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Google Pixel 10 review: New AI features dont quite make up for mostly iterative improvements

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Last year, I thought Google’s Pixel 9 was a perfectly fine Android phone saddled with a bunch of AI features that ranged from “sorta neat to try once” to “actively pointless.” I had a similar experience with the Google Pixel 10.

The base model of Google’s latest flagship, to its credit, does offer a couple of much-needed hardware improvements, namely a larger battery and a telephoto zoom lens on the phone’s rear camera array. But for at least the second year in a row, Google has largely focused on AI features.

Google Pixel 10 will do just fine if you’re in need of a solid Android handset that takes nice photos and can give you a full day of use out of a single charge. And if you're excited about new AI smartphone features, this phone has a few notable ones. Beyond that, it's hard to get too excited about new phones in the era of incremental improvements.

Google Pixel 10: Price and specs

Google Pixel 10 from the front with the display turned on

The display is pretty nice.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

For starters, this is a $799 phone, just like the Pixel 9 was a year ago. In the tariffs era, that's a win in and of itself. Here’s what you get for that price, specs-wise:

  • 6.3-inch display with 1080×2424 resolution and 60-120Hz adaptive refresh rate

  • Up to 3,000 nits peak brightness

  • 12GB RAM

  • 128GB/256GB storage

  • Google Tensor G5 chip

  • 4,970mAh battery

While a proper 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate (which you can get on Pixel 10 Pro) would probably help with battery efficiency, the display on offer for Pixel 10 is more than good enough. Its peak brightness is 300 nits higher than last year’s model, and I never found myself wanting for more while using the Pixel 10 in broad daylight. Everything is vivid and clear, making it a good display for both everyday usage and previewing your photos before you take them.

Aside from that, the only other big difference from the Pixel 9 is the larger battery. Pixel 9’s cell was 4,700mAh, for context. More on this later.

Google Pixel 10: Design

Google Pixel 10 rear camera bar

Google didn't reinvent the wheel this year.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

Pixel 10 comes in four colors: Indigo, Frost, Lemongrass, and Obsidian. My review unit was the Indigo model, and I think it’s downright gorgeous. It’s no pink iPhone, but it’s closer than any phone in recent memory to looking as good as that, in my opinion.

Otherwise, you’d be forgiven for looking at a Pixel 10 and thinking it’s just a Pixel 9. Google didn’t go back to the drawing board this year. Pixel 10 still uses the same Cyclops-style (X-Men, not Greek mythology) horizontal camera bar at the top of the phone’s backside. The only immediate visual tell that this phone is any different from the Pixel 9 is the presence of that third camera lens on the back.

I don’t mind this, but it does underscore my overall point that if you’re not really excited about AI features, there isn’t a ton to get hyped about this year.

Google Pixel 10: Performance

google pixel 10 smartphones arranged in a grid

The Pixel 10 comes in four colors, and I really like one of them.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

The Pixel 10 is powered by a new Tensor G5 chip. Spoiler alert: It's fine!

Performance on Pixel 10 is more than adequate. Apps work quickly and smoothly, and more intensive tasks like Gemini or other AI features operate efficiently. I did notice the phone getting a little warm after extended use, but that’s nothing that a good case can’t fix. Sadly, the benchmarking software we use (Geekbench 6) was not available on Pixel 10 at the time of writing, so I can’t offer precise metrics for this initial review.

Still, in my time with the phone, performance has been smooth.

Google Pixel 10: Battery life

Battery life is also solid. Impressive, even.

Google rates the Pixel 10 for more than 30 hours on a charge, which I was not quite able to achieve in my testing. Some important context is that I used the phone’s 120Hz mode in testing, which almost certainly reduced the battery life. Even so, I was still able to go roughly 26 or 27 hours between charges, not counting time spent sleeping. Not bad, Google.

Google Pixel 10: AI features

Top of Google Pixel 10 display

It's all about AI this year.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

Pixel 10 expands on the AI toolkit that Google has been building up for the past couple of years, sometimes in ways that feel genuinely useful and transformative, but often in ways that feel superfluous.

Let’s start with the good features. Pixel 10 offers live language translation during phone calls across a variety of commonly spoken global dialects. It happens on-device, and it enables levels of communication that may not have been feasible before. This is the kind of neat thing that AI can and should enable.

