Google Pixel 9 review: Officially too much AI

The brand new Google Pixel 9 is teeming with AI — and I don’t really feel any in a different way about it now than I did a 12 months in the past.

That’s to say, after I regarded on the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Professional telephones final 12 months, I got here away pondering Google was specializing in the improper issues. After years of each new Pixel technology introducing genuinely helpful options like reside transcription within the Recorder app and tons of digicam trickery, the Pixel 8 technology introduced us a bunch of novel (however finally ineffective at greatest and vile at worst) AI options.

That strategy has solely modified just a little in 2024 with the Pixel 9. Google’s entry-level flagship is $100 costlier than the Pixel 8 at $799 — and for that worth you get extra RAM, higher cameras, and most notably, a bundle of much more new AI options that left me questioning why anybody would use them in any respect.

That is nonetheless a really strong Android cellphone, however Google’s foray into AI are beginning to really feel just like the sorts of manufacturer-specific bloatware you used to purchase Pixel telephones to keep away from.

Google Pixel 9 worth and specs

I’ve already established that the Pixel 9 received a $100 worth bump from final 12 months as much as $799.

However right here’s particularly what that will get you:

• Google Tensor G4 chip

• 12GB RAM

• 128GB storage

• 6.3-inch show

The one {hardware} variant for Pixel 9 is a 256GB mannequin that provides an additional $100 onto the value tag. Other than the brand new Tensor chip (which has grow to be a typical expectation for every new Pixel cellphone at this level), the most important improve over the Pixel 8 right here is 12GB of RAM, up from 8GB final 12 months. 

That ought to theoretically enable the cellphone to deal with extra duties directly, however actually, it’s there for AI options. We’ll get to these in a bit.

Google Pixel 9 design

An important factor to know concerning the Pixel 9, design-wise, is that it is available in a pink, or “Peony,” this 12 months. Glorious work by Google. Our assessment unit wasn’t pink, and I’m very jealous of those that handle to get their fingers on the Peony mannequin. The opposite out there colours are the a lot much less hanging Porcelain, Wintergreen, and Obsidian decisions.

Credit score: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

As for design adjustments, Google went with flat, aluminum sides going across the cellphone, versus the curved surfaces on the Pixel 8. I don’t love this. It makes the Pixel 9 much less ergonomic within the fingers, and I continually really feel like I’ve much less grip on it than I might a cellphone with curved sides. 

Whether or not it’s truly at risk of falling out of my fingers and onto the cement or not, you by no means desire a cellphone that feels that approach.

The one different main design change value noting is that the outdated side-to-side digicam bar on the again has been changed by a horizontal, oval-shaped digicam bump that appears extra like one thing you’d see on different telephones. It’s much less distinctly Pixel than earlier than, however I wouldn’t say it seems to be dangerous. Simply totally different.

Google Pixel 9 show

Whereas I’ve misgivings about different features of the Pixel 9, the improved show shouldn’t be considered one of them.

It is a actually vivid show.
Credit score: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

Google bumped the max brightness up from 2,000 nits on Pixel 8 to 2,700 nits on Pixel 9, making this an amazing cellphone to be used outdoors on a sunny day. Whereas strolling round my neighborhood, I by no means had bother seeing the display, which has grow to be an issue for my barely older iPhone. 

The adaptive 60-120Hz refresh fee that graced final 12 months’s entry-level Pixel is again and unchanged, which is for the very best. As not too long ago because the iPhone 15, Apple’s equal handsets (as within the non-Professional fashions) are nonetheless locked at 60Hz. Google (in addition to most different opponents at this level) continues to lap Apple on this regard.

Oh, and also you get an additional tenth of an inch in comparison with the Pixel 8. The Pixel 9’s show is 6.3-inches, whereas the Pixel 8’s was 6.2-inches.

