After testing out popular Android emulators on the Pixel 10 Pro XL and last year’s Pixel 9 Pro XL, I came away disappointed. Performance is notably worse on the new model, making some games far less enjoyable and others outright impossible to play. The Tensor G5 processor’s switch to an Imagination Technologies DXT-48-1536 graphics unit seems like a real step backward.
Trying to emulate classic consoles — especially the 3D ones — is always a difficult ask, but what about games built specifically for Android? Well, I tested those too, and once again, the results are a mixed bag for Google’s latest flagship.
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
For this round, I used the same two phones and ran through a few of the most popular Android titles from recent years. Call of Duty: Mobile’s Battle Royale mode supports high frame rates (up to 120fps, depending on the phone) on Medium graphics, so I loaded that up with antialiasing enabled to stress the GPU. Next, I ran Asphalt Legends for a more consistent playthrough. Neither phone supports the game’s 120fps mode, so I maxed out the graphics to see how they’d handle it.
Genshin Impact remains as popular as ever, so I booted it up to see how both phones would perform at maximum settings with the 60fps cap. A point of interest: the Pixel 9 runs Genshin via the Vulkan API, while the Pixel 10 uses OpenGL, so the comparison isn’t quite one-to-one.
You can check out some gameplay clips with performance overlays in the video above, but let’s dive into the results in more detail.
Pixel 10 Pro XL gameplay performance results
Looking at the performance overview, it’s clearly a mixed bag, with neither phone managing to lock the maximum frame rate in any of these titles. Google’s newest flagship pulls ahead in Genshin Impact but performs worse in Asphalt Legends, particularly in the lowest 5% of frames. Meanwhile, COD Mobile shows the two handsets are virtually neck and neck. In any case, the newer Pixel 10 Pro XL isn’t an outright winner, though it delivers acceptable enough performance to keep these games playable even with the settings cranked up.
We see more meaningful discrepancies in the deeper data. In Asphalt Legends, for example, the Pixel 10 Pro XL never quite reaches 60fps, while the 9 Pro XL occasionally does, which is reflected in its higher average frame rate.
Interestingly, the Pixel 10 Pro XL exhibits significantly more “jank”—frames that take longer than 100ms to render, causing noticeable microstutter. This happens most often when loading and starting races, though it drops slightly fewer frames than last year’s model during gameplay.
The Pixel 10 provides fair performance, but it’s far from an upgrade over last year.
At the higher frame rates of COD Mobile’s Battle Royale mode, the Pixel 10 Pro XL struggles more with consistency. Although the average and worst-case frame rates are similar between the two phones, we again see more jank on the new model. I counted 288 frames over 100ms on the 10 Pro XL and none on the 9 Pro XL, resulting in a smoother experience on the older device.
If there’s one drawback for the Pixel 9 Pro XL, it runs slightly hotter at the end of this 13-minute test. However, neither phone appears to throttle performance during that time.
Finally, Genshin Impact showcases a notable performance win for the Pixel 10 Pro XL, possibly due to its use of a different graphics API. While it can’t sustain a locked 60fps, it hovers comfortably above 50 most of the time, providing a smoother experience than the 9 Pro XL, which averages closer to 40fps. However, we observed a one-off period of significant jank on the 10 XL around the one-minute mark, while the 9 XL delivered 28 frames exceeding 100ms.
The Pixel 9 Pro XL doesn’t appear to be working especially hard here — its temperature is far lower than the 10 XL’s — and we occasionally see spikes above 40fps. It’s unclear why its frame rate remains so low. I retested several times and saw the same result each run, suggesting either a deliberate software optimization for battery life or a bug in the Android 16 build I’m running.
Performance isn’t the only issue
While the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5 ensures all these games run acceptably if not brilliantly, the results aren’t great considering the phone sometimes takes a step back from last year’s model. However, there are other, more glaring problems when it comes to Android gaming.
Power is a big one. According to Android’s system-level battery data, the Pixel 10 Pro XL draws considerably more power to achieve its performance edge in Genshin Impact — an unsustainable 7.2W average during gameplay that will drain the battery quickly. Equally concerning, it consumes more power in Asphalt Legends while delivering worse performance. Periods with spikes reaching as high as 17W are absolutely unacceptable.
Power consumption is closer in COD Mobile, where the Pixel 9 Pro XL is marginally hungrier than the 10 Pro XL, but the difference isn’t significant compared to the other tests.
Another major issue is game compatibility. Some titles simply aren’t supported on PowerVR GPUs. The superb Alien Isolation, for instance, is available on older Pixel models going back several years, but I can’t install it on my Pixel 10. Although Genshin Impact still runs, as we’ve seen, the popular title has dropped support for PowerVR GPUs, like the one found in the Pixel 10 series, which may lead to stability issues or graphical glitches in parts of the game I haven’t tested. There are undoubidly many other examples.
Power consumption, glitches, and unsupported titles make the Pixel 10 a hard sell for gamers.
Speaking of glitches, if you watch the Pixel 10 Pro XL performance video of COD Mobile with anti-aliasing enabled, you’ll notice countless artifacts affecting foliage and vehicles. These disappear when AA is disabled, but it’s exactly the sort of issue that crops up on platforms with limited driver support.
Many have speculated that these problems may stem, at least in part, from the phone shipping with an older PowerVR DXT-48-1536 GPU driver (v24.3). Imagination Technologies released an updated driver (v25.1) in August, adding Android 16 compatibility, Vulkan 1.4 support, and more. However, Google hasn’t rolled it out to the Pixel 10 series yet— and driver updates are historically slow.
I asked about plans for the Pixel 10 driver releases and received the following response from a Google spokesperson.
We are continuing to improve driver quality in our monthly and quarterly system updates. For example, the most recent September and October patch releases included driver improvements: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/379076388?hl=en. In future releases we are planning further GPU driver updates.
It’s good to hear Google is planning improvements, but the statement is vague and offers no concrete timeline or assurance of significant performance gains. The most recent updates appear to include only minor bug fixes rather than the long-awaited driver overhaul. We’ll have to wait and see if things improve — but optimism is hard to come by.
While Google’s latest flagship offers passable performance for popular Android titles, serious mobile gamers should hold off before jumping on the Pixel 10 series. If you can’t wait, last year’s Pixel 9 lineup might actually offer better performance, especially for emulators, and almost certainly at a lower price.
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