I was able to test this in a rudimentary fashion using whatever Spanish I could remember from high school and college. It was able to consistently pick up what I was saying. It does take a second to process what each speaker said, so conversations aren't seamless. Also, unlike other live translation features we've seen, it uses AI to translate what you said using your own voice. It's jarring to hear myself saying things in Spanish I didn't actually say.

I suspect this will be a love-it or hate-it feature. Personally, I would have preferred a generic voice instead, but it moves us closer to real-time universal translation.

Magic Cue in google messages app

Magic Cue in action.
Credit: Screenshot: Alex Perry/Google

The other potentially interesting new AI feature is Magic Cue, which is admittedly hard to test because it’s entirely context-dependent. The basic idea here is that if you have personal information stored somewhere in your data, like in a text message, Gmail, or Calendar event, Magic Cue can pull up that information when you need it most.

For instance, if I had information pertaining to an upcoming flight or hotel stay somewhere in my phone and someone texted me to ask about it, the Pixel 10 would bring up that information in the Messages app, without me needing to actively search for it. I tested this out by making a fake dinner reservation in my Calendar for Domino’s Pizza. When I texted the Pixel 10 from my everyday phone asking about the reservation, lo and behold, a little Calendar app icon appeared in the text window, taking me to that information.

Magic Cue is another example of an AI feature that will definitely save time for folks, even if it's not necessarily saving a ton of time.

Pixel 10 Daily Hub screenshot

My personalized Daily Hub.
Credit: Screenshot: Alex Perry/Google

Unfortunately, the rest of the new AI features on Pixel 10 are mediocre, at best. There’s a new Daily Hub widget that collates things like the weather forecast, calendar events, YouTube videos, and news articles into one place. It’s a nice idea, in theory, but the most useful aspects of it (weather and events) have nothing to do with AI and take about 10 seconds to check outside of Daily Hub. I never wanted to tap on any of the news or YouTube recommendations, and the row of personalized Gemini prompts didn't tempt me at all.

For example, the Pixel 10 recommended that I ask Gemini about the Kansas City Royals pitching staff because it knows I’m a Royals fan. When I did, it spit out the same basic stats you'd find on the ESPN app, alongside some simplistic analysis like, “the Royals have a good pitching staff.” As a baseball fan, I don't really find that useful or compelling. If you're newer to the game, I could see it being useful for learning things like what the WHIP stat means (walks and hits per innings pitched, you're welcome), but I can't say it served me in any meaningful way.

Speaking of Gemini, Gemini Live and Circle to Search are back, integrating AI search with the Pixel 10’s camera. That means you can highlight an object in your field of view while talking to Gemini and ask the chatbot questions about said object. I was able to ask Gemini how many calories were in a can of Monster I was drinking, and it told me. That’s neat, I guess, but I could also just, you know, look at the can. That said, I can easily see this working out in certain circumstances, like when you want to identify a plant or a bug.

A flag pole in front of a blue sky

No edits here.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

A flag pole in front of a very fake looking sunset

You can tell it's edited.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

Lastly, I’d say the biggest addition to the photo editing suite this year is the ability to generatively edit images with text prompts. I took a picture of a flag during the day and asked the phone to make it sunset instead. I also told it to add a “jolly old man” to a photo of some dogs I took. Did it work? Sure, though the final results were extremely fake-looking.

Two dogs with an AI-generated Santa standing between them

I hate this.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

There are, of course, times when this might be useful. If you're inclined to sand out the imperfections in photos for social media, for instance, it's certainly easier to type "remove the pimple" than it is to do all of that yourself. Based on my experiences with this feature, I'd say it's best left to less-creative tasks like that.

Google Pixel 10: How are the cameras?

google pixel 10 rear camera array


Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

Google made some fairly significant changes to the rear camera array this year. Here are the overall camera specs:

  • Rear cameras: 48MP wide, 13MP ultrawide, 10.8MP telephoto

  • Front camera: 10.5MP

For reference, the Pixel 9’s wide lens was 50MP and the ultrawide lens was 48MP. That feels like a big downgrade, at least numerically, but it’s not without good reason: There’s now a telephoto zoom lens with 5x optical zoom on the base Pixel model, after years of that being a Pixel Pro exclusive feature.

And wouldn’t you know it, the optical zoom looks pretty nice.

NYC skyline without any zoom

No zoom.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

NYC skyline with 5x optical zoom

5x zoom.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

I did not have as much luck with digital zoom. Once you get past 5x, the software starts to fill in blanks, leaving some photos looking smudgy and fake. I wasn’t even standing particularly far away from the dogs in the “jolly old man” photo from earlier, but the Dalmatian on the right looks downright grotesque. Even static buildings look a little weird if you go all the way up to 20x.

