Google Pixel 9 Evaluation: A bit pricier, however price it

Pixel 9 Intro

And never simply due to its $800 value, which is significantly cheaper than the $1,000+ Professional fashions, but in addition as a result of it is a darn good telephone by itself. It has principally 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 score is predicated on detailed testing throughout twelve totally different classes, and you too can see the person rating for every class above. Study extra about our PhoneArena Evaluation Rating right here.

Desk of Contents:

Pixel 9 Specs

Some thrilling numbers

We’ve got a number of thrilling specs adjustments on the Pixel 9. The brand new ultrawide digicam, now similar 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 allows new AI options.

Additionally, it comes with an even 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 contemporary look

We love the brand new design with flat sides, and it’s also 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 carried out an awesome 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 relatively 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 it’s also 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 relatively easy as a result of there may be not a lot within the field. We like that the field is made from recycled supplies and that it’s fairly slim, however we remorse that helpful goodies like a charger, a display screen protector and a case are lacking. You solely get a USB-C charging cable, the consumer handbook and the SIM device.

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

• Obsidian
• Porcelain
• Wintergreen
• Peony

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

This display screen will get further vivid! (Picture by PhoneArena)

As for the show, the Pixel 9 comes with a 6.3″ OLED display screen that Google calls “Actua” (and never “Tremendous Actua” as on the Professionals). Is it display screen? We’ve got run all of our lab assessments, and you may 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 screen being white, and all the remainder black), however as an alternative 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 now have examined by a giant margin. Which means it will likely be a lot simpler to make use of this telephone open air, 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 would possibly look like a small distinction, however evening owls will discover it.

Pixel 9 Digital camera

Huge improve: new ultra-wide digicam

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

Pixel 9 digicam specs:

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

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

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

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 photographs, however actually minor ones.

In our PhoneArena Digital camera Rating, our in-house intensive protocol that assessments every digicam, we discovered the Pixel 9 scoring a tiny bit larger than its predecessor, however that was principally due to new options added resembling (lastly!) the power to preview portrait mode photographs.

Video high quality is generally comparable between the Pixel 9 and Pixel 8, so do not anticipate main adjustments.

Sadly, the usual Pixel 9 as soon as once more doesn’t assist 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 best, 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 looking and 17% quicker app launching, which doesn’t look like the most important enchancment, however it’s one thing.

After all, we ran the same old benchmarks to match its efficiency towards friends and here’s what we obtained.

Efficiency Benchmarks:

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

At the least, we’re completely happy 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 advanced duties with out sending your information to third-party AI corporations. Gemini makes use of your telephone’s information to supply customized help, like scheduling appointments, writing messages, and summarizing paperwork.

The storage choices stay the identical, which suggests you possibly can choose from 128 GB and 256 GB variants.

Pixel 9 Software program

Much more AI digicam options

It is all about AI (Picture by PhoneArena)

Essentially the most highly effective one is “Reimagine”, which lets you change the best way an image seems. You’ll be able to change the sky from an ideal blue to a cloudy one, or you possibly can 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 a indication that is an AI altered picture aside from the metadata (and that isn’t onerous to eliminate).

You even have a number of new apps resembling 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’ve gotten a brand new Screenshots app, which once more makes use of AI to research all your screenshots and make it straightforward to look one thing you may have screenshotted way back.

Pixel 9 Battery

A slight bump

The Pixel 9 has a battery capability of 4700 mAh, which is a small bounce 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 take a look at, so we ran our three in-hourse battery take a look at, and these are the outcomes we obtained:

PhoneArena Battery Check Outcomes:

On our lightest net looking take a look at, 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 margin on this take a look at, which is a superb signal.

For our second take a look at, 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 now have a separate take a look at for the avid gamers, and on that one the Pixel 9 scores actually good, so it positively helps having the Tensor G4 graphics working a bit cooler and likewise 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 prices a bit slower than the Pixel 8.

A 30 minute top-up, provides you 51% cost on the Pixel 9 and 55% on the Pixel 8, based on 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 pace of 15 watts, however provided that you employ a Pixel Stand 2nd Gen. We’ve got not been in a position to take a look at wi-fi charging but, as it appears that evidently hte Pixel Stand Gen 2 is out of inventory throughout most markets, however anticipate a full cost this approach to take greater than 2 hours and a half.

Must you purchase the Pixel 9?

The Pixel 9 gives the very best worth for the cash within the collection (Picture by PhoneArena)

The brand new $800 Pixel 9 feels refined in a manner 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 digicam is best certainly.

Was all of that well worth the value bump? And must you get the Pixel over a Galaxy or an iPhone?

Whereas we want the Pixel was a bit cheaper as previously, we predict it’s the most superior AI telephone in the marketplace 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.