This 12 months, Google determined not solely to replace the design of its Pixel telephones but additionally put its AI options entrance and heart. The Pixel 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL are the primary Pixels which have swapped the Assistant for Gemini. With its newest flagships, Google continues to enhance its cameras, by upgrading its major sensor and increasing its suite of enhancing instruments. And to energy all these new AI tips, the corporate has outfitted the units with its latest Tensor processor, designed to deal with on-device Gemini duties. For the primary time, too, the Professional-branded Pixel is obtainable in two sizes, with a smaller model becoming a member of the household. Higher but, for those who go for the Pixel 9 Professional, you’ll be getting a largely similar telephone to the pricier 6.8-inch Pixel 9 Professional XL. Please word: no digital camera compromise right here, Apple.
However this isn’t simply one other flagship Android: it’s a concerted effort to get you hooked on Google’s AI-powered picture enhancing, e-mail help and extra. The Pixel 9 Professional delivers on all these facets, with various levels of success.
With a refined design, much-improved telephoto digital camera and nice battery-life, the Pixel 9 Professional cements its standing because the smartphone with one of the best digital camera.
- Nice digital camera options and improved telephoto digital camera
- A 12 months of Gemini Superior totally free
- Unbelievable battery life
- A fantastic, vibrant display screen that’s straightforward to make use of outdoor
- Tensor G4 runs cooler than its predecessor
- Slower charging speeds than the XL
- Not one of the best telephone for gaming
$999 at Google
With much more helpful images tips and a much-improved telephoto digital camera, the Pixel 9 Professional XL cements its standing as one of the best smartphone digital camera.
- Nice digital camera options and improved telephoto digital camera
- A 12 months of Gemini Superior totally free
- Spectacular battery life
- A fantastic, vibrant display screen that’s straightforward to make use of outdoor
- Tensor G4 runs cooler than its predecessor
- Costlier than final 12 months’s Pixel 8 Professional
- Not an awesome gaming telephone
- Slightly unwieldy
$1,099 at Google
Design and show
As I opened the field, I knew this was essentially the most premium Pixel but. The Pixel 9 Professional has softer curved corners than its predecessor, whereas the sides have been flattened. It additionally felt by some means acquainted — like my iPhone. I needed to double-check, and so they weighed the identical, all the way down to the gram (all 221 of them). That’s not dangerous: the iPhone Professional is the de facto telephone to beat. The Pixel 9 Professional has an identical matte satin end.
I do not know if the flattened sides make it simpler to grip than the Pixel 8 Professional, however I discovered the substantial digital camera module did assist with stability, often resting on my finger or thumb throughout photographs. The ‘cyclops bar’ is gone, changed with a extra standard — however simply as substantial — digital camera array. The temperature sensor is, for some motive, nonetheless right here, though a Thermometer app replace coming this week will let it save the belongings you’re most often measuring and even supply some AR steerage to make sure you’re the correct distance away from the item you’re scanning.
With out the digital camera bar, which felt a bit a lot, the Pixel 9 Professional doesn’t really feel like Google attempting to make an aggressive design assertion. The digital camera module is large, nonetheless.
Like final 12 months, Google has saved the show virtually totally flat. The Pixel 9 Professional XL’s 6.8-inch display screen is 0.1 inches larger than final 12 months’s Pixel 8 Professional and brighter, too, peaking at 3,000 nits. It is sensible for Google to make its larger professional Pixel even bigger to match the XL in its title, however just like the iPhone 15 Professional Max, the Professional XL is just a little too huge for me. My not-exactly-small fingers struggled to succeed in the search bar or dropdown menus within the prime corners. (Sidenote: I can transfer the Chrome deal with bar to the underside of the display screen on my iPhone, however not on Android? What offers?)
In the meantime, the Pixel 9 Professional’s 6.3-inch panel is roomy sufficient to see loads of strains of textual content without delay, with out me having to virtually sprain a finger to succeed in its edges. Each Pixel 9 Professionals have Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on their shows in addition to throughout the satin-finish backs, like final 12 months’s flagship telephone, that means they’re about as sturdy as earlier than.
With the XL, you’re consciously deciding you need a Huge Telephone – that is S24 Extremely territory. Happily, it’s one other vibrant, vivid display screen from Google, with variable refresh charges from 1-120Hz for clean scrolling when wanted.
