The perfect massive Android telephone

The Pixel 9 Professional XL is arguably the least fascinating of Google’s 4 telephones this 12 months. It’s a giant, costly flagship with minor design enhancements, reasonable {hardware} upgrades, a grab-bag of AI options, and a $100 worth enhance. Such a tepid introduction belies, nevertheless, a outstanding feat that Google, now in its ninth era of homegrown handsets, has pulled off: the Pixel 9 Professional XL could also be one of the best Android telephone ever made.

A prodigious quantity of ink has been spilled through the years about Google’s challenges within the smartphone house. After discontinuing the Nexus program in 2015 and launching the Pixel lineup the next 12 months, each era seemingly needed to take care of some near-fatal flaw that left reviewers pissed off and potential patrons cautious.

The corporate bought fairly near a clear dismount with the

Pixel 8 sequence,
however that too had its share of software program issues, which took a number of months to resolve. Solely now, a 12 months into its seven-year lifespan, the Pixel 8 Professional appears like a mature product I’d be completely satisfied to suggest. So, every week into utilizing the Pixel 9 Professional XL, I’m lingering on whether or not I can unreservedly suggest Google’s new non-folding flagship on day one and, if that’s the case, whether or not it justifies a $100 worth enhance over its predecessor.

The quick reply is: sure. Completely sure.

UPDATE: 2024/10/14 05:48 EST BY DOMINIC PRESTON

A small replace so as to add in our one month later video evaluation of the 9 Professional XL, which you will discover proper under this notice.

Value & availability

$100 extra for a similar storage? Come on, Google

The Pixel 9 Professional XL is offered beginning August twenty second for $1099 USD, which will get you a 128GB model. Right here is the associated fee breakdown per dimension:

• 128GB: $1099
• 256GB: $1199
• 512GB: $1319
• 1TB: $1549

It can save you fairly a bit of cash by buying and selling in your outdated telephone, and Google is being extra beneficiant with trade-in values this 12 months than in earlier years, so take benefit should you can. The telephone is offered within the following areas: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Eire, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States. It is available in 4 colours:

• Porcelain (white)
• Rose Quartz (pink)
• Hazel (darkish inexperienced)
• Obsidian (black)

I desire the Hazel, however you may’t go flawed with any of the colorways this 12 months.

{Hardware} & design

Refined, good, significant evolution

I appreciated the

Pixel 8 Professional
’s design, although I did really feel that, in its third era, its “pleasant” and nature-inspired roundness was turning a bit flat.

With the Pixel 9 Professional XL — and keep in mind, the 9 Professional XL is the successor in each dimension, weight, and worth to the Pixel 8 Professional; the Pixel 9 Professional is a brand new smaller entry into the lineup this 12 months — Google has revisited straight traces, angles, and edges, whereas isolating the now-iconic digital camera visor to the telephone’s rear. It’s very a lot a maturation I desire over any of the earlier three Professional fashions, however in doing so, it additionally diminishes one of many extra identifiable points of the Pixel sequence. Sure, it appears to be like like an iPhone.

Whereas it’s marginally thinner than the Pixel 8 Professional, it doesn’t look or really feel it; Google cleverly integrated curves to its telephones’ perimeters in earlier fashions which have now been elongated and formalized into solemn traces. Google is saying that this can be a critical telephone with a pedigree, an object of need as a lot as utility. It’s a technique efficiently employed by each Apple and Samsung over the past half-decade, and by eradicating the final vestiges of caprice from its costliest telephones, Google is drawing a line between its previous and future.

The telephone is a mere 9 grams heavier than the Pixel 8 Professional, however its newfound solidity and stoicism makes it appear and feel far denser. Related refinements may be discovered on the telephone’s entrance, too: the 6.8-inch show is ever-so-larger and brighter than earlier than, and it’s beautiful. Now that includes smaller (and symmetrical) bezels, the panel is super-bright: it’s rated for two,000 nits for HDR content material, and three,000 nits at its peak, which places it among the many most eye-searing panels in the marketplace, however my main check is whether or not I can use it outdoor, in direct summer time solar, with out straining, and it simply passes.

