Google’s Pixel 10 Pushes Smartphones Into the AI-First Era. Can Apple’s iPhone 17 Catch Up?

Google’s Pixel 10 offered the clearest glimpse yet of what the AI-first generation of devices could look like. Launched at a live-streamed Made by Google event, the company unveiled four new devices — the standard Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, XL and a new foldable model — each packed with Gemini-powered capabilities. Features like Magic Cue, Circle to Search and Camera Coach position the Pixel as less of a phone and more of an intelligence collaborator. And PixelSnap, its new magnetic wireless charger, worked surprisingly well with Apple’s MagSafe ecosystem. The event had plenty of flash — including late night talkshow host Jimmy Fallon yelling “tensor chip” every five minutes — but beneath the spectacle was a clear message: The Pixel is entering a new era.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 debuted with barely a mention of the artificial intelligence. Apple rolled out a new lineup of phones — the iPhone 17, the 17 Pro, the 17 Pro Max and a new, slimmer version dubbed the iPhone Air — all of which are equipped with its Apple Intelligence system that runs in the background of its apps. But it didn’t mention the new AI-powered Siri it has in the works, which reportedly had to be pushed back to 2026. In fact, beyond some updates to its Visual Intelligence and camera, the most compelling use of AI wasn’t even pitched as a phone upgrade, it was the new AI-powered Live Translation feature coming to Apple’s AirPods 3. 

The difference between the two rollouts couldn’t be starker. Google’s Pixel 10 launch was a full-throated declaration that the future of smartphones is a collaborative, intelligence-driven experience, whereas Apple’s iPhone 17 came off as more of a subtle feature update than a radical paradigm shift. Still, the competition is for best phone is no longer about who has the superior camera or the fastest charging time, it’s about who can weave artificial intelligence best into the devices we use every day.

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What To Know About the Pixel 10

The Pixel 10 is Google’s first smartphone built entirely around artificial intelligence. Instead of treating AI as a background tool or software upgrade, it runs Gemini, the company’s large language model, directly on the phone. This makes its AI-driven features feel less like an add-on and more like a core part of daily use. Users can hold natural, spoken conversations with Gemini Live, perform instant visual searches by tracing objects on-screen and receive context-aware suggestions across messaging, email and apps.

These are some of its key AI features:

• Gemini Live with visual overlays: Uses your camera to provide real-time guidance and context, showing helpful information directly on what you’re looking at.
• Magic Cue: Systemwide AI integration that offers proactive suggestions and shortcuts across apps.
• Circle to Search: Lets users draw a circle on the screen to instantly search for objects, text or images with Google AI.
• Camera AI tools: Features like Camera Coach, Auto Best Take and Face Unblur that use AI to enhance photos and video automatically.
• Voice Translate: Lets you speak naturally in one language while the other person on the receiving end hears an immediate, spoken translation in their language during live, multilingual conversations.
• Pixel Journal: An AI-powered personal record that summarizes on-device — including calls, messages, emails and app usage — as a daily activity log.
• Pixel Screenshots: Automatically annotates saved screenshots, making them searchable by text, date or content.
   

At the heart of the Pixel 10 is the new Tensor G5 processor, a chip custom-built to handle AI workloads efficiently while improving speed and security. That hardware supports a familiar but polished design: a slim, 6.3-inch OLED display wrapped in a lightweight aluminum band and durable, scratch-resistant glass. The camera system continues Google’s tradition of computational photography, offering a 48MP main sensor, a 13MP ultrawide lens and a 5x telephoto zoom that works in tandem with Google’s AI-powered editing suite.

The Pixel 10’s battery life is rated at over 24 hours under standard use, with an “extreme battery saver” mode that’s capable of stretching usage up to 100 hours. Charging is faster too, with its 30W USB-C charger that can restore half life in about 30 minutes. 

Priced at a hefty $799, the Pixel 10 is more than a yearly spec bump — it’s Google’s clearest attempt to define what a smartphone built for the AI era should look like. The company is also positioning it as a long-term device, promising seven years of Android updates and security patches. This signals a shift where software intelligence, not just hardware, defines the user experience.

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What to Know About the iPhone 17

While its AI capabilities — collectively branded as Apple Intelligence — are less ubiquitous than the Pixel 10’s, the iPhone 17 includes several targeted AI features, including Live Translate, which can translate calls in real time, and Call Screening, which uses on-device AI to vet incoming calls.

