Does the Pixel 10 Pro XL claw back any ground on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – the de facto biggest and best Android device on the market?
As popular as the Pixel lineup is, it is simply miles off the biggest and best Galaxy phones. In sales, in mindshare, and in overall package. Samsung doesn’t do as many bold or brash launches as back in the day, but still manages to sell millions of phones.
Table of contents
Hardware and design
For the first time, Google has followed Samsung’s lead by retreading old ground. These are two phones that are happy to look like their predecessors, and to be honest, it works. We hit a plateau in smartphone design a while back, and sticking to something tried-and-tested is absolutely fine.
What’s less forgivable is resting on laurels. You could say that is where both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro XL are at their worst. Same design, mostly the same core internals save a chip bump, and even similar storage options. That is mostly what smartphones have boiled down to, but it’s weird seeing the arbiter of Android and the most significant player on the platform do the same thing.
Subjectively, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the best-made smartphones I’ve ever used. So, for Google to get close, it is a testament to how the company has improved Pixel build quality over the past few years. The Galaxy’s angular aesthetic makes it quite hard to use without a case, something which does not hinder the Pixel.
The anti-glare coating and almost invisible bezels make up for the gap in maximum brightness. It’s a beautiful panel, and if Google adopted the technology, it would be well worth a minor sacrifice in the maximum brightness level, in my opinion. You can also use the S Pen, which, although it is losing functions year over year, is an incredible productivity tool that no other phone can offer.
Software and performance
One UI has come a long way in a short space of time. I would personally rank it alongside the Pixel version of Android, that is, until we received QPR1. This is, in my opinion, the best way to experience mobile software. It still needs lots of features, it still needs a little refinement, but it’s gorgeous, and the Pixel lineup is the perfect vehicle for Material 3 Expressive.
It probably shows just how far ahead Samsung was with One UI on the feature front, and we’re only getting a few of these on the Pixel 10 now. The desktop mode is a highlight, but that’s far from the only nice quality-of-life addition.
Discrepancy aside, it’s clean versus heavily skinned. Depending on what region you’re in as the Pixel 10 Pro XL launches, your Galaxy S25 Ultra might not even be running Android 16 yet. If you want timely updates, there’s only one place to look, as the Pixel is already a few updates ahead. You also miss out on Magic Cue, plus a couple more Pixel-exclusive functions that are aimed at making your life easier.
Samsung isn’t afraid to add AI, but the difference to Google is that the Korean tech giant has produced some of the most performant phones on Android in recent years. You can do so much, and it barely taxes the device. From high-end emulation to multitasking at almost laptop and PC level. Yes, the Pixel can hang in there to an extent courtesy of refinements to how Android runs on the hardware, but raw performance is the weakest component of Tensor G5. That’s not a heavy critique of the Tensor chip, but one major upside is that it doesn’t produce as much heat, and any of the AI tasks you want to do can run locally here. It’s a different way of thinking about performance on a smartphone.
One saving move for the Pixel 10 Pro XL is that Google adopted UFS 4.0 storage. It’s going to help as the device ages, both from a power usage perspective and because it can hide when other system resources get bogged down, meaning that you might not notice slowdowns as often.
Camera
Since the Pixel 10 Pro XL relies on the exact same camera array as the Pixel 9 Pro XL, there really isn’t much difference when comparing it to the Galaxy S25 Ultra beyond one small change.
Thanks to the addition of Pro Res Zoom, the Pixel can now zoom to 100x for the first time. With the help of AI, the images you take with this mode can be genuinely excellent. Ethically, there are question marks around how this is used, but if you want a quick snap and it makes the photo better, does that matter?
The Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Pixel 10 Pro XL could be pitted against each other on the basis of brains versus brawn. Samsung’s 200-megapixel main sensor is a beast; it is arguably the best on a phone outside of China. Regarding overall raw specifications, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a big edge. There’s the weird 3x 10MP sensor, but the 50MP 5x telephoto that can do up to 100x. The quad-sensor setup is still just as flexible in the real world.
Battery
I have been thoroughly impressed with the longevity of the Pixel 10 Pro XL; it has a decent battery. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has a great battery, too. Unless you are doing lots of battery-intensive tasks, they are very comparable, but the Samsung has an edge in our testing despite having a marginally smaller battery.
Charging is rated the same, too, 45W on both phones. It’s closer to 40W in the real world, but the charging curve means you can get the Pixel up to 70% in just 30 minutes. Throw in the 25W Qi magnet charging, and it’s hard not to argue that the Pixel has better charging options.
Pixel 10 Pro XL vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Which is the best Android device?
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At $1,000+, few smartphones are truly worth their asking price. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has dropped drastically but still stands apart as one of the best total packages on Android. Rightly or wrongly, it’s the yardstick for all Google phones, and while the needle hasn’t been moved all too much, the day-to-day experience with the Pixel 10 Pro XL gets closer than ever before.
Maybe not close enough to worry Samsung, but somewhere over the horizon in the rearview, there is a small sliver of Google slowly making ground. As for the all-important chip, well, Tensor is still way off in the distance, but now that TSMC is in the driving seat, we might get some major performance gains over the next few iterations. It’s almost integral that Google starts to do that for device longevity. Maybe even for brand perception. You can avoid competing for a while, but eventually you need to offer something that at least challenges the competition.
After almost 9 months on the market, the Galaxy S25 Ultra hasn’t budged from the upper echelons. The Pixel 10 Pro XL doesn’t usurp it; on paper, it barely even budges it. We all know that specs tell only a portion of the story, and like just about every Pixel to date, it belies the internals to offer something that feels especially premium. No matter which device you prefer, you are getting a great package that will serve you well, no matter what you do with it. Just know that you’re not getting anything groundbreaking in either chassis.
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