Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Pixel 9 feels and looks like a premium smartphone, complete with a great camera, tons of software to play with, and hardware that performs.

Google's Pixel 9 continues to impress with its exceptional camera performance. The AI-powered features, like Magic Eraser and Real Tone, ensure stunning photos in any lighting condition. The Tensor G3 chip provides smooth performance, and the design is sleek and comfortable. While the battery life could be slightly better, the Pixel 9's overall package makes it a compelling choice for those who prioritize photography and a clean Android experience.

This time google has brought such a refreshing spec and design. The cherry on top is the 7 years of software updates. Pixel 9 is so comfortable to use and hold, and the battery is excellent so far. Display has improved and camera is top class just as always. This is definitely staying with me for a long time. I have been using iPhone for the past 6 years and this will be my buddy phone for tinkering.

I recently traded in my iPhone 12 at Best Buy for a Google Pixel and couldn't be happier with the deal I got! Not only did they offer a seamless trade-in process, but I also received $100 in coupons, making the entire experience even better. The staff was helpful, and the transaction was smooth. Highly recommend Best Buy for great deals and excellent customer service! Five stars!

The camera is definitely the best in any phone right now, the user experience is amazing. Battery is good too, but cannot last more than a day.

TLDR - The Pixel 9 is a mediocre improvement in processing power vs the previous generations, but a decent step up in battery and overall use. Big jump in battery (probably 15-20% longer in my usage) vs a 7a. Display - the display gets quite bright, so it is decently usable in direct sunlight/outdoors. Coming from a Pixel 7a I would say I only need to set the brightness to 10-15% less for normal usage versus the 7a. Max brightness is near eye searing in a dimly lit room. 120hz is great and makes a slower phone feel quick. SoC - The G4 isn’t setting any speed records, or even really close to the top tier competition, but is in line with last generation ish level top tier Android chipsets. I scored a 1643/4383 in Geekbench 6.3.0. Battery - The battery is about 7% larger than my 7a, but I can easily get a few more hours of use. A normal day for me would see me needing to plug in my 7a at around 8pm at only 15-20% battery life left. I kept an eye on this new 9, unplugged at about 8AM, and at 1am the next morning, it was just hitting “battery saver” at 20% remaining, and I played a decent amount of Pokémon Go. If you’re not a phone gamer and don’t watch a ton of videos on your phone, I could easily see getting a day and a half or more! Build - Feels very premium, camera bump is large and slightly obnoxious, but with a case, its not a big deal. AI - The AI junk bloats what would otherwise be a great phone. Other than the fun photo stuff, the Gemini AI is mostly useless to me, as when it was enabled, I couldn’t do any Google assistant stuff on my phone. AI is just the current buzzword that should die down soon, but don’t buy this phone “just cause it has AI” with it. Overall, great phone, just don’t put a bunch of weight on the AI stuff!

I recently got the Google Pixel 9 and I'm impressed with its camera features and customization. I've been an iPhone user for a long time, so I never considered an Android phone. The Google Pixel 9 feels nice in hand, but it's a bit slippery and I've dropped it a few times, causing some scratches on the screen. It's lightweight and easy to handle and has a 6.3-inch screen, which is a good size. There are 4 colors available, and I think they all look great, especially the Peony version. The camera is probably my favorite thing about this phone. The photo and video quality is stunning, and I love the various editing options. The "add me" feature is great for group photos, allowing you to add yourself into the shot. The Magic Editor is perfect for content creators, and the Audio Magic Eraser is fantastic for reducing background noise in busy places like restaurants or concerts. These features are all built into the camera app, so there's no need to download extra apps. Gemini is another great tool on this phone that makes life easier. It responds to specific requests, helps find and respond to emails, and can open apps for you. There's a paid version called Gemini Advance, which costs $20 a month and offers more capabilities. It's not essential, but I decided to try it since it comes with a free month. I don't usually use these types of apps, but I thought I'd give it a try. The Pixel Screenshot feature organizes all your screenshots, making it easy to search for them using keywords. The phone's screen is incredible, with vibrant colors and clarity. I use my phone for watching videos, movies, and social media, and the audio quality is loud and clear. Overall, this is an amazing phone and definitely worth the price. If you're a content creator who needs a great camera and editing options on the go, I highly recommend it.

I will admit - I am a phone fanatic. I always like to have the newest devices along with (at least) one device for testing (beta, apps, etc.). The Pixel 9 is my second Pixel and it definitely impressed me. First Impressions: When I first opened the Pixel 9, I felt like it was a lot smaller than I expected. You'll see in the pictures ranging from the biggest of the "bigs" to the smallest of the "smalls," the size is really deceiving. Upon first firing up the device and getting through all the regular steps of setting up the device (WiFi, software updates, loading eSIM, etc.), I found the Pixel 9 to remarkably fast for the entry-level Pixel lineup. The new Google Tensor G4 chip is quicker than a hiccup in pretty much any circumstance. The display is bright and vibrant and - to my surprise - just the right size in comparison to other larger devices. The 128gb storage scared me at first, but with the integration of Google One with Google Drive, Photos, etc., it really isn't an issue - everything lives in the cloud and is available on-demand. I activated this device on a GSM carrier with strong 5G service in my area and was able to pull and average of about 380 Mbps down and 29 Mbps up, testing multiple times with Speediest by Ookla and Google's own speed test over the web. Key Features: - Outstanding new Google Tensor G4 chip - Excellent battery life (I was able to get through an average day and still have about 30% left at bedtime). Also, very fast charging wired and wireless. I put a MagSafe case on the device and it worked flawlessly. - Slick and accurate Face unlock; note: I was unable to use the in-screen fingerprint sensor because of the screen protector I chose even with toggling the screen to be more sensitive for a screen protector. - GEMINI - WOW! The AI features embedded with Gemini pretty much everywhere on the phone is fantastic. You can even chat with Gemini and get real-time answers. VERY IMPRESSIVE! - Beyond Outstanding cameras - the 50MP rear camera brings phone photography to a new level. Overall, I would give this device a 10/10 if the scoring allowed. Even though it's the base model, it's feature-rich, fast, enjoyable to use, and Google promises up to 7 years of software updates through Pixel "Drops -- Listen up competitors!!!!). 10/10 - highly recommend!

My previous phone was a Pixel 8 Pro. It had a 6.7” display and this phone is 6.3”, I really miss the larger size. Just a consideration when selecting a phone. When I setup the Pixel 8 Pro there were some setup issues and even Verizon couldn’t solve them over the phone. So this time I went directly to a Verizon store and they had a few hiccups but had it working in about 45 minutes. The eSIM transfer is great and your previous apps will mostly transfer. You may have to re-install or update them. Make sure to do a system update whenever you buy a new phone. Google has Gorilla Glass Victus 2 but I always add a case and a screen protector to anew phone. My phones have been dropped over a hundred times and never a cracked screen. Even with my screen protector the touch response works great. Battery life is improved over the Pixel 8 Pro and even with heavy use it lasts at least 1.5 days. When setting up your phone, don’t overlook the Safety & Emergency and Digital Well Being settings. There are also some great features under system settings: Live Translate Navigation Mode Gestures (quickly open camera/one-handed mode) Backup Repair Mode The Camera is excellent. The macro feature is much improved with a 48 MP ultrawide camera. The 50 MP main lens is great too. My favorite feature is Add Me. The picture on the bench was taken first with one person and then we switched places and another shot was taken to add the other person to the photo. Very cool and easy to do. Editing is also very easy and has several options. The AI can even offer suggestions if you are not sure what needs editing. There is also a Panorama option that works well too. Gemini is Google’s next-gen AI. You have the option to try Gemini Advanced free for a month and then a fee thereafter. I am reviewing the basic Gemini. In order to fully use the feature you have to connect to Google Workspace. It assumes that you want to use the Google account that you activated the phone with. I use several email accounts and they are not all gmail. It wouldn’t allow me to search emails in my Charter account for example. Gemini will advise you of activities to do this weekend in your city and that can be helpful if you have friends or family visiting. You can create a list, ask for advice, log call notes, etc… I asked it to generate an image of an elephant on a Mardi Gras float and it did a good job. I had tested that same scenario last month with another suppliers AI and it did a lousy job. I also tried the demo for Satellite SOS. If you have an emergency and no cell coverage, it will connect you via Satellite. A very nice feature. The new Screenshots app helps to organize your screenshots. Phone quality, this is a phone after all, was great. No calls have dropped and clarity is clear. Volume is loud enough and speaker quality is very good. A couple of concerns. Some of my emails are coming in with the words overlapping the images due to the smaller screen size, it didn’t happen with the Pixel 8 Pro. A lot of apps aren’t compatible with Pixel phones. The BlueStar Diabetes app wouldn’t work with the Pixel 8 Pro and doesn’t work with the 9 either. They have been working with Google and every time they say they have a fix it still won’t work. Search apps and many will say they are not compatible with this device. That may be a concern to you if you need a certain app.

