We’ve heard the term ‘AI phone’ since the turn of the year, and every Android flagship (and those unavoidable flagship killers too) have touted built-in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Some more than others, but Samsung’s partnership till now for the Galaxy AI suite (the extensive integration of Gemini worked, as we illustrated in our review) really didn’t have a comparable among other Android phones. Till now, that is. Google’s annual Pixel flagship refresh arrives a bit earlier than the form otherwise over the past few years, but it’s now taking over the AI phone crown with quite some ease. You’d not expect Google to put their own phones at a disadvantage, would you?
The line-up’s a bit more reworked this time. There’s the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro XL making up a versatile troika, quite well differentiated with specs. Perhaps not the price, but we’ll get to that. Last year, the flagship portfolio consisted of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. The Pixel 8a joined later, and we can expect a Pixel 9a at some point in the next few months. It is a significantly improved design overall, Google’s new Tensor G4 chip has solved some of the previous generation’s shortcomings, the fingerprint’s better and faster, while an extensive portfolio of AI tricks is quite on point.
The Pixel 9 (as well as the Pixel 9 Pro) and Pixel 9 Pro XL are primarily differentiated by the screen size – 6.8-inches versus 6.3-inches. Choices are good. The other is the camera combination. Both Pro phones have three (a 50-megapixel wide, a 48-megapixel ultrawide and a 48-megapixel telephoto; the Pixel 9 doesn’t have a telephoto. But if you must, the reason to spend more for the Pixel 9 Pro over the Pixel 9 (in case you’re considering the entry spec option) is the 5x telephoto on the Pro phones.
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On that front, generational Pixel phone users would notice the biggest image processing changes in many years, such as more subdued colours and dialled up realism for skin tones. A complete contrast in approach, from most Android flagships. Being a Pixel phone, you’d expect a certain baseline of photography performance, and that hasn’t changed. Even with an unsteady hand, panoramas using the milestone dots, delivers a photo that’s uncrinkled. However, I did notice that certain photos, particularly macros, require a bit more effort in getting the sharpness right. That is, often needing manual focus and you must hold the camera steady for a second longer after tapping the shutter button.
Pricing for the Pixel 9 portfolio sees a fair premium added to last year’s launch prices. The Pixel 9 prices start ₹79,999 while the Pixel 9 Pro costs ₹1,09,999 onwards while the Pixel 9 Pro XL will see you part with at least ₹1,24,999. It is inevitable that Samsung’s three phones making up the Galaxy S24 line-up will be part of this conversation, and Google’s price tags stay within that ballpark. Should they have though, or would it have been more prudent to undercut Samsung’s price tags and help users find more value? If AI is going to be the deciding factor, Google’s pitch with the new Pixels is heavily relying on your liking a bunch of new camera tricks and Gemini Live.
The biggest complaint with previous Pixel phones revolved around how they were quite delighted to slip from your less than fully attentive grip and tumble earthward. The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL have reduced the slipperiness, but I’d suggest you still remain a bit more careful than the average trend. A factor leading to a comparatively gripper design, are the flat sides. Your palm has more cues to work with. The Pixel 9 Pro XL, front on with the display off, looks remarkably similar to an iPhone 15 Pro Max – that isn’t a criticism, but a testament for Google’s scrutiny for detail.
At the back, the camera island’s been completely redesigned, and that’ll tell the world that you own the latest Pixel phone. It looks better too, and in all fairness, the finish on last year’s phone was prone to catching lightly visible scuffs all too easily. This finish, with a larger glass area, isn’t exhibiting any such tendencies thus far. There is a definite elegance to the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL’s design, accentuated by some interesting colour choices as well across the range.
In the past few days of testing the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL, Google Tensor G4’s immediate improvements become quite clear. This chip doesn’t heat up the way Tensor G3 did (it reached worrying levels, particularly over the summer, as most phones struggled) with the slightest of multitasking. The hardware changes and a new vapor chamber give another coolness dimension to the latest Pixels. Two other observations can be drawn. The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL hold performance rather well over time, best tested by a session of gaming on the phone with no visible jitters or dropped frames.
Positive improvements have therefore also delivered a significant boost to battery life. In different degrees, the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL owing to different battery capacities, still hold a bit in the tank at the end of the day. A fully charged Pixel 9 Pro XL at 8am used through the day for calls, emails, some social media, streaming music during the commute and everything else that you’d do on your phone on an average workday, still retains around 29% charge at 8pm. Run the smaller Pixel 9 though a similar flow, and it holds close to 15% charge, and the battery saver notification pops up. I’d classify these stats as a close to 15% improvement over the Pixel 8 phones.
The truest AI phone thus far? Perhaps. The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL have AI quite extensively embedded within different pieces of the Android jigsaw. It’s a dual approach, with on-board processing done by Gemini Nano models, while more complex tasks are for Gemini Advanced. AI smarts attached to the camera and the photo gallery are likely going to be your first (and most often used) interface with AI on the phone. It always is.
In the Photos app, there is a Magic Editor button, behind which sit some really cool editing options. Auto framing, for example, can reframe old and new photos by cropping or expanding the frame. Works quite well with the former, and the latter springs pleasant surprises too. Zoom Enhance is very handy, for the times you’ve had to use 15x zoom or more – using AI to fill pixels works well for the most part, in boosting details that’d otherwise have been lost at the altar of smudges and noise.
A trick up Google’s sleeve is something called Add Me, for those times when you’re out with a group of friends, the idea is to take a group photo, and you don’t want to hand over the phone to a stranger to take the photo. After you’ve taken the first photo, the member of the group you’ve swapped places with is given on-screen guidance on framing the shot before hitting the capture button. The final result is a photo where you’re all in the frame, living life happily. Add Me works well for the most part, but you’ll see hints of artificial addition to a frame if the space has complex layering on which AI must overlay. Only use this in good light conditions, else it’ll stumble.
In Magic Editor, you’d notice a tool called Reimagine. That’s generative AI at work to change things around in your photo (either some selected part or the whole image) by taking cues from the text prompt you give. A photo of a car parked in your garage can become a photo of a car parked in front of the Kensington Palace in London, complete with relevant shadows. This is an example of uncannily realistic generations that can indeed be a worry for humanity in the longer run. At the same time, try to invoke the London Eye, the Singapore Flyer or the New York skyline, and results aren’t as brilliant. Neither does it actively do any AI magic on photos with clear human faces in the frame. That’s a failsafe in place. There’s work to be done, but early examples tell us it’s a matter of when and not if.
For a quite a bit of this to work, including chatting with Gemini Live, Call Notes and the Pixel Studio image generator, you’d need Gemini Advanced. Good thing then that Google is bundling a year of the Google One AI Premium plan with the Pro phones. Takes care of your cloud storage bit as well, with 2TB (or terabytes) storage. Once that’s done, you’d be paying ₹1,950 per month for the privilege. Without it, a Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro or Pixel 9 Pro XL will feel incomplete. There’s real-world utility to be found with Pixel Screenshots that is the place to go to search for information from a screenshot you’d taken a few days ago but cannot remember which one.
It isn’t just software, but a genuine step forward with hardware as the underlier, defining Google’s most advanced Pixel phones. There are AI use-cases that’d be relevant for you, and some may not be. Pixel Studio may catch your fancy once in a while (this too wouldn’t generate anything with human faces; Gemini doesn’t want to go wrong with sensitivities), but Call Notes or transcriptions in Recorder, will be really handy more often than note. Soon enough, you’ll find yourself asking Gemini about things that would have otherwise invoked a traditional Google Search.
In terms of how the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL feel as phones, the collective of improvements across design, underlying specs and improvements to aspects such as the faster fingerprint scanner, mean it’s a wholesome flagship Android experience. Google promises 7-years of software updates, and it is unlikely you’ll keep the phone for even half of that window, but that promise adds a peace of mind. Your choice is wider than before, with three phones to choose from – whether you like compact footprint or are okay with a 6.8-inch screen. Android flagships are no longer a one-horse race. It never should be that.