Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Assessment: The premium AI flagship

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Intro

What shouldn’t be so good is that Google has hiked the value this yr, and the Pixel 9 Professional XL now begins at $1,100, nearer than ever to the $1,200 worth of the iPhone Professional Max mannequin. And it additionally appears lots like an iPhone.

However after all, it is not an iPhone, it is an AI cellphone.

Most of the newly introduced Google AI options are associated to Gemini, together with the unimaginable Gemini Reside, which feels nearly indistinguishable from speaking to an actual particular person. Nonetheless, that’s obtainable on most different Android telephones as effectively, it is not a Pixel unique.

Different AI options just like the photograph Reimagine instrument you may solely get on the Pixel they usually will let you alter images in loopy methods nearly too simply. And but different AI options like a full integration of Gemini along with your Gmail and Google Calendar are but to return.

By way of {hardware} upgrades, the brand new Tensor G4 chip will get higher cooling, so gaming is now way more tolerable, and each battery life and charging are higher than earlier than. This may simply be the finest Android cellphone of the yr, so let’s dive in.

Disclaimer: We use a brand new overview ranking system at PhoneArena, and you could discover the whole rating is now decrease than you is perhaps used to. Do not be fooled that the decrease quantity means the Pixel 9 Professional XL is a foul cellphone. As an alternative, the concept is to take a look at the scores within the context of the value class, and this new Pixel truly scores increased than the common for its worth.

Desk of Contents:

Additionally learn:

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Specs

Extra RAM, a quicker chip and quicker charging

Pixel 9 Professional XL on the left and Pixel 8 Professional on the best

Earlier than we dive within the new options, take a more in-depth take a look at the {hardware} variations between the brand new Pixel 9 Professional XL mannequin and the Pixel 8 Professional from final yr: 

New flat sides rework the look of the Pixel 9 Professional XL (Picture by PhoneArena)

Google says this new Pixel is twice extra sturdy in comparison with final yr’s mannequin, which the corporate appears to measure utilizing drop assessments. Since you will have the identical supplies, an aluminum body and Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back, this appears to be all due to the brand new design, which absorbs affect higher.

The Pixel 9 Professional XL additionally comes with a matte glass again, so that you need not fear about fingerprint marks, and on the edges you will have shiny, polished aluminum, which appears cool however that one attracts smudges simply. Normal flagship options like IP68 water and mud safety are after all current too.

You may get the 9 Professional XL in certainly one of these colours:

We miss the cool blue “Bay” coloration of the earlier technology, however hey, you now have a pink model as an alternative.

By way of buttons, you will have the facility and quantity keys on the best hand facet, a bit increased than earlier than. No fancy Motion buttons or Seize buttons right here.

Contemplating this can be a premium cellphone, Google is unquestionably not being very beneficiant with the unboxing expertise. You get a slim field made from recycled supplies, the place you can see the cellphone and a 3-feet (1 meter) USB-C cable, however not a lot else. There is no such thing as a charger within the field, no case and no display screen protector. You’ll have to buy all of these individually.

This display screen will get tremendous vibrant (Picture by PhoneArena)

The display screen dimension of the 9 Professional XL is simply barely bigger, 6.8 inches vs 6.7 inches on the earlier mannequin, however that’s such a tiny distinction in actual life that you simply will not even discover.

The display screen high quality, nevertheless, has improved, and particularly the brightness. The 9 Professional XL reaches peak brightness of three,000 nits in comparison with 2,400 nits on the Pixel 8 Professional, which was already one of many brightest telephones we’ve ever examined. 

We do not measure peak brightness (Google will get this quantity when measuring solely 5% white on an in any other case all-black display screen), however as an alternative we measure an all-white show. The Pixel 9 Professional XL is the brightest cellphone we’ve ever examined, hitting greater than 2,000 nits, actually spectacular.

The remainder of the show is identical as earlier than – Google calls this display screen “Tremendous Actua”, and the refresh fee can fluctuate from 1Hz for static content material to 120Hz. The decision can also be the identical as final yr, it is a 1344p show, so it is undoubtedly sharp sufficient.

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Digital camera

Slight tweaks in picture high quality, massive new AI options

Slight enhancements to the rear cameras, and a really large new entrance digital camera (Picture by PhoneArena)

The primary purpose for getting a brand new cellphone for most individuals appears to be the improve to a greater digital camera, so Google needed to do one thing right here.