The Google Pixel I think is a decent smartphone that has no bloatware of any kind, though I won't say as compared to the other brand of a smartphone of a different OS that I have (iPhone with IOS), it can be a learning curve being introduced to the Android OS, however there can be similarities with different twists when its commonly navigating the home screen, accessing settings, taking photos and video, switching between apps and so on. I have taken photos so far with the smartphone which features a 50 megapixel main camera and what I like with the camera app is the feature of having the photo always level, to which we always want the photo at zero degrees; I haven't so far encountered or seen a setting for that for the iPhone's main camera app as I have looked as much of the settings as I can. Going back to the Pixel, the Magic Editor is quite a feature I have read about, but will be needing some practice on moving objects, expanding, as I know what's great is the Add Me feature in group photos which the person taking the photo, can be in the group photo as well being added later and that places of a person in the group trades to take the other photo, which is convenient than having two pictures with the two different persons; its just one. Video recording was briefly taken and seems to be on par and usual; much more to tinker settings and experiment with later on, but it feels common with the zooming in and out and so on. Regarding the phone and dimensions and though this is a non pro size, its fits well and has quite some screen area as front facing camera is a dot. I have used a nan sim card with ATT from a family members phone and it works well accepting the network, making calls, etc. I think Google can do a better job of the placement of the sim card tray; i is at the bottom which could be where the speakers and microphone are placed and the hole for the sim card ejection, is on the same area of the sim card slot but the adjacent/opposing microphone hole can be mistaken for the sim ejection hole to put in your sim ejecting tool or safety pin and it did however unfortunately happened with me for a split second of putting the tool in that microphone hole. Of course I was careful in time, but others may need to be aware about this. I think the sim card slot (if google pursues in next pixel models that support a sim card) should be on either side of the phone. This phone will serve as an travel overseas phone and to use the country's service provider whenever we visit, and use it to make calls and surf the web, and use it as a tethered hotspot with our smartphones to make voip calls and also surf the web are our phones still are currently locked to our service provider at moment (and though our service provider has "international day passes", it more costly). But also it would be used to add a line to our account which we'd port our landline # soon since the old POTS will be phased out very shortly.