Google Pixel 9 AI options

To this point, I’ve established that it is a cellphone with good specs and a pleasant show. I don’t love the best way it feels in my fingers, however hey, you’ll be able to at all times purchase a case. Now, it’s time to get into what I dislike about Pixel 9: its extreme reliance on AI options.

Identical to how the Pixel 8 launched the Magic Editor function for quick-and-dirty picture edits, the Pixel 9 brings with it round half a dozen new toys to play with, of various ranges of usefulness. By that, I imply they range from “inoffensive” to “I don’t know why this exists.” 

For example, you should utilize the Reimagine function in Magic Editor to take a photograph of a avenue and use AI to show the road right into a river. Or you should utilize Add Me to create group photographs that by no means actually occurred as a result of one individual needed to maintain the digicam.

It really works, however at what value?
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon/Mashable

There’s additionally a brand new native Pixel Climate app that’s largely the identical because the Apple one, but it surely offers you a fast AI abstract of the day’s climate once you boot it up.

For instance, immediately’s abstract in Brooklyn reads “Nice afternoon with snug temperatures and clear air.” That’s all true, and it’s additionally data I might glean for myself by simply scrolling down and the remainder of the climate app for 15 seconds. 

That’s my major downside with all of this. Google goes so onerous on these options, championing them as the massive promoting factors of the Pixel 9 household, and none of them are actually transformative nor modern in ways in which matter. I don’t want an AI to summarize the climate for me when each climate app already has a visually interesting approach to try this. 

All the picture modifying options like Add Me and the expanded suite of Magic Editor options rub me the improper approach, too. Google has gone significantly onerous on attempting to promote these options as methods to create magical household recollections, both via Add Me’s capability to create good group photographs or Magic Editor’s capability to make mundane pictures look spectacular. Nonetheless, to me, that is the other of what recollections must be about.

I’m not a dad or mum, but when I had been, I might not need my little one to develop up and discover out each image I took of them was truly pretend and enhanced by AI trickery. That picture of you sitting in a flowery subject with a sizzling air balloon within the sky within the background? That’s pretend, sorry, child. I cared extra about making my social feeds look good than supplying you with an correct glimpse of your childhood.

And that claims nothing of Pixel Studio, a brand new text-to-image generative AI software that, effectively, turns your textual content prompts into photos. That is customary Midjourney-level stuff and it really works in a short time and effectively on the Pixel 9, however to what finish? So I can ship my mates an clearly AI-generated picture of a lizard in a cowboy hat? That feels like a good way to get banned from the group chat.

Pixel Studio as seen on a Pixel 9 Professional Fold.
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon/Mashable

That’s to not say it’s all ineffective. Pixel Screenshots is maybe the lone instance of Google leveraging AI in a approach that could possibly be life-saving. The thought is that it catalogs each screenshot you’re taking and memorizes the on-screen textual content or different pertinent particulars for you. If you have to recall one thing you took a screenshot of six months in the past, you don’t must scroll again via your library anymore. Merely open the Screenshots app, seek for what you want, and it must be there.

Pixel Screenshots truly makes a number of sense.
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon/Mashable

There are additionally methods to generate to-do lists and summarize cellphone calls, which I might see coming in helpful sooner or later. 

However broadly talking, one thing like 75 % of those AI options (not less than) really feel tacked-on, like Google solely put them there as a result of the corporate spent an excessive amount of on AI growth and desperately wants some return on funding. I strongly really feel that no person truly wants issues like Add Me, Pixel Studio, or Magic Editor. Simply take an actual picture of your youngsters and study to like imperfections.

Google Pixel 9 efficiency

All of these superfluous AI options are enabled by the brand new Tensor G4 chip and the 12GM of base RAM that include each Pixel 9. Given all of that, and the truth that Pixel telephones are usually very performant, one may anticipate the Pixel 9 to excel right here. It doesn’t, actually.

