Pixel 10 is packing muscle where it doesn't count

Citius, Altius, Fortius! That's the Olympic motto and it stands for "Faster, Higher, Stronger": athletic excellence and continuous improvement. What's the Pixel 10 motto and how many medals will that phone bring home to Google?

It turns out that the Pixel 10 (and its siblings, like the Pixel 10 Pro) will take shorter times to boot up:

• Notes from Google engineer reveal the Pixel 10 series will be significantly faster doing this

That's thanks to the Tensor G5 chipset. For this one, Google is leaving Samsung behind and instead, will cooperate with TSMC, the largest contract foundry in the world and a close partner of Apple's.

Many changes are about to happen with the Tensor G5 and, as a result, leaks hint at a 30% faster loading process, meaning you'll be able to switch on your phone (not unlock it) faster.

OK, the Pixel 10 might qualify for the Citius ("Faster") part of the Olympic motto. But do people really want a phone that boots faster… or they just want a fast phone?

It's not the same thing

I don't care that much about ultra-fast loading times, but it's nice to have a phone that's snappy on all fronts.

I'm currently rocking an Android flagship that doesn't pack the latest and greatest from Qualcomm (namely – the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset), but operates with its predecessor (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) under the hood. It loads pretty fast and I can't complain about it.

Then again, I couldn't complain about my Pixel 3a, even though this little fella was miles behind.

It's all about context and perspective, I guess.

Is enjoying 30% faster loading times on your phone really that important and impressive? It depends.

If your phone takes three minutes to boot up, then a 30% improvement would be mind-blowing: you'll get down to two minutes, which is a notable difference.

If your phone takes a minute to load properly, a 30% increase in speed would equal… 42 seconds. If your phone boots up in under a minute, is the 30% reduction in time really worth it?

I don't think so. We're talking about some seconds here – and, more importantly, about a "cold start" – turning on a device that's been turned off (again, it's not about simply unlocking a phone).

When you start things, it's expected that they take some time.



It's essential to note that we're talking about a smartphone, not anything else – for example, a car taking more than a second and a half to start is unacceptable. A TV should start instantly. A computer, be it a laptop or desktop – as well.

The point is, we fire these things up when we need to use them and turn them off afterward. Do you turn off your phone after you've checked your WhatsApp inbox and made a call or two? Nope, it stays on.

It's only in the case of a depleted battery, a software update, or when a bug occurs that the majority of users have to power their phones back on. And these don't happen that often for us to drool after the Pixel 10 and its alleged superfast loading times.

I think there's some very real limit at play here: once this limit is crossed, it's generally irrelevant to ask for more. Your phone could take 30 seconds or 60 seconds to boot up – a twofold difference! – but it's not like these extra 30 seconds are the end of the world. You just lay your phone on the table, have a sip of coffee (or something hotter), take a look out the window and… voilà, before you know it, your phone is up and running, asking for a PIN code.

Now, what was it?!

It's the app loading time that counts

What got my father to switch from a mid-ranger to a Vivo X200 Pro Mini (an exotic flagship among compact devices) was not how fast the phone started from its switched off state, but how fast it opened certain apps.

Like Google Maps, for example. His old phone took forever to open the map and provide accurate location, then really struggled when he typed an address. It was also desperately slow at opening most of the pages on its web browser. It struggled with loading media.

Then I showed him what some extra gigabytes of RAM and a potent chipset like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could do for a phone, and just like that, he was sold on the idea. That's his first pricier phone in years and he's never been happier, especially with the camera that Vivo packs.

So, the Tensor G5 will make the Pixel 10 boot up faster – but will it do any good for the phone besides that?

I'm sure the Tensor G5 will be no slouch when it comes to everyday tasks. Opening Google Maps, surfing the web, and more – I don't imagine hiccups to be present.

Nothing more, though. Leaks so far have been hinting at no major performance upgrades with the Tensor G5, despite the fact that it's going to be made in partnership with TSMC.

What's more, early benchmark testing leaks revealed that Tensor G5 might be a letdown. This was once again corroborated by March 2025 leaks that indicated how Google's Tensor G5 processor might drag down the performance of the Pixel 10 line.



It's expected that while upgrades are to be present on some fronts (boot up time and gaming), the Tensor G5 might be close to its predecessor in terms of performance – and the Tensor G4 is no raw power champion by any means.

In the end, having muscles is great, but the Pixel 10 might be packing muscles where it doesn't count – and that doesn't smell like Olympic medals much to me. Maybe its focus will be on AI? I believe so.