First things first, I really like Google's Pixel 9 series. The device feels and looks premium. The Pixel 9 is a really well constructed peice of hardware. There is alot of talk about the other versions of the Pixel 9, but I really think this version is the best if them all. It comes with a attractive price and feature set, that makes a case to be had for all to consider. The Pixel 9 can fit almost anywhere as the display is a 6.3" display with a peak brightness of 2700 nits. Perfect for viewing outdoors while taking pics. I thought I would miss having the much larger screen as my other phones have, but the more I used the Pixel 9, the more comfortable I was using it. The premium build with both back and front having Gorilla Glass Vuctus 2. I feel like this is the most premium Pixel model ever that Google has constructed. The AI features are really cool. I showed my family the add me feature and they were throughly impressed. We took a bunch of photos trying this neat feature out. Magic eraser, reimagine, and the other host of features is the reason many buy the Pixel. The phones is really responsive, and I didn't notice any considerable lag while using the device. Being able to press the power button which activates Gemini and ask anything is really cool. Google's AI features are the best in the business right now. Over time, Google will always be at the front when it comes to AI. The selling point of the Pixel 9 is Gemini. If you are really into AI, then this phone would be a great option for you. Hopefully they continue to raise the bar when it comes to adding new features and integrating Gemini into everyday devices. Overall I really like the Pixel 9. I love the 7 years of updates, and also the 12gbs of ram. Some things I think could be improved upon are: 128gb is the first storage option in 2024. Having only 128gbs today is a bummer. 256gbs to start, would have been ideal for a premium device like the Pixel 9. Design. I thought Google didn't push any boundaries with choosing a design that sets them apart from other manufacturers. The Pixel 9 looks and feels alot like one if the major competitors in the market. I would have loved to see something innovative and fresh in the design language of the Pixel 9. AI features are great, but real world usage may fall off longterm. Add me is probably my most favorite feature. Gemini being able to summarize anything and Reimagine is pretty cool. These features impress people when I show them off, but besides showing them, I really don't use them as much as I did in the beginning. Pixel Studio is a blast to use as well. I found myself trying all the features out when my Pixel first arrived. Now not so much. I think Google really stepped their game up this year with the Pixel 9. With having 7 years worth of updates, a host of AI features, 12gb of Ram and the new Tensor G4 processor. The Pixel camera is always on par with the best phones in the industry. Gemini is advancing at swift pace to become the AI assistant everyone needs. This phone has alot of offer, I would just like to see more originality in future iterations of the Pixel lineups.

I have had a few pixel phones over the years, but so far, this has been my favorite since the Pixel 5. I also have last year's Pixel 8. This year's Pixel 9 feels much nicer in the hand than the Pixel 8 does. I love the design of the Pixel 9 and in particular I love the rear back camera design. It finally feels like Google has made a phone that has a great build quality that is as nice as the current generation iPhone and Samsung offerings. The Pixel 9 phone moves up to their Tensor G4 processor.The battery life is much improved over the Pixel 8. The Pixel 9 does not get hot like my Pixel 8 did even under fair heavy use of the camera. The Pixel 9 has a 4700 mAh battery, supports fast charging and wireless charging. I finally feel like I am getting a full day of battery life on a full charge. I used an older pixel charger that came with my previous pixel, but it still charged fairly fast. I was also able to wireless charge with an Anker wireless standing charger even with a silicone case on the phone. The Pixel 9 also now supports WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. I only have a WiFi 6E router in my home and max out my 500mbps home internet bandwidth on it. The display on this phone is fantastic. It looks great and is really bright, I mean really bright, totally usable in daylight. Video looks great, and the display has VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) 60hz or 120hz. YouTube and Netflix content looks great. This year the Pixel 9 has changed its fingerprint sensor from the previous year, and while it is definitely better I do not feel that it is as good as fingerprint readers where the sensor was located on the back of the device. I continue to get missed presses now and then, especially after washing my hands, but that being said, it is MUCH BETTER than the Pixel 8, which had a pretty bad fingerprint sensor. The cameras on the phone are all very good, I especially love the macro focus on the rear camera. Speaking of cameras, the single most impressive thing this phone can do is a new AI feature called “Add Me”. Add Me lets you take a photo of a group and then you can ask one of your other party to take a photo of you at the same general angle. The phone then shows you the previous photo and lines it up with the new person in frame as a preview of what the new photo will look like. AI basically then combines both photos together into a new AI composited one. For the most part, when this works, it works very well and it can be hard to discern that it was not shot that way naturally. I think this will keep getting better as time goes on and machine learning (AI) gets better. I am someone that mostly travels alone with my wife so there are always moments where it is either her in the photo alone, or vice-versa. I wouldn’t take every photo this way, but this is something I will definitely use quite a bit. With the newly designed Weather app, AI is used to summarize the weather for the day for you. I guess the Gemini AI is combining multiple weather reports up and averaging them out? Much like last year's Pixel 8, this year's Pixel 9 will have 7 years of software support. I do hope that Google keeps this promise going forward. Gemini Live is similar to the previous Google Assistant except it will talk back to you conversationally. You can set up the voice from several different voices and they all sound very natural. When asking Gemini Live questions, you can keep talking back and forth with it like a conversation, including things like suggestions on any topic you might want. For example, you can ask it for ideas for a party, and later ask what kind of food you might want to have, and how old your guests might be, etc. It surprised me as to how useful this would turn out to be. Overall, I think this is a great phone for the money. It is very fast for everything I use it for and the cameras are fantastic. Everything is very snappy in the operating system. Moving in and out of apps is a breeze. I especially like the design and feel of the phone.

