Google Pixel 9 Pro review

Android 14 with Gemini

Since the Pixel 9 phones arrived before the launch of Android 15, the new generation of Pixel phones come with Android 14 OS out of the box. It is a clean version of the popular operating system and one that contains the new Gemini AI.

Google promises seven years of complete software support for all Pixel 9 phones, meaning they will receive seven major OS upgrades through the years and all security patches. You can also rely on spare parts availability for that period should anything happen to your Pixel.

Google's clean Android 14 is fast, fluid and quite familiar, as it has been around for almost a year already. The lockscreen is clean and simple; the homescreen supports app icons, folders and widgets; there is an app drawer, and the notification shade with the quick settings is here to stay.

Android 14

The interface supports various customizations through the Style menu - you can change the accent colors, wallpapers, icon shape and style. You can also place more shortcuts on the lockscreen and change the clock style.

Google's app suite includes the mandatory Phones and Messages, Files and Drive, Gmail and Chrome, Photos and Camera, Calculator, Calendar, Contacts, Clock, Maps, Safety, Thermometer, Wallet, Watch, YouTube and YT Music. You will see some new apps here, such as Gemini, Screenshots, Pixel Studio, and a brand-new Weather app.

Thermometer • Weather

Google's Gemini AI plays a major role in the Pixel 9 series. You can ask Gemini a lot more stuff to do and make whole conversations, even if it's about interviews or book/essay ideas, you name it. It can give you ideas on what to cook based on a photo of your fridge contents, while Magic Editor can remove distractions from photos and even generate a whole scenery in a photo - think dramatic sunset where there's a dull one.

You can ask for ready-to-paste text for emails, a summary of emails or other texts, and more. It will also be able to listen to your calls and make a summary of the conversation - with the other side being notified of that, of course. This way, if the call is important and jam-packed with information, you will be able to remember everything, like dates, hours, meetings, plans, etc.

Google Gemini in action

Gemini is still in development, but it is ready to be used and is quite fun! Cook, write, create content, search, and ask questions. Plus, it speaks 100+ languages from the get-go.

Pixel Studio is your next stop, where you can create custom images. Note that creating images of people has not been supported yet. Here, you can try to create various absurd pictures, help your ideas get visualized, make your concert poster, or maybe your next book cover. For the most part, the creator works very well, and you can then customize the style of the picture further with additional options.

Pixel Studio

The Pixel Screenshots app is your screenshot organizer, where you can deep search through your countless screen grabs. Product keys, trailer screenshots, phone numbers, sports, recipes, favorite foods, gift ideas, t-shirt stamps, landmarks, companies, and places to visit - ask here, and you shall get an answer and a screenshot summary if possible. The app uses Gemini to identify content across all of your screenshots, so you can then use it to recall information.

Pixel screenshots

Circle to Search is also available - just press and hold the nav bar at the bottom of the screen and then doodle on anything on your screen that you want to search for. It eliminates the need to screenshot and open it with Google Lens, and it really works as advertised - you circle something, and Google finds it for you.

Circle to search

Magic Editor is available in Photos with various tools such as Zoom Enhancer, Magic Eraser, Blur/Unblur, and various other tools.

Magic Editor

The Camera app features some neat AI tricks like Add Me - if you are in a group, you can add the photographer now via this feature - you take one shot with the group and one with him, and the AI will combine them. Or you can clone your subject in the same photo (we have samples on the next page). Best Take is also available, where you can replace faces/objects with a better version of them.

Add Me

Google Gemini can also make use of Google's most advanced AI, called Gemini Advanced, which gives you more accurate and focused generative AI responses. It normally requires a paid subscription, and it is not yet available in all markets, but it will be free for one year for all Google Pixel 8 Pro or 9 Pro XL/ Pixel 9 Pro owners. Most of the features are available for free, though, like the ones we talked about already, and they work very well even without the Advanced version that seems to be targeting power users.

Finally, Satellite SOS is becoming a more and more common feature on new smartphones. Google has partnered with the Garmin Response emergency response coordination services for the satellite SOS feature of the new Pixel 9 series. Currently, this service is only available in the US and only for users of the new Pixel 9 series: the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL and 9 Pro Fold. Older models are not supported.

Garmin Response handles over 17,000 SOS activations a year in more than 150 countries, so we should probably see the service outside the US some day. That's how Apple started, too - maybe once all the kinks are worked out, Google will expand the service to new markets. Garmin is already working with a global network of search and rescue professionals, coast guards, embassies and other organizations that can get you out of trouble.

Google has another partner, Skylo. Skylo is a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) service provider. It works with several satellite operators and carriers worldwide to provide emergency connectivity in areas with no cell or Wi-Fi connectivity. Skylo's network works 24/7 globally, so that is not a barrier to a wide expansion of the Pixel 9 satellite SOS functionality either.

Benchmarks and performance

The new Pixels run on the next-gen Google chipset - the Tensor G4. It contains a brand-new CPU with eight cores, one core fewer than the G3's - 1x3.1 GHz Cortex-X4 & 3x2.6 GHz Cortex-A720 & 4x1.92 GHz Cortex-A520. All cores have been upgraded to their respective latest generation.

The GPU stays the same as on the Tensor G3 - Mali-G715 MC7 - but it has a higher clock at 940Hz, up from 890Hz.

All new Pixels have more RAM than before - 16GB of LPDDR5X. You can get a Pixel 9 Pro with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of UFS 3.1 onboard storage. Be sure to get as much storage as you foresee needing since there is no card slot.

The TPU for AI tasks has been unchanged since Tensor G3 - still in its third generation.

Finally, a new energy-efficient modem is provided by Samsung - Exynos 5400 - with Satellite connectivity support.

The Tensor G4 chip doesn't exactly excel when it comes to performance. Starting with GeekBench and some CPU loads, we can see that the Tensor G4 is just a little bit more powerful than its Tensor G3 predecessor. It puts out comparable CPU performance to the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, which means that it can't exactly rub shoulders with the proper flagship chips of today.

AnTuTu is a much more compound benchmark with GPU tests, as well as memory ones. Unfortunately, it isn't particularly generous towards the Pixel 9 Pro. Here we see the Pixel 9 Pro with comparable results to last year's Pixel devices, running the Tensor G3 and last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.

The Pixel 9 Pro and its Mali-G715 MC7 GPU aren't exactly a graphical powerhouse either. 3DMark has them sitting near the bottom of the competitors' chart. Perhaps worse still, the GPU inside the Pixel 9 Pro doesn't have the necessary Vulkan features to run the Solar Bay benchmark we typically include.

We've discontinued GFXBench graphics benchmarking as the app is often banned/blacklisted on the phones we receive for review. The graphics performance ranking in 3D Mark is just as meaningful, so we suggest you refer to that one instead.

In practical terms, we never noticed any slowdowns or stutters in the Android UI or any other app or game. The Pixel 9 Pro isn't strapped for performance. It's just not a 2024 powerhouse with enough raw performance to compete with the big dogs.

Thermal-throttling

Unfortunately, the Pixel 9 Pro has pretty terrible thermal performance as well. The Tensor G4 chip appears to be kicking out quite a bit of heat that quickly saturates the cooling capacity of the phone and results in aggressive thermal throttling. This happens very shortly under a sustained stress load, and the phone is left with severely crippled performance.

Thermal-throttling

On a slightly positive note, at least once the Pixel 9 Pro throttles down, it does not attempt to improve its performance again, which could result in stutters and slow-downs. You just get severely crippled performance, but at least it is a stable performance.

The surface of the phone doesn't get overly hot. It is toasty after a long stress load, but it is still okay to hold.