Google Pixel 9 initial review: More AI for more money

The new Google Pixel 9 represents a bit of a departure from its predecessor, offering not just a new look but a number of spec bumps that inch this phone closer to a "Pro" device. Unfortunately, it's not quite there, despite Google inflating the price by $100 to match some other competitors, but it gets close, offering plenty of fun AI features that users are sure to love (or ignore).

So what's new with the Pixel 9, how is it different from its Pro siblings, and is it worth getting over the cheaper Pixel 8? That phone was priced well at just $699, but has Google justified the price increase of its latest model?

I've spent about a week with the Pixel 9 so far, so I'll attempt to shed some light on the matter since the device hits store shelves soon after this review gets published. These are just my initial impressions based on my somewhat limited time using the device. However, you can also look forward to a full review after I've spent more time with the phone.

Google Pixel 9: Price & availability

The Google Pixel 9 was announced in early August 2024 during the Made by Google 2024 event and goes on sale on August 22. The phone starts at $799 for the 12GB/128GB variant, while the 256GB version is priced at $899. However, you will most likely be able to find some compelling Pixel 9 deals if you shop around enough.

The phone is available in four different colors: Peony (pink), Wintergreen (green), Obsidian (black), and Porcelain (silver/white).

Google will sell the Pixel 9 in the following countries: U.S., Canada, U.K., Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Unlike the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro Fold, which receive a one-year free trial of Gemini Advanced, the Pixel 9 only receives a one-month trial in regions where the offer is available.

Google Pixel 9: What I like so far

The Pixel 9 looks quite different from its predecessor, but many of the main design cues are still there. Notably, the camera visor is no longer connected to the device's frame; it's now a floating camera bar with an all-aluminum side and a rounded cutout for the dual camera system. In fact, the shape of the camera bar reminds me of the Pixel's rather large and bubbly Quick Settings button, which brings an unexpected level of cohesion.

One thing I was concerned about regarding the new Pixel 9 design was the new flat design, particularly the frame. After using phones like the Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy Z Flip 6, I've become a bit weary of sharp edges as they tend not to play nice with my poor finger when handling the phones one-handed. Fortunately, that's not the case here, as the satin metal frame is surprisingly soft, and Google gave it a very slight curve where the frame meets the front and rear panels, which keeps the phone from digging into your pinky finger.

I do agree with Android Central's Phones editor, Nick Sutrich, who said in his Pixel 9 hands-on the new design reminds him of the latest iPhones, at least if you look at it from the front and the sides, but not everyone here thinks so.

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The phone is surprisingly comfortable to hold. Beyond its soft frame and somewhat slick glass panels, the phone is still fairly small despite being a couple of millimeters larger than the Pixel 8. Given its size, I wouldn't exactly put this among the best small Android phones, but the 6.3-inch OLED panel is handled well thanks to the minimal and uniform bezels. My only complaint is that despite not having the smallest bezels I've dealt with, I find my finger accidentally activating Circle to Search pretty often. It's not a huge annoyance, but something to point out if you enable the feature.

The OLED display looks great, and while I normally leave phones on Natural color mode, the Adaptive display mode doesn't overly saturate colors like I find on other phones. You will have to remember to turn on Smooth display to kick up to the 120Hz refresh rate, but once you do, it's smooth sailing. The added brightness also means that there should be no problem viewing content when outdoors. Just make sure to slap on a Pixel 9 screen protector, as I've already noticed some very light scratches.

I also have no complaints so far about the new ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which feels fast and accurate.

The phone has pretty decent haptics and good audio, which doesn't surprise me. The dual stereo speakers sound very full, with plenty of depth and good bass response, while the haptics remain quite subtle when navigating the phone or when receiving notifications.

The Tensor G4 chipset isn't a huge upgrade over its predecessor, but that matters very little here. Coupled with 12GB of RAM, the Pixel 9 performs quite well when opening and juggling apps. I think most people buying this phone will be pleased with its performance, especially when it comes to AI tasks. I also haven't noticed the phone getting too warm when playing games like Honkai: Star Rail or Fall Guys, which is a good sign to me, although touch input does seem ever-so-slightly delayed at times.

My initial impression of the Pixel cameras, based on my limited time with the phone so far, is that they're damn good. Images are detailed and crisp, and there's a great deal of dynamic range, even in lower lighting conditions. I do find that images sometimes lack that extra punch of vibrancy or saturation that I like, and as a result, sometimes photos can appear a bit dull. I've also seen instances where the sky might get blown out, but this doesn't happen too often. Otherwise, images have nice natural bokeh, and Macro Focus takes it to another level by letting you get really close.