Review: Pixel 9 Amazing jaw-dropping features! Unreliable face unlock —----------- Summary —----------- First time I have an Android phone and I’ve got to say, I’m impressed! The Pixel 9 is beautiful, powerful, intuitive and it packs so many useful features that makes everyday life just easier. The camera is as good as it gets, and not only you’ve got the expected editing features, but now it includes some mind-blowing features such as deleting other people in your picture, adding yourself to a group picture, or just changing the sky from a rainy to a sunny day! In the world of powerful smartphones, you cannot go wrong with a Pixel 9 if you’re already in the Android ecosystem. For those who aren’t, but are considering switching, you’ll be very happy with the Pixel 9 if you’re OK with the privacy differences between the two major ecosystems. On the flip side, I do wonder how much of my privacy I’m giving up with some of this amazing technology such as the new Gemini AI. Also, while all the picture editing features, such as “Reimagine”, is impressive technologically speaking because they basically allow you to change the reality of the picture, it is also pretty scary as it gives you a pretty good idea that technology nowadays makes it harder to discern between reality and fake news… This, and the fact that the face unlock didn’t work all the time for me, is why I rated this with 4 stars instead of 5 (I would have rated it 4.5 but that’s not possible). If this is not a concern for you, then the Pixel 9 deserves a 5-star rating! Quick list —---------- - Design: The distinctive large horizontal camera bar grew on me. It’s nice to rest some of the weight of the phone on my index finger - Camera, and Editing features: Impressive (details later in my review) - Gemini AI: Awesome! Although still in its infancy and it doesn’t do some things very well yet (details later in my review) - Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor works great - Face unlock: This did NOT work well for me. This is my main complaint because I tried scanning my face 3 to 4 times. It sometimes works, but not all the time. It certainly does not work in low light. This might improve with a software update, we’ll see… - Great tactile feedback - Good weight and grip - Long-lasting battery: Lasted all day for me in several situations including lots of video taking on a waterpark. I’m impressed with how long it lasts in standby! I didn’t use much my Pixel 9 for several days, and the battery didn’t die, not even close, it had a lot of charge left! Impressive! - Now Playing: I like this little feature where, if there’s background music, the lock screen always shows the song name and artist. - Screenshot app. Takes you to the webpage you took a screenshot of. - Pixel Studio app. This new app generates images of whatever you tell it to do. Impressive. It kept me and my 8-year-old entertained. But not sure how much we’d really use this after the novelty wears out - Call Notes. This allows you to record a phone conversation and, after the phone call is done, it gives you a summary of what was said along with the full transcription. I can see this very useful in some situations. For example, it would have been very helpful to have when talking to a doctor trying to explain everything they found while a loved one was in a hospital. When you enable it during a phone call, it notifies the other end of the call that the conversation is being recorded. Gemini AI —----------- Impressive overall! This finally has the potential to be what science fiction movies promised. You can have almost a “normal” conversation with Gemini with responses that do not sound robotic. It can do a lot even if it’s in its infancy. While it still cannot control apps for you, for example, it is especially good at anything related to text. For example, you can ask Gemini to write an email to your friends or coworkers asking them to save a date, or apologizing that you won’t make it for a meeting, or whatever. The suggestions Gemini gives are phenomenal. I asked Gemini to write an apology to my wife because she wanted to visit some restaurants during restaurant week, and I was simply swamped with work. Gemini quickly gave me a few options with amazingly thoughtful responses! Since in all the first options, it suggested I would make it up to her with an alternative plan, I then asked Gemini to give thoughtful options but without making me commit to anything! LOL! And… Gemini delivered! Editing Pictures —------------------ - Amazing! When viewing a picture, it automatically shows a suggestion at the bottom, such as “Adjust the sky’s color” or “Remove people in background”. Clicking on the latter automatically highlights the people it finds and you can either click on “erase all”, or tap any of the highlighted selections to erase just that one person/face/body. The resulting picture automagically fills up the spaces of all the removed people as if nobody was ever there! On most of the pictures I tested, I couldn’t tell if anything was edited out. On a few, I could tell there was some sort of edit as the filled up space(s) was not exactly as the background. - Magic Editor: When editing a picture, there’s a “Magic Editor” button that allows you to basically change the reality of the picture.It has options such as “Sky” which changes the sky to something less cloudy, for example, or a rainy day instead of a sunny day; or “Golden hour” which shows you options of your photos as if it was taken during the sunset; or “Water” which, for pictures taken in a lake for example, changes the water texture and color to super blue, for example… something handy is that there’s a button at the top that, when pressed, allows you to view the original picture so you can quickly compare each option to the original picture. - “Reimagine” feature: The “Magic Editor” also allows you to select any portion of the picture and select “Reimagine” where you can type anything you want (ex: sky with unicorns flying on top of a rainbow), and it will give you options with the reality completely changed! Camera —-------- - As good as anyone can expect from a smartphone nowadays. Super crisp. Works well for day and night shots, also for close ups and faraway shots. I’m not a professional photographer, so, I just care about it looking great to the untrained eye and this phone absolutely delivered. In all the pictures I took, I can zoom in and the details I can see in the pictures (I focused mostly on people faces) is really great - Underwater pictures and videos look amazing. As expected, you need to use the side button as the on screen shutter doesn't respond under water. I even tried slow motion underwater and the video turned out really cool! - Panorama pictures: I really liked the extra guidance shown on the screen, where it shows dots where you’re supposed to pause for a bit before moving on to the next dot. That, and the little line showing you the degrees you are titling the phone helps you take a straight panoramic picture that ends up looking great! This proved a bit difficult to understand for my 8-year-old son though because he’s used to just taking a panoramic while moving the phone. But I doubt this feature is meant for kids :) - “Add me” feature: The Pixel 9 comes with this new feature that allows you to take a group picture, then give the camera to someone else to take a picture of you, by yourself, in a spot where you would have been in the group picture, and the phone automatically combines both pictures and it shows you in the group picture! Just from the technology stand-point, this is amazing! It does get some time to get used to this feature, since, well, it’s new and nobody has ever used it. I found it a tad difficult to explain what to do to other people that had never used it. I realized that the easiest way to have this work is if the phone is standing somewhere, like on a table, so when you switch places with the second person to take the shot, the camera is pointing at the exact same angle. This is Not required, but I found it a bit difficult/confusing to just hold the phone in the air when the second person has to take your picture. - A nice little feature that makes life easier is that, when taking a picture of a document, it automatically shows a text suggesting “Scan document”! Super handy! I don’t have to open any app to scan, this is built-in! - Another little feature that makes life easier is that the camera shows you a line with the degrees you are tilting the phone. Great to know whether you are taking a straight picture, which is particularly important when taking panorama pictures!

