Google Pixel 9 & Pixel 9 Pro XL Review: Androidian iPhones Much

Cracking the smartphone market is awfully hard. Only two companies in the world can truly say they have cracked it! Yeah, Apple and Samsung. The smartphone wave devoured Nokia, HTC and Sony — titans of a foregone era. Heck, ask Google! It has been at it for almost a decade and a half, first with its Nexus line and then with the Pixel brand of devices. It has just a sliver of market share to show for having poured billions, which even included acquiring Motorola's mobile phone business for its IP and HTC for its ability to make world-class hardware. And nine generations on, Google indeed is closer than ever to cracking it. It has come as close as ever to creating what many will refer to as the iPhone of the Android ecosystem.

Design and Build Quality

Google's latest Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL are exquisitely crafted. And they have a design motif that's very similar to an iPhone with a unique signature element on the back that's truly its own. Its camera bar — often called a visor — which Google claims has been inspired by its search bar. Flat screens have been on Pixel phones since last year, but these truly feel flat because of the squared-off edges à la iPhone — a trend that Samsung and Xiaomi have also owned up to.

But these phones feel special in the hand. The Pixel 9 is compact — but not overly so because of a very reasonable size - and it looks as delicious as a candy in its pinkish orange peachy colour. It is 8.5mm thick and weighs 198 grams, reasonably sized — enough to accommodate a capacious 4,700mAh battery. The Pixel 9 Pro XL is slightly heavier at 221 grams but it retains the same thickness — and it feels chunky in all the right ways and it gets an even bigger 5,060mAh. Its polished rails will scream iPhone, in every way possible even though it hasn't been chiselled out of titanium — just super strong and slight aluminium here. The back is all glass but with a delectable matte finish — and overall quality of construction is a step above the Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 series. These phones feel as well built as Samsung's Galaxy S models if not better. And on the camera visor, this time around doesn't have a chrome overdose which means it's unlikely to get scuffed up like its predecessor.

User Experience and Haptics

The buttons have a tactility to them which makes them a joy to use and when you reduce the volume, the haptics kick in such a subtle way that you're feeling the phone in a mechanical way even though everything is all the more digital. The same happens when you type or try to ramp up the brightness on the screens of these devices which are also IP68 water and dust resistant, meaning they are weatherproof from the horrid rain in Delhi.

Display

These screens are easily up there with one on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. They are yummy. Super bright — so you can Netflix and chill to your heart's content under the sunshine, but they can get super dim if you're going to use them indoors — though the auto brightness is extremely aggressive. There is Gorilla Glass Victus 2 there for good measure which will ensure things aren't getting scratchy.

The screen on the Pixel 9 Pro XL is, of course, the star of the show with a gazillion nits of brightness — its peak brightness levels can hit a wild 3,000 nits which is more than the current iPhone 15 Pro models and the Galaxy S24 Ultra. But everyone is going to be just fine with the smaller Pixel 9 panel as well as long as that size suits one. Even this phone has a peak brightness level of 2,700 nits which is higher than the flagship rivals. These screens are wondrous. And the speakers on these phones are a joy — I was watching video with spatial audio, and this is perhaps the first time I've experienced phones with audio fidelity that can project the spatial effect properly.

Performance and Software

Android 14 comes to life on these phones. They truly feel like the smoothest Android phones I've ever used and feel more fluid than even an iPhone in daily use. But all of this comes with a caveat — don't game or try to edit 4K video on these phones — I mean you can, but it isn't nearly as fast as an iPhone 15, leave alone a Pro Max and you'd bet your money the incoming iPhone 16 models will go one better. I mean they will be fine — you will get good performance in gaming if you're not at it through a Delhi Mumbai flight and video editing will be okay — but let's be real, this is where the iPhone has an edge with its custom A17 Pro silicon.

Google has also blocked out benchmarking apps on the Play Store, but I am told one can download the APKs manually, though I didn't indulge in the activity as I didn't want to run software from erroneous sources on a review sample. This is likely because it doesn't want it to be compared to other Android phones because of the deficiencies of the Tensor G4.

But Google cannot complain as the Tensor G4 is also a custom chip — its very own chipset coupled with humongous amounts of RAM — 12GB in the case of the Pixel 9 and 16GB in the case of the Pixel 9 Pro XL. Both phones that I tested had 256GB storage but it was UFS 3.1 storage which again isn't the fastest spec in the world of Android phones, but the way Google has optimised things — it is working brilliantly. But its focus is on that buttery smooth deft user experience — that will just bring a smile to your face and doing witchcraft that only a Google phone can do. I am talking about generative AI and the things this phone can do are type black magic that is exclusive to the Pixel 9 series which is why some of the performance deficiencies of these phones are forgivable.

