Google Pixel 9 tested: is this the best 2024 Android smartphone for most people to buy?
Meet the Android handset that's most like an iPhone - everything works fluidly especially the cameras
Back in August, Google announced four amazing new Pixel 9 series phones at the same time and so far I have tested and reviewed the 6.3in Pixel 9 Pro and the 6.9in Pixel 9 Pro XL.
Now it’s the turn of the ‘entry level’ model, Pixel 9. It’s not the one that I would buy for me - I’ll explain why below - but it is still one of the best new Android phones of 2024 and an arguably easier handset to recommend to most people.
The 256GB model costs €1019 which is €90 less expensive than Apple’s newly released 6.1in iPhone 16 with 256GB of storage. One huge advantage Pixel 9 has over iPhone 16 is in the AI department. No other phones currently on the market offer as much fully baked AI features as Google’s latest handsets.
There are 128GB variants of both iPhone and Pixel but you’d be mad to buy a phone in 2024 that only offered 128GB of storage, unless you don’t take any photos or videos or play any games in which case you probably don’t even need a Pixel or iPhone.
The reason I make the Apple comparisons so prominent is because the Pixel 9 series offers the closest experience you can get to an iPhone with an Android handset. In both cases, it’s the way the hardware and software work together that delivers such a super smooth and fluid experience.
When you compare Pixel 9 to its similar-sized 9 Pro sibling, which costs €200 more, the differences are as follows. Pixel 9 Pro has a slightly sharper, faster, brighter and more battery-efficient screen, 4GB more RAM, more storage options, an extra telephoto lens that is one of the best 5x optical zooms you can get on a phone, a superior selfie camera, 8K video recording, Video Boost and slightly faster wireless charging. You also get a one year’s free Gemini Live subscription that’s worth close to €160.
But even when you remove all those extra features from Pixel 9, it still stands up as one of the best smartphones of 2024 for most people, especially those who prefer more compact large handsets to the super large 6.8in Pixel 9 Pro XL size.
Pixel 9 has the exact same design and build as its Pro sibling, they even fit the same protective cases, and it has the same chip, battery, main camera and ultrawide camera along with many of the on-device AI features such as voice typing, Audio Magic Eraser, and the AI chatbot Gemini.
Here’s my in-depth review of Pixel 9…
Pixel 9 design, build and display
The sleek and thoughtfully-designed Pixel 9 series looks like it has taken much inspiration from the iPhone, but that’s no bad thing. You get flat edges with gently rounded corners and flat screens with beautifully symmetrical bezels all the way around. The distinct camera visor on the rear is narrower and shorter than on Pixel predecessors.
The build quality is superb. The matte finish on the aluminium frame rear contrasts nicely with the phone’s glossy rear, creating an elegant look. Although the back of the phone is a smudge magnet if you use it without a case. My review unit was the Obsidian (black) colour, but you can also buy the phone in Porcelain (off-white), a gorgeous Wintergreen and a striking Peony (pink).
The phone looks and feels great in the hand, and weighs just 198g. The power button and volume rocker are located on the right side, with a speaker, USB-C port and SIM card tray (curved to match the corner of the phone) along the bottom. The left side is free from all buttons and ports.
The new ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable. There is Face Unlock security too.
The eye-catching display may not be quite as bright or sharp as Pixel 9 Pro but you’d be hard pressed to spot any differences when you place both phones side by side. The lab testers at DXOMark (who use more scientific testing methods than most consumer tech reviewers liek me) seemingly agree with me. They have rated Pixel 9 as the third best display on any smartphone, narrowly behind Honor’s Magic 6 Pro in second place and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL in first place.
It’s an OLED screen with a resolution of 2,424 by 1,080 pixels and an adaptive refresh rate that automatically adjusts from 60Hz to 120Hz depending on what activity you are engaged in. It has a slightly lower pin-sharp pixel density than the 9 Pro phone - 422 pixels per inch (ppi) compared to 486 ppi.
Pixel 9 has a peak brightness of 2,700 nits, which is brighter than both the 6.2in Galaxy S24+ and the 6.1in iPhone 16. Pixel 9 is so easy to see on a bright day - which makes everything from reading Irish Mirror articles to framing camera shots super easy.