A building fully zoomed in on Pixel 10

It looks a little weird, right?
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

Aside from that, everything else is basically as it should be. Photos taken with the default lens settings can look pretty gorgeous, especially when you’re shooting the greatest city in the world in the middle of an unbelievably beautiful late-summer day.

Madison Square Park in broad daylight shot with Pixel 10

NYC rocks.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

Night Sight continues to be good at keeping the essence of nighttime intact while illuminating photos so they’re actually, you know, legible.

Buildings in Brooklyn at night without Night Sight

This is without Night Sight.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

Buildings in Brooklyn with Night Sight

And with Night Sight turned on.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

And portrait shots look as good as ever.

Portrait shot of a street sign in Brooklyn

Not much to say here.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

If you care about photography, upgrade to the 10 Pro

An important note here: Google's biggest upgrade with the new Pixel line is a Pixel 10 Pro exclusive. I'm talking about the main rear camera on the Pixel 10 Pro, which Google repeatedly called the world's best-ever phone camera during the Made by Google event.

In our testing, the Pixel 10 Pro and its 100x zoom beat out the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and it mostly lives up to the hype.

So, if you care about photography above all else, go with the Pixel 10 Pro this year, which starts at $999. The Pixel 10 Pro is a Mashable Choice product; the base Pixel 10 is not.

Is the Google Pixel 10 worth it?

It’s hard for me to recommend anyone sprint to their nearest smartphone distillery to get Pixel 10 because its non-AI changes are largely incremental, and the new AI toolkit failed to impress this AI-skeptical reporter.

But that’s not to say it’s a bad phone, at all. And if you're excited to use its AI features, the Pixel 10 offers good specs at a competitive price. The cameras work well, and having telephoto zoom on a base Pixel is really nice. Performance and battery life are also strong.

I just can’t sit here and tell you that you need this phone, unless you’re several generations behind and can get a nice discount through your carrier or something. That’s less of an indictment of Google than of the incremental upgrade era. These annual smartphone launches are becoming extremely iterative and reliant on features that feel less and less impressive over time.

Offers on the Pixel 10 smartphone


Google Pixel 10 with amazon gift card

Credit: Amazon


pixel 10 in indigo

Credit: Google


Google Pixel 10

$799
at Pixel store

Get $100 Google store credit



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Hurdle hints and answers for September 24, 2025

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If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

Hurdle Word 1 hint

To creep around.

Hurdle Word 1 answer

SNEAK

Hurdle Word 2 hint

A long-legged bird.

Hurdle Word 2 Answer

STORK

Hurdle Word 3 hint

To throw.

Hurdle Word 3 answer

CHUCK

Hurdle Word 4 hint

More accurate.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

TRUER

Final Hurdle hint

They show when one smiles.

Hurdle Word 5 answer

TEETH

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

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Five burning questions we have for Alien: Earth Season 2

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This summer, FX's Alien: Earth latched onto my brain like a Facehugger latches onto a new host.

Now, with the release of the show's Season 1 finale, you'd think that Facehugger would drop off and leave me be. You'd be wrong! Instead, the Season 1 finale leaves viewers with some major questions we'll be puzzling over until the show's potential return.

Here are the five biggest questions we have for Alien: Earth Season 2.

What does a Neverland run by hybrids look like?

Season 1 of Alien: Earth ends with the group of hybrids known as the Lost Boys in total control over the Neverland research facility. They've imprisoned Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant), Morrow (Babou Ceesay), Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis), and Atom Eins (Adrian Edmondson). Now, with the adults out of the way, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) declares it's time for the hybrids to "rule."

But what will their rule entail? Will they stay on Neverland, or will they try to extend their authority to the rest of the world? Will they remain fast allies, or will they turn against one another and go full Lord of the Flies on their new island kingdom?

How will Weyland-Yutani and Alien: Earth's other corporations react to Boy Kavalier's plight?

Sandra Yi Sencindiver in "Alien: Earth."

Sandra Yi Sencindiver in "Alien: Earth."
Credit: Patrick Brown / FX

By the end of Alien: Earth Season 1, Weyland-Yutani is closing in on Neverland in order to take back the specimens Boy Kavalier stole. But will Yutani (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) change tack when she realizes her rival is being held captive? Will she leave the island alone or try to stage a hostile takeover? Perhaps her priorities will change entirely, shifting from trying to capture the alien specimens to trying to perfect Boy Kavalier's revolutionary hybrid tech. Either way, her looming presence does not bode well for the newly independent hybrids.