This a great phone with great features. Starting with the setup, it was very easy. Just use your google account and it starts to retrieve your information. It also gives the option to connect your previous phone if its IOS or Android. I upgraded from an android. From the setup, it gives you plenty of options to customize your settings. Everything from the ring tone to the way the phone display looks. This phone is sim card ready or e-sim ready. I used the sim card from my previous phone. It connected with out any issues. Now the camera takes incredible pictures. It has a feature called "add me" this is great feature for taking pictures with your friends. First you take a picture of a friend leaving a space for yourself. After the picture is taken, give the camera to the friend and it guides you to add yourself to the previously taken picture. I took several pictures with this feature and sent it to my fiends. They were very impressed and asked how I did it. Overall, this phone is a great phone with all around customizations. Its a great value for the price. Its not the premium version of this line up but it doesn't disappoint.

An excellent quality phone from Google. I upgraded from Pixel 6a. Photo quality is better and battery lasts bit longer than 6a. Pre-launch Promotional deal from Best Buy made me jump on the new phone, else I would have waited for sometime before buying. Many positives about the phone. Which everyone talks about. Some negatives - Fingerprint hardly works with tempered glass on. Face recognition works but problem is at night / when it's dark. - Feels heavy (because I am comparing with 6a) - Because of the weight, I felt accessing the keyboard is bit difficult. I have fairly large hands.

