I love leaks. (I also love leeks, and I think they’re great as the base flavor of a creamy soup.) At this time of year, they’re especially fun to look at because it’ll be months before we know whether any hearsay will come to fruition. Right now, we’re trying to figure out whether the base model Pixel 10 will have a zoom camera.
Leakers have revealed what they purport to be the Google Pixel 10 and its triple-array camera system. Android Headlines posted the report in partnership with OnLeaks, an X/Twitter account we’ve cited before in smartphone gossip that has turned out to be true. OnLeaks shares CAD renders of the upcoming Pixel 10 lineup. It shows all three models scheduled for release: the base Pixel 10 and the Pro and Pro XL variants. So far, they all look exactly like the Pixel 9 Pro I carry now.
Android Headlines says Google will stick with specifications similar to those of its predecessors, including a 6.3-inch display for the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro. You might see a tiny difference in the relative thinness between last year’s Pixel 9 Pro XL and this year’s Pixel 10 Pro XL, but it will be minimal—about 0.1mm difference. We can also safely assume the processor will be the Tensor G5, and the devices will have the same RAM stack they currently offer.
What’s got our ears perked up is this idea set forth by leakers and everyone else who has reported on these renders as nearly fact. They allege the Pixel 10 will have a third camera like its Pro siblings. Specifically, it could be a periscopic zoom camera, though it has been known that renders can exaggerate the existence of that.
The Pixel 9 is the first tier of the Pixel 9 lineup. Like the iPhone 16 compared to the iPhone 16 Pro lineup, the camera on the Pixel 9 features the base abilities of the rest of the Pixel 9 series but without that far-away optical zoom. If Google were to add the reason you’d spend $200 more on a Pro variant of its Pixel to the first tier, that would change the trajectory of the lineup. It would no longer be at parity with Apple’s iPhone lineup and even Samsung’s Galaxy devices. It would also make it confusing as to who the customer is that the particular base device is marketed toward unless the whole point of the device is to one-up Apple by offering the telephoto capabilities that the base-level iPhone does not.
We’ll have to wait until the summertime before Google reveals anything. Right now, we’re much more focused on what’s coming from its mid-range line, the Pixel A-series.