Weyland-Yutani isn't the only other major corporation on the board in Alien: Earth, though. There are three other corporations we haven't truly met yet: Dynamic, Lynch, and Threshold. Could they be joining the party in Alien: Earth's future?

Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google.

What's next for the loose orchid and eyeball aliens?

While the Xenomorph may be under Wendy's control, there are still several alien threats running wild on the island. In the Season 1 finale, the orchid alien (aka D. Plumbicare) revealed that it could turn into a floating, octopus-like creature and got loose in Neverland. I would not want to be walking around the island with that out there, that's for sure.

But that's not all: Alien: Earth's breakout star, the eyeball alien T. Ocellus, found a new host in the corpse of Arthur Sylvia (David Rysdahl). We've seen T. Ocellus take over a cat corpse and a human body, but now we get to see it go full zombie mode in what might be Alien: Earth's coolest development yet. But what's T. Ocellus's plan while in Arthur's body? Will it try to find a new, stronger host in, say, a hybrid? (And what would that look like?) Will it finally have a conversation with its biggest fan, Boy Kavalier? And how in the world will Dame react when she sees her beloved husband with a massive new eyeball and a burst-open chest? Bring on the zombie shenanigans!

Will the Xenomorph continue serving Wendy, or will it rebel?

Sydney Chandler in "Alien: Earth."

Sydney Chandler in "Alien: Earth."
Credit: Patrick Brown / FX

For now, Wendy and her Xenomorph seem pretty tight. But what happens if the Xenomorph goes through a rebellious teenage phase and decides it doesn't want to serve its human mother figure anymore? Could the hybrids lose their grip on Neverland if the apex predator at their disposal decides to turn on them?

Wendy's Xenomorph also isn't the only Xenomorph on the island. There's also the specimen that burst out of Arthur's chest. As it grows, will it become territorial with Wendy's Xenomorph, or will it join the hybrid-Xeno family and view Wendy as its queen? If so, what are the odds Wendy tries to build a whole Xenomorph army?

How will Alien: Earth tie back to Alien?

The question hanging over any prequel is "how will this tie back to the original?" and with Alien: Earth, that question is especially pressing, given that it takes place two years before the events of Alien. By that point, there are no mentions of hybrid technology, nor are there any mentions of them in the sequels. So what will happen to the hybrids between then and now to render them obsolete? It's a daunting question, but it's one that Alien: Earth will certainly have to contend with as it closes in on the original films.

Alien: Earth is now streaming on Hulu.

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Alien: Earths game-changing ending, explained

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After eight episodes of terrifying new creatures, Alien homages, and existential questions about the future of humanity, Alien: Earth Season 1 has come to a close. And what a close it was.

The finale, titled "The Real Monsters," flips the power dynamic that's been in place for the entire season. By the end of the episode, the hybrid Lost Boys, led by Wendy (Sydney Chandler), have gained total control over their keepers, including Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) and Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis). This power shift has been in the cards since Alien: Earth's first episode, but how do we get here? Let's break it down.

Alien: Earth's hybrids finally realize how strong they are.

Alex Lawther, Sydney Chandler, and Lily Newmark in "Alien: Earth."

Alex Lawther, Sydney Chandler, and Lily Newmark in "Alien: Earth."
Credit: Patrick Brown / FX

From the first moment Alien: Earth introduces Wendy in her super-strong, super-fast, super-durable hybrid body, it's clear that she and her fellow Lost Boys could absolutely wreck Prodigy's Neverland security team if they wanted to. That idea doesn't cross their minds, though. Instead, the Lost Boys are still children in consciousness, and they believe Neverland to be a safe paradise for them.

However, this idea erodes over the course of Alien: Earth's first season, as the Lost Boys lose confidence in the people they've been told to trust. They're endangered and experimented on. Nibs' (Lily Newmark) traumatic memories were manipulated. Isaac (Kit Young) died while tending to the alien specimens. Morrow (Babou Ceesay) threatened to kill Slightly's (Adarsh Gourav) family. Each horrifying incident wears away at the Lost Boys' childlike innocence, turning the idyllic Neverland into a hell on Earth.