However the digital camera {hardware} itself has not modified a lot. The primary digital camera makes use of the identical 50MP sensor as final yr, the 48MP 5X zoom digital camera additionally appears to be the identical, and also you solely have a really slight improve for the 48MP ultra-wide digital camera, which will get f/1.7 aperture vs f/2 earlier than.

The 9 Professional XL has gone by means of our in depth PhoneArena Digital camera Rating testing protocol the place we take images and movies with every particular person digital camera and analyze them scientifically. The outcomes of the check conclude that the Pixel 9 Professional XL is a minor improve in comparison with the 8 Professional.

Most of the enhancements truly do not even come from higher element or picture high quality, however are digital camera options that have been lacking, such because the portrait mode preview, so you may lastly see what a portrait photograph appears earlier than you’re taking it.

And here’s what precise Pixel 9 Professional XL images appear to be.

Pixel 9 Professional XL Digital camera Pattern Pictures

On prime of that, you will have all the brand new Google AI magic.

Add Me – This function is particularly on your group photographs when there is no such thing as a one round to take your photograph. With it, you first take one shot of your mates, after which commerce locations with them so you can even get within the body, they usually take your image. The cellphone helps to get the composition related for this second shot. Then, it’s going to mix these two footage, inserting you into the primary group photograph, so you’re with the remainder of the group and it looks like any person simply took your image. We’re curious to do that one. It sounds cool, but in addition doubtlessly a bit finnicky.

Reimagine – This one is a Magic Editor function, which lets you do loopy issues to a photograph and alter it fully. For instance, you may simply sort “change the background with a sundown” and AI offers you a number of completely different variations for a sundown background. Or you may add fireworks, or butterflies, or no matter else involves thoughts. With such a profound transformation, you start to surprise if this nonetheless qualifies as a “photograph” or is it one thing that needs to be referred to as in any other case. An “AI photograph” possibly?

Auto Body – This one is once more about AI, which has now discovered the golden guidelines of composition and is able to recommend methods to recompose your imperfectly composed pictures to one thing a lot nearer to these golden requirements.

Video Increase – This one we all know from final yr, so it is not new, however quite an enchancment. The way in which it really works is identical – you choose a video to “enhance” and the system sends it to the Google Cloud, the place it will get processed by some supercomputers and in a number of hours, you get again an improved model of that video. Google says the processing now takes much less time although and your 4K video now returns upscaled to 8K high quality. Google even guarantees this 8K last model is so good, you may take 30MP photograph snaps out of the footage and they’re going to look superb. Once more, this all sounded very cool final yr, however in actuality we nearly by no means used that function. Let’s examine if all of the enhancements make it definitely worth the trouble and further processing time. 

And when it comes to video high quality, the Pixel 9 Professional XL is a really slight enchancment in comparison with the earlier mannequin.

Pixel 9 Professional XL (left) vs Galaxy S24 Extremely (proper) in a gaming benchmark

Beneath the hood, the Pixel 9 Professional XL is powered by the Google Tensor G4 chip, simply as all different Pixel 9 sequence telephones. It additionally has 16GB of RAM, which is a powerful quantity. Google says is allocates a part of that for AI duties, which looks like an affordable factor to do, so you may count on AI to work quicker on the Pixel 9 Professional XL in comparison with earlier Pixel editions.

Efficiency Benchmarks:

As you may see within the benchmarks above, the Pixel 9 Professional XL is behind in CPU efficiency, as measured by the Geekbench 6 check for each single and multi-core duties.

For gaming, the excellent news is that the Tensor G4 heats up much less and cools higher than earlier than. This implies much less throttling in gaming and higher body charges, however it’s nonetheless some 30% slower than the Galaxy S24 Extremely for extended gaming classes (and even slower in case your gaming classes are shorter).

Rumors say the Tensor G4 chip is the final Tensor processor manufactured by Samsung, and the subsequent Tensor G5 chip would be the first made by TSMC, the business’s main foundry. This in all probability means the Pixel 10 sequence will rating an enormous enhance in efficiency, however that’s, allegedly, solely taking place subsequent yr.

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Software program

Talking of updates, Google maintains its dedication for seven years of main OS updates, which is totally incredible and future-proofs it in an enormous manner.

Let’s examine what precisely is new when it comes to options (you may wager it is lots about AI).

Pixel Studio – that is your AI picture technology lab. Sort what you need to see, and AI will paint it for you. You’ll be able to additional refine the picture to be in a selected type – cartoon-like, cinematic or one thing else. 

