The Pixel 9 is the form of machine you get after just a few generations of incremental progress.
One minor replace after one other doesn’t seem like a lot year-over-year. A sooner fingerprint sensor? Uniform bezels? Not the stuff of headlines. But finally, the little stuff provides as much as one thing important. That’s the sensation I get holding the Pixel 9, and I prefer it loads.
The Pixel 9 is the one non-Pro telephone within the 9 sequence at this level, which, as greatest I can inform, means it has 12GB of RAM as a substitute of 16GB and doesn’t have a telephoto lens. It’s smaller than the aptly named Pixel 9 Pro XL, the identical dimension and form because the common Pixel 9 Pro, and it doesn’t fold in half just like the different 9 Pro does.
But primarily, the Pixel 9 simply works. The display is brilliant and the battery goes all day. The fingerprint sensor is fast and correct, lastly. Although it’s pricier than final yr’s mannequin at $799 versus $699, that’s principally the going fee for a non-Pro flagship telephone. And for the primary time, the Pixel line feels prefer it has earned a spot proper alongside Samsung and Apple. Google simply wanted just a few years to get right here.
Let’s get it out of the way in which: from the entrance, the Pixel 9 appears like an iPhone. The rounded display corners, the flat sides — it’s all iPhone and that’s wonderful. Compared to current Pixel generations, it feels about 80 p.c much less more likely to fly out of my hand after I choose it up from a desk, which I recognize far more than the distinct look the curved edges supplied. The 6.3-inch display is a bit larger than the Pixel 8’s. Its 1080p display is on the low facet, resolution-wise, however appears sharp sufficient that it by no means bothered me.
The Pixel 9 comes with the identical most important and ultrawide cameras because the Pro telephones, however it doesn’t have a telephoto lens. Not all flagship telephones include a telephoto, and the Pixel 9’s lossless 2x crop zoom is ok. But you don’t get the extra dramatic attain of the 9 Pro’s 5x zoom or the good portrait framing of a 3x lens just like the one on the Samsung Galaxy S24. It’s the factor I missed most after I switched from utilizing the Pixel 9 Pro to the Pixel 9 — method various further pixels on the display or a handful of AI-enhanced video or picture options.
Aside from that, you don’t miss out on a lot. The display doesn’t get fairly as brilliant because the Pros, however it’s nonetheless adequate to make use of in direct daylight. Battery efficiency is on par with the remainder of the Pixel 9 sequence. It had loads left within the tank by the top of the day, and I by no means felt like I wanted to provide it a late-in-the-day recharge, even with heavy use.
Tensor G4, Google’s latest chipset, is on all 4 Pixel 9 fashions. It’s a strong performer for every day duties and doesn’t appear to warmth up fairly as dramatically because the earlier technology, although if you happen to spend 20 minutes working a media-heavy webpage, it will nonetheless double as a hand hotter. But it doesn’t really feel prefer it’s going to burst into flames, you already know?
It all provides as much as an expertise that feels polished in a method that earlier Pixels didn’t fairly obtain. The chipsets ran sizzling, the shapes felt wonky, and the screens weren’t fairly as good. The non-Pro Pixel, particularly, has been on a journey from the higher midrange to correct flagship, primarily by bettering the display refresh fee and including minor digital camera options alongside the way in which. Both fashions gained some quality-of-life enhancements over time, too, together with the flexibility to make use of face unlock for funds and — new within the 9 sequence — a much-improved fingerprint scanner. The form of stuff that makes me really feel rather more snug recommending it to my dad and mom or my hair stylist.
Google sorted the {hardware} out, and the software program is as clear as ever. But this can be a telephone launched in 2024, so we’ve got to speak about AI. There are just a few options reserved for the Pro line, like Video Boost, which makes use of AI within the cloud to bump up the brightness in low mild video. That’s not an enormous loss, and the Pixel 9 has loads of different AI options, together with Reimagine, Screenshots, and Pixel Studio, all of which you’ll be able to examine in my Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL overview. Some of it’s so good that it’s problematic! But the TL;DR is that it appears like an actual combined bag proper now, and AI options are beginning to pile up in a method that’s type of hurting my head.
What do I do with a JPEG of a child’s celebration invitation? Add it to screenshots? Ask Gemini to place it on my calendar? Or simply discover it in my messages each time I must search for the get together time or deal with? AI is meant to save lots of us from the latter state of affairs, and Google’s varied AI instruments kinda work like that generally. For now, it stays unproven as the subsequent platform shift.
The Pixel 9 additionally comes with one thing extra essential however a lot much less flashy: seven years of OS updates. Sure, it ships with Android 14, which is bizarre since Pixels normally ship with the yr’s latest OS model. But the Pixel 9 will probably be first in line for Android 15 when it arrives this fall, in order that doesn’t really feel like rather more than an fascinating footnote. You’ll outgrow the Pixel 9 earlier than it stops receiving software program updates, which is how issues ought to be.
And that’s the Pixel 9’s complete deal: it’s a telephone that the Android ecosystem has wanted for some time now. It’s easy, well-made, and designed to maintain up for a few years to come back. It doesn’t have each fancy function or the perfect digital camera {hardware}, however it has sufficient to make it a worthy various to Samsung’s base-model S-series, which is kind of the default Android telephone.
There’s a cause why so many individuals select a Samsung telephone: they’re actually good. But additionally they include an entire lot of stuff that most individuals don’t want, bordering on bloated. They’re highly effective instruments if you understand how to tweak them to your liking, however I think lots of people purchase them for the good {hardware} and simply put up with the software program quirks. I’ve usually most popular the easier out-of-box expertise of utilizing a Pixel telephone, however the {hardware} by no means actually felt prefer it was on Samsung’s stage.
It’s a telephone that the Android ecosystem has wanted for some time now
That adjustments with the Pixel 9. It’s lastly a telephone for somebody who simply desires a extremely good telephone. Someone who doesn’t care concerning the distinction between optical and digital zoom, doesn’t need to fiddle with numerous customization choices, and who desires to keep away from serious about shopping for a brand new telephone for so long as they’ll. The Android ecosystem has that choice now, and it’s a rattling good one.
Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge
