I won’t switch my iPhone for a Pixel 10 Pro, and the slow GPU is only a small part of the reason why

If you’re into mobile gaming and enjoy titles like Genshin Impact, or you want to push your device to edit video and photos with Premiere Rush or Lightroom more often, you should be worried. Initially, the Pixel 10 Pro will work fine, and it’ll do that for some time. However, its performance limitations will start showing much sooner than those of an iPhone 16 Pro or a Galaxy S25.

Meanwhile, the benchmark results of the iPhone 14 Pro are similar to those of the Pixel 10 Pro, proving that Apple is still the king of smartphone longevity. I wouldn’t argue that a three-year-old device will work faster than a new one, but the drop in performance on an iPhone was always much smaller than most Android devices. More importantly, the usual culprit for a lagging iPhone is the battery, and not the chipset.

Google’s ecosystem doesn’t need an Android

The iPhone 14 Pro has a similar performance to the Google Pixel 10 Pro | Image credit — PhoneArena

Google’s ecosystem is so open and accepting that I can use it all on my Apple devices, which I’m already doing. Gmail and Google Calendar are synced with my Apple devices, I navigate with Maps and Waze, and I use a Chromium-based browser on my MacBook. I might be missing out on the Gemini assistant, but I’m using ChatGPT anyway.

Apple, on the other hand, has Continuity, Handoff, and Universal Control, which don’t have an Android equivalent. While AirDrop and Universal Clipboard have Android alternatives, none of them work as seamlessly as Apple’s versions. Then there’s iMessage, which isn’t very important for me, but is crucial for many.

Even if I switch all my devices, I’d lose access to features I like and use every day, but I wouldn’t gain much. After all, Google’s best services are easily available everywhere.

In the end, it’s good we have a choice

Neither the iPhone nor the Pixel is perfect, so whatever choice you make, it will come with tradeoffs. Adding to them the hassle involved in switching from one ecosystem to another makes the requirements for such a jump even higher. The Pixel 10 Pro looks like a great phone for people who already use an Android, but it’s a tough sell for me as an iPhone user.

Even if I don’t plan to switch sides, I am glad that the Pixel 10 series exists. It has all the fun Gemini features I can only dream of on an iPhone, and it shows that Google is more committed to making great hardware than ever before. 

With the iPhone 17 coming, Apple has a lot of catching up to do, and it can only be grateful that it has made switching away that difficult. Otherwise, the Pixel 10 could’ve been much more compelling for Apple users.