“There has been a lot of hype about (AI in phones) and frankly a lot of broken promises too, but Gemini is the real deal,” said Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of devices and services, referring to Google’s AI chatbot and model.
At its developer conference in June, iPhone maker Apple toned down its AI promises a year after it failed to deliver AI upgrades to key products such as Siri. Apple is expected to unveil its new line of iPhones this autumn.
While Google’s hardware upgrades were modest compared with its bold refresh in 2024, the company maintained its forward progress on its stated ambition to develop a universal AI assistant.
“We’ve got the best models, we’ve got the best AI assistant, and it means this can just unlock so much helpfulness on your phone,” Osterloh said.
New AI features rolling out with the Pixel 10 lineup include a “coach” in the camera app to help users take better pictures and an assistant that displays relevant information without a user’s explicit request, such as showing a flight confirmation email when they call an airline.
All the Pixel phones are equipped with Google’s latest mobile processor, Tensor G5, and for the first time, feature a magnetic charging technology called Pixelsnap that is reminiscent of the MagSafe functionality on Apple’s iPhones. Google unveiled a series of Pixelsnap chargers, cases and phone stands to accompany the launch.
Employees also demoed integrations of AI features earlier unveiled at Google’s developer conference in May, such as a real-time language translation function for phone calls.
The exteriors of the phones remain largely the same, though Google added a telephoto lens on the base model to bring it in line with the cameras on its pricier units.
“A lot of the stuff they showed today would probably run almost exactly the same way on last year’s hardware. Their point is it’s not about just the hardware anymore,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research.
Google also announced new versions of its smartwatch, the Pixel Watch 4 (from S$529 for the 41mm), and its cheaper Pixel Buds 2a wireless earbuds (S$199), though it did not update the Pixel Buds Pro 2 besides announcing a new colour and upcoming device-specific software upgrades.
