The Best Pixel Yet, Gemini Aside

The Google Pixel 9 Pro is the first Pixel I’ve held in years that I actually want to buy. When it comes to hardware, this year, Google brought its A-game. Unfortunately, Google has paired the top-notch device with software that arguably shouldn’t exist. Fortunately, those bits are easy to ignore, making this an easy phone to recommend, regardless of whether you opt for the standard or XL model.

Google Pixel 9 Pro

The Google Pixel 9 Pro features a sophisticated design with the powerful Tensor G4 processor and 16 GB of RAM, making it ideal for advanced AI applications, stunning photos, and videos. It includes a pro triple rear camera system, a 42 MP front camera, and the brightest Super Actua display, offering an immersive experience in two sizes, with pricing starting at $999.

Pros

• Top-notch build quality
• Gorgeous design
• One of the best smartphone cameras

Cons

• Image generation apps aren’t that good
• Few Gemini features exclusive to the Pixel
• CPU doesn’t match the competition

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL offers an expansive 6.8-inch Super Actua display, combined with the powerful Tensor G4 processor and 16 GB of RAM for top-tier AI performance and advanced photography. It features Google’s most advanced camera system, including a pro triple rear camera and a 42 MP front camera, all within a sleek design starting at $1,099.

Pros

• Larger screen is better for media consumption
• Bigger battery

Cons

• Less comfortable to hold
• Bulkier in a pocket

Price and Availability

The Google Pixel 9 Pro starts at $999 with 128GB of storage and goes up to $1,449 for 1TB. The Pro XL’s price ranges from $1,099 to $1,549.

Both models are offered in the same colors: Porcelain, Obsidian, Rose Quartz, and Hazel.

The Most Premium Pixels Ever

Part of the Pixel’s original value proposition was offering an excellent experience using lower-cost components. This meant that while a Pixel was often comparable on paper, it did not feel as nice to hold as a Samsung Galaxy S phone or an iPhone. The screens didn’t get as bright, and there was more plastic throughout.

That is not the case with this year’s Pixel. The aluminum and glass build feels as nicely put together as the Samsung Galaxy phone I use as my daily driver. The screen is gorgeous and performs well outdoors. The round corners keep the device feeling comfortable, though, in my opinion, not as comfortable as in the days of curved screens.

Unsurprisingly, screen size is the key difference between the Pro and the Pro XL. The former gives you a smaller 6.3-inch 1280 x 2856 LTPO OLED display at 495 PPI. The latter offers you a larger 6.9-inch, higher resolution 1344 x 2992 display whose pixel density dips slightly to 486 PPI. Both are protected with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and can reach a peak brightness of 3000 nits.

The visor on the back has seen a change this year and no longer extends across the entire width of the back. This is a purely aesthetic change, but it’s one I dig.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL is identical to the regular Pixel Pro in nearly every respect except for its height and width. I’m not a fan of large phones, so this inherently makes it something I don’t want to hold for nearly as long. Nonetheless, it has the same strengths as the regular Pixel 9 Pro. If you want the extra size, then the extra-large variant is every bit as nice.

Cameras That Still Justify The Asking Price

Cameras have long attracted many people to the Pixel, and the 9 series is no exception. I don’t carry around a Pixel as my everyday phone, and the pictures that came out of the Pixel 9 Pro are the biggest temptation I have to change that.

The Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL both pack an identical 50MP main camera (ƒ/1.68 aperture) paired with a 48MP ultrawide (ƒ/1.7) and a 48MP 5x telephoto lens (ƒ/2.8). The front-facing camera packs 42MP and an aperture of ƒ/2.2.

I took the Pixel 9 Pro with me on a kayaking trip alongside my usual Galaxy Z Fold 5. The Pixel’s larger sensor captured more detail, allowing me to zoom in without immediately noticing grain. The Pixel also produced more natural-looking photos. However, if you’re already familiar with Pixel photos, you won’t notice a stark change here. I’ve also tossed in a photo of my Z Fold 5, taken with the Pixel 9 Pro.

