This is the Pixel 9 Pro, a new compact flagship from Google. If you're looking for a smaller phone with all of Google's top features, the Pixel 9 Pro might be worth checking out. I'm Will for GSM Arena, and let's see what it's all about in our full review.
Google's Pixel lineup brings something new this year, a compact Pro model. The Pixel 9 Pro fits the more premium features of the Pixel 9 Pro XL into the form factor of the smaller Pixel 9. These include the 5x periscope telephoto camera, a new selfie cam, and a bright, high-res LTPO display. Despite that, the size and weight of the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 are the same.
The main difference is that the Pro model's Gorilla Glass Victus 2 back is matte, and and the frame is glossy, and that's reversed on the vanilla model. There's one extra camera here too. The ingress protection is the same.
Like most modern flagships, the Pixel 9 Pro is IP68 rated against water and dust. The display of the Pixel 9 Pro was a 6.3 inch LTPO OLED with a high resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. There's support for HDR10 plus video, and you can also count on the Pixel 9 Pro to display Ultra HDR compliant images with boosted highlights. The display is sharper than the vanilla Pixel 9's. Its resolution comes out to 495 ppi.
Another difference from the Pixel 9 is the LTPO tech. The Pixel 9 Pro's 120 Hz refresh rate can dial down all the way to 1 Hz when the phone is idling to save more energy and then bump back to 120 when you touch the screen again. The Pixel 9 series has much improved brightness over last year.
We measured nearly 1300 nits maximum here with the manual slider. And this is able to boost to 2300 nits in auto mode, great for use outdoors in the sun. For audio, the Pixel 9 Pro has a pair of stereo speakers with very good loudness. You get crisp and clear mids, though the low end has been toned down a bit since the previous generation of Pixels. This year's under display fingerprint reader is ultrasonic.
It's super fast and responsive but may not work as well as an optical one through a screen protector. And for storage you can get the Pixel 9 Pro with 128, 256 or 512 gigs on board or a whole terabyte. That's not expandable through microSD card.
With the Pixels, you get Google's clean stock Android software experience, and it's Android 14 at the time of this review. There are plenty of custom AI features here as well, like summarization of calls, texts, and emails for easy reference later. Google's AI assistant is called Gemini, and you can ask it questions and engage in conversations, like with ChatGPT.
Plus, you get a year of Gemini's Advanced Subscription tier for free with the Pixel 9 Pro. It integrates the generative AI into Gmail and Google Docs. Another feature relying on AI is the Pixel Studio, which allows you to make AI-generated images and designs.
Best Take within Google Photos allows you to replace faces or objects with a better version of them taken from another shot. And a neat trick within the camera app is Add Me. It allows you to combine people from separate shots into a single group photo, or you can just clone yourself if you want to.
The Pixel 9 series also brings satellite SOS support, but right now that's only available for users in the USA. And Google promises 7 years of complete software support for the Pixel 9 Pro. Plus you can also rely on spare parts during that time should anything happen to your Pixel. All of the new Pixels run on a Tensor G4 chipset made in-house by Google. Compared to the previous Tensor G3, this one has a new CPU and a higher clock speed on the GPU.
In real world use, the Pixel 9 Pro runs smoothly, and we didn't notice any slowdowns or stutters. Still, it doesn't exactly excel when it comes to raw performance. In benchmarks, the Pixel 9 Pro falls significantly behind current flagship competitors, running on the latest Snapdragon chipset.
The thermal management is rather poor as well. In our prolonged stress tests, we observe aggressive thermal throttling, which brought the level of performance even lower. The Pixel 9 Pro has the same battery capacity as the vanilla Pixel 9, 4700 mAh.
Despite the Pro model's LTPO screen, the rest of the hardware is the same here, and battery life is quite similar, with the phone earning a respectable active use score of 13 hours at 11.5 hours. 11 minutes in our tests. The Pixel 9 Pro supports 27 watts of power delivery wired charging but doesn't come with the charger in the box.
With a compatible adapter we were able to charge the phone from 0 to 56 percent in half an hour and a full charge took nearly an hour and a half. Not too speedy. There's support for wireless charging too. The Pixel 9 Pro gets the exact same camera setup as its bigger sibling, the Pixel 9 Pro XL. On the back, there's a 50MP main cam, a 48MP 5x telephoto zoom, and a new 48MP ultrawide camera.
The main cam captures excellent photos during the day. They're crisp, with plenty of detail, and relatively natural looking processing. Colors look true to life, and in typical pixel fashion, there's a preference for higher contrast.
But even so, the dynamic range is excellent. And when it comes to human subjects, skin tones and facial features are rendered quite well. However, you still can't adjust the strength of the bokeh in portraits, and portrait mode won't use the 5x zoom camera at all.
Two times zoom shots are digital crops from the main camera. They look decent if you're not examining them too closely. In low light, the main cam holds up well. The exposure looks great, with nicely boosted shadows and well contained highlights. Colors are well saturated too.
The detail level is good overall, though in the shadows, details may come out a bit soft. Now we have the telephoto cam. Its 5x zoom shots are quite solid, with a decent amount of sharpness, and good dynamic range and colors. This camera doesn't have the extra close focusing capability that's trendy right now. At night, the telephoto shots have good exposure and color saturation is on point, but there could be more detail, and the processing of the detail is a bit artificial looking.
As for the ultra wide camera, it doesn't disappoint. It resolves a lot of detail with organic looking processing. The colors, contrast, and dynamic range are in line with the other cameras.
The ultra wide cam has autofocus and is able to capture close-up macro shots. The results are pretty good, though not quite pin sharp. Overall, the ultra wide does a good job in low light.
You get a bright exposure, and highlights and light sources are well contained. The photos are a little soft when looking closely though. The Pixel Pro models have a new 42MP selfie camera with autofocus, and it captures very nice photos. There's plenty of detail and sharpness, wide dynamic range, and true-to-life colors. The field of view is quite wide too.
The Pixel 9 Pro can record video in 4K with all of its cameras, and starting from the main cam, the footage has high contrast and warmish colors. The sharpness is somewhat inconsistent. The footage's quality varies from scene to scene. and sometimes it's softer than what we'd expect from a top flagship. Looking at a clip from the telephoto cam, we get again a contrasty and vibrant look.
And on the ultra wide, the colors are a bit more muted, but still close to the other two cameras. In low light, the main camera's 4K videos look quite good in terms of sharpness and dynamic range. One thing we can't complain about is the stabilization.
It's great. Walking shake and pans are nicely smoothed out on all of the cameras. So there you have it guys. It's nice to get a compact pro model from Google. Some people just want a smaller phone with all the bells and whistles.
And here you get all the features you'd find in the Pixel 9 Pro XL, besides the larger screen. Overall, the Pixel 9 Pro is a solid flagship, with our only complaints being that competitors can bring you more consistently good video recording and more powerful chipset performance. But if those don't concern you, the Pixel 9 Pro is otherwise solid all around. and it's a compact flagship worth looking into. Thanks for watching guys.
If you're looking for alternatives you can check out our reviews of the Samsung Galaxy S24 and the iPhone 15 Pro. Let us know what you think and I'll see you on the next one.