# Galaxy S26 Beats Pixel 10 Pro XL Battery Despite Being 1000mAh Smaller

URL: https://technosports.co.in/galaxy-s26-beats-pixel-10-pro-xl-battery/  
Published: 2026-03-17  
Updated: 2026-03-17  
Author: Hardik Dhamija

This one is genuinely embarrassing for Google. A new battery endurance test has revealed that the [Samsung](https://www.samsung.com/in/) Galaxy S26 — which carries a battery roughly **1,000mAh smaller** than the Pixel 10 Pro XL — outlasts Google’s flagship by over 3 hours in video playback and nearly **2x longer in gaming**. The culprit is no mystery: Google’s Tensor G5 chip.

![Galaxy S26 Pixel 10 Pro XL](https://technosports.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Galaxy-S26-Pixel-10-Pro-XL-1-1-1024x553.webp)

## Galaxy S26 vs Pixel 10 Pro XL: Battery Test Results

| Test | Samsung Galaxy S26 | Google Pixel 10 Pro XL |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Battery Capacity | ~4,300mAh | ~5,200mAh |
| Active Use (Average) | 15 hrs 20 mins | 12 hrs 29 mins |
| Advantage | +2 hrs 51 mins | — |
| Video Playback Gap | S26 wins by 3+ hours | — |
| Gaming Gap | S26 lasts nearly 2x longer | — |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Google Tensor G5 |

## Why the Tensor G5 Is the Problem

he [Tensor G5](https://technosports.co.in/?s=Tensor+G5) chip excels at AI-related tasks but falls short of the competition in most other areas — and the battery results lay that bare. The chip uses ARM’s now-nearly-three-year-old CPU cores to save on costs, which shows up in degraded performance versus peers, and pairs them with an Imagination IMG DXT-48-1536 GPU that lacks ray-tracing support.

![](https://technosports.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Galaxy-S26-Pixel-10-Pro-XL-2-1024x589.webp)

The result is a chip that burns through battery doing the same tasks a Snapdragon handles far more efficiently. This test goes a long way to practically demonstrate that mindlessly cramming extra milliamp hours in your battery counts very little if your chip is as unoptimised as the Tensor G5.

Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the Galaxy S26 destroys the Tensor G5 in graphics testing — with both score and frame rate more than double what the Pixel manages in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme. Check out our full Galaxy S26 coverage on Technosports for more.

## FAQs

### **Does the Galaxy S26 have a bigger battery than the Pixel 10 Pro XL?**

No — the Pixel 10 Pro XL has a ~1,000mAh larger battery, yet the Galaxy S26 still lasts significantly longer due to better chip efficiency.

### **Why does the Pixel 10 Pro XL have poor battery life despite a larger battery?**

Google’s Tensor G5 chip is less power-efficient than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, consuming more energy for the same tasks.