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Google’s Pixel 9 Professional has rather a lot to reside as much as: It is the corporate’s new flagship telephone, coming in as AI competitors begins to warmth up. As Google faces monopoly costs, that is the corporate’s likelihood to justify its unified ecosystem, a job that the Pixel 9 Professional sadly falls in need of.
And but, by itself, it’s a superb product. Whereas a lot of the front-and-center branding tries to promote you on tech that most likely wants one other 10 years within the oven, the Pixel 9 Professional does common telephone stuff higher than any Pixel in current reminiscence. It has all of the strengths of older fashions, however tuned up, with a glossy design that was lengthy overdue.
The Pixel 9 Professional is lastly pocketable
The massive draw to the Pixel line of smartphones is often distinctive software program, however whereas the Pixel 9 has just a few AI tips up its sleeve to sustain with Apple Intelligence, my favourite change this yr is to the telephone itself.
That’s as a result of the Pixel 9 Professional, for the primary time, now is available in two sizes. There’s the “new” Pixel 9 Professional XL, which is definitely about the identical measurement as previous Professional fashions, and the common Pixel 9 Professional, which when in comparison with previous Pixel Professional fashions, features extra like a Pixel 9 Professional Mini. Regardless of having the identical naming scheme as these previous Professional fashions, it’s simply the brisker possibility.
Pixel 9 Professional (proper) subsequent to base Pixel 9 (left)
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Whereas the XL is extra in keeping with expectations, the common Pixel 9 Professional lastly provides us a Professional Pixel telephone that’s the very same measurement as the bottom Pixel. Meaning no extra selecting between pocketability and energy. As somebody who nearly at all times opts for professional fashions however tries to get the smallest possibility I can, I’m ecstatic.
To get the telephone to that measurement, there’s just a few compromises—particularly, a barely smaller battery and a predictably smaller display with a smaller decision. All the things nonetheless feels loads luxurious, and to me, the tradeoffs are properly price it.
It’s additionally light-weight, too, at 7 ozin comparison with the iPhone 15 Professional’s 6.6 oz. The most important distinction right here goes to return out of your case, which in a neat trick, will even match a base Pixel 9.
Pixel 9 Professional (center) subsequent to iPhone 15 Professional (left) and Pixel 8 Professional (proper)
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
That’s as a result of each telephones have the identical primary format, right down to the dimensions of the brand new, redesigned digicam bar. Google made the digicam bar smaller and extra round this yr, and whereas it nonetheless stands proud simply as a lot because the previous one, the extra minimal look is a bit simpler on the eyes.
Additionally simple on the eyes is the 9 Professional’s matte floor, which is rather a lot much less reflective and far much less of a fingerprint magnet than the glossier again on the bottom Pixel 9. The Hazel colour my telephone got here in can be a pleasant, deep white with a greenish tint, though you will get a black, white, or pink mannequin if these are extra your pace. I do miss the sunshine blue possibility, referred to as Bay, the Pixel 8 line had.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Nonetheless, that is simply probably the most premium feeling and searching smartphone Google has made to this point. There’s additionally a foldable Pixel 9 Professional, referred to as the Pixel 9 Professional Fold, set to ship subsequent month. I noticed a pre-release model of that telephone, however haven’t had many alternatives to check it.
Gemini nonetheless feels underbaked
Pixels often thrive on their distinctive software program, like Dwell Transcribe or Name Assistant, however the Pixel 9’s characteristic additions are extra iterative than traditional, with not one of the new exclusives actually standing out—not less than for something good.
The primary you’ll most likely stumble throughout is Add Me, which you’ll swipe to whereas taking an image. Add Me makes use of native processing to sew two pictures collectively so no person has to overlook out on being in a shot. Primarily, you’re taking a photograph of your good friend or accomplice, then go the telephone off to them to allow them to take a photograph of you. Add Me will then mix the pictures to make it appear to be you have been each in body on the identical time.
