Review of the Google Pixel 9: same plot, new Pixel

By Rameshwaran Karunakaran – Published On: August 22, 2024

Review Summary

Expert Rating ★7.5/10

This year, Google has outshined Apple in the release of its newest hardware, which includes the Pixel 9 series. Additionally, there are four variants in the top Pixel series for this year: the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. I recently acquired the entry-level Google Pixel 9 smartphone, which retails for about Rs 79,999 and includes the newest AI features, camera developments, and a few other small upgrades. Here are my thoughts on the gadget, which aims to compete with other high-end Android smartphones as well as the soon-to-be released iPhone 16.

Verdict

The Pixel 9 is unquestionably a fascinating gadget because to its appealing appearance, small size, and AI capabilities. Nevertheless, it is lacking in important categories such as battery life, charging speed, price-to-performance ratio, and portraiture. The phone’s software is also slow, which is disappointing because this should have been its best feature.

Design and display

The curved edges and iconic camera visor that Google has been using on Pixel devices since 2021 are not present in the Pixel 9. Rather, the Pixel 9 features an extended oval-shaped camera module and flat corners that are evocative of recent flagship smartphones from Samsung and iPhone. This module has a two-tone appearance; on the obsidian color version that we were sent for review, it combines matte gray and black. Despite its noticeable protrusion, the module’s extended, flat shape with rounded corners keeps it from snagging on your fingers or wobbling the device when it’s on a level surface.

The Pixel 9 feels more expensive and is more comfortable to hold thanks to its redesigned design. Its attractiveness is enhanced by the elegantly curved, matte-finished edges. Nevertheless, since the glossy coating on the glass display draws smudges and fingerprints, I wish this matte finish extended to the rear. Because of this, the Pixel 9 felt a little slick, which made me uneasy about using it uncased during my evaluation.

With its brand-new 6.3-inch OLED panel, which is being sold as an Actua display, the Pixel 9 is easy to hold in one hand and feels small and comfy. Because of the tiny yet perceptible bezels—which feel noticeable for a premium flagship—the display does not reach to the edges. Not even the selfie camera’s punch-hole placement on the screen is small enough to go unnoticed. The FHD+ display resolution of the Pixel 9 is another area where it could have performed better. Nowadays, a lot of smartphones for the price range have QHD+ resolution for better image and picture quality.

Nevertheless, the Pixel 9’s display looks good from both inside and outside. Crisp images and fluid animations are guaranteed by the HDR10+ compatibility and 120Hz adaptive refresh rate—unfortunately, not dynamic, which could have saved some battery life. In direct sunshine, the 2,700 nits peak brightness provides decent, if not spectacular, outdoor visibility. Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection for the display matches the robustness of the design; it is rated IP68 water and dust resistant.

Furthermore, Google and Qualcomm have collaborated to incorporate an ultrasonic 3D Sonic Gen 2 fingerprint sensor into the Pixel 9 series. This scanner is touted to be 50% quicker than the optical scanner found in the Pixel 8. I can attest to the Pixel 9’s speedy unlocking skills because I had the Pixel 8 as my daily vehicle for a few months.

Cameras

A 50MP Octa PD main sensor with an f/1.68 aperture and an 82-degree field of view (FoV) is part of the Google Pixel 9’s camera configuration. A 48MP Quad PD ultrawide lens with an f/1.7 aperture, 123-degree field of view, and autofocus capabilities is attached to this. Even with the more costly Pro models, the telephoto lens is still only available, while the primary sensor offers up to 8x Super Res Zoom. For selfies and video calls, the front camera features a 10.5MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and a 95-degree field of view.

The Pixel 9 boasts a superior camera compared to the Pixel 8, producing images with greater vibrancy and contrast. The “revamped” High-Dynamic Range (HDR), which according to Google optimizes exposure, tone mapping, sharpness, and contrast settings to give superior image quality in a variety of scenarios, may be responsible for this increase. It is not true, though, for every bit, as we shall see shortly. For the time being, it is noteworthy to remark that the firm has debuted new camera modes, the most talked-about of which is “Add Me.”

For group shots, the Add Me feature removes the need to give your phone to a stranger. It uses AI to generate and stitch together two sequential images, each with a distinct subject, and creates a 3D representation of the scene. In this manner, the photographer can participate in the group photo as well. Even if the mode functions as intended, it’s still in its infancy and might not always be as precise with shadows and subject placement, as handy as just giving your phone to someone else, or appropriate in all situations. It is advised to utilize the setting in a bright, colorful space for best effects.

