Google Pixel 9 Overview: A bit pricier, however value it

Pixel 9 Intro

And never simply due to its $800 worth, which is significantly cheaper than the $1,000+ Professional fashions, but additionally as a result of it is a darn good telephone by itself. It has largely the identical design language as its Pixel Professional siblings, and it’s powered by the identical Tensor G4 chipset.

Even the rear cameras are the identical as on the Professional fashions.

This ranking relies on detailed testing throughout twelve completely different classes, and you too can see the person rating for every class above. Study extra about our PhoneArena Overview Rating right here.

Desk of Contents:

Pixel 9 Specs

Some thrilling numbers

We now have a number of thrilling specs modifications on the Pixel 9. The brand new ultrawide digital camera, now identical as on the Professional fashions, is a spotlight and a serious step up from earlier than. Then, you even have the brand new Tensor G4 chip and extra RAM that permits new AI options.

Additionally, it comes with a much bigger show than the earlier Pixel 8 mannequin and a barely larger battery too.

Pixel 9 Design and Show

The identical Pixel spirit however with a recent look

We love the brand new design with flat sides, and additionally it is extra sturdy (Picture by PhoneArena)

The entire Pixel 9 lineup is available in a model new look, shedding the pebble-like form of earlier generations in place for a extra blocky one. The back and front panels, in addition to the body itself are flat, whereas the perimeters of the telephone are curved.

In our opinion, Google has executed an important job at preserving the general distinctive Pixel look and what makes it stand out from the competitors, which is saying one thing contemplating Samsung and Apple form their telephones moderately equally.

The flat body has a matte end to it, whereas the again panel is shiny and reflective, with aluminum and glass being the supplies Google has used. There’s additionally extra sturdy Gorilla Glass Victus 2, making the usual Pixel as protected because the pricier Professional variants.

Dimension-wize, the Pixel 9 is a 6.3-inch telephone, so a bit larger than the 6.2-inch Pixel 8, and additionally it is a tiny bit thinner. The size are 152.8 x 72.0 x 8.5 mm (the Pixel 9 Professional model has precisely the identical measurement).

Pixel 9 unboxed (Picture by PhoneArena)

The Pixel 9 unboxing expertise is moderately easy as a result of there may be not a lot within the field. We like that the field is product of recycled supplies and that it’s fairly slim, however we remorse that helpful goodies like a charger, a display protector and a case are lacking. You solely get a USB-C charging cable, the person guide and the SIM device.

As for the hues, listed below are the entire Pixel 9 colours:

• Obsidian
• Porcelain
• Wintergreen
• Peony

We now have a greater variety of colours with the Pixel 9 in comparison with final 12 months, with one extra hue. This 12 months the colours are additionally extra vibrant, particularly should you have a look at the Peony and Wintergreen variants. What’s extra, this 12 months we’ve a beige (Porcelain) as a substitute of a boring grey colour.

This display will get further brilliant! (Picture by PhoneArena)

As for the show, the Pixel 9 comes with a 6.3″ OLED display that Google calls “Actua” (and never “Tremendous Actua” as on the Execs). Is it an excellent display? We now have run all of our lab checks, and you’ll see some important enhancements have been made.

Google says peak brightness reaches 2700 nits vs. 2000 nits on final 12 months’s mannequin. We do not measure peak brightness (which is measured at simply 5% of the display being white, and all the remaining black), however as a substitute we measure the brightness on an all-white show. The Pixel 9 scores 1,970 nits in our testing, greater than most different telephones we’ve examined by an enormous margin. Which means it is going to be a lot simpler to make use of this telephone outdoor, beneath the intense solar.

One slight niggle is that at evening, the bottom brightness degree is 1.8 nits, which isn’t fairly as dim as 0.9 nits on the Galaxy S24. This may appear to be a small distinction, however evening owls will discover it.

Pixel 9 Digital camera

Huge improve: new ultra-wide digital camera

Two rear cameras borrowed from the Professional fashions, however nonetheless no telephoto lens (Picture by PhoneArena)

Pixel 9 digital camera specs:

• 50 MP Octa PD large digital camera, ƒ/1.68 aperture, 82° discipline of view, 1/1.31″ picture sensor measurement, Tremendous Res Zoom as much as 8x, Optical + digital picture stabilization on large
• 48 MP Quad PD ultrawide digital camera with autofocus, ƒ/1.7 aperture, 123° discipline of view, 1/2.55″ picture sensor measurement
• 10.5 MP Twin PD selfie digital camera with autofocus, ƒ/2.2 aperture, 95° ultrawide discipline of view

The Pixel 9 contains a model new 48MP ultra-wide digital camera, which occurs to be precisely the identical one which the Professional fashions have. It’s a massive improve from the 12MP utlra-wide snapper on the Pixel 8. Sadly, you continue to haven’t got the Professional digital camera mode and you’ll solely seize pixel-binned images with 12MP decision (the Professional fashions can seize full-resolution 50MP images).

One other digital camera improve that comes with the Pixel 9 is (lastly) autofocus for the selfie digital camera. This isn’t probably the most game-changing replace, however it’s helpful for maintaining your self in focus as you progress round within the body. The Professional fashions have a brand new super-wide selfie digital camera, however not this common mannequin, and this is perhaps an element for some folks.

Pixel 9 Digital camera Pattern Photographs

The picture high quality is absolutely fairly just like the Pixel 8 with some tweaks to the colours and the processing of pictures, however actually minor ones.