These are some of its key AI and hardware features:

• Live Translation: Allows for real-time language translation of calls.
• Call Screening: An on-device AI assistant that automatically answers unknown callers and transcribes what they say. Once they share their name and reason for calling, you can decide if you want to pick up. 
• Writing Tools: System that automatically proofreads texts and can rewrite in different versions or tones. It can also summarize a selected text.
• Genmojis: A tool that allows users to make their own custom emojis by combining any two together.
• Camera System: The iPhone 17 Pro introduces a triple 48MP Fusion camera system with a new Telephoto lens that offers up to 8X optical zoom — the longest ever on an iPhone. And all iPhone 17 models come with a 48MP Ultra Wide camera.
• Center Stage Camera: Redesigned 18MP front camera that can automatically adjust the field of view during video calls and group photos so that everyone stays in the frame.
• ProMotion Display on All Models: For the first time, all the iPhone 17 models feature a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate display.

The iPhone 17 runs on the new A19 chip, which is built on a 3-nanometer process that allows it to run AI models on the device itself. The phone also features a polished design, with a 6.3-inch OLED display and ProMotion capabilities, enabling smoother scrolling and more immersive gaming. Its battery life is rated for up to 30 hours of video playback, which is a significant jump from the previous generation. It can also be charged to 50 percent in about 20 minutes. 

Priced starting at $799, the iPhone 17 also comes with a base storage of 256GB — double the starting storage of the iPhone 16. As a whole, Apple seems to be positioning this new base model as a more capable, long-term device, with intelligence and performance upgrades that go beyond the standard yearly update.

Pixel 10 vs. iPhone 17

Here’s a closer look at how Google’s Pixel 10 and Apple’s iPhone 17 compare across hardware chips, camera optics, ecosystem integration and user experience. 

Tensor G5 vs. A19

The Pixel 10 and iPhone 17 each have a chip that defines how AI works on the device, but they take slightly different approaches. Google’s Tensor G5 is custom-built to run AI tasks efficiently throughout the whole operating system, without relying on the cloud. Apple’s new 5-core A19 GPU also handles AI tasks quickly and efficiently, but it is confined to specific apps and features. 

Both chips have neural engines for accelerating machine learning, but Google emphasizes deep integration across the operating system, while Apple balances AI with speed, graphics and general performance. The Tensor G5 focuses on energy efficiency during heavy AI tasks, whereas the A19 prioritizes fast and smooth multitasking alongside AI features. 

In practice, all of this means the Pixel 10’s intelligence feels like it’s everywhere, guiding interactions and suggestions across apps, while the iPhone 17 delivers AI in more targeted ways, enhancing specific tasks and experiences. 

Camera

Both phones use AI to enhance photos, but their methods are fundamentally different. The Pixel 10 uses its camera as an extension of AI, with features like Camera Coach, Face Unblur and Auto Best Take, which automatically captures multiple shots and selects the clearest, best-composed image of the set. These tools automatically adjust for lighting, composition and motion in real time, making AI an integral part of the photo-taking process. Meanwhile, with its Dual Fusion 48MP camera system, the iPhone 17 takes a more traditional approach to photography, using AI to enhance the image in a more subtle, true-to-life way. Plus, its new 8X optical zoom on the Po models, paired with machine learning, allows for sharper distance or low-light shots without the need for digital processing.

User Experience

The philosophical differences between the two companies are perhaps most apparent in their respective phones’ user experiences. Google positions the Pixel 10 as a forward-thinking device, where AI defines daily interactions at nearly every touchpoint — texting, taking photos, writing emails, navigating. The iPhone 17, on the other hand, feels more like a traditional smartphone with powerful AI features added on. 

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The AI Question: Is Apple Falling Behind?

So far, Apple has taken a relatively cautious approach to artificial intelligence — and some say that’s the right call. While competitors like Google and Meta have aggressively charged ahead, embedding AI into every product, Apple has moved more deliberately, focusing on reliability, privacy and integration within its existing ecosystem. Its goal seems to be to dominate the market on its own terms, rather than just being first. 

Recent announcements suggest that Apple may be looking to outsource its AI development, a move that could be read as a concession, at least at this stage. The company is reportedly in talks with Google to potentially use its Gemini models in a major Siri redesign. It is also considering partnerships with Anthropic and OpenAI (the maker of ChatGPT), sidelining the development of its own AI model to accelerate its overall AI strategy.

Apple is making gains with the deeper integration of Apple Intelligence, but it doesn’t quite match the systemic AI approach Google took with the Pixel 10. From a user perspective, the Pixel 10 provides a more AI-native experience that’s indicative of where smartphones are likely going, whereas the iPhone 17 may feel more familiar, with subtle AI enhancements running in the background. It remains to be seen if Apple’s strategy will be enough to compete in a market where a company’s AI capabilities have become so important.

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