The Pixel 9 is fun, but the phone you really want is the Pixel 9 Pro
The Google Pixel9 holds its own against the more expensive Pro models, with an identical design and all the core Pro specs on board. Should you skip the Pro and give yourself some Peony Pixel 9 love? Absolutely not (sorry Peony, CALL ME!). The Pixel 9 Pro has benefits that justify its price tag, and then some. In fact, depending on how big a Pixel fan you are, the Pixel 9 Pro might even pay for itself.
Before I get into those benefits, let’s not forget the Pixel 9. It really does have the core Pro specs, like the same Google Tensor G4 processor. Apple gives its base iPhone 15 last year’s chipset, but the Pro iPhone models get more advanced silicon. Google gives every flagship phone the same engine (and Samsung does too, to be fair).
The Tensor G4 is built to run Google’s AI models, and every Pixel 9 phone will get Android OS updates, security patches, and Pixel feature drops for the next seven years. That’s a big deal, and it adds a lot of long-term value, even to the cheaper Pixel 9.
Then there are the cameras, always a key Pixel feature. The Pixel 9 has the exact same main and ultra-wide camera modules as the Pixel 9 Pro. There’s no zoom, but those other two are identical. Not just the same resolution, but the same sensor and lens.
Samsung makes the best camera phone you can buy right now, but only the Galaxy S24 Ultra has the best camera specs. The base Galaxy S24 has completely different cameras, and they’re not as good.
With its new design, the Pixel 9 looks almost exactly like the Pixel 9 Pro – the dimensions are identical, down to the millimeter. That means there’s room for the same battery, too, and it charges just as quickly (although the Pixel 9 Pro XL is the real fast charger).
The Pixel 9 Pro’s 16GB of RAM will be very important later on
Why would you pay $200 / £200 / AU$350 more for the Pixel 9 Pro when the Pixel 9 has the core specs? Well, let’s talk about the differences, and what those differences will look like in the coming years.
The Pixel 9 Pro has a whopping 16GB of RAM, which is more than almost any other smartphone you can buy right now. Google isn’t trying to win a spec war, but is looking to the future of AI. Right now, AI is a hodgepodge of machine learning models running on the phone, in the cloud, or as a mix of the two. That means the phone is doing a lot of work and also multitasking whenever it’s using AI, and it’s ALWAYS using AI.
More RAM is important for performance now, but as AI features increase, RAM will become the bottleneck that holds older phones back. It’s worth having more RAM in your new Pixel.
The Pixel 9 has the same cameras, but not the same software
And what about those cameras? The Pixel 9 Pro’s 5x zoom might be worth the price difference between the phones if you take a lot of photos. The Pixel 9 is great for selfies, portraits, landscapes, and group shots. If you want to take photos of your kid playing soccer or being on stage, you’ll need the zoom. But the zoom isn’t the only real advantage of the Pixel 9 Pro’s cameras.
In my testing, the photos I shot with the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro looked remarkably similar in terms of color, exposure, and dynamic range. The Pro camera, however, has a Pro mode, which lets you shoot images at a full 50MP resolution. The Pixel 9 always shoots at 12MP, which is a fine size for sharing, but you can do more with a larger photo for editing later, and a Pixel is the best phone for photo editing, with its exclusive AI tools.
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More importantly, the Pixel 9 Pro simply made better decisions when I let the camera choose. When I took a close-up photo of a flower, I was hoping for a blurry, bokeh-y background. The Pixel 9 was more likely to switch to a very wide aperture, which evenly exposed the entire photo, including the background. The Pixel 9 Pro created better bokeh and made more artistic choices.
I also saw a significant difference when working with the Pro’s raw photos versus the JPG files when I wanted to edit my shots. Using a larger 50MP raw file (technically a DNG) gave me more raw footage (pun intended) for a better end result that felt closer to what a real DSLR could produce.
Whether you use AI or not, a year of Google One is great
Where the Pixel 9 Pro really pays for itself is with AI and the cloud. The Pixel 9 has almost all the AI features you’d want from the Pixel 9 Pro, except for some Super Res Video Boost tools in the video camera. You can Gemini Live on the Pixel 9 and Gemini works across all your Google apps, just like on the Pixel 9 Pro.
Gemini Live isn’t free. It’s part of the Google One AI Premium plan, which gives you Google Advanced and 2TB of cloud storage. Google One AI Premium subscription costs $19.99 / £18.99 / AU$32.99 and you get the first month free.
The Pixel 9 Pro comes with a full year of Google One AI Premium subscription for free. If you were to subscribe to the Premium AI plan, you’d save $219.89 / £208.89 / AU$362.89 in your first year by opting for the Pixel 9 Pro instead. The Pixel 9 Pro costs just $200 / £200 / AU$350 more than the Pixel 9.
Will the Google One AI Premium subscription keep you entertained for a full year? Maybe not, but 2TB of cloud storage is also worth it. The cost for a Google cloud storage subscription with 2TB of space is $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$19.99 per month, without the AI add-ons. I added Google Gemini Advanced to my personal Google cloud storage plan when it became available and I regularly use it for some fun and interesting advice.
Whether you want that much AI or not, I highly recommend subscribing to Google’s cloud storage. You can use the 2TB of storage for your Gmail, Google Photos, Google Docs, and Android phone backups, across desktop and mobile.
Without the value of a Google One subscription plus the hardware advantages of the Pixel 9 Pro, the Google Pixel 9 simply isn’t a good choice. There’s just no deal to be had in buying one. This is a beautiful phone whether you buy the sweet Wintergreen, the stunning Peony, or one of the boring colors. Unfortunately, it makes too much sense to buy the Pixel 9 Pro instead. Settle for Hazel, the top-tier Pixel 9 Pro color, or maybe Rose Quartz.
I wish Google had given Pixel 9 buyers Google One AI Premium and the Pro Camera software options the same year. The Pixel 9 needs that added value. Even if you don’t care about AI, you’re simply losing too much by choosing the Pixel 9 over the Pixel 9 Pro.