Switching to Pixel 9: A first-time user's experience | Technology News -
When I think of the Google Pixel, images of stout smartphones, with silky textures on the back, cross my mind. I have never used a Pixel phone, but I have been around Pixel loyalists who wax lyrical about the merits of this phone. Since I have never used one, I leaped at the prospect of trying a Pixel smartphone for the first time, and fortunately, my first tryst was with the recently launched Pixel 9, which I have been using for the past two weeks.
After spending considerable time with the Pixel 9, I will attempt to offer a nuanced take on the device’s strengths and weaknesses. It needs to be noted that I have been a fervent iPhone user. I would, however, refrain from comparing the two.
First impressions
For the review, I got the Pixel 9 in the Porcelain shade. The packaging of the device is bathed in a muted cream colour, perfectly in sync with the Pixel’s colour scheme. I found the shiny glass texture on the back far more appealing in real life. It feels premium to use and incredibly good on my hands.
Its protruding oval camera bump, at first glance, felt like it would make the device wobbly, but when I placed it on a flat surface, the device was surprisingly still. Unlike the Pixel 8, the oval camera bump on the Pixel 9 does not extend to the frame. This to me felt like a smart design move, as the phone looks radically distinct grabbing eyeballs wherever you took it. Ever since its launch, I could not resist telling the world how much the camera bump reminded me of Bender from Futurama.
Display and performance
To me, one of the most standout features of the Pixel 9 is its 6.3-inch Actua display. The OLED screen offers a 1080p resolution and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection. It is sturdy and offers super crisp visuals with vibrant colours and brightness on point. Pixel 9 comes with a peak brightness of 2700 nits and outshines just about any smartphone on a bright sunny day. During my use, I noticed how effortlessly the phone toggles between 60 Hz and 120 Hz adding a breezy feel while using the phone. It comes with HDR support enhancing the streaming experience by a few notches.
When it comes to performance, the Pixel 9 is powered by Google’s in-house Tensor G4 chip. I am aware of the issues that some users ran into with the Tensor chips in the past, with some claiming it to lag behind top-of-the-line Snapdragon chipsets. In the real-world performance, I did not face any hiccups. Be it ushering Gemini, or calls, browsing through the internet, scrolling on social media, or gaming, I found it super smooth. This time, Google is promising seven years of complete software support for Pixel 9, showing its commitment to the longevity of its devices. The extended support and availability of spare parts make Pixel 9 a great investment for anyone looking for a smartphone for the long haul.
The smartphone packs a 4,700 mAh battery resulting in a significant improvement in battery life when compared to the Pixel 8. It is to be noted that there is no charger included in the box. Charging speed is at 27W, and it takes nearly 1 hour 25 minutes to fully charge, slow compared to modern flagship phones. It also supports wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.
The Pixel 9 has got some noticeable updates to its camera setup. While it retains the 50 MP main camera, the ultra-wide has been upgraded to 48 MP and comes with autofocus. The selfie camera also comes with autofocus capabilities for self-portraits. The pictures clicked using the main camera are excellent and come with high contrast, balanced highlights, and darker shadows. Out in the daylight, Pixel 9 snaps pictures with plenty of details and natural-looking output. Portrait shots offer well-rendered skin tones, while some images may look saturated. However, the saturation part is purely negligible. The new ultra-wide camera offers some sharp images with dynamic range. The Pixel 9’s autofocus makes extreme-closeups look good, while the dedicated macro mode adds a touch of versatility in the photography department.
Low-light performance is decent across cameras. While the main camera offers great details and balanced exposures, if you are in dimly lit spaces, the ultra-wide camera may surprise you as it maintains decent sharpness and some pleasant colours. On the video front, the Pixel 9 can pull off 4K video at 60 fps from all its cameras. The video output, in my opinion, is softer than expected for a flagship smartphone. Not all is lost, the Pixel 9 packs incredible stabilisation, evening out shakes and pans. One can vlog through their adventures with the Pixel 9. The device runs on Android 14 and the software is packed with AI features such as call, text, and email summarisation, Gemini AI assistant, and creative tools like Pixel Studio to let you generate AI images and designs. Magic Editor in Google Photos ups your editing capabilities, and the most talked about ‘Add Me feature’ allows creative photo compositions. Coming from the iPhone 13 Pro, which as of now, has zilch AI features, I must say I have been impressed with how intuitive they are on Pixel 9. AI integration on Pixel 9 is top notch and features like Pixel screenshots that use on-device AI to organize and analyze screenshots are a great way to archive things you find on the Internet. To me, using Gemini AI simply by long-pressing the power button to ask almost anything has been the highlight. I found myself using it the most. Although some features may seem gimmicky at first, you may find them useful eventually. Circle to Search, spam call detection, and Pixel Studio added value to my overall experience.
Let’s accept the truth. No smartphone has achieved the pinnacle of perfection, and the Pixel 9, with its few shortcomings, is no different. The video recording is not up to the flagship level. My main gripe is the slow charging speeds, which honestly are far behind many notable industry peers. Regardless, I strongly believe that Pixel 9 is a splendid phone, something that would be well-loved by Android purists and mobile shutterbugs. No other phone integrates AI with such ease as the Pixel 9, making it a worthy contender. For anyone planning to invest in an iPhone 15 or a Samsung Galaxy 24, the Pixel 9 deserves serious consideration. The seven-year promise of software support is the icing on the cake.
