The Google Pixel 10's focus on on-device AI may end up holding back its performance long-term, based on discoveries made by Android Authority.
AA discovered that, while the base Pixel 10 comes with 12GB RAM, about 3.4GB of it is permanently locked off to run the AICore background service and to assist the Tensor G5's TPU (the AI-focused part of the chipset). Therefore users only have free access to 8.6GB of RAM capacity.
Something similar happened with the Pixel 9 Pro models last year, but notably not the basic Pixel 9. But a key difference is that these phones had a smaller 2.6GB reservation, and all the Pro models had 16GB RAM total to play with as they do this year.
The reserved RAM is there to prevent the need to load the AI back-end into memory each time the user wants to access it. It means that features like Magic Cue, Voice Translate and Pixel Studio are always ready to go, rather than leaving you to stare at a loading screen before doing anything productive.
Locking off three-and-a-half gigs of RAM is less of an issue on the Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL and the yet unreleased Pixel 10 Pro Fold, as these all use 16GB RAM. But this is over a quarter of the base Pixel 10's RAM that users will never be able to take advantage of on their own terms, unless Google changes things with an update.
Is this worth it?
If you are a keen user of Pixel AI features, then keeping the underlying processes in RAM at all times means there's minimal loading and processing time, letting you experience these features in the best possible way.
However, when you're not trying to use these features, and instead want to jump between apps or play a game, this is going to be more troublesome. How often you'll end up hitting the memory ceiling on a Pixel 10 and have to close and reload apps will depend on what you're trying to do, but the possibility is higher than with other devices.
This could become more likely over time as well, since with Google's software update promise, the Pixel 10 will keep getting updates until 2032. This could mean future, more demanding apps could struggle to work on the Pixel 10 while other 12GB RAM phones without the AI restriction will do just fine. And if Google wants to increase the size of its AI models down the line, then we may end up with even less.
You can check out our Google Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL reviews, plus our Pixel 10 Pro Fold hands-on at these links. There, you can read our thoughts on these phones' new and upgraded AI features, and figure out if it's worth permanently giving up some of your device's memory for in your particular case.
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