If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I’ve always been in the Apple ecosystem, writing about the company and its products since the early days of the Mac. Now that I’m writing for CNET, I’m also covering Android phones, which has been a great learning experience. Case in point: the new Pixel 10 phones announced this week.
The physical cameras of these devices aren’t too different, with two notable exceptions, from the previous models, but Google is doing a lot with AI and other software improvements to enhance the photographic experience. Although specs on the wide/main Pixel 10 Pro camera are largely the same, the module was rebuilt to accommodate a new optical image stabilization (OIS) chassis that improves stability 2x; and the base Pixel 10 now has a dedicated telephoto camera.
I talked to the head of the Pixel camera team to get a deep dive into the new technologies: Google Thinks AI Can Make You a Better Photographer: I Dive Into the Pixel 10 Cameras
(Photo by Andrew Lanxon, CNET)
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 
I just purchased a new pixel 10 pro XL May 2026 and I have to say the image quality is extremely soft and has halo artefacts at a zoomed in image. Really bad! This is worse than my 4 generation old Samsung phone! I’ve tried every setting both in standard and pro modes and it’s still very poor quality! I’m a retired techie and a photographer so I know how the settings should work. This is a Google software or chip issue that needs to be addressed! Complaints are all over the Internet about the same exact issue. I contacted Google support and they acted like they’ve never heard of this issue before with no real resolution. I would appreciate if Google were more stand-up about this and let the world know they are addressing this issue and will be releasing an update to fix the poor image quality.