Elsewhere on the {hardware} facet, I’ve been pleasantly shocked by the meaty, full sound of the twin audio system, whereas the microphone high quality continues to be very good. Charging has been barely sped up from the earlier era, from 30W to 37W. Whereas that solely cuts a couple of minutes from the full top-up time, it does imply that when your telephone is lifeless — or near it — your preliminary top-ups shall be much more sizeable. Google claims that you just’ll get 70% cost in half-hour utilizing a 45W PPS charger now, up from 50% final 12 months. It’s a small however significant enchancment since Pixels have at all times been among the many slowest Android telephones to refill (although it wasn’t too a few years in the past Pixels topped out at 18W. So, this can be a fairly massive step in the fitting route).

Google has already into the Pixel 9 sequence this 12 months. I’ll echo that, although it’s simply rectified with a magnetic case, such because the dbrand Grip I’ve used on the telephone for a number of days. As beautiful because the {hardware} is, I’d suggest

grabbing a case on your Pixel 9 Professional XL:
this factor is slippery, notably within the sweaty summer time.

Some miscellany value highlighting:

• The telephone’s haptics are nonetheless among the many finest on Android, and I notably like how Google’s implementation of Android makes use of them subtly throughout the system.
• The telephone nonetheless has a temperature sensor, for what it’s value. It’s not notably helpful, and actually, I’m shocked it’s nonetheless right here, however the app acquired a pleasant overhaul to coincide with the Pixel 9 launch — I suppose that’s one thing.
• The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is extra correct and sooner than earlier than, however the excellent news is that I not often have to make use of it. The Pixel’s front-facing digital camera helps stage 3 face unlock. I exploit it to unlock not solely my telephone but in addition the safe apps like 1Password and TD Financial institution that I depend on each day. Win, win.

Efficiency & battery life

Higher & higher

It’s a bit too early to say how significant the velocity and effectivity enhancements of the Tensor G4 shall be to the long-term usability and delight of the Pixel 9 sequence. Up to now, nevertheless, the machine has run flawlessly. Google readily admits it doesn’t construct the Tensor sequence to rival Apple and Qualcomm in uncooked throughput. You may (and maybe ought to) be vital of that call, notably on a telephone that simply acquired a $100 worth enhance. However the extra necessary query you need to be asking, if shopping for a 9 Professional XL is an actual consideration, is whether or not it issues.

In my day-to-day utilization, the telephone runs cool and lengthy, affably dealing with any duties I throw at it, from searching to media consumption to gaming. Google has designed the telephone to do all of this stuff admirably nicely, nevertheless it’s no gaming telephone. Qualcomm has the market cornered there on the Android facet, and the upcoming

Snapdragon 8 Gen 4
might add substantial distance to its gaming lead, primarily based on what we’ve seen to this point.

Nonetheless, I’m sensible and use a telephone for easy issues. Different reviewers will give attention to gaming efficiency or uncooked benchmarks and are available away ambivalent or unimpressed. That’s not how I exploit my telephone. I open Slack, then a Chrome webview, then YouTube, then Kindle, then the digital camera, then Google Pictures, then Libby, after which again to Slack and perhaps somewhat Holedown if time permits. I take pictures, after which I edit them; I make to-do lists, and examine them off. I subscribe to too many information apps after which get upset by the variety of notifications they ship. , regular stuff.

In my day by day utilization, the telephone runs cool and lengthy, affably dealing with any job I throw at it, from searching to media consumption to gaming.

I’ve at all times loved utilizing Pixel telephones greater than another Android telephone for these quotidian delights. Regardless of a surfeit of software program bugs and design inconsistencies prior to now, that feeling has not diminished. The Tensor G4, with its Geekbench outcomes equal to a three-year-old Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, is completely able to enabling the multivarious issues I count on my telephone to do nicely and rapidly, and that’s adequate for me.

Furthermore, the telephone runs noticeably cooler, notably beneath heavy load, than the Tensor G3 within the Pixel 8 sequence, and I’m seeing marginally higher battery life as nicely. You’re most likely not going to finish the day at 40-50% remaining as you’d with a

Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely,
nevertheless it’s additionally not more likely to die earlier than you set it on the charger, both, until you’re partying into the early hours capturing pictures and movies all of the whereas.