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One feature I haven't had an opportunity to test out too much is Add Me, which lets the person taking a photo add themselves to the image after it's been taken. It's a very neat feature, and I've seen some excellent examples that make it look pretty convincing that everyone was in the photo.

My example (below) is admittedly a bit different from what Google had in mind, and at first glance, it looks fine until you squint and realize something's off.  The result isn't perfect, but being able to capture yourself twice in the same frame is a very cool effect that I wouldn't be able to replicate easily using photo editing applications.

For a more traditional use of Add Me, Sutrich has seen a result from the feature with him and his family, and you can check it out on his Pixel 9 Pro review. It's a much better example, but even then, it takes a squint to realize something's off and that someone has essentially been added to the photo. Still, it's a very cool feature that I can't wait to try out more, and I'm just glad this feature isn't limited to the Pro phones.

Lastly, I've been quite impressed with the battery life so far. The phone easily lasts me until the end of the day, and I get around seven or eight hours of screen time, which is pretty good. Google claims 24+ battery life and even longer with Energy Saver (since that's kind of how it works), and while I haven't gotten more than a day of battery life, I imagine it will vary based on your use.

Google Pixel 9: New AI features

The Pixel 9 supports Gemini Nano with Multimodality, meaning it can handle some pretty complicated stuff. I've played around with a few of the new AI features, and so far, I'm pretty impressed. Among them, Pixel Studio is probably my favorite new app. It's a text-to-image generator powered by Google's new Imagen 3 model. It's pretty easy to use, allowing you to go into existing images available in the studio or to create your own from scratch.

The results are pretty damn impressive, and more often than not, they put a smile on my face. The app does quite well in generating clear, high-quality images, and the results can be spot-on, including how the app generates text like book or movie titles.

Magic Editor also has some interesting new features, like Reimagine, which lets you change aspects of a photo in your gallery by typing a prompt. You can pretty much completely transform an image with surprisingly good detail. The results may not be completely perfect, but the feature feels more versatile and capable than what I've seen with Samsung's Sketch to Image feature.

Call Notes is a useful way to record and transcribe calls, and it not only lets you replay the recording or search through the transcription, but the feature also summarizes the details of the call, in case you just need to remember what the gist of the conversation was.

Then there's Pixel Weather, which is a beautiful app that provides AI-generated reports of the rest of your day and what you can expect the following day, complete with weather animations. It does a decent job of covering the basic points of the forecast without overloading you with information, although I can see how some people would want even more detail. That said, I'm not sure how useful the AI-generated reports are, as their main purpose seems to be to summarize the information already presented to you.

Speaking of usefulness, I'm also unsure about how I feel about Gemini Live and Pixel Screenshots. The former is an interesting conversational version of Gemini, allowing you to have pretty natural conversations with the chatbot to maybe provide some inspiration or assistance. It actually sounds surprisingly natural in its responses and appears to understand my queries well, even if they're multilayered or if I'm seemingly rambling a bit. I asked for some diet tips to achieve my goal weight, and it provided some sound advice. I then followed up by asking for exercises that could help, and it gave equally sound advice.

Then, a day later, Gemini Live wasn't able to remember the weight goal. I gave it just a day prior, so I had to remind it during follow-up queries. Basically, I can see this being a useful feature occasionally when you have very specific and multi-layered questions, but I already don't use Google Assistant very much, so I'm not sure how much I would use Gemini or Gemini Live on a regular basis.

The downside of Gemini Live is that it's tied to Gemini Advanced, which is locked behind a Google One AI Premium subscription. So, in addition to paying $100 more for the phone, you now have to dish out an extra $20 a month for one of the more interesting features. I can't imagine many people would subscribe just to use Gemini Live, but if you're already paying similar amounts for your Google One subscription, it might be worth switching to for the additional perks.

The Pixel Screenshots app feels even less useful to me, as it's simply just a way to search screenshots and create AI summaries of them. My thing is that most of the screenshots I take are of funny memes or photos that I find interesting, and it's rarely anything that I ever need to recall. I'm sure some people will find it useful, and I may end up changing my mind as I continue testing the phone, but right now, it just feels a bit superfluous.

