Following the Pixel 9a launch, Google will focus on the next version of Android and the upcoming Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro family. This weekend saw its hardware and software strands cross over with the promise of faster code and improved performance.
Pixel 10 Pro Software Updated
The new details come from within the Android Open Source Project code—which manufacturers use to build their own Android versions, including Google.
Thanks to the notes left by a Google Engineer alongside the code chain, we know more about the gains to expect in the Pixel 10 family. In part of the “parallel module loading” routine, more performance has been found, which triggers when a device boots up: “Test: Pixel 10 reduces 30% loading time, and Pixel Fold reduces 25%.”
Given the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL all ran the same Tensor G4 Mobile chipset when they were launched last year; it’s safe to assume that the new Tensor G5 will be standard across the new devices, in which case that 30% increase is likely to be across the board.
Faster Pixel 10 Pro Booting
The note that there is a speed increase, but not as high, could point out two angles. The first is that the code is running on the older Pixel Fold, which wasn’t branded with a model number when it was released in 2023. By the same read, it could be last year’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold. I’m more inclined to think this is the presumptively named Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and the engineer is simply using “10” for the whole family and “Fold” for the outlier. Given the smaller internal footprint of a foldable device, which can lead to physical performance constraints, the lower gain does feel reasonable.
Pixel 10 Pro Speed For All
Given these commits are to the main branch of AOSP, these benefits will likely cascade through the entire Android ecosystem over the next 12 to 18 months. However, with the Pixel handsets typically the first to ship with the latest version of Android, Google will once more use the Pixel range to show where it believes the platform should be moving.
Now read the latest Pixel 10 Pro, Galaxy S26 and Android smartphone headlines in Forbes’ weekly news digest…