Regretfully, we were unable to compare the cameras of the Pixel 9 with those of the Vivo X100 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24. We achieved this with the device’s predecessor, the Pixel 8 (review), as well as its rival, the OnePlus 12 (review):

Daylight

Both the Pixel 9 and Pixel 8 capture photographs with almost exact colors and colder tones during the day. In contrast to its predecessor, the Pixel 9 produces crisper and more attractive photos because of its exceptional light handling capabilities. Both have almost the same dynamic range and degree of detail. The OnePlus 12, on the other hand, takes pictures with warmer tones, which leads to overexposed regions and poor detailing.

Ultrawide

Compared to the Pixel 8, the Pixel 9’s ultrawide photos are substantially crisper and more colorful. The Pixel 9 keeps the same color profile for both lenses, avoiding the color boosting of the Pixel 8, even as the primary camera’s quality naturally declines.

8x zoom

Despite lacking a telephoto lens, the Pixel 9 has an 8x digital zoom. Though the colors might not always be true, the OnePlus 12, which boasts a dedicated telephoto camera and produces visually appealing and shaper photos, is more promising.

Lowlight (night mode)

Whether in night mode or not, the Pixel 9 continuously beats the OnePlus 12 and the Pixel 8 in low light. The results of the Pixel 9 and OnePlus 12’s night mode are displayed in the pictures (above). When compared to its rival, the Pixel 9 performs better, producing brighter photographs with decent details and less flare.

Performance and software

The latest Tensor G4 processor from Google powers the Pixel 9. It is the fastest and most capable Tensor chipset to yet, while not being all that different from the Tensor G3 SoC. Moreover, the chipset is the first in its class to be built with multimodal Gemini Nano AI, which can comprehend speech, text, and images. Below is a detailed discussion of the device’s AI features. After examining the smartphone’s performance in both artificial and real-world benchmark apps, stay put as we take you there.

The AnTuTu score of 12,84,962 for the Pixel 9 and the single-core and multi-core test scores of 1,711 and 4,545 on Geekbench, respectively, are the lowest for a premium smartphone released in 2024. Additionally, the device’s performance drastically drops to 40.8 percent in our Burnout CPU throttle test. Although it might not be the best for hard or severe tasks, the phone can easily handle a typical workload. Though nothing noteworthy, there is a visible jump in the thermals because it lacks the vapour chamber cooling technology found in its Pro variants.We put the gadget through its paces with gaming, and after 30 minutes of each of BGMI, Call of Duty, and Real Racing 3, the device’s temperature rose by roughly 17 degrees—standard for a non-gaming smartphone. In addition, the Pixel 9 displayed no discernible frame rate loss when running these games at high graphical settings.

We often get to sample the newest Android versions straight out of the box with the new Pixel flagship. But this year isn’t like the others. Pre-installed on the Pixel 9 is the Android 14 operating system from the previous year. One of the seven major OS updates planned for the device’s lifetime, Android 15 is reserved and will be available via over-the-air (OTA) update. As a result, the Pixel 9 and Pixel 8 will continue to be relevant devices until at least 2030 because they will share the same software support cycle.

Furthermore, the Pixel 9 software remains largely unchanged from the previous year. Despite a few glitches, the software is nonetheless clear and comes with just 37 pre-installed apps—all of which are Google products. Having said that, the business has unveiled a number of new apps, features, and AI capabilities. Examples include Audio Emoji, which provides six preset emojis for responding to calls with audio cues, and Guided Frame, which helps individuals with impaired vision by offering auditory and tactile feedback for selfies. Even though it seems fun, the Audio Emoji tool is a little repetitive. However, at the time of writing this review, the Call Notes function—which aims to offer a “completely private” summary following a call—wasn’t available in my device. This makes it look like a more beneficial feature.

The brand-new Pixel Studio software, which enables users to create AI images with text prompts and satellite connectivity for SOS Emergency service, is one of the other features that the Pixel 9 does not yet have. It is confirmed that the latter will only be available in the USA during “Winter 2024.” Users can benefit from new apps like Screenshots, Weather, and Gemini in the interim; these have all been improved with AI to make them more user-friendly.

AI features

The 5,200mAh battery of the Honor 200 has support for 100W rapid charging. The typical Li-on cell in the battery is surrounded by a silicon-carbon covering. Based on the information I’ve read, the silicon-carbon coating is more energy-dense, enabling the brand to enhance the phone’s battery capacity without compromising its thin design. With moderate use, the phone’s battery lasts all day, which is good for its price. During my use, the battery provided about 6 hours of screen time.

The primary feature that sets the Pixel 9 apart from its predecessor, the Pixel 8, is artificial intelligence (AI), which Google has expanded upon and improved upon. Gemini is the first sign. Google makes advantage of the Pixel 9 to highlight the entire potential of Gemini, even if it is not limited to smartphones. Gemini, which is included into the power button and can be accessed by long pressing it, works in unison with Android and Google apps to provide support in every manner.