The XL Pixel Professional’s decision of 1,344 x 1,992 interprets to a pixel density of 486 ppi, which is decrease than the Pixel 9 Professional (495 ppi). However good luck discerning that in actual life. Google continues to lean in the direction of extra understated shade tones on its screens, in comparison with rival telephones from Samsung and Apple. Nonetheless, I feel it fits the shades of Android’s Materials Design palette, in addition to this 12 months’s {hardware} shade choices. Each Pixel 9 Professional sizes arrive in black, white, hazel and rose quartz. I used to be despatched the hazel model, which is refined to the purpose of wanting virtually grey. My colleague Cherlynn Low is infatuated with the rose quartz Pixel 9 Professional she’s examined.
Cameras
The Pixel digital camera continues to be one of the best smartphone digital camera. Final 12 months, we referred to as Pixel 8 Professional “essentially the most highly effective smartphone digital camera available on the market,” and Google has tried to carry on to that place. {Hardware}-wise, the sensors are the precise decision because the Pixel 8 Professional, apart from the leap to a 42-megapixel front-facing digital camera, up from 10.5 megapixels final 12 months. Google has additionally improved the autofocus, and it takes surprisingly first rate crisp photographs and video.
However we’re all right here to debate the triple digital camera array on the again. There’s a brand new 50MP major digital camera, a 48MP ultra-wide, and a 48MP telephoto digital camera with a 5x optical zoom. The upgraded {hardware} doesn’t lead to noticeable enhancements over the Pixel 8 Professional in many of the images I in contrast… till I began utilizing the telephoto sensor. There, I noticed big enhancements to element and shade. Google has addressed among the Pixel 9 Professional’s video-recording weaknesses too — I didn’t discover any overheating points with the brand new Tensor chip, even when recording a number of video clips at most decision.
New digital camera software program options
Google has as soon as once more augmented its cameras with software program options that stroll the road between gimmick and game-changer.
Add Me may very well be the latter for me. Because the man with the most recent smartphone in my friendship group and household, I’m often the one taking candid and group photographs for everybody. However meaning there usually aren’t many images of me. Add Me is a brand new digital camera mode which mixes Google’s computational images experience with augmented actuality to scan and body an space and group of individuals. When you’ve taken the primary photograph, you commerce locations with another person, the Pixel 9 Professional will ask that particular person to align the body, and take a second shot.
It’s just a little just like the Greatest Take characteristic from final 12 months, which might swap out faces to make sure everybody’s giving their finest smile, the Pixel then processes and combines these two pictures collectively. It’s a simplified Photoshop clone device, positive, nevertheless it seems to be good. I can be utilizing this on the subsequent birthday/wedding ceremony/christening/future fortieth party. (Ed. word: We get it, Mat, you’re common.)
The Pixel 9 Professional arrives with a number of options initially teased a 12 months in the past, together with Zoom Improve and Video Increase. Zoom Improve is fairly self-explanatory, utilizing AI to extend each element and sharpness in your most aggressively zoomed images. The outcomes may be blended. It’s not as egregious as Samsung’s super-imposed moon images, however Zoom Improve does its finest work on shapes, buildings and patterns, sharpening up brickwork, foliage and extra. It nonetheless often makes a large number with people.
There are use circumstances for Zoom Improve (it does an awesome job sharpening up London’s Tower Bridge) however I’m unsure it’ll rescue your live performance pics from the again of the venue. Not until you need a nightmarish imaginative and prescient of Taylor Swift’s face massaged by AI. Notably, Zoom Improve is likely one of the digital camera AI options that’s processed on-device.
With Video Increase, the Pixel 9 Professional data video in a particular mode (that you’ll have to toggle in settings earlier than recording) and people clips are robotically uploaded to the cloud for server-side processing. What’s new for the Pixel 9 Professional is that you would be able to shoot movies with as much as 20x zoom or create boosted movies with 8K decision. You’ll have to report at 1080p to create 4K movies, and seize in 4K to make 8K clips. That is upscaled 8K, so whereas clips appear crisper in locations, don’t count on 8K footage that’s akin to what you’ll get with devoted cameras. Video Boosted 8K appears extra like a spec boast for Google relatively than a characteristic you’ll use with any regularity.