As you may see, it was extremely straightforward to create these romantic sundown pictures that look actually cool.

Nonetheless, it was additionally not too arduous to get one thing extra controversial like a photograph of this nazi cat.

Climate app – we will not imagine it both! It took Google almost 20 years to lastly admit {that a} native Climate app is a pleasant factor to have. This new Climate app has all of the hallmark Pixel design quirks and it appears very detailed, and actually, lengthy, lengthy overdue.

Screenshots app – this one is a cool thought. It collects all your screenshots in a single place and places the facility of AI that can assist you search that library. That is nice. We all know we use screenshots to only keep in mind issues, and having AI seek for that sounds very helpful.

Satellite tv for pc SOS (*solely within the US) – a yr after Apple, Google is the second firm to convey Satellite tv for pc SOS to its telephones, first on the Pixel 9 sequence. And identical to Apple, Satellite tv for pc SOS shall be free on the Pixel 9 telephones for the primary two years and we do not know what the value shall be after that.

Maintain Magic Checklist – a collaboration between Gemini and the Google Maintain note-taking app, you may create “magic” lists. The way in which this works is you may ask Gemini issues like “what elements do I have to make tacos”, and get the record proper in Google Maintain.

Name Notes – this one makes use of on-device AI to create a neat abstract of your dialog. Observe that the opposite occasion shall be warned that the decision is being recorded.

PhoneArena Battery Take a look at Outcomes:

We needed to run our in-house battery assessments to seek out out what the actual battery numbers are.

We see some massive enhancements for net looking, which is our lightest check, in order that’s encouraging.

Apparently, for YouTube video streaming, the brand new 9 Professional XL lasted an hour lower than its predecessor.

Lastly, on our 3D gaming check clearly the brand new cooling had its say and the brand new Pixel outranked its predecessor by an enormous margin.

We’re additionally completely satisfied to see the 9 Professional XL assist quicker charging speeds. Google has a brand new 45W charger that it recommends, however be warned that not one of the Pixel 9 telephones suppot the complete 45W speeds. The Pixel 9 Professional XL is the quickest of the brand new fashions, and it maxes out at 37 watts.

PhoneArena Charging Take a look at Outcomes:

That is nonetheless nice. Google says you may get a 70% cost with a 30 minute top-up. In our testing, we obtained 63% in half an hour, not fairly matching that, however shut. And that’s nonetheless quicker than the Pixel 8 Professional which reached solely 47% in the identical interval.

A full 1% to 100% cost takes 1 hour and 23 minutes on the 9 Professional XL in comparison with 1 hour and 31 minutes on the 8 Professional, not an enormous differnce.

Charging pace graph for 9 Professional XL, we couldn’t hit the advertized 37 watt pace (Picture by PhoneArena)

Within the chart under that breaks down the charging course of, you may see how for the primary 25 minutes the cellphone expenses on the most pace, which for us was round 34 watts, a bit in need of the advertized 37W. 

After that, charging speeds drop in half to round 18W, which the cellphone maintains for 15 extra minutes, after which speeds decelerate even additional.

Wi-fi charging can also be on board, however the speeds haven’t modified. The Pixel 9 Professional XL wi-fi charging goes as much as 21 watts, however provided that you utilize the Google Pixel Stand 2nd Gen. With a daily Qi charger, the max wi-fi charging pace is proscribed to 12W.

Must you purchase it?

Refined and all about AI (Picture by PhoneArena)

The Pixel 9 Professional XL may really feel like a much bigger improve than it’s due to all of the discuss round AI, however lots of the most spectacular new options comparable to Gemini Reside should not unique to the Pixel and can be found on most different Android telephones too.

This leaves us with a number of smaller {hardware} modifications. Out of these, we actually like the brand new design and the improved battery life. We will recognize the quicker Tensor G4 chip and quicker charging, however these should not fairly game-changers.

Is all of that sufficient to justify the upper worth? Possibly not absolutely, however this Pixel remains to be cheaper than the iPhone Professional Max or Galaxy Extremely.

When you already personal a current Pixel cellphone, you shouldn’t really feel rushed to improve. And if you’re contemplating your choices between a Pixel and different telephones, let’s put it this fashion: we really feel just like the Pixel is forward for AI than different telephones, and for those who worth that, you need to get it. However even for those who do not actually care about AI, the 9 Professional XL seems like one very refined, premium flagship, and it deserves a critical consideration from anybody searching for that.