I do not just like the flat sides.
Credit score: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

That’s to not say there’s something overwhelmingly improper with the best way the Pixel 9 works on a day-to-day foundation. Apps load rapidly, the cellphone by no means seized up or slowed down in my time with it, and it didn’t get heat on me after an excessive amount of common use. Nonetheless, that’s all been true of the previous few Pixels, so it’s not likely spectacular anymore.

Compounding that’s the comparatively low Geekbench multi-core rating of 4,358. That’s decrease than the Samsung Galaxy S23, which isn’t even the latest Samsung flagship. There’s already an S24! Once more, I didn’t run into any apparent issues with the Pixel 9’s every day efficiency, however by the numbers, it isn’t as highly effective as even some older opponents. 

Google Pixel 9 battery life

One space the place the Pixel 9 is straight-up unimpeachable is the battery life.

Credit score: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

I’ll preserve this transient: It rocks. I ran a TikTok video on loop on the Pixel 9 display with the brightness at 50 % and, after 19 hours and 20 minutes, it ran out. It truly did higher than the Pixel 9 Professional XL on the similar check, as the larger premium Pixel cellphone received 18 hours and 51 minutes of battery. It additionally lasts longer than the Pixel 8, which gave me just a little greater than 15 hours from the identical check.

Whenever you’re not operating movies repeatedly, it lasts even longer. I used to be capable of go about 24 hours between expenses when utilizing the cellphone usually. Google did not drop the ball right here.

Google Pixel 9 digicam

Specs-wise, Google solely made one main change with the Pixel 9 cameras: The ultra-wide lens on the rear has been upgraded from 12MP on Pixel 8 to 48MP on Pixel 9. The 50MP principal lens and 10.5MP selfie cam are unchanged from a 12 months in the past.

Credit score: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

Unsurprisingly, I used to be capable of get nice-looking pictures out of the Pixel 9 digicam despite the fact that I am not a photographer by commerce. Google has at all times packed wonderful cameras into these telephones, utilizing a mix of {hardware} and software program processing, and the Pixel 9 isn’t any totally different.

For example, whereas you do not get the eye-popping 30x zoom discovered on the Pixel 9 Professional fashions, the 8x zoom can produce very clear outcomes from a distance.

I used to be standing perhaps 50 yards away right here.
Credit score: Alex Perry/Mashable

Excuse the truth that I do not actually like taking selfies, and thus am not excellent at them, however the selfie lens and portrait mode work in addition to ever.

It is a good portrait mode.
Credit score: Alex Perry/Mashable

Other than only a megapixel improve, Google claims that the ultra-wide lens has significantly improved gentle sensitivity. My yard has at all times made for an amazing low-light testing floor at night time, and although the shot I received got here out just a little blurry, it’s certainly a lot simpler to see than it was in actual life.

That is pitch black at night time.
Credit score: Alex Perry/Mashable

For enjoyable, I additionally tried out portrait mode at night time, and it really works very effectively.

Once more, unimaginable to see together with your eyes.
Credit score: Alex Perry/Mashable

Is the Google Pixel 9 value it?

For those who’re a Pixel devotee, and your M.O. is to maintain utilizing your subsequent Pixel the best way you’ve got at all times used your older ones, the Pixel 9 will serve you excellent. It is received improbable battery life and high quality cameras to go together with ample on a regular basis efficiency. It is also a lot simpler to see within the daytime whereas outdoors, which is a plus.

However Google has merely gone too far with its AI options this 12 months. I am simply not impressed that the climate app can sum up a temperature chart in a single sentence as a result of my mind may also try this immediately by trying on the chart. I do not need photographs of my mates and family members to exist on this bizarre aircraft the place they’re all artificially edited. If I wasn’t capable of stand in for a gaggle picture as a result of I used to be holding the digicam, then so be it. Life is stuffed with imperfections and we do not profit from pretending in any other case.

I am going to concede that the Pixel Screenshots app is genuinely helpful, however past that, I might actually somewhat see Google deal with actual innovation or, within the absence of that, a cellphone that’s extra snug to carry than this one.