The Pixel 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL showcase the best digital camera smarts in Google’s newest smartphone line, however the Pixel 9 might properly be the breakthrough star within the new collection. It will get the identical main and ultra-wide cameras because the Professional fashions, a nearly an identical design, processor, and total consumer expertise.
There are a good few compromises to the Pixel 9’s digital camera throughout each {hardware} and software program. It misses out on a telephoto digital camera, and a number of the extra superior taking pictures options, together with Video Increase, which we discovered critically helpful in our time with the 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL.
Loaded up with Google’s Pixel Studio for AI picture era, Magic Editor for photograph enhancing, the headline digital camera characteristic – Add Me – and the promise of seven years of Android OS updates, although, the Pixel 9 nonetheless has lots going for it, and as we’ll come onto, the digital camera is considered one of its key promoting factors.
Google Pixel 9: design and display screen
There’s little or no distinction between the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Professional’s design. They’ve the identical dimensions, flat sides, back and front, and might even share circumstances. Each telephones even have 6.3-inch screens, pack glass and steel construct, and profit from IP68 mud and water resistance.
Whereas the Pixel 9 Professional has a cultured chrome steel body, the Pixel 9’s body is matte aluminum. As for the Pixel 9 Professional’s glass again, it has a matte end, whereas the Pixel 9’s again is shiny glass.
Anybody after enjoyable colours, the Pixel 9 is accessible in basic black (Obsidian), white (Porcelain), Winter Inexperienced, or pink (Peony), and you may get color-matched circumstances that feel and appear delicate to the contact and equally playful.
There is a USB-C port, loudspeaker, and SIM slot on the base, all of the buttons on the fitting facet, and a chunky digital camera bump across the again, so there aren’t any surprises for anybody coming from a Pixel 8, apart from the rather more iPhone-like form.
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The Pixel 9’s display screen is identical dimension as that of the Pixel 9 Professional at 6.3 inches, nevertheless it’s barely much less sharp, barely much less vivid and the refresh price is barely much less dynamic.
At its core, the display screen is an OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh price and peaks with a 2700 nits brightness when enjoying again HDR content material, or a 1800 nits brightness outside with auto-brightness fired up in direct daylight.
Packing loads of pixels with a 1080 x 2424 decision, the Pixel 9 has a pixel density of 422 pixels per inch, so all the things seems splendidly crisp, and the show’s 60-120Hz refresh price is super-smooth, guaranteeing menus and feeds glide.
Aspect-by-side with a Pixel 9 Professional or Professional XL, the Pixel 9’s show does miss out on the distinction ratio and coloration depth of its pricier siblings, and it is a related story when set in opposition to the similarly-priced OnePlus 12. But it surely’s nonetheless a compact, easy-to-manage and aggressive display screen and appears wonderful in isolation.
Google Pixel 9: Digital camera Specs
The Google Pixel 9 has two cameras across the again: a 48MP ultra-wide digital camera, and a 50MP main digital camera. On the entrance is a 10.5MP selfie digital camera.
Extremely-wide digital camera
The Pixel 9 has a 48MP ultra-wide digital camera with an f/1.7 aperture, autofocus for macro seize, and a modest 1/2.55-inch sensor dimension, with upgraded autofocus over the Pixel 8.
Major digital camera
The first digital camera has a 50MP, 1/3-inch sensor with an f/1.7 aperture lens with OIS. That is unchanged when in comparison with the Pixel 8, although the sensor’s spec continues to be aggressive with the perfect iPhone cameras and Galaxy cameras, regardless of falling behind 1-inch sensor telephones just like the Xiaomi 14 Extremely and Vivo X100 Professional.
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Different digital camera specs
Whereas the Pixel 9 Professional advantages from an upgraded 42MP entrance digital camera, the Pixel 9’s selfie digital camera pares issues again with a ten.5MP, f/2.2 digital camera with a 20mm equal focal size and a modest 1/3.1-inch sensor. It does have autofocus, providing some versatility; nonetheless, similar to the rear cameras, it additionally misses out on Video Increase.