It’s a intelligent thought, and one I used to be excited to check out on my upcoming honeymoon. Sadly, like Magic Editor on earlier Pixels, it nonetheless looks like a demo.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Google advised me that Add Me doesn’t use generative fill, which suggests you gained’t get any melty backgrounds like in Magic Editor, nevertheless it does nonetheless fall prey to some primary photoshop tells. Figures added into pictures are likely to appear to be they have been lower out of {a magazine} and pasted in, with incorrect lighting and shadows being a transparent giveaway. Sizing will also be a difficulty, with individuals trying smaller or bigger than they may in actual life. The identical could be stated for depth: My fiancé tried framing his arm behind the place I used to be sitting so it might appear to be it was hugging me, and as an alternative it simply sort of blended into my shoulders.
Add Me additionally solely works with individuals, so don’t take into consideration getting intelligent with it. I attempted it on some anime figures I’ve available, and it wouldn’t acknowledge them.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
The brand new Screenshots app fares higher, although I doubt many individuals will use it. The app makes use of regionally processed AI so as to add titles and descriptions to your screenshots, serving to you search via them extra shortly. You may use this for issues like live performance tickets or lodge wifi playing cards, and the instrument’s descriptions have been largely correct in my utilization. It could actually additionally learn and summarize any textual content that is perhaps in your screenshots, which might be helpful for varsity notes or boarding passes.
The issue is, it’s restricted to screenshots, relatively than pictures. Even in the event you’re taking a photograph of a bodily boarding go, you’ll have to recollect to screenshot that photograph to get any use out of Screenshots. I are likely to screenshot rather a lot, however I really feel that limitation goes to depart this app largely buried with normal customers. Google’s upcoming Ask Photographs characteristic ought to assist extra individuals, however there’s nonetheless no phrase on a launch date for it.
Then, there’s what’s more likely to be probably the most controversial app debuting with the Pixel 9: Pixel Studio. It’s basically an AI picture generator with a primary editor thrown in, though you can too use it to the touch up your personal pictures relatively than AI-generated ones.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Pixel Studio makes use of a mixture of native processing and the Imagen 3 mannequin that additionally powers Gemini, however one thing should have damaged alongside the best way. Gemini’s safeguards are usually fairly strict, however like X’s Grok, Pixel Studio can provide you some fairly unhinged outcomes.
There are nonetheless some safeguards in place: The bot will refuse to generate photos of actual individuals, from celebrities to one thing as generic as “a cashier at a grocery retailer.” The problem is Pixel Studio appears to be extra permissive of violence than Gemini, and has no points with depicting copyrighted characters.
I used to be capable of get some nearly dead-on photos of Tremendous Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mickey Mouse, and whereas these alone won’t increase their company house owners’ ire, listed below are some extra compromising photos I obtained of Mickey Mouse with only a little bit of prompting:
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
I used to be even capable of get a model of Mickey depicted as a member of the KKK, though I’ll maintain off on posting it on your sake.
Nonetheless, it’s not a superb search for a brand-new instrument, and oldsters will need to watch out with their parental controls earlier than handing their child a Pixel 9. Utilizing the instrument extra as supposed, I discovered the pictures it created to be fairly boilerplate, and not likely well worth the carbon emissions.
Sadly, I really feel the identical approach about Gemini Assistant, which whereas not unique to the Pixel 9 collection, obtained some upgrades to coincide with its launch. It’s presupposed to be extra context conscious now, capable of take info out of your display and use it in your responses, though I may by no means get this to work. Extra emphasised in adverts is the brand new Gemini Dwell mode, which is unique to Gemini Superior customers and allows you to stick with it a dialog with a cloud-based and AI-powered voice. Pixel 9 Professional house owners get a free yr of Gemini Superior with their buy, so that you’ll be capable of attempt Dwell proper out of the field.