Being a digital creator means I’ve got my phone on me at all times to capture content, take notes, take calls, and do research. The Google Pixel 9 is the fourth Pixel phone I’ve had over the years and so far it does not disappoint. Whether I’m capturing footage at events for my small business or being the designated photographer at a friend’s party, I’m always ready with my trusty Google Pixel phone. Not only am I regularly using my phone to capture good footage for multiple social media accounts, I also listen to plenty of music, audio books, and videos throughout my day. Having a reliable phone with a good camera and a long-lasting battery is a must. The Pixels improve every year, and the Pixel 9 is offering a newer processor, higher quality camera, and 12GB RAM (an improvement on the Pixel 8’s 8GB RAM). CAMERA APP The main difference I noticed about the rear camera is that the Pixel 9’s Ultrawide lens (0.5x zoom) now has 48MP compared to the Pixel 8’s Ultrawide 12MP lens. The field of view is just a few degrees narrower on the Pixel 9, but I’m okay with that if I’m getting better quality overall. The Macro Focus was one of my favorite updates on the Pixel 8 so I’m happy that the Pixel 9 macro’s closest distance limit improved from 3cm (Pixel 8) to 2cm (Pixel 9). The macro focus is great for detail shots on a product shoot so even having that little bit of extra wiggle room is great. Portrait mode is such a great feature to have when I don’t have a professional camera on me. Back in April I went to a couple birthday parties and I was the unofficial photographer for the events which led me to take beautiful portraits of the birthday ladies with my Pixel 8. There were no special events the week of this review, but if the Pixel 8 can take great photos, I know the Pixel 9 can surpass or at least match the quality. One of the parties was outdoors during the day, so the footage I got was crisp and clear. The portraits outdoors were gorgeous. The second party I went to was at a salsa bar at night so while it was a low-light environment, the camera quality was still top notch. (I debated sharing the portraits in this review but since they were not taken with the Pixel 9, I decided against it. I’ll include other photos I took with the Pixel 9.) GOOGLE PHOTOS: MAGIC ERASER, EDITING TOOLS, BEST TAKE I am on the Photos app all the time! I love looking through my photos, creating albums, and sharing them with friends & family. It’s great to be able to share a link with a group of people so they can either download the photos/videos for themselves or even just write comments for me to look back on later. Not only do I love being able to organize my media in Photos, but I love all the editing options too. The editing tools just keep getting better as the years go by. Photos editing is great because I have access to sky enhancements, filters, highlights/shadows, contrast, brightness, and so many basic editing features along with more advanced ones. I’ve been a fan of the Magic Eraser since it was available - it’s so convenient to get rid of things like power lines in a background or a crumpled napkin on a table in a group photo directly on my phone rather than pulling the image into a desktop photo editing program. Speaking of pulling photos into an editing software, I’m so used to having to do this with group photos to get everyone’s best smile but the Pixel’s “Best Take" feature works well in a pinch! BATTERY LIFE With as much as I use my phone on a daily basis, good battery life is very important to me. The Pixel 9 has an improved battery rating at 4700 mAh, compared to the Pixel 8’s 4575 mAh rating. I’m confident that the new Google Tensor G4 processor can handle the upgraded battery rating - I haven’t had any issues yet. My screen time Monday - Friday is about 8h per day, which I classify as somewhat heavy usage, so on my heaviest usage day this week I went from 100% charge at 6:30 am to 18% at 9:15 pm. On camera-heavy days, I definitely make a point to charge my phone beforehand and carry a portable charger with me. I personally like adaptive charging to keep my battery healthier for longer. SCREENSHOTS APP Screenshots can get real messy, real quick. But now that I’ve found the Google Screenshots app, I’m finally able to organize and review my screenshots in a helpful and productive way. The Screenshots app allows you to select screenshots and put them in a collection for maximum organization. Viewing one of the screenshots lets you see an AI generated summary which usually writes out any text in the image. So for example if I’m looking up gift ideas and I screenshot something from the shopping tab in my Google search, the screenshot summary will have titles, descriptions, ratings, price, etc. There are also quick features like image sharing, image editing, setting reminders, or doing a Google search on that specific screenshot. GOOGLE AI FEATURES The AI features that I like the most on the Pixel 9 are the Magic Editor in Google Photos and the generated summaries on the Screenshots app. The Magic Editor is so neat to use especially when I just want to edit a portion of a background. The Auto Frame feature is great because it generates any missing piece of the image in order to frame the subjects better. Sure, I could just crop or re-frame myself, but the generative feature is helpful. I use AI as an aid, so I don’t expect it to be perfect. When using the Reimagine tool, I got better results asking for something like “blue and yellow flowers and a sunset background” in comparison to the questionable results I got when I asked it to “create a bowl of dog treats”. I had to find a balance between asking for a general change and specific material generation. Pixel Studio was interesting to use, but I noticed it only creates square images and I’d like to have more sizing options. I don’t know how much I’ll continue to use this app given that I can’t seem to use any of the stickers I made outside of Pixel Studio. I’m not a huge fan of completely AI generated images because I like to create my own photos, but I suppose it’s just another tool to have in my pocket. OVERALL The Google Pixel 9 does a great job of meeting my daily phone needs. If I’m not using my phone for entertainment, I’m using it to capture content for work and leisure. The two things I value most in a phone are camera quality and battery life so my favorite upgrades on the Pixel 9 are the ones that improve on those two features. I’ve been making social media content and photo albums with ease for the last few years and the Pixel is my most used tool to achieve those goals. The fact that I can edit and organize directly in-phone or in Photos is a huge plus for me. There are a lot of extras, like AI features, that are nice to have but I may not use on a regular basis, however I don’t think it’s fair to dock points for having more features than I need.

