Is it Slow? Pixel 10 Pro Fold vs Galaxy Z Fold 7 Speed Test
Anytime you talk about a Pixel device, like the brand new Pixel 10 Pro Fold, you'll instantly hear that it's slow because it runs a Tensor processor. This is often compared to phones that run the Snapdragon 8 Elite, like the Galaxy Z Fold 7. People look at benchmarks and draw conclusions, but are they right? Is the Pixel 10 Pro Fold an appreciably slower device in real-world use?
I started by running a benchmark stress test in 3DMark. The Wildlife Extreme benchmark showed that the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s best loop score was more than double that of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. However, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold's performance was more stable, and it had a smaller battery drop during the test.
What Does it Mean?
As you can see in the images, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 benchmarks scores are much, much higher, but what does that mean in the real world? What happens when you launch the same apps side-by-side?
In my tests, while the Galaxy Z Fold 7 was consistently a fraction of a second faster, the difference was not significant in day-to-day use. The reality is that launching the apps that most of us use most of the time, you’re just not going to see a gap between the two that seems representative of the gap in actual raw horsepower.
Remember, you can see this demonstrated in the embedded video.
Digging Deeper..
Where I started finally seeing the advantage of the extra power was once I started actually doing things. While using Google Photos to do some fancy Google-powered AI edits, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 was noticeably faster. At tasks like Magic Eraser, the smart selection was quicker and even though the edits are done in the cloud, it almost always got done first. Even applying a portrait blur was quicker on the Z Fold.
Video processing was another area where the Galaxy Z Fold 7 clearly had the advantage. When exporting a video in a video editor, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 finished the task much faster. Samsung’s phone was done while the Pixel was sitting at 71%. The longer the video, the larger that gap would be.
Gaming
Finally, I tested Minecraft. Interestingly, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 can use the ray tracing found in the new Vibrant Visuals update, something the Pixel cannot do, despite its GPU being capable. While both ran the game smoothly, the Z Fold was running a much better looking version of the game. It was also able to create and load a new world in nearly half the time. When it comes to gaming, the Tensor G5 just isn't in the same league as the 8 Elite. Whether you’re running Android games or emulating older games, it’s always going to be a few steps behind.
Conclusion
So, is the Pixel 10 Pro Fold slow? Yes, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is objectively the faster phone. It's faster at pretty much everything, even the AI tasks that the Pixel is supposed to be good at. But for normal, day-to-day use, we're talking about fractions of a second. If you're a heavy mobile gamer or process a lot of videos, the speed of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a big deal. However, if you're a normal person who just browses the web, scrolls through TikTok, or takes photos, the performance difference is not that significant. Given how close the two are in normal use, there are many other aspects like battery life, screen brightness and camera performance that should loom larger on the horizon.