In our PhoneArena Digital camera Rating, our in-house in depth protocol that checks every digital camera, we discovered the Pixel 9 scoring a tiny bit larger than its predecessor, however that was largely due to new options added equivalent to (lastly!) the power to preview portrait mode images.
Video high quality is generally related between the Pixel 9 and Pixel 8, so do not count on main modifications.

Sadly, the usual Pixel 9 as soon as once more doesn’t help the Video Enhance function that comes with the Pixel Professional and Professional XL, which additionally means it doesn’t get the brand new 8K upscaling operate.

Pixel 9 Efficiency & Benchmarks

Laying the groundwork for on-device AI

This new Tensor G4 chip is healthier, however nonetheless not fairly on par with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (Picture by PhoneArena)

Google has included the brand new Tensor G4 chipset with the Pixel 9 collection. On paper, it has 20% quicker net searching and 17% quicker app launching, which doesn’t appear to be the largest enchancment, however it’s one thing.

After all, we ran the standard benchmarks to match its efficiency towards friends and here’s what we received.

Efficiency Benchmarks:

The Pixel 9 is a slight step up from the Pixel 8, however it’s clearly not as highly effective neither for common duties, nor for gaming because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Galaxy S24 or the iPhone 15 collection.

At the least, we’re joyful that the Pixel 9 will get extra RAM, which is essential for AI duties, because it jumps from 8GB on earlier fashions, now to 12GB.

Google has carved out a substantial quantity of the Pixel 9’s reminiscence particularly for the on-device AI options. This additionally helps with the brand new Gemini Nano, which is now multimodal.

Multimodality implies that Google’s new AI assistant can deal with complicated duties with out sending your knowledge to third-party AI firms. Gemini makes use of your telephone’s knowledge to offer personalised help, like scheduling appointments, writing messages, and summarizing paperwork.

The storage choices stay the identical, which implies you may decide from 128 GB and 256 GB variants.

Pixel 9 Software program

Much more AI digital camera options

It is all about AI (Picture by PhoneArena)

Essentially the most highly effective one is “Reimagine”, which lets you change the way in which an image appears to be like. You may change the sky from an ideal blue to a cloudy one, or you may go even additional and place a rocket within the skies behind you, or a cockroach in a photograph of meals, or a tank on the road. It is extremely highly effective, and a bit scary as a result of there isn’t any indication that is an AI altered photograph aside from the metadata (and that’s not arduous to do away with).

You even have a number of new apps equivalent to Pixel Studio, which is an AI picture generator providing a number of types, however with extra limitations than the Reimagine function.

You get a model new Climate app, the primary native one on a Pixel.

You will have a brand new Screenshots app, which once more makes use of AI to investigate all your screenshots and make it simple to look one thing you’ve got screenshotted way back.

Pixel 9 Battery

A slight bump

The Pixel 9 has a battery capability of 4700 mAh, which is a small leap from the 4575 mAh battery on the Pixel 8. Google says the telephone can final greater than 24 hours on a single cost, or as much as 100 hours with the Excessive Battery Saver mode turned on. In different phrases, it is a one-day battery telephone.

We needed to put this to the check, so we ran our three in-hourse battery check, and these are the outcomes we received:

PhoneArena Battery Check Outcomes:

On our lightest net searching check, the Pixel 9 scored a cool 17 hours and a half, practically two hours greater than the Pixel 8. It additionally beats the Galaxy S24 and iPhone 15 Professional by an excellent margin on this check, which is a good signal.

For our second check, we play the identical YouTube playlist over a Wi-Fi connection and the Pixel 9 right here completed with the rating you see above.

Lastly, we’ve a separate check for the players, and on that one the Pixel 9 scores actually good, so it positively helps having the Tensor G4 graphics working a bit cooler and in addition the truth that the efficiency is simply not fairly as excessive in comparison with Snapdragon-based flagships and iPhones.

Not the quickest charging telephone round, however not the slowest both (Picture by PhoneArena)

Charging speeds are the identical as final 12 months, maxing out at 27W, however for the reason that Pixel 9 has a barely larger battery, we measured it expenses a bit slower than the Pixel 8.

A 30 minute top-up, offers you 51% cost on the Pixel 9 and 55% on the Pixel 8, in keeping with our testing. We measured it takes 1 hour and 39 minutes to completely cost the Pixel 9 from 1% to 100%, in comparison with 1 hour and 24 minutes for the Pixel 8.

PhoneArena Charging Check Outcomes:

The Pixel 9 helps a most wi-fi charging velocity of 15 watts, however provided that you employ a Pixel Stand 2nd Gen. We now have not been capable of check wi-fi charging but, as plainly hte Pixel Stand Gen 2 is out of inventory throughout most markets, however count on a full cost this solution to take greater than 2 hours and a half.

Do you have to purchase the Pixel 9?

The Pixel 9 affords one of the best worth for the cash within the collection (Picture by PhoneArena)

The brand new $800 Pixel 9 feels refined in a method that earlier Pixels didn’t.

We like the brand new design, we like that the telephone is even higher ready for AI with 12GB of RAM, we additionally do not thoughts the quicker Tensor G4 chip, and that ultrawide digital camera is healthier certainly.

Was all of that well worth the worth bump? And do you have to get the Pixel over a Galaxy or an iPhone?

Whereas we want the Pixel was a bit cheaper as prior to now, we predict it’s the most superior AI telephone available on the market on the time of its launch and finest ready for that future. If that is what you take care of, it needs to be on the high of your wishlist.