I discovered Gemini Dwell to be pleasant, however not that helpful, because it largely added an additional step between myself and data I may have discovered with a fast Google search. It wanted frequent redirecting to maintain it heading in the right direction, and infrequently lower out partway via speaking, requiring one other immediate earlier than it continued. Hallucination was additionally rampant, with the bot saying issues like “New Yorkers often at all times carry an umbrella simply in case” after I requested if it was going to rain right now. On condition that my buddies and I obtained drenched twice this weekend, that’s both not true or we’re only a bunch of transplants in disguise.
The conversational tone was additionally a bit off-putting, and whereas I didn’t have any points with the bot slicing me off, I didn’t love the overly pleasant, PR-adjacent voice it took with me. I felt like I used to be being dealt with, being given nonsensical responses like “the tech crew has fastened the problem” or “sorry, I misplaced connection” on events the place Dwell grew to become unresponsive and wanted to be rebooted. Points continued, regardless of no matter “tech crew” was being referenced, and my wifi was secure all through, so the connection was most likely not the wrongdoer.
General, I’m nonetheless unhappy to listen to that Google Assistant is on the best way out, one thing Google emphasised throughout the Pixel 9 announcement. Gemini nonetheless can’t do easy issues like modify telephone settings or set reminders, which Google Assistant has been capable of do with ease for years. For what I truly use my telephone to do, the extra light-weight and primary normal assistant is well the higher choose.
A digicam to beat the iPhone’s
As hinted in direction of by its identify, pictures are one other class the place the Pixel collection stands out. Digicam upgrades this yr are a bit extra refined, with rear digicam megapixel counts matching the Pixel 8 Professional (50 MP huge, 48 MP ultrawide, 48 MP telephoto), however with enhancements to autofocus. The selfie digicam did get a noticeable bump, from 10.5 MP to 42 MP, however in observe, taking pictures feels rather a lot higher throughout the board, with pictures being close to indistinguishable from these taken on my iPhone 15 Professional—one thing I wasn’t assured saying with the Pixel 8 Professional regardless of that telephone technically having higher ultrawide and telephoto lenses.
To start out, right here’s some daytime pictures taken at 12 MP throughout varied zoom and lighting ranges. Your telephone will default to this degree of high quality to avoid wasting cupboard space.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
And right here’s some taken at 50 MP, which you’ll activate by tapping the cog within the digicam app’s bottom-left nook, then the Professional tab, then the 50 MP icon below Decision.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Photographs are vivid and detailed: Shut ups particularly profit from Portrait mode, whereas Evening Sight brightens up the evening sky. I discovered the latter to be usually useful, however a bit synthetic at occasions. This may be irritating, since Evening Sight does activate routinely by default, however you’ll be able to disable Automated Evening Sight by tapping the cog within the bottom-left nook of the digicam app, and tapping the circle with a diagonal line via it below Extra mild. You’ll nonetheless be capable of use Evening Sight manually by swiping to it within the digicam app.
For comparability, listed below are some related pictures with my iPhone 15 Professional, with evening pictures specifically popping out a lot darker—though I’m restricted in how darkish my testing can get by the final ambient mild the place I reside.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
And listed below are just a few taken with my Pixel 8 Professional.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
General, regardless of the largely unchanged lens {hardware}, I discovered I needed to do rather a lot much less tweaking to get topics to pop in body this time round, probably because of this mannequin’s upgraded sensors.
Efficiency nonetheless falters
Efficiency is the Pixel 9 Professional’s Achilles’ heel. Boasting the model new Google Tensor G4, it nonetheless falls behind competing professional telephone fashions in non-Google apps.
That’s as a result of the Tensor collection is constructed to energy Google AI and different Google-developed experiences like Magic Editor, and for these, it really works nice. It additionally doesn’t get in the best way of sunshine duties like shopping, however in the event you’re a gamer, otherwise you edit video in your telephone, you may discover some slight hiccups.
Within the artificial benchmark Geekbench 6, which provides a basic thought of efficiency, I obtained a rating of 1,924 on single-core duties and 4,628 on multi-core duties, which is simply barely above the Pixel 8 Professional’s numbers and much under the two,938/7,250 I obtained on my iPhone 15 Professional. Artificial benchmarks can’t inform you the whole lot, nevertheless it’s not a promising begin.