Ironically, these incidents only increase the Lost Boys' feelings of powerlessness, even though they're the most powerful beings on Prodigy's remote island. But it's also in one of those scenes of powerlessness — when Prodigy forces corner Nibs, Wendy, and her brother Joe aka Hermit (Alex Lawther) on their escape boat in episode 7 — that the Lost Boys begin to realize their power. Nibs fully rips a soldier's jaw off, leaving Hermit to shoot (but not kill) her. Here, a horrified Wendy learns two things. First: Humans, including her brother, are terrified of the hybrids. Second: They have good reason to be. The hybrids are extremely dangerous. So why not embrace that?

That's the realization Wendy comes to in Alien: Earth's Season 1 finale. "All this time, we've been afraid of them," she tells the Lost Boys as they sit trapped in a Neverland cage. "But I think they should be afraid of us."

The Peter Pan allegories come to a head in the Alien: Earth Season 1 finale.

Sydney Chandler and Alex Lawther in "Alien: Earth."

Sydney Chandler and Alex Lawther in "Alien: Earth."
Credit: Patrick Brown/FX

Embracing the Neverland staffers' fear of them is the final stage in the Lost Boys' loss of their childish innocence. Or, in terms of Boy Kavalier's relentless Peter Pan references, this is them finally "growing up." However, that's exactly what the Prodigy founder and the rest of Neverland don't want to happen. As Wendy puts it, "We're all in this cell because we can't be kids anymore, but they won't let us be adults."

Nibs has another suggestion for what they are, one that's especially fitting after seeing the graves of their dead human bodies. "We're all ghosts," she says.

So what do these ghosts do? They turn Neverland into a haunted house, with Wendy using her in-built connection to the facility to manipulate video feeds, elevators, and doors to terrify every last soldier and scientist. Of course, having a Xenomorph at your beck and call helps too.

The entire episode serves as both a liberation for the Lost Boys and an identity crisis for Wendy, otherwise known by her human name, Marcy. She tells her brother, "I don't know what I am. I'm not a child. I'm not a grown-up. I'm not Marcy. I'm not Wendy. And I can't be what everyone wants me to be."

(Earlier in the season, Joe even questions whether Wendy truly holds his sister's consciousness, yet another blow to one of the pillars of Wendy's identity.)

Wendy's statement reflects the binaries in the world of Alien: Earth. Child and adult. Human and synthetic. Hybrids exist somewhere in between, blurring boundaries and creating a new kind of personhood. Wendy and the Lost Boys have spent the entire series having not just new names but entirely new identities imposed on them by exterior forces. Now, they get to make their own. Fellow hybrid Curly (Erana James) embraces her former name, Jane, as Wendy reminds each of the Lost Boys of theirs — a move the late Isaac, formerly Tootles, only enjoyed for an afternoon.

Wendy's identity crisis also explains her affinity for the Maginot aliens, whom she considers "honest." These creatures are wholly themselves, unlike liars such as Boy Kavalier. As Wendy points out, he considers himself Peter Pan, but he was never truly a boy. He was always a "mean, angry little man," just like his abusive father. Ouch. I'm not sure he'll be picking up a copy of Peter Pan any time soon after that.

"Now we rule."

Sydney Chandler in "Alien: Earth."

Sydney Chandler in "Alien: Earth."
Credit: Patrick Brown / FX

"The Real Monsters" ends with Wendy and the Lost Boys holding all of the authority figures in their lives hostage in the same cage they were formerly incarcerated in, prompting Wendy's declaration that, "now, we rule." Even Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant), their Prodigy synth senior, and Morrow, their cyborg antagonist, now answer to them.

The hybrids finally taking control is undoubtedly worthy of Alien: Earth's last hard-rocking needle drop. But it's certainly not the end of the Lost Boys' story. After all, the Weyland-Yutani forces are still encroaching on the island with numerous Prodigy forces still left, hinting at more conflict ahead. Plus, the alien orchid is loose, and T. Ocellus has found a new host in the chestburst corpse of Arthur Sylvia (David Rysdahl). That's a lot of threats for these still-young hybrids to deal with. How will they be able to fight off their enemies and learn how to rule their island?

That question of what it will look like for hybrids to "rule" hints at an intriguing new literary reference point for a possible Alien: Earth Season 2. If Season 1 was the Lost Boys growing up in the style of Peter Pan, then Season 2 might just see them learning to survive on an island in the vein of Lord of the Flies. With that in mind, who's Piggy, who's Ralph, and will the Xenomorph's head somehow wind up on the end of a pointy stick?

Alien: Earth is now streaming on Hulu.

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