It is also value mentioning that the brand new Samsung modem contained in the Pixel 9 Professional XL is rock stable. Reception right here in Toronto has been on par with my Galaxy S24 Extremely and iPhone 15 Professional Max, and I am often getting obtain speeds within the 300-500Mbps vary on Telus’s 5G+ community. I plan to do extra side-by-side testing to make sure, however I am assured that, not like in earlier years, there’s nothing to fret about from a connectivity perspective.

I’ve now used the telephone for lengthy sufficient to say with certainty that the Pixel 9 Professional XL is a terrific performer, one which hasn’t slowed down greater than a few frames in the complete time I’ve used it. There’s one thing in regards to the fluidity and seamlessness of Google’s implementation (and, more and more, interpretation) of Android, and the way it ties into the {hardware}, that no different maker of telephones outdoors of Apple can declare, and with a succesful SoC that does not overheat this 12 months, the telephone really lives as much as my lofty expectations.

Images (and AI)

My favourite telephone to shoot with

To speak a couple of Pixel telephone’s cameras today is to speak about two issues concurrently: its {hardware}, which hasn’t modified a lot in a number of years; and its rising retinue of AI options, which has positively modified so much prior to now few years.

First, let’s give attention to the {hardware}. The principle and telephoto sensors are similar to the final couple of generations, which isn’t a nasty factor. The 50MP Samsung sensor isn’t top-tier anymore, however Google’s at all times been in a position to extract outsized worth from re-used tools. To wit, the primary 5 generations of Pixel telephones used variations of the identical 12MP Sony sensor, and it retained industry-leading pictures proper up till the top.

With the Pixel 9, the {hardware} could also be unchanged from earlier years, however Google says it has overhauled the HDR pipeline from begin to end, and you may see it within the ultimate photographs. These are the crispest, cleanest pictures a Pixel telephone has ever produced, sustaining the contrast-heavy look that the sequence is thought for. The Pixel’s main digital camera has at all times been my favourite “pick-up-and-shoot” smartphone expertise, and I recognize much more this 12 months’s refined adjustments, like how far more rapidly the digital camera app opens or how a lot much less it lags (or the way it not drops frames within the viewfinder).

These are the crispest, cleanest pictures a Pixel telephone has ever produced.

Equally, the 5x telephoto lens makes use of the identical {hardware} as final 12 months’s telephone, however that’s positive. Exterior of China-only units just like the OPPO Discover X7 Extremely or the Xiaomi 14 Extremely, that is one of the best telephoto expertise you should purchase on a smartphone. Its f/2.8 lens works with the 113mm-equivalent focal distance to punch in on topics and supply actual, usable bokeh.

I’ve praised this telephone so much already, nevertheless it’s no hyperbole to say that, other than my Nikon DSLR, the telephoto lens on the Pixel is my single favourite lens to make use of. It focuses rapidly, takes sharp, full of life photographs with lovely fall-off bokeh, discovering equal success with vegetation or folks. Most of all, it is enjoyable, and I can not actually say that in regards to the iPhone’s or Galaxy’s equal telephoto.

I used to be genuinely shocked at how nicely it mixed with the improved Tremendous Res Zoom characteristic to offer usable pictures at 30x (although I am utilizing the time period “usable” loosely right here).

New this 12 months is the ultrawide digital camera, which has a a lot bigger sensor together with a wider f/1.7 aperture. I’m not sometimes a fan of ultrawide pictures until I’m documenting sweeping vistas, however the Pixel’s very good macro mode, which is enabled by the ultrawide, greater than justifies the adjustments.

Lastly, the selfie digital camera has a bigger 42MP sensor to go together with its already nice autofocus. Whereas I loved the marginally larger resolved element in my pictures, I’m extra within the wider area of view, the 103-degree area of view. The broader, the higher, in my view.

