- Speaking of calling - I noticed that the "screen call" option was gone for my contacts. If a friend of mine calls, there's no option to just send them to 'screen' and see what they want when I'm busy (I hate hate HATE voicemails); I did see a button marked "Urgent?" Maybe that's it now? If I've had say a store call, I have seen the option. I preferred the older option.
- And I don't see the Voice Call Translate option (must be coming later)
- I do like the Journal app. I have worked hard to use it as much as I can. I like being able to add photos from the day, or locations, or even workout activities; and then it gives me a bit of a 'summary' of what it thought about my day and help motivate me. Wish I could view these on the web tho' (maybe there's going to be a meld of Keep / Tasks / Journal at some point). It's odd tho' for 2 reasons:
- There's no 'name' for the app, it's literally com.google.journal for a name
- When I click it, unless I had just been using it, it jumps to starting a new journal. I'm trying to use it on a day by day basis vs. several entries per day.
- For some reason Google Fit isn't syncing to the watch -- tho' that's probably not the phone issue but a "Google just done goofed with a service they don't care about anymore"
- Camera feels the same.
- The super zoom is neat, but I wouldn't 'rely' on it. Everything was 'soft'.
- Photo Guide is neat, but not really useful, as it takes time. You take a pic of something you think you'd want to take a pic of to be good, and it'll snap a temporary pic and then come up with some suggestions, you pick one of them and it walks you through the steps to get it the way it wants you to.
And that's about it off the hop. I want to dive into some of these features more deeply as I do like them, and I love the new Expressive material feel, it feels 'natural' and not gimmicky.
Let me know if there's something you wanted to know about the phone and I'll be sure to include it in my fuller review.
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