Google Pixel 9 Pro Review: Kinda Compact, Kinda Powerful

In a Nutshell

Unleashed throughout the 2024 Offered by Google rind in August, the Pixel 9 Pro is not a successor to the Pixel 8 Pro but a flawlessly gradual model in the Pixel loan incorporation. It facilities unmodified transportable measurement as the foundation Pixel 9 through all the facilities of the burly-purged Pixel 9 Pro XL Antoine Engels sampled lately.

In valuable specifications, this strategies a high-resolution OLED display that refreshes upward to 120 times per second but can throttle endorse to 1 Hz (one update per second) to preserve power. It also integrates a triple video camera setup through a 5x magnification crescent, more RAM, and also a UWB radio.

Exquisite construct — iPhone-recommended decor

The Pixel 9 Pro facilities unmodified totality decor and also construct facility as the bigger XL model, through flat sides and also a more exquisite attractiveness contrasted to the previous generations. The 6.3-inch OLED filter not lone is intense and also rapid but can also be dimmed endorse and also sluggish, counting on your needs.

Pros:

• Exquisite attractiveness and also construct facility.
• Luminous display that can go morbid.
• Variable reinvigorate price filter.

Disadvantages:

Although still transportable, the Pixel 9 Pro (and also the invariant Pixel 9) is still mildly bigger than the Pixel 8, and also the flat sides bring out it feel heftier in the hand. And yes, the flat side decor renders it attractiveness like an iPhone, as my workmates already remarked while mulling the other handsets.

The Pixel 9 Pro suit and also covering show up more exquisite than the previous generations, as we did not situate the holes between active ingredients (which materialized in the Pixel 8, for instance). The glossy covering on the side aesthetics great in pics but is rapid to squeeze finger prints, and also some can be regarded around how it will provision through scratches in the long sprinted.

Conversing of which, Google also sent the optional security and also security and also coverage rind for this assess, and also while it is well-made and also boundaries the phone flawlessly, it also avails remote instead as well comfortably, probably due to the gradual flat decor.

On the endorse, the gradual decor of the video camera part doesn’t have any valuable readjusts to how the phone forecloses treatment of. However, the gradual “scour box” decor is markedly taller, something to keep in psyche. The part on the Pixel 9 Pro homes the three webcams, the flash, and also the quirky feverishness sensing unit.

The OLED display was one of the Pixel 9 Pro’s highlights. Not lone shades popped upward in typical OLED layout but reinvigorate prices can fluctuate between 1 and also 120 Hz numerous thanks to LTPO technology, which resulted in some battery exuberance technologies.

One welcome upgrade to the filter is that it reaches both high and also slashed luminosity levels. It can go upward to 3000 nits optimal luminosity for utilising the phone outdoors under the sunshine, but also lessen actually slashed to when you are utilising the Pixel 9 Pro in morbid instances (for instance reading at evening).

The display homes the finger print audiences but Google finally revamped the sensing unit from an optical to a supersonic part. That finally recovered long-tolerating troublemakers through reading standoffs that day endorse to the Pixel 6 handsets.

Biometric authentication can also be done through face admiration, and also Google offers the facility its highest security and also coverage qualification, just like on the Pixel 8. That enables users to approve adjudications by sorting at the selfie video camera, even if the phone doesn’t have coherent deepness sensing tools.

Android 14 through added apps

Unleashed through Android 14, as of uploading this assess, the Pixel 9 Pro still did not bring the Android 15 update, regardless of the source code for the gradual iteration being launched at AOSP. In spite of the “archaic” iteration, Google stuffed a pair of gradual apps for the Pixel 9 handsets.

Pros:

• 7 years of security and also coverage improves.

Disadvantages:

• Some symbols of bloat on “stock” Android.

Google warranties seven years of security and also coverage and also facilities improves for the Pixel 9 family. That strategies that the Pixel 9 Pro will bring security and also coverage patches and also Pixel facilities declines till August 2031, which is lone measured upward to by flagship Galaxy handsets.

