5 reasons why you should pre-order the Google Pixel 10 right now

This week has been a pretty darn good one to be a Pixel fan. On Wednesday, Google announced a new pair of Pixel Buds, the Pixel Watch 4, and — most importantly — the Pixel 10 series. Even better is that if you like what you see, you can pre-order all of the new Pixel gadgets right now.

However, that begs an important question: Should you pre-order any of the new Pixel 10 phones?

My colleague Rita recently offered some advice about why she thinks you shouldn’t pre-order a Pixel 10, but I’m of a different mindset. Given what we’ve seen of the Pixel 10 series so far, I think Google has shown us enough that, if the Pixel 10 has your eye, pre-ordering one is the right call. Here are a few reasons why.

Let’s start with one of the new features I’m personally most excited about: Qi2 magnetic charging. We’ve been talking about Qi2 since it was announced at CES 2023, but up until now, no major Android manufacturer has released a phone that fully supports the standard — magnets and all.

I’ve already written about my love for magnetic accessories, but it’s worth reiterating here just how convenient they really are. Whether it’s the assurance of knowing your wireless charger is perfectly aligned or being able to seamlessly attach a power bank or wallet to the back of your phone, magnets just make everything better.

Google is launching its own first-party “Pixelsnap” magnetic accessories alongside the Pixel 10 series, but you can also use any existing MagSafe products with the phones — meaning you have a lot of possible accessories to deck out your new phone with.

As much as I love my magnets, an even bigger deal for the Pixel 10 series is Google’s new Tensor chip: Tensor G5. We talked a lot about the G5’s potential leading up to the Pixel 10’s announcement, and now that it’s official, this year’s chipset sounds just as promising as we had hoped.

Performance-wise, Google says that the Tensor G5’s CPU is up to 25% faster (compared to the Tensor G4) and that the TPU is up to 60% more powerful — meaning you should see pretty significant performance boosts for day-to-day use and all of Google’s AI features.

Along with more horsepower, the Tensor G5’s new 3nm design (and fabrication by TSMC rather than Samsung Foundry) appears to have translated to improved efficiency as well. Where the Pixel 9 lineup was promised “24+ hours” of battery life, the Pixel 10 phones see that number increased to “30+ hours.”

Finally, and perhaps even more importantly, we should expect all Pixel 10 models to run cooler than their Pixel 9 counterparts. Google says this year’s phones have upgraded “hardware and software thermal controls,” including a graphite thermal solution in the base Pixel 10, along with vapor chambers for the Pixel 10 Pro models.

So many of my issues with past Pixel phones have boiled down to short battery life and poor thermals. As such, the fact that the Tensor G5 addresses all of this — while also boosting performance so much – is a good sign. How that all comes together in the real world remains to be seen (and we’ll be testing it soon), but everything Google is saying sure does sound promising.

Although the cameras on Google’s Pixel 10 Pro models remain unchanged this year, there is a pretty dramatic upgrade for the base Pixel 10. For the first time on a non-Pro Pixel, the Pixel 10 comes with three cameras on the back: a 48MP primary camera, a 13MP ultrawide camera, and a 10.8MP telephoto camera.

For the last several years, Google has made a clear distinction between its Pro and non-Pro Pixel phones, with telephoto cameras being reserved for its more expensive handsets. As such, the Pixel 10 breaking that mold is a pretty big deal. Now, you don’t have to shell out Pro money to get a phone with an ultrawide and a telephoto camera.

To achieve this, Google had to downgrade the primary and ultrawide cameras; the Pixel 9 had a 50MP primary camera and a 48MP ultrawide camera. That’s certainly not ideal, but I think the trade-off will be well worth it. The flexibility that comes with a dedicated telephoto camera can’t be overstated, especially with total zoom capabilities of up to 20x.

While new hardware is fun and exciting, what makes the Pixel 10 series even more noteworthy are all of the new AI features debuting with Google’s new phones. AI has been a focus of Google’s for a minute now, and while it can be easy to write off AI features as nothing but fluff, there’s some meat to the ones on the Pixel 10 series.

One such feature is Magic Cue. The idea behind Magic Cue is that it can show you helpful, contextual info when you may need it — for example, showing you your reservation info while calling a restaurant or showing a shortcut to your Google Calendar if a friend texts to ask if you’re free for drinks on Friday.

Even more impressive is the new Voice Translate feature in the Google Phone app. If you’re talking on the phone with someone who speaks another language, Voice Translate takes both parties’ voices and translates them into the other person’s language. Not only does this happen in almost real-time, but the translated voices mimic the person speaking. So, if I were talking to someone who spoke Italian, I would speak English, but the person on the other end would hear my voice speaking Italian. It’s pretty incredible stuff.

There are plenty of other features, too, including AI voice writing in Gboard, NotebookLM integration with the Pixel Recorder app, and more. It’s likely that some of these features will eventually come to older Pixels, but we don’t know which models or when that will happen. In other words, if you want to experience the latest of Google’s AI capabilities, you’ll want a Pixel 10.

Last but certainly not least, let’s talk about Pixel 10 pre-order deals. One of the perks of buying early is that you can usually save a fair amount of money, and that’s no different this year for the Pixel 10 series.

If you pre-order a Pixel 10 directly from the Google Store, you’ll get a Google Store credit that can be used toward a future purchase. The offer is available through September 4, and the amount of your credit depends on which Pixel you choose:

• Pixel 10 comes with a $100 credit
• Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL come with a $200 credit
• Pixel 10 Pro Fold comes with a $350 credit

But that’s not all. If you have an old phone, Google is offering up to $760 off your Pixel 10 with an eligible trade-in. Additionally, Google Fi is running its own promos, where new customers can get up to $800 back and existing customers can get up to $450 off instantly. If you’re more of an Amazon shopper, you can get a $100, $200, or $300 Amazon gift card when pre-ordering the Pixel 10 from the online retail giant.

These may not be the most jaw-dropping pre-order deals we’ve ever seen, but they’re still really nice to have. If you’re debating getting a Pixel 10, you might as well place your order now to score some extra discounts and gift cards before regular sales begin.