To check out actual world efficiency, I took the telephone into Genshin Affect, a graphically demanding open-world sport. Right here, I used to be solely capable of get a clean 60 fps when utilizing the sport’s lowest settings, which make what must be luxurious 3D anime graphics appear to be borderline pixel artwork. Bumping the settings up dropped the fps to about 45–60, but additionally prompted the telephone to warmth up fairly a bit, with the utmost settings fairly shortly making it too sizzling to deal with.
That’s a disgrace, as these outcomes are about on par with what I obtained on the Pixel 8a, a funds mannequin working final yr’s chip. My iPhone 15 Professional, alternatively, can play at excessive settings at 60 fps with little challenge.
Whereas the Pixel 9 Professional isn’t a gaming telephone, the numbers right here don’t paint a sort image for different demanding apps. If you wish to keep within the Android ecosystem however don’t see your self utilizing Google’s Pixel-exclusive software program a lot, take into account an alternate flagship like a Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely as an alternative.
Battery life
I haven’t had the Pixel 9 Professional lengthy sufficient to check its battery correctly, so I’ll replace this part with extra particulars when I’ve them. For now, Google guarantees a mean 31 hours of battery life for non-constant blended use and with the default battery-saving options turned on.
A brighter show
Earlier than wrapping up, it’s price referring to the marginally brighter show. Whereas it nonetheless tops out at 120 Hz with the identical HDR assist and facet ratio, its peak brightness has been upped from 2,400 nits to three,000 nits, which I discovered I wanted fairly a bit. Possibly I’m getting older, however in direct daylight, I needed to put the brightness to about 93% earlier than the display actually popped. Inside, I used to be capable of get away with a extra modest 65%.
That’s increased than I felt I wanted on the Pixel 8a, so it’s probably my requirements have simply risen. This display is unquestionably higher than on prior fashions, able to displaying extra vivid colours with its doubled distinction ratio. If not for the small measurement, I may see myself watching complete films on this, as I used to be tempted to do whereas watching a scene from The Tremendous Mario Bros Film.
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
Do you have to purchase the Pixel 9 Professional?
Utilizing the Pixel 9 Professional hardly feels completely different than utilizing previous fashions, however that is nonetheless an effective way to get in on the Google flagship telephone, which begins on the typical $999.
A part of the rationale I haven’t picked up a Pixel for private use is due to the dimensions, in addition to what I thought-about a reasonably ugly digicam bump. Whereas the digicam bump is unquestionably nonetheless noticeable, each of these points are more-or-less solved now. The bottom Pixel 9 Professional looks like a large enchancment when simply carrying the telephone round in your pocket or having it out on a desk.
The digicam additionally undoubtedly makes the Professional mannequin price it, even with out a lot of an enchancment with app efficiency. The specs are higher on paper than most telephones from corporations not named Samsung, and Google’s post-processing takes the telephone’s lenses that further mile. It’s good to lastly have high-level Pixel cameras in a pocketable kind issue.
The one fear I’ve about this telephone is the AI. Google actually desires Gemini to take off, for apparent causes, nevertheless it continues to falter when stress examined. There’s some borderline irresponsible issues you are able to do with the picture era, and as an assistant, Gemini nonetheless struggles with fundamentals that Google Assistant had solved years in the past. Longtime Pixel favorites like clear calling nonetheless work nice right here, however the Pixel 9’s latest AI choices aren’t price upgrading for.
That would put the Pixel 9 line in jeopardy with Apple Intelligence proper across the nook, though even Apple doesn’t appear fairly comfy with AI but, because it’ll reportedly be holding again a number of key options for subsequent yr.
With that in thoughts, the Pixel 9 Professional might be a secure improve, because it’s more likely to keep away from being outclassed for some time. And if AI isn’t your cup of tea—I nonetheless can’t discover greater than situational use instances for it—this telephone may give you the results you want for years to return. It’s trendy, useful, and at last compact: the whole lot a bit rectangle on your pocket must be.