Google's Pixel 10 has a secret weapon for long-term storage performance

Google unveiled the Pixel 10 series today, and at a glance, the new phones don’t seem all that different from their predecessors. However, they each pack meaningful upgrades to their cameras, battery, charging, and performance that shouldn’t be overlooked. While the most impactful hardware upgrade is definitely the built-in Qi2 support, the Pixel 10 series also includes new storage technology that should help the phones feel fast and smooth throughout their full seven-year lifespan.

Like the previous generation, the base Pixel 10 has up to 256GB of storage, while the Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold have up to 1TB of storage. Unlike the Pixel 9, however, the Pixel 10 series does not ship with older UFS 3.1 storage chips across the board. Google has confirmed to Android Authority that all Pixel 10 models with at least 256GB of storage have newer UFS 4.0 chips.

UFS, or Universal Flash Storage, is a modern flash storage technology widely used in mobile devices because it enables fast simultaneous reads and writes without consuming a lot of power. Compared to UFS 3.1, UFS 4.0 offers much better transfer speeds (up to 2X) while consuming less power (up to 46% less), making it a no-brainer upgrade. Storage makers like Samsung tout UFS 4.0’s ability to cut down on app and game loading times, but the benefits also extend to high-resolution video recording and memory-intensive applications.

The Pixel 9 had UFS 3.1 storage across the board. 

Given the benefits of UFS 4.0, many smartphone makers were quick to adopt it on their devices, but Google decided to hold off until the Pixel 10. The UFS 3.1 storage chips used on past Pixels were more than fast enough to handle 4K videos and day-to-day apps, so it’s not like there was a dire need for Google to upgrade to UFS 4.0. Perhaps Google was waiting for the new Zoned UFS (ZUFS) technology to become available in UFS 4.0 chips before taking the plunge.

ZUFS is a new technology that substantially improves the performance and endurance of traditional UFS, especially in high-capacity chips. While the underlying mechanism is complex, the basic principle involves dividing the storage space into distinct “zones.” Data is written sequentially within these zones rather than randomly across the entire storage space. The operating system intelligently groups data with similar lifespans or access patterns into the same zones.

When the system needs to reclaim space, it can erase an entire zone at once after all the data within it is no longer needed. This eliminates the need for running a more traditional, and costly, garbage collection (GC) process, thereby reducing wear on the flash storage. This also makes performance more consistent, especially under heavy load or when the drive is nearly full, as there’s no longer a risk of background GC tasks interfering with active read/write operations.

SK Hynix, a major South Korean supplier of flash storage chips, estimates that ZUFS can increase the lifetime of mobile storage chips by 40%. The company highlights how ZUFS is especially beneficial for modern data-intensive applications like on-device AI processing. In light of the performance and endurance benefits and the new, highly demanding AI features on the Pixel 10, it’s clear why Google is adopting ZUFS technology. Interestingly, however, Google didn’t explicitly mention AI when touting ZUFS on the Pixel 10. In a statement to Android Authority, the company only mentioned that the technology “provides even faster responses and quicker app launches for users who need the most performance from their on-device storage.”

Despite these improvements, ZUFS won’t be available on every Pixel 10 model. Instead, Google tells us it’ll be limited to the higher-capacity Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL models (512GB+) in the US. Here’s a simple table that outlines which Pixel 10 models in the US have UFS 4.0 chips and which support ZUFS:

There’s some bad news if you live outside the US, though. Google’s support page notes that only the 1TB Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL models offer ZUFS, while the 512GB models have standard UFS 4.0 storage. Fortunately, 512GB and 1TB Pixel 10 Pro Fold models outside the US indeed have ZUFS storage.

Regardless of which model you get, you shouldn’t notice a major difference in storage performance. In day-to-day use, the Pixel 10 models with UFS 3.1 chips should feel just as fast as those with UFS 4.0, even the ones that also support ZUFS. Other hardware differences will have a greater impact on the overall experience, such as storage capacity, the amount of RAM, and the base model’s lack of a vapor chamber.