As for AI, right here’s what I take into consideration the options added this 12 months:

• Magic Editor is an fascinating however foolish novelty that has solely been made extra distinctive with the addition of “Reimagine,” which presents a textual content immediate to enhance the visible manipulations you might already obtain. I’ll by no means use this, and as others have identified, it is far too straightforward so as to add problematic, and probably harmful, parts to pictures.
• Zoom Improve is neat, however solely in the best way that CSI at all times seemed spectacular when “enhancing” grainy safety digital camera footage. I recognize that it exists, however like most issues that depend on generative AI, I really feel prefer it’s going to hurt extra pictures than it helps.
• Add Me is great; extra of this please, Google. I don’t care what anybody says about the way it creates a second that by no means occurred. It’s beautiful you can create a synthetic reminiscence primarily based on the expertise of being along with folks you’re keen on and wish to be in pictures with. Whether or not the precise picture really occurred is irrelevant; it’s a byproduct of the act of taking two pictures collectively, stitched to appear like one, and that’s a outstanding, sensible means AI may help.
• Video Increase. Wow. Google’s video efficiency has improved so much through the years. With none cloud-based boosting it appears to be like nice — perhaps a bit juddery in comparison with the iPhone and Galaxy equivalents, however completely usable for non-professional functions — however Video Increase is that this achievement in each cloud processing and AI that melds the sorts of issues Google is nice at in a extremely artistic and genuinely helpful means.

  

• Pixel Studio is nightmare gas that shouldn’t be pre-installed on these telephones. There are many internet apps that make it tremendous easy to create an AI picture of Pikachu in a Nazi uniform, however I don’t essentially want it put in as a system app, nevertheless it’s not deletable. This isn’t only a Google downside, both: Samsung has its personal model of this, referred to as “sketch to picture,” and Apple will pre-install its Picture Playground app on supported telephones operating iOS 18 and above.

  

  Pixel 9 Professional XL panorama pattern

• This isn’t AI-enhanced in any respect, however the up to date digital camera app additionally comes with a totally redesigned panorama mode. Whereas I doubt it’ll make me an ultra-ultrawide aficionado in a single day, it’s one in all Google’s finest year-over-year workflow enhancements ever.

Software program (and AI)

Nonetheless the Pixel expertise and love

Many have famous that Google didn’t even introduce its new {hardware} merchandise till round 20 minutes into its keynote presentation, selecting to focus on the various, many ways in which Gemini can enhance your life. It’s no accident that it’s taken me this lengthy to even point out the phrase, and I’m no AI Luddite. I’ve been utilizing the know-how in some kind virtually each day for a few years now, and I genuinely attempt to discover methods to extract worth from its multimodal varieties.

I’ve additionally grow to be fairly taken with Gemini as a product, although its proliferation throughout Google’s numerous merchandise threatens to undermine a few of what has made Android historically so helpful. It’s not possible to disregard Gemini now;

it’s changed Assistant
because the default on-device helper, and also you’ll discover it encroaching in your messaging expertise, too. As I’ve already talked about, Google Pictures has been overrun with AI, and it received’t be lengthy earlier than Gemini’s desktop integrations with Workspace and Chrome arrive on cell.

The excellent news is you can deactivate all of these items should you don’t need it; the dangerous information is that, as with different Google companies prior to now, you’ll probably quickly lose entry to extra than simply AI should you insist on disabling Gemini.

Gemini can also be fairly good. Even the straight-up Assistant substitute model is quicker and extra correct than it ever turned in its eight years of existence. Speaking with Gemini Dwell, which isn’t unique to Pixel however to

Gemini Superior
subscribers (of which you get a free 12 months with a Pixel 9 buy), is uncanny and a bit intimidating. I really look ahead to utilizing it, which isn’t one thing I’ve mentioned a couple of voice assistant (or chatbot, or no matter I wish to name this factor) in a very long time.

I’ve already spoken about my appreciation for, if not the app itself, then the concept of

Pixel Screenshots.
Proper now, the app is underbaked, nevertheless it might grow to be one thing actually glorious and helpful if Google decides to cease isolating it from the remainder of the OS. Eventual integration instantly into Drive and Pictures can even make a giant distinction.

Not launching its new telephones with Android 15 is each unprecedented and completely the fitting transfer.