The Pixel 9 captures 4K video at as much as 60fps in commonplace definition, or 30fps HDR 4K video. With no Video Increase, it may’t seize 8K video just like the 9 Professional.
Google Pixel 9: digital camera assessment
Identical to the 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL, the largest enhancements to the Pixel 9’s stills over the Pixel 8 are panoramas and cleaner AI processing.
Google’s photograph processing loves to tug out shadow element whereas being respectful of colours – not ramping up saturation an excessive amount of – and making use of sharpening with out making pictures look too crunchy. This makes for a constant, dependable expertise that may not all the time pull out essentially the most croppable or high-impact shot, nevertheless it usually leads to an excellent one.
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Google Pixels have long-been digital camera telephones that take wonderful footage till you pinch into the small print or crop closely. When you do, outcomes will not all the time maintain up in addition to the perfect from Oppo, Vivo, or Xiaomi, however for reliability, the Pixel 9 is a good worth selection.
For 9 Professional homeowners, it is easy to seize a bit extra element by firing up 50MP seize, however that is disabled on the vanilla Pixel 9; this looks like a software program handicap too far as many funds telephones help this characteristic, however no less than Google has enabled RAW seize, so you possibly can tweak your snaps to crisp them up if wanted.
One space wherein Pixel cameras edge forward is evening images, and the Pixel 9 isn’t any exception. Alternate options just like the Samsung Galaxy S24 can create muddy-looking shadows when the lights drop, however the Pixel 9 collection strikes a greater stability throughout each the vast and ultra-wide cameras.
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Google has additionally upgraded the panorama mode for the Pixel 9 collection, capturing a number of stills and stitching them collectively as an alternative of grabbing a {smooth} sweep to get your shot. On-screen prompts information you thru the method, and by incorporating computational images, the Pixels seize the perfect evening panoramas we have seen on a smartphone.
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The place the Pixel 9 falls behind the 9 Professional, 9 Professional XL, and equally priced competitors with devoted periscope zooms just like the OnePlus 12 is telephoto attain. The cellphone helps an in-sensor and digital zoom of as much as 8x, and outcomes look good as much as between 3-4x in vivid environments. Any additional, although, and you may see AI at play cleansing up edges and creating block colours rather than gradients.
With its 1/1.3-inch sensor, the first digital camera is a superb go-to for rich-looking depth of discipline when photographing any topic nearer than 1m away, whereas the ultra-wide can create some depth when a topic is super-close, at round 10cm or much less.
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Selfies taken on the Pixel 9 look nice, notably when shot in vivid environments, and whereas vlogging does not look fairly as crisp and the 9 Professional positively edges forward, Google’s front-camera algorithms do an ideal job of prioritizing faces and pores and skin tones.
One space that may sway you in favor of the Pixel 9 Professional over the Pixel 9 is video high quality, and particularly, the dearth of Video Increase. Do not get us unsuitable, the Pixel 9 can seize excellent-looking footage throughout each its cameras. Nonetheless, we ended up utilizing the Pixel 9 Professional’s Video Boosted footage to seize all the things from a climber within the distance to a swimmer in an underwater tank, that includes the footage in a industrial video and the consumer beloved it. These varieties of clips would not have been potential with the Pixel 9, notably the zoomed-in footage.
Google Pixel 9: AI Imaging
Regardless of not getting Video Increase and Zoom Enhancer, the Pixel 9 does not miss out on the collection’s picture seize and enhancing instruments like Greatest Face, Magic Editor (each launched final 12 months), and the brand new Add Me.
Add Me lets topics in a bunch photograph take a photograph with everybody utilizing the first digital camera by compositing photos. This works to nice impact in easy setups, although extra complicated group pictures overwhelm it. It is also considerably much less spontaneous than a selfie, however is a enjoyable social gathering trick and might be wonderful for extra artistic, playful group pictures.
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Magic Editor has additionally been upgraded, so 2024 Pixel homeowners can reframe a picture utilizing generative AI, breaking by way of the border and utilizing images ideas to get topics in the perfect place. This was very helpful, and the characteristic is a dab hand at precisely creating natural shapes and components like arms. It struggled extra with patterns like a chequered shirt, for instance.
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The ultimate enhancing spotlight to give attention to for the Pixel 9 Professional collection is Reimagine. Choose a portion of your image in Magic Editor and use a textual content immediate to make edits. As you possibly can see above, the outcomes are fantastical. Whereas this shot, specifically, took a few retries to get it to look borderline life like, it is laborious to not be impressed on the ease with which such transformations at the moment are potential.
Google Pixel 9: Further Options
The Google Pixel 9’s AI options do not cease with picture enhancing. Open Pixel Studio for full-on text-to-image era. This helps a variety of types: Freestyle, 3D Cartoon, Video Sport, Cinematic, Sketch, Anime, and Sticker.
As you possibly can see under, the outcomes can appear like a really convincing illustration. There’s positively a query to be requested: what does Pixel Studio imply for creatives? Feeding into the broader accountable AI debate. Google additionally does not watermark its AI-generated Pixel Studio items, or specify what it makes use of to coach its AI picture era fashions.
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All the brand new Pixels pack the identical Tensor G4 chipset, and over every week with the Pixel 9, and much more time with the 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL, one facet we’re critically impressed with is efficiency. We’re not speaking about gaming grunt, however somewhat battery and warmth administration.
Previous Pixels have suffered by the hands of Tensor chips. Continuously overheating and inconsistent with battery efficiency, for the reason that Pixel 6 launched the Tensor G1, inbuilt partnership with Samsung’s chipmaker division, Exynos, Pixels have been falling behind their Qualcomm rivals when it got here to efficiency and stability.
Whereas the gaming efficiency of the brand new pixels is considerably weaker than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 competitors, stability – which is rather more essential – is considerably improved. Even with hours of gaming and WiFi hotspotting, our Pixel 9 did not overheat, which is superb going. Simply keep in mind that you simply will not be capable to ramp up the graphics high quality in top-tier titles like Genshin Impression for any vital time frame.
The Pixel 9’s beginning storage of 128GB falls behind the 256GB as commonplace we’re seeing from a lot of the competitors. With no expandable storage, there’s each likelihood you may replenish the inner storage earlier than you are able to improve your Pixel 9 in the event you seize numerous 4K video and play high-capacity video games.
It is nice to see Google embrace quick 45W wired charging for the Pixel 9, 9 Professional Professional, and 9 Professional XL, with the Pixel 9 reaching a full cost in round 80 minutes. The Pixel 9 additionally helps 15W wi-fi charging, although no magnetic charging mounts a la MagSafe or Qi2.
Google Pixel 9: Verdict
The Google Pixel 9 is a good cellphone. It seems good, might be picked up in enjoyable or conventional colours, feels premium, is comparatively sturdy, lasts a full day on a single cost, and the display screen is nearly as good because it must be.
You will get extra {hardware} for much less from the OnePlus 12, Nubia Z60s Professional, Z60 Extremely and Vivo X40 Professional, nonetheless, none pack the long-term software program help Google does, or the point-and-shoot reliability.
All this implies the Pixel 9 might be the greatest digital camera cellphone of 2024 at its value. An excellent shout for anybody who does not wish to suppose too laborious about their photographs, simply ensure you decide up the 256GB possibility in the event you anticipate needing the additional storage.
Whereas we have all the time loved Google’s Pixels, it looks like for 2024, they’ve overcome their largest hurdle – warmth and energy administration – making the Pixel 9, 9 Professional, and 9 Professional XL simpler to suggest than any of their predecessors.