A spick-and also-span installation through builded apps forecloses severely 20 GB of storage, marking a meaty eruption over the previous generation (the Pixel 8 reported lone 9 GB in a analogous say last year).

That can partially be attributed to a pair of added apps, such as Gemini (just the AICore storage jumped from 30 MB to more than 4 GB between the PIxel 8 and also 9 generations), Pixel Workshop, and also Screenshots. Antoine did a comprehensive attractiveness at the Gemini facilities in his Pixel 9 Pro XL assess, so I won’t be recurring that.

The gradual Screenshots app didn’t pretty job throughout the test offered that of stretch and also language tightness, but the Pixel Workshop ran alright. The phone is still not forceful enough to accumulate the pics by itself, so it needs an net rapport to the Google servers.

Its utility is disturbingly dubious, but the outcomes were at the disturbingly least enjoyable for the 10 minutes we invested through it. You can xerox, preserve, or share the accumulated pics, and also there are a pair of unalike architectures to pick, entailing a “Sticker label” selection that we wished can be paired into conversation apps.

There is also the gradual Weather app, through an AI powered recap and also numerous information within unalike widgets. The AI seating record can be hit or miss out on, substantiating information for the rest of the day, but that doesn’t counsel much whether you prefer the widgets or are going out at evening and also telephone call for the next day’s record.

Displeasing performance

On its 4th generation, the in-domicile Tensor chip doesn’t bring a meaty upgrade in specifications of performance to the Pixel 9 Pro, through lone miniscule technologies in the last four years. On the unsympathetic side, but, there is plenty of RAM, but that was probably a result of the present AI trend.

Pros:

• Refined thermal management.

Disadvantages:

• Awfully miniscule performance technologies.

The Tensor G4 on the Pixel 9 handsets gives nearly half of the performance of present Android flagship chips like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or the Dimensity 9300. In daily utilise, most humans won’t be able to alert that noncompliance, offered that most projects on handsets are quickly and also rapid.

However, on larger projects like editing a video clip and also especially games, users can alert that the Tensor chips are not furthering enough to keep upward through the tournament.

On the plus side, but, Google appears to have resolved a ordinary anxiousness through previous Pixel handsets and also builded the warmth dissipation product on the Pixel 9 Pro. The phone still avails cheerful under significant projects, but at the disturbingly least appears not to lose as much performance due to thermal throttling as in days gone by.

Arcades must sprinted alright on the Pixel 9 Pro, but more visual intensive games will lesser the facility settings to sprinted at decent rates on the phone. Hardcore players will be more detailed offered through other tools not lone offered that of totality performance but also the fact that the Tensor G4 shortages market for gradual facilities like ray tracing (the number of games utilising RT is slashed today, but the phone will be maintained for a long time…).

Web video camera

The triple video camera setup on the Pixel 9 Pro is unmodified as the one on the bigger XL model, entailing a 50-megapixel pivot video camera, 48 MP ultra-wide shooter, and also a 5x optical magnification telephoto.

Pros:

• Versatile video camera.
• Expansive daytime pics.
• Intriguing AI facilities.

Disadvantages:

Google appears to be throwing away its typical in video camera facility in days gone by two years chummy to its Chinese more detailed fifty percents/enemies. Not that pics swiped through the Pixel 9 Pro weren’t great, but the other Android brand names keep importuning the envelope when it comes to video camera equipment and also taking care of.

In daytime, pics are largely great, through a great extent of nicety and also sharpness. The shades were a little on the “contrasty” side, but that is basically a Pixel hallmark facility.

The ultra-wide crescent is disturbingly open, optimum for burly landscape inoculations, if you don’t psyche throwing away some sharpness. On the other end of the video camera loan incorporation, the 5x optical magnification was exceptionally great not lone in its default mode but also when nailing 10x pics through a touch of digital magnification.

Night inoculations at unmodified time were a little depressing, even through the evening mode connecting automatically on predominantly all inoculations in the gallery looming. The pics were a little on the loud side, through some facility declines in both ultra-wide and also 10x inoculations.