Here, you can see how the selfie camera stacked against the main camera.

The Pixel 9 Pro series can record up to 8K video at 30 frames per second. 4K and 1080p video both max out at 60fps instead.

If you’re carrying around a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, Google hasn’t worked any magic into these cameras that justify an immediate upgrade. I would, however, consider these photos good enough to justify upgrading from the aging Pixel 6 I have lying around.

Solid Performance So Far, But Time Will Tell

The Pixel 9 Pro commands flagship prices, and for the most part, it comes without any sacrifices. The CPU is arguably the biggest exception. Rather than a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, you get Google’s Tensor chip instead.

Tensor is based on Samsung Exynos, a line of CPU Samsung opts not to include on its Galaxy S series in the US. It’s an admission that the CPU doesn’t quite punch at the same level as Qualcomm’s. As a result, the Pixel experience has been unpredictable. Some people’s Pixels hold up just fine, whereas others notice substantial drops in battery life, poorer cell reception, and a quick rise in bugs as the phone ages. Tensor is also more prone to overheating and throttling sooner when playing demanding games.

In the Pixel 9 Pro, Google pairs the Tensor G4 chip with 16GB of RAM, with a portion of that reserved for AI tasks. The Pro and Pro XL start at 128GB and go up to 1TB.

I’ve only had the Pixel 9 Pro for a few weeks, and it’s been rock solid in that time. It’s snappy, and has played every video and game I’ve thrown at it. I didn’t fire up Genshin Impact, but I have no doubts it’s playable. For the majority of phone owners, this is more than enough power, even if it doesn’t quite match the competition on paper. The question is how well will it hold up over time.

Another point to note is that the Pixel 9 Pro’s 4700mAh battery tops out at a fast-charging speed of 45 watts, though you may need to buy a new charger for that. When I connected the phone to my Anker Prime 6-in-1 charger, which is capable of providing up to 100 watts, the Pixel 9 Pro charged at barely over 20. The Pixel 9’s speeds are competitive alongside Apple and Samsung, but they’re dwarfed by what we’re seeing from OnePlus’ and Motorola’s top slab phones. For what it’s worth, the Pro XL has a larger battery size of 5060mAh.

A Gemini Phone, Just Like Other Android Phones

Google advertises the Pixel 9 series as Gemini phones. I get it. This is the year of AI phones. The Samsung Galaxy S24 was all about Galaxy AI, and the iPhone 16 was all about Apple Intelligence, even if the latter wasn’t available at launch.

Like those other phones, the AI features that accompany the Pixel can mostly be described as gimmicks. I wouldn’t consider any of them to be reason to purchase the phone. I’d disable almost all of them if this were my personal device.

Gemini itself, frankly, isn’t even a Pixel exclusive. You can chat with Gemini on any Android phone. All you need is the Gemini app. Even the live chat feature isn’t as a Pixel 9 exclusive, though you do need to pay for Gemini Advanced, which you admittedly get to use for a year for free with the purchase of a Pixel 9 Pro.

On the Pixel 9 Pro, you can access Gemini by holding down the power button. This is a quick way to access live chat, and it works well. It’s absolutely a fast way to find out the weather, see when a restaurant nearby opens, or get help planning out your raised bed garden. Could I get used to something like this? Sure. Do I want to? Not really.

That said, there are a few AI-related apps that, for better or worse, make their debut on the Pixel.

Pixel-Exclusive Apps That I’d Happily Do Without

I’ll start with the app I kind of like. The Pixel 9 Pro separates screenshots into their own separate app, helpfully called Pixel Screenshots. I take a lot of screenshots, and it helps to have a dedicated home for them without having to organize my gallery myself.

The app can search through your screenshots, but as is often the case with apps like this, the results can be hit or miss. Searching for “phone” brought up some of my screenshots containing a phone. Searching for “animal” did not pull up any of my images containing an animal, but it did show a screenshot I took of one of Pixel Studio’s prompts. Why? It beats me. At least the results were consistent whenever I repeated the search.