However the software program expertise — the Pixel Expertise — isn’t nearly AI. In truth, it’s barely about AI should you don’t need it to be. That is one of the best Android has ever been, partially as a result of Google determined to not launch its new telephones with a brand new OS.

That is unprecedented, for positive. Whereas a straightforward excuse is that the Pixel 9s launched two months sooner than they usually do, the fact is that Google launched its new telephones with a bunch of latest software program options on high of a secure and reliable platform that’s had 10 months of stability enhancements and bug fixes. The very last thing Google wanted was one other information cycle the place early adopters discovered subject after subject, undermining the real benefits of utilizing a Pixel within the course of.

The fact is that that is essentially the most secure and performant a Pixel has been for me out of the field in years, and that’s partially owing to comparatively minor, although impactful, adjustments on each the {hardware} and software program facet. And that is regardless of, not due to, all of the AI bloatware Google is more and more forcing on you.

Competitors

What competitors?

What telephones really compete with the Pixel lineup? I imply, actually? Rick Osterloh, the SVP of Gadgets & Providers at Google — the man now in command of Pixel and Android — just lately informed Ben Thompson’s Stratechery that “only a few” Pixel customers are migrating from Samsung units.

At first look, that doesn’t make a number of sense. Samsung has the most important market share within the Android house, so why wouldn’t sad Galaxy customers be migrating to the subsequent most recognizable model, notably in markets the place Google has a powerful model and advertising presence? Seemingly as a result of

Samsung has spent the final decade constructing an ecosystem
of not simply loyal smartphone customers, however cell know-how customers, and has achieved so by means of the standard service system that lets of us purchase closely sponsored units.

The following probably candidate is Apple, which Google took greater than a small quantity of inspiration from with the Pixel 9 sequence’ design. And that’s not a criticism: these will not be solely Google’s most well-built telephones ever, however arguably their cleanest and most mature-looking. They might lack the whimsy of earlier generations, however I’d slightly have certainty within the product itself.

The

Galaxy S25 Extremely
(or

Observe
?) remains to be a number of months away, whereas the iPhone 16 Professional Max shall be right here in September, so should you’re not burning a gap in your pocket, chances are you’ll wish to wait to see what these corporations unveil. Nonetheless, I consider the Pixel supplies such a singular expertise that it’s laborious to suggest both of these merchandise over the Pixel 9 Professional XL.

Definitely, there are different area of interest gamers within the smartphone house giving the Pixel some actual competitors. OnePlus, as an example, has been on a roll just lately and must be out in January. We don’t know a lot about it proper now, nevertheless it’s sure to carry out nicely, have a unbelievable digital camera, and, maybe most significantly, really feel like a Pixel in some ways.

The largest opponents to this telephone are the opposite units within the Pixel 9 sequence.

James reviewed and liked the $799 Pixel 9,
and

Will is equally enamored with the $999 Pixel 9 Professional
. Now we simply should see how the

Pixel 9 Professional Fold
fares, and it could possibly be 4/4 for Google this time round.

Do you have to purchase the Pixel 9 Professional XL?

Regardless of the mouthful of a reputation, the brand new massive Pixel is mostly a small however significant improve over the 8 Professional. It is a end result of a few years of iteration and optimization, uncomfortably permeated by a miasma of AI hype.

My take? Ignore the AI in order for you, and simply purchase the darn factor. If you would like a giant telephone, get the Pixel 9 Professional XL. If you would like a medium-sized telephone and might afford the Professional, get the 9 Professional. If you would like the one of the best telephone for most individuals, get the Pixel 9. And should you’re the sicko who desires one thing to fold, the 9 Professional Fold will virtually actually be the foldable to beat when it debuts early subsequent month.

Regardless of being overshadowed by Google’s AI ventures, the Pixel 9 Professional XL’s success merely as an excellent smartphone can’t be overstated. That it prices $100 extra this 12 months isn’t an excellent look, notably as a result of Google is making an attempt to trace that the Professional sequence hasn’t acquired a worth bump by evaluating the Pixel 8 Professional to the smaller Pixel 9 Professional. Nonetheless, this large telephone is a large win for Google, and it’s virtually assured a spot in my pocket for the foreseeable future.