With the Pixel 9 (presumably for a year for Pixel 9 Pro customers), the firm is giving away a one-month free subscription to Gemini Advanced, which includes features like Gemini Live, which allows users to have a free-flowing discussion with the AI that can be interrupted or customized with ten preset voices. Although this tool is easy to use, functions well, and creates a realistic experience, I wish it could record discussions in real time instead of only summarizing them afterwards. Additionally, the service has a monthly recurring fee of Rs 1,950, which may be prohibitive for some.

The cross-platform compatibility of Gemini is another helpful aspect. It is compatible with the recently released Google Screenshots app, which saves all of your screenshots (together with the Google Photos app) and allows you to retrieve them with a quick search whenever needed. It is claimed to be on-device and has the ability to summarize screenshots. Because it runs on-device, your data is safe and secure without requiring an internet connection. Similar to this, Gemini may produce a summary report on the weather and what to expect using the new Weather app. With weather information shown as customizable widgets that you may organize according to your priorities, the app is also more helpful than before.

Gemini may even interact with you through visuals and create summaries of significant emails. To get ideas from the AI, like a solution to a mathematical question, just upload an image. In the upcoming weeks, Google has vowed to release further extensions for the AI assistant, bringing its capabilities to even more apps, including YouTube Music, Calendar, Keep, Tasks, and more.

The Pixel 9 has a circle-to-search feature that searches the internet for the topic you circled in the picture and returns relevant results, just as Samsung’s Galaxy flagship smartphones. Additionally, you get generative AI tools to enhance an already-existing image. Additionally, Google has improved Magic Editor, an AI photo editor. It now has the capacity to alter an image’s appearance entirely, rather than just cropping or moving elements, to the point that you could ask, “What is a photo?” Look at the image below to see it for yourself.

Battery life and charging speeds

With its 4,700mAh battery, the Pixel 9 is the largest flagship device from Google to date. Due to this, the device was able to complete the PCMark battery test in 11 hours and 48 minutes. This is a respectable performance, but it is not as good as what the Samsung Galaxy S24 achieved, which lasted longer with a smaller 4,000mAh battery.

The Pixel 9’s battery optimization performed fairly well in our tests, using about 25% of the battery life over the course of a combined 90-minute gaming session and 30-minute YouTube streaming session. Better management, nevertheless, might be anticipated. The Pixel 9’s unique features, such its AI picture editing capabilities and cameras, severely drain its battery life. Even after a few hours of use, you’ll need to recharge the device at least once to get through the day.

It’s not very enjoyable to charge the gadget either. With the Pixel 9, I had thought that Google would take note of our grievances regarding the previous generation and provide speedier charging times. However, it has come to light that the device can only handle 27W wired charging, and that charging takes a long time. The maximum power for wireless charging is also regulated at 15W. It took 78 minutes to charge the battery from 20 percent to 100 percent by wired means with a suitable PD charger (separate purchase required). The only accessory included with the phone is a Type-C to Type-C charging cord. Even the OTG adaptor that came with the smartphone up until the model from last year has been discontinued by the firm.

Final verdict

Even with its unique name, the Google Pixel 9 is not a cheap recommendation at Rs 79,999. Its AI capabilities, which are not limited to smartphones, include Gemini, Circle to Search, and Generative Image. All Android devices can access Gemini, and Samsung’s premium S24 and foldable models include Galaxy AI, which offers similar AI capabilities. Furthermore, the Pixel 9 scores poorly in terms of display quality, performance, and charging times in addition to portrait photography and battery life. With the most recent Android OS and features like Photo Studio and Call Notes unavailable right out of the box, the phone also feels underdeveloped.

Nevertheless, anyone searching for a small flagship with a clear user interface and seven years of software support should give the Google Pixel 9 some thought. The phone also shines thanks to its excellent cameras in both low and bright light, Add Me feature for group selfies, and sophisticated AI editing Magic Editor tool. Although it lacks sophisticated thermal management, the entry-level Pixel has the same Tensor G4 chipset as the Pro variants, thus similar performance may be anticipated.

Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10

Reasons to buy

The design is sleek and compact and offers a premium in-hand feel.
Useful AI features with deeper integration of Gemini AI assistant.
Camera performance is good in both daylight and low-light conditions.
Long-term software support, with clean software experience.

Reasons not to buy

Portrait photography offers inconsistent edge detection
27W wired charging support takes aeons to charge.
While clean, the software is not the latest and feels buggy.
FHD+ display resolution and adaptive refresh rate are dated for a premium device.

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