AI Features

Gemini live is the new default voice assistant on the Pixel which is just leagues beyond what the Google Assistant could do and what we so far have experienced with Apple Intelligence at the beta stage. It allows free-flowing conversations just like ChatGPT. Hey, these phones get you 1 year of free Gemini Advanced which would set you back by Rs 25,000 in a year — which unlocks the uncanny Gemini Live abilities.

Pixel Studio is an exclusive to Pixel 9 series which allows one to generate photos using on-device AI abilities — it's fun to use and pretty cool. Then Pixel Screenshots can pull up information from your screenshots using natural language instead of you manually searching for the screenshot. By far the handiest feature is call notes which records entire calls but also takes notes.

Camera

The camera gets super handy tricks too — like add me which enables you to take a shot of your friend and then your friend can take a shot of you and the AI will stitch it together. Magic Editor also gets updates which gets auto framing and can reimagine a photo completely. Zoom enhance debuts on these phones and like something out of Star Trek, this works — in a way it extends the range of the camera by at least 2x which is wild. There is also Auto frame which is an AI-based reframing tool similar to the one on Adobe Lightroom Mobile which is very handy for people like myself.

The cameras themselves are excellent — I'd say after the Vivo X100 series and Xiaomi 14 series these are the best cameras around for photos with them having their punchy contrasty vibe and updated macro photography system that's fun, an uncanny ability to take mind-bending portraits in the dark. Now panoramas also have night mode and it looks fantastic, and overall an improved video camera system that's worthy of a Google phone which can upscale video quality using Google's cloud doing more AI witchcraft. The Pixel 9 Pro XL has three cameras — it gets a 50-MP wide-angle sensor and twin 48-MP sensors for the ultra-wide and telephoto. The telephoto sensor gets some serious range — 5x optically, 10x optical equivalent and 30x super resolution zoom which is amongst the best in the business — only usurped by the zoom of the Vivo X100 Pro.

The Pixel 9 loses the telephoto sensor. But some of the biggest updates come for the selfie cameras too which are excellent with their huge 42-megapixel resolution on the 9 Pro XL and 10.5-megapixel sensor both take excellent selfies.

Battery Life and Charging

Google has focused a lot on battery life — the Tensor G4 is said to be 20 per cent more efficient, while offering bigger batteries on these phones and also having a vapour chamber so that these phones perform better for longer without heating issues. And I'd say, Google has delivered. All-day battery life can be expected from both the phones while they also charge faster than an iPhone — though that's not saying much as the iPhone is amongst the slowest charging phones around while the Vivo and Xiaomi's of this world can be juiced up within 40 minutes. There is also wireless charging for good measure.

Connectivity and Security

I am also happy to report call quality is significantly better on these phones thanks to the new Samsung modem, though the satellite connectivity feature does not function in India.

Google's phones are secure. These phones come embedded with the Titan M2 chip which is as secure as Fort Knox. Hey, you'll be surprised to know that Pixel phones are used by the FBI in the US — so if the US security services can use these phones, it should be fine for most individuals. Google has updated the fingerprint scanner to an ultrasonic one this year on both the phones — it works at light speed and is stupendously reliable which wasn't the case in previous Pixel smartphones.

Software Updates and After-Sales Service

On top of this — Android 15 is incoming with loads of wondrous features and on the whole 7 years of updates have been promised which is amongst the best in Android land.

Google has also now improved its after-sales quite a bit, so I am a little less reticent at recommending these phones because of the improved after-sales experience especially if you live in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. In the box, you're getting a very barebones experience — there is just a type C to type C cable. But this is what you get with an iPhone or Samsung. I'm missing the type C to type A adaptor which has been part of every Pixel smartphone yet, but I guess Google figured now everyone uses type C so that's not needed.

Verdict 

Overall, Google comes close to delivering the perfect Android experience. I'd say at its price the Samsung Galaxy S line still is the king of the hill on Android for a holistic experience but Google now sure-footedly is a close 2nd, something it can further improve upon if it gets its next-gen silicon on par with what Qualcomm and Apple are doing. They are amongst the prettiest, smoothest, smartest and most luxurious Android phones I've ever used, though they do remain a wee bit incomplete.

Rating: 8/10