Pixel 9 cameras
Pixel 9 is equipped with only two rear cameras, just like iPhone 16. There's a 50MP wide angle lens with a large 1/1.31in sensor, an f/1.68 aperture and an 82-degree field of view (FOV), a 48MP f/1.7 ultra-wide camera with 1/2.55in sensor and 123-degree FOV. The main wide angle lens is capable of up to 8x Super Res Zoom.
The main rear camera uses pixel binning and produces 12.5MP images by default. The ultra-wide camera also produces 12.5MP images by default.
As ever with Pixel cameras, you get consistently pleasing well-exposed photos with outstanding detail, colour and dynamic range, no matter which lens you shoot the image with and even when shooting in lowlight conditions.
There’s a re-built Panorama mode that delivers higher-quality images with an updated, easier-to-follow user interface that incorporates Night Sight and delivers brilliant low-light panoramas of landscapes and cityscapes.
Around the front is a 10.5MP dual selfie camera with autofocus. It has a 95-degree FOV and an f/2.2 aperture. Pixel binning is used to deliver crisp and colourful 10MP shots. Portrait images are generally great but the phone occasionally struggles with edge detection.
Smooth video with optical image stabilisation can be captured at up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second (fps) with all the lenses front and rear.
Camera AI features
Google Pixel 9 comes with a lot of AI-assisted camera features. Add Me combines two images so you can add yourself to a picture. The resulting images usually look great but are not always perfect. It takes a bit of trial and error to get used to it. Incidentally, the original images are saved separately.
Magic Editor's Auto Frame reframes images using generative AI to fill in missing elements. It works on all photos, not just those captured on Pixel 9. You can access it in Google Photos by tapping the Magic Editor and Wand icons.
Magic Editor is also home to Reimagine. Just tap Magic Editor and choose the part of the image you want to change. When you tap on Reimagine, you can type in what you want to change in the picture. You may have to play around with the words to get to the required results and it uses generative AI to insert subjects or transform scenes. It’s great fun.
Audio Magic Eraser has been updated. Introduced last year, the feature could already split the audio track in your videos into distinct layers and let you decrease the volume of specific layers to remove unwanted noises or make specific sounds stand out. But now you can also increase the volume of specific sounds. To use the handy feature, you need to edit your video in Google Photos and select the Audio Eraser option in the Audio tab.
Google Pixel 9 has also been highly praised for its exceptional camera quality by the lab testers at DXOMark who take a much more scientific approach to testing smartphone cameras than consumer tech reviewers such as me and said it offers a "well-balanced camera experience with excellent results in most categories".
DXOMark ranked Pixel 9 as eighth best camera system overall, but if you set aside the Android phones in the top 10 that are unavailable in Ireland, such as the highest rated Huawei Purra 70 Ultra, then Pixel 9 finishes in second place behind Honor Magic 6 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL.
Pixel 9 performance
Synthetic benchmark test scores on the Pixel 9 series’ Tensor G4 indicate a system on a chip (SoC) that in raw processing power falls well behind both iPhone 16’s A18 SoC and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC found driving most other 2024 Android flagship phones.
But while the latest Tensor G4 processor may not be the fastest SoC on the market, it delivers a super smooth experience in everyday use which is the real test.
There is no discernible lag in opening apps, multi-tab browsing, loading videos on social feeds or editing photos. The SoC works wonders when it comes to the clever AI that helps ease you through the day’s digital workload. It allows the unit to run Gemini Nano for tasks such as transcribing and translating languages without an online connection. The 12GB of RAM helps here too. While the Titan M2 security chip is used to secure sensitive data like biometrics.
Pixel 9 series devices all come with Android 14 out of the box, which was a surprise as I expected Android 15 to debut here. Instead it is arriving first on a phone by Chinese manufacturer Vivo. But reports suggest the OS upgrade should land on all Pixel 9 handsets in the second half of October.
AI features
Gemini your new digital assistant is pre-installed on Pixel 9 but the app is also available on every other Android phone. It is rapidly evolving and improving, even in the couple of weeks I’ve had the phone. It works separately to Google Assistant but seems to tap into Assistant’s capabilities occasionally.
Gemini Advanced is a subscription service that is free for one year on the 9 Pro models but costs €21.99 a month for Pixel 9 users after just a one-month free trial. It works similarly to a chatbot such as ChatGPT and is actually useful due to its integration with other Google apps such as Maps. You can have proper conversations with it rather than typing in or asking a succession of questions as you would have to do with old fashioned Google Search or Google Assistant.
