Google Pixel 10

Latest Pixel 10 updates have improved performance, at least on benchmarks

Ben Schoon | Dec 8 2025 - 7:05 am PT

Google’s Pixel 10 phones, based on the company’s Tensor chips, simply do not have the same raw performance as some other Android flagships. Yet, recent updates to the Pixel 10 series appear to have made some improvements to performance, at least on benchmarking tests.

Benchmarking tests are generally not directly reflective of how your phone actually feels to use in real life. If all that mattered were benchmarking scores, Google’s phones would be a far worse experience than other devices, but Pixels generally feel about the same to use in day-to-day tasks.

That said, these tests do help show when things change, and it seems software updates have made a difference on the Pixel 10 series.

The folks over at Android Authority ran a test on the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5 following both the November and December updates. Compared to initial results from when these phones first launched, both the CPU and GPU show slight improvements. One test shows an improvement of roughly 19-20% on the Pixel 10’s CPU, where other tests show a roughly 5-7% improvement to the GPU, possibly coming in part from a driver update.

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The bulk of these improvements were seemingly delivered by the November 2025 update (or one prior), with the December update that delivered Android 16 QPR2 showing negligible differences in performance over that prior update.

What does this actually mean for you?

Probably not much, really. While there’s clearly a marked improvement in the Pixel 10’s performance on paper following these updates, it’s not going to suddenly turn Tensor G5 into a Snapdragon 8 Elite competitor. That said, it’s very likely these improvements could address the edge cases where Tensor G5 was struggling, or perhaps unlock a few more frames per second in games.

In any case, it’s just good to see Google continuing to iron out issues and nail down the performance of its flagship phones.

Have you noticed any improvements on Pixel 10 performance in recent updates?