Having stated that, Google has improved Video Increase considerably because it first launched, including smoother transitions between focal lengths and completely different digital camera sensors. With Video Increase, leaping from a regular broad view to 5x zoom is much much less jarring, and Google has mounted the colour imbalances between its trio of sensors — it seems to be very like it was filmed on a single-lens digital camera. It additionally gives a lift to any video captured in low gentle. It gained’t make pitch-black footage seen — I did attempt — however does enhance the colour and element of dim video clips. You can even punch in to 20x digital zoom for those who’re utilizing Video Increase for surprisingly practical footage.
When you’ve taken your images, an upgraded Magic Editor brings the identical content-aware fill options as final 12 months, able to deleting undesirable objects and folks out of your images. This 12 months, Google provides extra generative AI energy. First up, Autoframe will let the Pixel attempt its hand at bettering your photograph’s composition, cropping and even extending your images, producing backgrounds and including components, generally efficiently.
Reimagine places Google’s generative AI expertise to make use of with extra artistic duties, permitting you to pick out backgrounds, objects or different areas of your photograph, and create dreamy composite pictures. I used to be capable of swap out my front room for a Hawaiian sundown, make the ground lava in a close-by park and extra. Get too particular along with your wording, although, and the outcomes aren’t fairly as spectacular. However that’s the state of smartphone generative AI, for now.
The professional digital camera controls, launched with the Pixel 8 Professional, are nonetheless right here. They allow you to manually tweak publicity, shutter pace, and ISO, and are nonetheless tremendous helpful for individuals who know what they’re doing.
Software program
On the Pixel 9, chances are you’ll discover a couple of shock apps that you simply by no means put in. However this isn’t fairly bloatware: they’re Google’s new Pixel Screenshots and Pixel Studio. As a substitute of including extra complication to the Pictures app, these have been made into standalone apps, which I’m very glad to see.
For now, you’re unable to edit images with folks in Pixel Studio, which dampens loads of the enjoyable. If you’d like normal generative-AI cartoon pictures and renders, Pixel Studio can oblige, though my creations aren’t fairly as cohesive because the examples proven. Whereas Pixel Studio gives the power to title your designs, most instances that textual content will get was the same old AI-generated squiggles, defeating the aim of creating most issues with this app.
It’s just a little too early to attract conclusions on Pixel Screenshots, too. It makes use of AI to parse via all of your screenshots, making info like costs, reservations and dates searchable. Nonetheless, the Pixel 9 doesn’t populate your screenshots robotically, nor might I discover a solution to pull my present screenshots (years of them!) from my Google Pictures backup, which looks as if a miss. The Pictures app already silos them as screenshots, so there have to be a solution to switch them throughout. Is that this a privateness problem? We’ve requested Google.
This implies the device supplied restricted utility throughout my first week of testing. What might be extremely helpful is how Gemini AI can progressively study to establish what’s captured within the screenshots past merely studying the textual content. Screenshots usually are simply smarter on the Pixel 9 Professional. I captured some journey itinerary emails, and earlier than I even needed to open an app, the Pixel urged including my lodge keep to Google calendar. These are the touches I like. (After all, I might maintain the ability button to summon Gemini and ask it to take action equally.)
Each Pixel 9 Professionals get a 12 months’s subscription to Google One AI Premium, a bundle of 2TB storage in addition to using Gemini Superior. The latter lets the AI instantly dabble in apps like Gmail and Google Docs, to summarize textual content, PDFs and e-mail conversations, though I didn’t spot it in my very own Gmail app. I used to be nonetheless capable of check this in a Chrome tab elsewhere, because the subscription extends to each system you utilize with Google merchandise. There’s additionally entry to Gemini Dwell, a conversational mode that’s virtually totally voice-based. I’m unsure how a lot I’d use this mode, nonetheless. I favor to kind my particular requests.
Gemini Dwell will tick alongside within the background as you utilize different apps, which provides to the utility, and shops all of your requests and outcomes on the principle Gemini display screen. I used to be capable of barrel via about 15 completely different voice requests for reveals I needed to see at this 12 months’s Edinburgh Fringe, and it might already parse showtimes and venues, sooner than I might manually discover them. It struggled with some names and couldn’t establish some notable comedians in any respect. Google has made AI-assisted search a practical a part of how I take advantage of my telephone.
