How Google Pixel 10 Pro’s 100x Zoom compares to iPhone, Galaxy and Vivo

Google has released the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL, with an innovative 100x Pro Res Zoom. Running on the Tensor G5 chip and the high-tech AI, this technology will render images with more clarity and detail at long distances. The Pro models also have a 48MP 5x telephoto lens, which is optimised by generative AI to sharpen upzoomed images. Google boasts it is the highest quality zoom in any smartphone and takes only 4-5 seconds to process images. Initial tests have been mixed, with some images looking overprocessed or noisy, casting doubt on practical performance.

Samsung, Apple, and other Android brands such as Xiaomi and Vivo also have their zoom technologies, and each of them is attempting to gain the lead in smartphone photography. Although Google seems to have pioneered the use of AI in its product, its competitors have strong hardware and software products that call its assertions into question. Here is the comparison of the Pixel 10 Pro and its 100x zoom with that of other competitors.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 100x Space Zoom, which was first launched in the S20 Ultra in 2020. It has a 48MP 4x periscope camera, yet at higher magnifications, say, greater than 50x, the image quality is often poor and grainy. Samsung AI improvements are nice, but they still cannot keep up with Google on-device processing. Tests indicate that Samsung zoom suffers fringing and noise and is, therefore, less sharp than Google Pro Res zoom in some cases. Regardless, Samsung still has a strong hardware offering, so long as the user is focused on raw power.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max has a 5x optical zoom and a 12MP telephoto lens, which can have a digital zoom of 25x. Apple does not use the extreme zoom capabilities (such as 100x) and instead, it concentrates on optical quality and stabilisation. The zoom distance in it is not as high as Google, and its computational photography guarantees sharp, natural-looking imagery. Apple has made a serious challenge to the Pixel 10 Pro with its 100x zoom, with clarity being the main focus.

Xiaomi and Vivo are going even further by installing 200MP periscope cameras in devices such as the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Their long-range shots are crisp, with 100x magnifications being noisy and over-sharpened most of the time. Vivo optics and AI provide cleaner edges as compared to Samsung, but Google Pro Res Zoom is better in clarity with inanimate subjects such as landscapes. With better hardware, both brands can compete against Google, but with less advanced AI processing, they are slightly behind in software-driven zoom.