The screen is really nice. Phone is handy. Hope g4 tensor ship makes best out of it

The Google Pixel 9 is ideal for avid picture takers and visual content creators. The photos it takes are crystal clear and very vivid, even without any editing! And they print just as detailed as it shows on the phone’s display. It has a top-notch macro focus feature plus a wide-angle lens, but a telescoping lens would have been nice to have on this phone model too. Now for the rest: Other Pros: • Great Battery Life: The 4700 mAh battery supports both fast and wireless charging, providing a full day of use on a single charge. • Good Display: Its OLED display is bright enough in daylight; and streamed video content looks great (with settings adjusted to 120Hz) • Advanced Connectivity: Supports WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. • Impressive Software Support: Includes 7 years of software support (great to have if phone itself holds up that long). Cons: • Fingerprint Sensor and Facial Recognition Reliability: Fingerprint doesn’t seem to be as reliable as other devices; and facial recognition is hit or miss. • Display settings: The settings have to be adjusted to 120Hz from the locked default 60Hz setting otherwise the colors are lacking. • Gaming: Performance is weak and not nearly as fast as other devices. Play quality sucks in apps with demanding game features. • Internal Cooling: The Pixel 9 tended to overheat and bog down more than I expected in Midwest heat conditions. • Speaker Quality: Music and video sound has a slightly tinny distortion to it and bass is pretty much nonexistent. AI Features: • “Add Me” feature in the camera for group photos using AI (cool feature if you can figure out how to get it to work consistently). • Pixel Studio for AI-generated pictures, which might appeal to some users. • Gemini Live for voice conversations with an AI, similar to browser-based chatbots, but with more natural sounding voices. I’ll agree that it is a step up from Google Assistant, but not a feature I just have to have. Overall, the Pixel 9 has outstanding camera features and WiFi signal range. However, the phone’s general build and overall performance qualities need to be better for it to be my everyday phone.

Great trade in process with best buy. Super smooth.

Excellent phone that feels like a flagship, it feels like Google finally quit making phones with strange omissions or weird features nobody wanted (like radar or temp sensors). Body feels high quality and it works very fast in normal use. Of course the pictures are insanely good too as expected. One annoying thing is the three different Google assistant and Gemini assistants that don’t talk to each other, the AI stuff is quite messy right now and will surely get sorted eventually in software updates. Overall though these are fantastic phones especially when purchased with the generous promotions Google offers.