Colin Walker

The long running saga of what I would do about a new phone is finally over. I pre-ordered the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL as soon as I got an email from my carrier saying I could. ¹ This was even before the Made By Google event had started.

I, perhaps predictably, opted for the new Moonstone colour and, have to admit, it looks pretty nice.

I had been seriously considering the Nothing Phone 3 but a combination of luke warm reviews and it not being available on my carrier put me off.

Yes, the Pixel 10 series has received criticism for the new Tensor G5 chip, but I don't play games on my phone and don't use apps that require the absolute bleeding edge in hardware to run.

The 10 Pro XL is perfectly fine for what I want a phone to do. It is smooth, has a quality camera system (with Google's great software processing), Qi2 magnets built in, and surprisingly good speakers. The volume is up there but the real win is how full the sound is — the bass surpasses anything else I've heard on a phone.

So, the past few days have been spent setting everything up and getting used to the changes from my Samsung S22 Ultra. While I did transfer data rather than doing a clean setup, the differences between OneUI and the Pixel are enough that it feels like a fresh install.

There are a couple of things I miss but, also, other things I prefer. It's early days, and I haven't done too much with it, but I think we'll be firm friends.