Google Pixel 9: What I don't care for so far

Unfortunately, there are other aspects of the battery that I'm less impressed by. The 27W charging is almost unbearably slow, which is something that has always annoyed me about Pixel phones. Unlike the Pixel 9 Pro XL, which charged up to 70% in just 30 minutes, the Pixel 9 takes the same amount of time to just reach 50%, although those figures are based on a 45W Google charger.

I don't have a Google 45W charger, and my experience has been quite different, with the phone taking a bit longer to reach 50% and then having to wait another hour to get to full when using a 100W charger from Anker. Fortunately, 50% still lasts you a good amount of the day, but wired and wireless charging speeds fall behind many other flagship Android phones with fast charging capabilities.

You also won't find Qi2 wireless charging. This isn't the end of the world, and to some, this is actually a good thing. However, with the popularity of MagSafe cases for Android phones, it's surprising to see Google skip out on the standard that people clearly want when it's been available for some time now.

Storage is also a problem for the Pixel 9. The base model comes with just 128GB, which just seems small for a flagship phone in 2024. As such, after setting up the Pixel and moving apps and audio over from my daily driver, the Pixel told me I had used 92GB, leaving me with about 36GB remaining. As pointed out by Android Central senior editor Harish Jonnalagadda, there are plenty of mid-range phones that have double this amount of storage, so the fact that the three Pixel 9 series phones start with 128GB is a bit ridiculous.

The Pixel 9 also lacks a third rear camera. This becomes particularly clear when compared to the Galaxy S24, which is also priced at $799 and sports a third lens for 3x telephoto images. Sure, the Pixel takes pretty good images with up to 8x Super Res Zoom, but the lack of a dedicated telephoto camera limits the zoom capabilities when compared to the Pixel 9 Pro.

But that's not the only way Google is limiting the Pixel 9 compared to the Pixel 9 Pro. Despite sporting the same Tensor G4 chip and 12GB of RAM, enough to handle on-device AI processing, Google has omitted certain camera features from the base Pixel 9, including Video Boost, Pro Controls, High-Res photos, and more.

It's unclear why these features are not included, and when asked, Google wasn't able to provide a clear answer on why there's such a feature disparity, making it seem as though it's just gatekeeping features for its more expensive phones. It's a bit unfortunate since I don't think Samsung does the same thing with the base Galaxy S24, and that only has 8GB of RAM.

Google Pixel 9: The competition

As the base Pixel 9 model, there are a few other phones you can consider at or below this price point from companies like Samsung and OnePlus.

The base Galaxy S24 is the closest competitor to the Pixel 9, offering a similarly small, mostly flat chassis and comparable specs. One major difference is the presence of a telephoto camera, something the Pixel 9 lacks. On the other hand, the Pixel 9 comes with 12GB of RAM, which should make it more capable when it comes to on-device AI processing. It also has a larger battery, which should theoretically help it last longer on a single charge. Otherwise, both offer similar software promises and great camera quality for the same price.

The OnePlus 12 is another similarly priced option for anyone looking for a flagship. As far as specs go, the phone bests the Pixel 9 and Galaxy S24 in many areas, sporting a larger battery, much faster charging, and up to 16GB of RAM. The downside to getting a OnePlus is that the software isn't for everyone, and support isn't as robust. The phone also isn't as water resistant, so you can't submerge it.

Google Pixel 9: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if...

• You want a new Google flagship without spending $1000.
• You want the latest AI features on your phone before anyone else.
• You want some of the best cameras on the market.

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You own a Pixel 8.
• You want a phone with fast charging capabilities.
• You want a phone with a telephoto camera and Pro camera controls.

As noted, I've only used the Pixel 9 for about a week, and there's still plenty that I want to test out more thoroughly. However, for the purposes of this initial review, I think that the Pixel 9 is a great phone that you should consider purchasing for your next upgrade, especially if you're not trying to drop $1000 on a Pixel 9 Pro.

Tensor G4 may not be the most powerful chip on the market, but it's perfect for the purposes of the Pixel and how Google is positioning this phone, especially when paired with 12GB of RAM. Performance is great, battery life is great, and you won't be disappointed by its cameras... that is unless you're hoping for a telephoto lens with strong zoom capabilities.

Yes, the Pixel 9 still doesn't get all the features you'll find on the Pro phones, and that's a problem. Plus, one of the more interesting features is locked behind a subscription. If you think you would want some of those missing features, then you should spring for the Pro phones. Otherwise, the Pixel 9 is still a good phone, even if it costs $100 more than its predecessor.