As for Pixel Studio, at best, I consider this an interesting parlor trick that shouldn’t exist. At worst, I’d take away the word “interesting.”

You can create some relatively harmless images with Pixel Studio. I generated an image of a dragon chasing penguins through a field of flowers. I also generated two dogs sharing a chew toy. That sort of thing.

Like with a lot of AI imagery, I don’t feel this tool is all that safe. There’s something off about most images. You can expect there to be an inaccurate number of fingers. Text is a garbled, incomprehensible mess. Mundane objects are blurred and distorted in unexpected ways.

I wouldn’t consider Pixel Studio particularly good at its job, either. I tried to generate a picture of housekeys next to a laptop, and for whatever reason, it refused to give the laptop a screen.

Still, as unreliable as Pixel Studio is, it’s plenty capable of creating the kind of imagery that can quickly cause panic on social media. It’s easy to generate an image of a bicycle broken in the middle of an intersection or what could be taken for a bomb near a metro. Do these images hold up under inspection? Maybe not, but do people tend to carefully inspect the images that appear in their feeds?

Then there’s Magic Editor, which, thankfully, isn’t a standalone app, at least not yet. It currently exists among the editor options in the Google Photos app, where it’s much easier to overlook. That’s for the best, I’d say. As others have reported, it’s far too easy to manipulate images in ways that can cause real-world problems. If you aren’t intending to stir up drama, you can stick to creating mildly amusing images, like dipping a Pixel 9 Pro in a pool of lava.

There are guardrails in place to limit what you can generate using any of these apps, but they’re pretty easy to circumvent, even when you aren’t trying. For example, the Pixel currently doesn’t intend to generate imagery that involves people. If you enter a prompt to create a person, a pop-up will appear telling you that’s not an option. Yet when I prompted Pixel Studio to create a hand with six fingers instead of cartoon imagery, it gave me a photo-realistic human hand with seven digits instead.

Both Pixel Studio and Magic Editor also had no qualms about generating trademarked imagery. I could tell the app to generate a picture of Sonic the Hedghog, and it did, producing what appeared to be an image of Sonic downloaded from somewhere on the web, since this was one of the few images to actually produce the accurate number of fingers. When I told the app to take my phone and place it in a Super Mario World background, it surrounded the phone with disfigured and morphed together Mario characters. There’s no way I’d want to hand this app over to my kids.

All of this is software that’s thankfully easy to ignore. You can disable Pixel Screenshots just like you can disable Gemini. You can swap out Google Photos for any other galley app. You don’t have to use any of this. Unfortunately, Google has lowered the barrier to entry for people to create the most grotesque, trademark-infringing, hysteria-causing imagery.

Should You Buy the Google Pixel 9 Pro?

I feel conflicted about the Google Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL. On the one hand, these are the first Pixels I’ve actually wanted to own. They feel great to hold, are gorgeous, and deliver a top-notch experience.

On the flip side, Google has included what feels like misguided software, going far beyond the already somewhat iffy sketch-to-image feature found in Samsung phones.

Ultimately, to most people, I’d say that if you ignore the image generation bits, you have yourself an amazing phone. Don’t buy this phone for Gemini—your existing phone can probably handle that just fine. Buy this phone because, at the end of the day, this is still some of the best phone hardware we’ve ever seen.

Google Pixel 9 Pro

The Google Pixel 9 Pro features a sophisticated design with the powerful Tensor G4 processor and 16 GB of RAM, making it ideal for advanced AI applications, stunning photos, and videos. It includes a pro triple rear camera system, a 42 MP front camera, and the brightest Super Actua display, offering an immersive experience in two sizes, with pricing starting at $999.

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL offers an expansive 6.8-inch Super Actua display, combined with the powerful Tensor G4 processor and 16 GB of RAM for top-tier AI performance and advanced photography. It features Google’s most advanced camera system, including a pro triple rear camera and a 42 MP front camera, all within a sleek design starting at $1,099.