Pixel Studio is a generative AI app that’s preinstalled on the Pixel 9 series. There are sample images and prompts so you can get to know your way around the app. Fill in a prompt and get an image. This feature requires a Google account and does not work offline. It’s fun and works better than other services like this that I’ve used but the novelty of it soon wears off.
Pixel Screenshots is a Gemini-powered app for screenshots, which makes searching them and finding what you are looking for much faster than it would in the Screenshots album in the Google Photos app. You can ask Gemini for the booking reference for a flight or hotel you booked, for example, and it will give you a summary and show you the right page. You can also group your images into Collections but you have to do it manually. To do this, just make a new Collection and then pick the images you want to put in it. This feature seems to have got a mixed reaction so far and I suspect it will eventually be combined with the Google Photos app.
Gemini can also help you create lists in the Google Keep app. Pixel 9 also includes tried and trusted Google AI features such as Live Translate and Live Transcribe in the Pixel Recorder app.
Pixel 9 battery life
Pixel 9 packs a 4,700 mAh power pack into its compact frame and its battery stamina is pleasing but it does not last quite as long as Pixel 9 Pro XL which has a larger power pack. But there is not much in it and many users will get well into the second day from this handset. I still had juice in the tank at midnight from an 8am start on most days during testing.
While Pixel’s larger Pro XL phone supports 37W fast charging, Pixel 9 only supports 27W wired charging, which is the same as the previous generation. And it supports wireless charging at up to 15W. Wired charging takes a little less than 100 minutes from zero to 100 percent, incidentally.
There is no charging brick in the box, which is the case for all Samsung, Apple and Honor devices sold in Ireland so that’s no big deal.
Other Pixel 9 features
All of Google’s new handsets come with seven years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop updates so they will stay safe, secure and fully updated until 2031.
Pixel 9 supports one physical SIM and one eSIM and uses USB 3.2 (Gen 1) so you can avail of data transfer rates of up to 10Gbps. However, you’ll need to buy a cable to support that as the cable in the box is a slower USB 2.0 cable.
You also get WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC but unlike the Pro models, there is no ultra-wideband connectivity which enables precise spatial awareness for features like nearby device detection and improved file sharing.
There are dual speakers, with one in the earpiece and one on the bottom firing downwards.
Pixel’s own branded protective case is a must-buy and costs €39.99. It’s so soft and comfortable to hold and so thoughtfully designed.
Call quality is pleasing. And there’s a new modem under the hood.
The device is IP68 rated for dust and water resistance, which means it is protected from dust ingress and can be submerged in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to half an hour.
One of the only disappointments is the base storage only being 128GB. You can see from one of my photos how I’d used two thirds of that space up within weeks of buying the phone.
Pixel 9 verdict
The combination of stylish and elegant hardware with the most fluid pure Android software experience makes the Pixel 9 compelling, especially if you know you won’t be bothered by the lack of a dedicated zoom lens or 8K video.
Pixel 9’s camera system and the stunning ultra-bright screen are both outstanding, even if they are not quite best-in-class like Pixel 9 Pro XL. Pixel 9 series offers more AI features than any other on the market too.
This is still a €1,000 smartphone if you choose the more sensible 256GB storage option. So if you are going to spend that much money on a new phone, then maybe you should go the extra mile and splash out the extra €200 on a Pro model? That’s what I would do.
You can pay for a brand new Pixel 9 in interest-free instalments at the Google Store, or you can get low-cost tech credit at Harvey Norman. Keep an eye on Amazon too for regular discount deals on all Pixel 9 series devices. https://amzn.to/4dqNsKD
Pricing and availability
Google Pixel 9 is available from Google, Harvey Norman and Currys in Peony (pink), Wintergreen, Porcelain and Obsidian (black) with a 6.3in display and priced at €1,019 for 256GB storage.
Pixel 9 competition
Apple’s 6.1in iPhone 16 is the most direct competitor for Pixel 9 at the time of writing. If you choose the more sensible 256GB of storage it costs €1,109 from Currys. You can pick up Apple’s flagship for a little less on Amazon where it costs €1078.
The sleek designed Xiaomi 14 is 6.36in and has a suite of premium features. It costs €1099 at Harvey Norman and comes with a hefty 512GB of storage as standard.
Samsung’s 6.2in Galaxy S24 is only €919 from Samsung but it has got a much smaller 3880mAh battery and less AI features. However, it does come with a dedicated telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom.
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