On the software program side, besides the Contain me facility you can assess on the web linkage looming, the Pixel 9 Pro engages a macro mode when it detects chummy subjects. While reasonable, the phone cannot focus at disturbingly quickly distances, and also hand shaking postures a burly uncertainty for chummy-upward inoculations.

Selfies massaged as evolved for on the Pixel 9 Pro, through shades a little on the punchy side. Still, rind tone was precise, and also the portrait mode owned some slight troublemakers through expose parting, but was decent totality. And analogous to other Pixel handsets, the 0.7x ultra-wide selfie is helpful through group inoculations or landscape selfies.

Battery exuberance

Powered by a 4700 mAh battery, the Pixel 9 Pro can’t compete through bigger handsets and also their big chances. Yet the tactful LTPO display and also some software program fulcrums take care of to concede nearly two days of battery exuberance.

Pros:

• Reputable battery exuberance.
• Wireless and also retract wireless recharging.
• Software optimizations.

Disadvantages:

• Slow wired recharging.
• No Qi2 market.

By default, the Pixel 9 Pro comes through a “High resolution” seating that doesn’t utilise the display’s complete resolution, but lone 2142×960 pixels instead of the aboriginal 2856×1280 resolution. In spite of the burly worsening in the number and also thickness of pixels, we couldn’t actually alert a noncompliance in daily utilise, but ran the battery tests through both substitutions, just in rind.

Under the imitated test done by the PCMark app, the default selection lasted for 16h34min between 80 and also 20% penalty while the “High resolution” mode squandered one hour of battery exuberance. The performance rating was within the margin of mistake, so there were no further fulcrums through taking care of rates.

In methodology, that must be more than enough for a complete day of utilise, and also more frugal users can squeeze two days out of the phone by pairing the “High resolution” mode through the battery-conserving facilities on the Pixel 9 Pro.

Once it comes to recharging, Google is still playing it secured. The Pixel 9 Pro peaks at 27 W wired recharging and also is also relevant through wireless recharging, through Qi recovering to 12 Watts, while the Pixel Stand fines the phone at 21 W. And the Pixel 9 Pro counsel retract wireless recharging.

There is no charger in the box, and also we willingness it maintained sooner USB-PD recharging. A complete penalty took nearly one hour and also a half, and also a 30-minutes penalty was enough for 56% of battery. If you are sorting for a phone through actually rapid recharging, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and also other Chinese brand names are probably more detailed substitutions.

Technical parameters

Final veredict

The Pixel 9 Pro is a welcome arrival in the Pixel phone schedule and also probably a symbol that Google is confident in its smartphone loan incorporation. While the company still owns a long means to go in specifications of industry share, it owns a extent of readjust of its models that is lone rivaled by Apple.

The 9 Pro carries unmodified proceeded facilities spotted in the burly Pro XL to a more stock and also slit-well-mannered kind variable. Those facilities entail not lone the forceful telephoto video camera and also flagship display, but also things that are still gradual like the feverishness sensing unit, and also the nearly neglected UWB radio.

Friend provision

It is a failure that industry facts made the Pixel 9 Pro occupy the price loan incorporation of the bigger Pixel 8 Pro, and also not port under a $900 price juncture. At $1000/€1100, the Google phone owns to compete through much sooner models from OnePlus, Xiaomi, Samsung, and also others.

The Pixel 9 Pro still owns some inducements in specifications of software program improves and also facilities, through a constant stream of added facilities swore till 2031. Yet present prices thieve it out of an misdirecting “instantaneous reference” list.

As typical, smartly assess your priorities when pondering the Pixel 9 Pro. It’s more detailed prefabricated than any previous Pixel, purchases more facilities, and also comes through an unbeatable software program update agree. However, past the gradual Pro measurement and also all the AI remodellings, enemies are recording upward in locales whereby Pixels as shortly as succeeded. While the Pixel 9 Pro is still a tenacious selection, the tournament is now more competitive than ever before in this price loan incorporation.

Google Pixel 9 Pro

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