It’s been enjoyable seeing what Gemini Superior is able to. After taking an obtuse photograph of a number of skyscraper buildings in central London, I requested Gemini Superior to establish the place the photograph was taken. The AI initially stated it may very well be New York, suggesting one of many buildings was One Vanderbilt.
Then I stated that was incorrect and that it was taken in London. Gemini Superior circled again, figuring out not solely one of many buildings but additionally the deal with, which was roughly 100 ft away from the place I took the photograph. The sheer seamlessness of the expertise on Android was what impressed me most, however that is a part of Gemini Superior and after the one-year trial ends, Google expects you to pay $20 a month to maintain your entry. At a time when all my funds for Netflix, Spotify and extra are climbing, Google isn’t providing sufficient to make me add one other subscription to the pile.
Efficiency and battery life
Together with 16GB of RAM, the Pixel 9 collection options the Tensor G4, Google’s newest slice of silicon, designed to breeze via AI duties and generative AI requests. However When you’re a cell gamer this isn’t going to blow you away. The G4 is extra highly effective than the Tensor G3, positive, nevertheless it doesn’t fairly match the smoothness of the most recent Snapdragon chips from Qualcomm. Tensor G4’s improved skills are put to make use of most with new AI duties: for instance, Google says its Add Me characteristic faucets into augmented actuality software program together with 15 completely different on-device AI fashions.
We haven’t fairly acquired to the purpose the place we will evaluate the speeds and efficiencies of generative AI duties. For essentially the most half, the Pixel 9 Professional behaves like a typical flagship telephone. Chrome is unlikely to stutter, and the Pixel 9 Professional appears able to dealing with heavy video enhancing and processing with ease, in addition to new Magic Editor options on your images. These options nonetheless take a second, however the truth that so many AI instruments work on-device, with no connection wanted, impresses me.
The Pixel 9 Professional XL’s 5,060mAh battery is sort of similar to the Pixel 8 Professional (5,050mAh), and it delivered over 22 hours in our looped video rundown check. The Pixel 9 Professional, in the meantime, managed to run for nearly 25 hours. Nonetheless, most cost wattage differs between the 2 Professionals too. The Pixel 9 Professional prices at 27W, lower than the Pixel 8 Professional’s 30W, whereas the brand new Pixel 9 Professional XL prices at 37W. This implies the XL ought to cost sooner than the bottom Professional. Google says the Pixel 9 Professional can rise up to 55 % in half-hour, whereas the XL will attain a heady 77 % in the identical time, utilizing the corporate’s personal 45W charger. My Pixel 9 Professional confirmed related figures, speedily recharging to over 50 % in underneath 25 minutes.
Wrap up
The Pixel Professional has by no means appeared higher and feels just like the premium units Google’s at all times needed to make. Naturally, there’s a premium value related. Provided that final 12 months’s 6.7-inch Pixel 8 Professional was $999, the $1,099 Pixel 9 Professional XL is $100 costlier, whereas the Pixel 9 Professional, with the identical cameras, storage, processor and AI hooks, however a smaller display screen, prices the identical $999. Nonetheless, in comparison with rivals like Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Extremely ($1,300), the Pixel 9 Professional units stay competitively priced.
The Pixel 9 Professional is a showcase for Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, and it’s been given an enormous alternative to shine as Pixel 9 Professional house owners take pleasure in a 12 months of free entry to the extra superior mannequin. It’s early days for among the new software program options, like Pixel Studio and Screenshots, nonetheless.
Competitors from Apple and Samsung over the previous few years could have chipped away on the competitiveness of Pixel options like Evening Sight, however Google continues to enhance the Pixel’s imaging prowess additional. The Pixel 9 Professional cements the Pixel collection’ standing as one of the best smartphone digital camera. It’s so good that I don’t thoughts that chonky digital camera cutout — it modified my thoughts.
A few of these new options are crucially ones I’ll often use, like Add Me. Elsewhere, Google faucets into cloud processing to beef up your video with the may of its server community. On the identical time, the Pixel retains lots of its computational images tips on-device, with the temperamental Zoom Improve accessible with out the necessity for an web connection.
All of it culminates in a telephone with distinctive tips and unimaginable battery life, no matter which dimension you go for. It is so good that my iPhone must go with out its SIM for just a little longer: the Pixel 9 Professional can be my important telephone for only a bit extra.
