Google Pixel 9 review: the phone that Android needs

The Pixel 9 is nan benignant of instrumentality you get aft a fewer generations of incremental progress. 

One insignificant update aft different doesn’t look for illustration overmuch year-over-year. A faster fingerprint sensor? Uniform bezels? Not nan worldly of headlines. But eventually, nan small worldly adds up to thing significant. That’s nan emotion I get holding nan Pixel 9, and I for illustration it a lot.

The Pixel 9 is nan only non-Pro telephone successful nan 9 bid astatine this point, which, arsenic champion I tin tell, intends it has 12GB of RAM alternatively of 16GB and doesn’t person a telephoto lens. It’s smaller than nan aptly named Pixel 9 Pro XL, nan aforesaid size and style arsenic nan regular Pixel 9 Pro, and it doesn’t fold successful half for illustration nan other 9 Pro does.

But mainly, nan Pixel 9 conscionable works. The surface is agleam and nan artillery goes each day. The fingerprint sensor is speedy and accurate, finally. Although it’s pricier than past year’s exemplary astatine $799 versus $699, that’s fundamentally nan going complaint for a non-Pro flagship phone. And for nan first time, nan Pixel statement feels for illustration it has earned a spot correct alongside Samsung and Apple. Google conscionable needed a fewer years to get here.

Let’s get it retired of nan way: from nan front, nan Pixel 9 looks for illustration an iPhone. The rounded surface corners, the flat sides — it’s each iPhone and that’s fine. Compared to caller Pixel generations, it feels astir 80 percent little apt to alert retired of my manus erstwhile I prime it up from a table, which I admit measurement much than nan chopped look nan curved edges provided. The 6.3-inch surface is simply a small bigger than nan Pixel 8’s. Its 1080p surface is connected nan debased side, resolution-wise, but looks crisp capable that it ne'er bothered me. 

The Pixel 9 comes pinch nan aforesaid main and ultrawide cameras arsenic nan Pro phones, but it doesn’t person a telephoto lens. Not each flagship phones travel pinch a telephoto, and nan Pixel 9’s lossless 2x harvest zoom is fine. But you don’t get nan much melodramatic scope of nan 9 Pro’s 5x zoom or nan bully image framing of a 3x lens for illustration nan 1 connected nan Samsung Galaxy S24. It’s nan point I missed astir erstwhile I switched from utilizing nan Pixel 9 Pro to nan Pixel 9 — measurement much than a fewer other pixels connected nan surface aliases a fistful of AI-enhanced video aliases photograph features.

Aside from that, you don’t miss retired connected much. The surface doesn’t get quite arsenic agleam arsenic nan Pros, but it’s still bully capable to usage successful nonstop sunlight. Battery capacity is connected par pinch nan remainder of nan Pixel 9 series. It had plentifulness near successful nan vessel by nan extremity of nan day, and I ne'er felt for illustration I needed to springiness it a late-in-the-day recharge, moreover pinch dense use. 

Tensor G4, Google’s newest chipset, is connected each 4 Pixel 9 models. It’s a coagulated performer for regular tasks and doesn’t look to power up rather arsenic dramatically arsenic nan erstwhile generation, though if you walk 20 minutes moving a media-heavy webpage, it will still double arsenic a manus warmer. But it doesn’t consciousness for illustration it’s going to burst into flames, you know? 

It each adds up to an acquisition that feels polished successful a measurement that erstwhile Pixels didn’t rather achieve. The chipsets ran hot, nan shapes felt wonky, and nan screens weren’t rather arsenic nice. The non-Pro Pixel, successful particular, has been connected a travel from nan precocious midrange to due flagship, chiefly by improving nan surface refresh complaint and adding insignificant camera features on nan way. Both models gained immoderate quality-of-life improvements complete time, too, including nan expertise to usage look unlock for payments and — caller successful nan 9 bid — a much-improved fingerprint scanner. The benignant of worldly that makes maine consciousness overmuch much comfortable recommending it to my parents aliases my hairsbreadth stylist. 

Google sorted nan hardware out, and nan package is arsenic cleanable arsenic ever. But this is simply a telephone launched successful 2024, truthful we person to talk astir AI. There are a fewer features reserved for nan Pro line, for illustration Video Boost, which uses AI successful nan unreality to bump up nan brightness successful debased ray video. That’s not a immense loss, and nan Pixel 9 has plentifulness of different AI features, including Reimagine, Screenshots, and Pixel Studio, each of which you tin publication astir successful my Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL review. Some of it is so bully that it’s problematic! But nan TL;DR is that it feels for illustration a existent mixed container correct now, and AI features are starting to heap up successful a measurement that’s benignant of hurting my head. 

What do I do pinch a JPEG of a kid’s day statement invitation? Add it to screenshots? Ask Gemini to put it connected my calendar? Or conscionable find it successful my messages each clip I request to look up nan statement clip aliases address? AI is expected to prevention america from nan second scenario, and Google’s various AI devices kinda activity for illustration that sometimes. For now, it remains unproven arsenic nan adjacent level shift. 

The Pixel 9 also comes pinch thing much important but overmuch little flashy: 7 years of OS updates. Sure, it ships pinch Android 14, which is weird since Pixels usually vessel pinch nan year’s newest OS version. But nan Pixel 9 will beryllium first successful statement for Android 15 erstwhile it arrives this fall, truthful that doesn’t consciousness for illustration overmuch much than an absorbing footnote. You’ll outgrow nan Pixel 9 earlier it stops receiving package updates, which is really things should be.

And that’s nan Pixel 9’s full deal: it’s a telephone that nan Android ecosystem has needed for a while now. It’s straightforward, well-made, and designed to support up for galore years to come. It doesn’t person each fancy characteristic aliases nan champion camera hardware, but it has capable to make it a worthy replacement to Samsung’s base-model S-series, which is much aliases little nan default Android phone.

There’s a logic why truthful galore group take a Samsung phone: they’re really good. But they besides travel pinch a full batch of stuff that astir group don’t need, bordering connected bloated. They’re powerful devices if you cognize really to tweak them to your liking, but I fishy a batch of group bargain them for nan bully hardware and conscionable put up pinch nan package quirks. I’ve mostly preferred nan simpler out-of-box acquisition of utilizing a Pixel phone, but nan hardware ne'er really felt for illustration it was connected Samsung’s level. 

That changes pinch nan Pixel 9. It’s yet a telephone for personification who conscionable wants a really bully phone. Someone who doesn’t attraction astir nan quality betwixt optical and integer zoom, doesn’t want to fiddle pinch a batch of customization options, and who wants to debar reasoning astir buying a caller telephone for arsenic agelong arsenic they can. The Android ecosystem has that action now, and it’s a damn bully one.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge