Google Pixel 9 Pro XL Review

Google delivered its biggest family of Pixel phones yet this past month, with the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold all launching at the same time. The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL are generational upgrades from last year’s Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro XL, respectively, with slighter bigger displays. The Pixel 9 Pro is new, giving customers all the hardware features as the Pixel 9 Pro XL, but with the same smaller 6-inch display as the non-Pro Pixel 9. And the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a generational upgrade for the Pixel Fold, with bigger displays and different aspect ratios inside and out, and an even slimmer body.

I’m reviewing the Pixel 9 Pro XL, which replaces the Pixel 8 Pro, a phone I described back in January as the perfect Pixel. But Google has somehow raised the bar even further: The Pixel 9 Pro XL delivers a more elegant and premium design, improved performance and better battery life, terrific fast charging, and, finally, a superior in-display fingerprint reader. When you add all that to Pixel’s historic strengths in computational photography and truly helpful Pixel-specific features all throughout the system, the conclusion is obvious. The Pixel 9 Pro XL is even better than its predecessor. It’s a truly impressive year-over-year upgrade.

Take that, iPhone.

Design

I thought the Pixel 8 Pro looked terrific, and I’ve always appreciated the look and utility of the body-wide camera bar that Google has used with recent generation Pixels. But the look of the Pixel 9 Pro XL is next level. It arrives with iPhone-inspired flat, polished metal sides, a matte back, and a gorgeous redesign of the camera bar that’s now a floating pill shape instead of reaching fully to each side. There’s Gorilla Glass Victus protection, front and back.

As a design statement piece, it’s anything but subtle. But it’s also clearly an evolution of something that was already pretty special. I love it.

In addition to its curves, the new camera bar is also taller than before, as if Google were leaning in and embracing this unique calling card rather than trying to hide or minimize it. The Pixel remains as steady as ever on a table or other surface, with none of the wobble you get with an iPhone or Samsung flagship.

But it’s still striking how much the Pixel 9 Pro XL resembles the iPhone 15 Pro Max: If it weren’t for that iconic camera bar, it would fool almost anybody. I suppose its Dynamic Island-less selfie camera cutout in the display is also a subtle giveaway. But the designs are very, very close.

It feels purposeful, and while one might view that in a negative way, I suppose it speaks to a certain confidence on Google’s part. After so many years and so many missteps, we’ve reached peak Pixel, at least from a design standpoint.

Given my recent experiences using a minimalist Suti PhoneBack with my iPhone, I may eventually try to find something similar for the Pixel so I can better enjoy its look and feel. And that matte back is notably slippery, which seems like a solvable problem. For now, I’m using the standard Google case, which is much nicer than anything it’s previously made. It has a nice, grippy feel and is a good color match for the Hazel matte back it’s covering up. I also like its use of metallic buttons, which emulate the two-tone look of previous generation Pixels. It’s a nice touch if you feel obligated to cover up this work of art.

Much is made of how big the Pixel 9 Pro XL is, but it’s roughly the same size as it predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and the iPhone 15 and 16 Pro Max, and I’m quite happy with the size. It measures 6.4 x 3 x 0.3 inches, compared to 6.42 x 3.06 x 0.32 inches for the iPhone 16 Pro Max; they’re like twins. And though the respective weights are very close–7.8 ounces for Pixel, 7.99 ounces for iPhone–the Pixel is noticeably lighter in the hand.

Display

The Pixel 9 Pro XL’s display is another example of Google mimicking Apple, in this case using silly brand names to describe the display. In this case, we get a so-called Super Actua display panel, which is Google-speak for OLED LTPO (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide), or an OLED display that supports dynamic, high refresh rates.

Using more standard specifications language, the Pixel 9 Pro XL delivers a capacious and flat 6.8-inch panel with a 1344 x 2992 resolution, a pixel density of 486 PPI, and a 20:9 aspect ratio. It supports up to a 120 Hz refresh rate, but it can also dynamically adjust the refresh rate in 1 Hz increments from 1 Hz all the way up to 120. Compatible games will play at 120 Hz, for example, but the refresh rate will bottom out at 1 Hz when you’re viewing static content.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL display supports HDR (HDR10/10+), of course, but not Dolby Vision. It has a peak brightness of 3000 nits (2000 nits for HDR content), which is nuts, and it supports adaptive brightness that finally works as expected; this was an issue for many years with Pixel. (The Pixel 8 Pro’s display had a peak brightness of 2400 nits.) I never had issues seeing the display outside in bright sunshine.

The bezels are small–just don’t look at that new iPhone–and the screen corners are elegantly curved. The selfie camera announces itself with a centered hole at the top of the display that seems a bit bigger than before. But the display itself is nearly perfect, and looking at the same photos side-by-side on Pixel and the new iPhone 16 Pro Max, I see no differences in quality, color, contrast, or brightness.

The iPhone display is technically a bit bigger at 6.9 inches, it has a slightly lower resolution and pixel density (though Apple doesn’t switch to even lower resolution to save battery), and similar rounded corners. And yes, the iPhone also has noticeably smaller bezels.

By default, the Pixel 9 Pro XL is configured to use a non-native “High” resolution of 1008 x 2244 to help with battery life, another problem that’s dogged Pixel for years. I experimented with using full resolution, as I do with each new Pixel. But I ended up leaving it on High resolution because I don’t see much of a difference, and more battery life is always good. You can also configure the phone to enable Night Light switch into Dark mode between sunset and sunrise, and I do both.

Of more interest, perhaps, you can configure the display to use a Natural or Adaptive color mode, but the differences are so subtle I couldn’t see them at all using the supplied example images; I left it on Adaptive. And there’s a Color Contrast feature that helps you configure the contrast level of dark elements in the UI–like buttons in Light mode–that I’m surprised to say I really like: I experimented with all three levels and left it on the most contrasty version. I didn’t enable High contrast text, however, as it makes the text on-screen look blurry.

Hardware and specs

Aside from the displays, the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL deliver the same internal components. There’s an upgraded octa-core Google Tensor G4 processor with the same Titan M2 security coprocessor that Google’s been using for years, 16 GB of RAM–up from 12 GB on last year’s Pixel 8 Pro–and 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB storage options. None of this is truly top of the line: The Tensor is consistently out-performed by the latest Qualcomm processors–like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that dominates in the Android flagship space–and the storage is previous-generation UFS 3.1, not the faster UFS 4.0 that Samsung put in its Galaxy S24 Ultra back in January.

Google claims that it designs the Tensor for day-to-day use, not benchmarks, and optimizes the chip for AI tasks. And that’s terrific marketing, but it’s also nonsense: The latest iPhone and Samsung flagships perform noticeably faster in day-to-day normal use and Samsung’s phones, if anything, outperform Pixel in AI. (It’s difficult to compare Pixel to iPhone in that regard because the feature sets don’t quite line up. That should change.)

Basically, the performance is fine. As with previous Tensor-based Pixels, the Pixel 9 Pro XL works well for the most part, but it’s not particularly notable in any way. But you’ll see the difference if you have another modern flagship phone on hand. For example, I use Duolingo every day, and it’s notably slower than on the iPhones (A15/A16 Pro) iPad (M2) I have. (It’s also less full-featured, but that’s another story.) And when you take photos in certain conditions, you have to sit and wait for the processing to occur before you view or edit them. Portrait mode shots, for example, will display a “Processing” message as you wait while the Pixel’s custom hardware and software work their magic. Night mode shots are even slower.

Heat isn’t generally an issue, though I worry about the effect the case might have. But while using Google Maps to navigate on two recent trips–one a 1.5 hour trek to Newark Liberty airport, and the other a 4.5 hour sojourn to Rochester, New York–the Pixel alerted me that it was getting hot and switched the display to Dark mode to compensate. For whatever it’s worth, I saw a similar message while using my iPhone 15 Pro Max to navigate in similar conditions earlier this year, though the iPhone 16 Pro series has apparently solved this problem. Thankfully, we were able to switch to my wife’s phone both times this happened, but I wonder what the next step would be if dark mode didn’t solve the problem.

Connectivity

The Pixel 9 Pro XL is ready for the future with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 with dual antennas, NFC for mobile payments, and Ultra-Wideband for “accurate ranging and spatial orientation.” It supports all the most modern wireless networks, including 5G mmWave + Sub 6GHz, and offers both a physical nano SIM (on the bottom) and multiple eSIMs. I’ve never had any connectivity issues, and I used the Pixel in Berlin with two eSIMs, one from Google Fi (for phone and text) and one from Nomad, for international data. It worked great.

Audio-video

With its gorgeous OLED display and spatial audio capabilities, you should expect a good multimedia experience with Pixel 9 Pro XL. The display shines with HDR content like 6 Underground on Netflix, as expected, and the stereo speakers are loud and crisp, and offer nice separation. The selfie camera hole isn’t too distracting. But I’m used to 11- and 13-inch iPads 14-inch laptops, and smart TVs for this type of content, and I find the Pixel, like any phone, too small for watching long videos. And spatial audio only works with compatible earbuds like Pixel Buds Pro: The Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet are the only Google devices that support spatial audio through the built-in speakers.

I tested Pixel 9 Pro XL with Apple Music and YouTube Music, and the sound quality there is likewise impressive, though I had to pull back from 100 percent volume because of a bit of case echo/vibration. Otherwise, it was clear and bright, with no distortion, and it sounds good laid flat, or propped up in either portrait or landscape orientation. I usually use Sonos or AirPlay speakers at home, but having decent phone speakers helps if you’re in a hotel room or otherwise away from home.

I guess it’s a bit biased toward the larger bottom (right) speaker, but it’s subtle. These do the trick.

Cameras

The Pixel 9 Pro XL rear camera system isn’t much different from last year. But then, it doesn’t need to be: Unlike Apple and Samsung, Google now uses high-resolution lenses on each of its rear-facing cameras.

There’s a 50 MP wide (main) camera lens with an f/1.68 aperture and an 82 degree field of view, a 48 MP Quad PD ultrawide lens with an f/1.7 aperture, a 123 degree field of view and autofocus, and a 48 MP Quad PD telephoto lens with an f/2.8 aperture, a 22 degree field of view, and 5x optical zoom with up to 30x “Super Res Zoom” (i.e. digital zoom), though it’s not worth going past 20x in most cases.

For those who don’t memorize camera system specs for some reason, two of those–the main and telephoto lenses–are identical to those on the Pixel 8 Pro. The ultrawide lens is very similar on paper, year-over-year, but it is in fact a new lens with a larger aperture that lets in more light and a larger sensor that can improve image quality. It also has a slightly wider field of view, which isn’t always great because of edge warping. I had to trade in my Pixel 8 Pro when I purchased the 9 Pro XL, but I can’t say that I’ve noticed much difference.

To be clear, that’s a good thing: Returning to the Pixel after several months of iPhone usage had its pros and cons, but photography is firmly in the pro list. The Pixel 9 Pro XL delivers the nearly perfect image quality, color accuracy, and automatic bokeh depth effects that I love, and it was immediately familiar in a positive way. This experience is so good, and so consistent, that it’s hard to complain.

But I’m still me. Night mode shots are notably slow but usually offer terrific quality.

Where the Pixel does come out ahead is just about everywhere else. And when we could see the galaxy clouds in upstate New York at night over Labor Day weekend, three of us–two with recent Galaxy Ultras–immediately started taking astrophotography shots. And the Pixel won every time. Some of the shots are truly impressive, and I was just leaning the phone against the roof rack on a car.

While the telephoto lens hasn’t changed specifications year-over-year–as noted, it’s a 48 MP unit–it apparently has slightly better light sensitivity than last year’s version. Zoom, as noted, is decent up to about 20x but no more. I was able to take a decent handheld picture of the (not-quite-full) moon for the first time using this lens at roughly 20x hybrid zoom. This isn’t a Galaxy Ultra level of quality–my wife’s moon shots are still noticeably better and easier to take–but it’s a nice step forward for long-distance shots.

The selfie camera is significantly better than with the Pixel 8 Pro, and its 42 MP of resolution puts it on par with the rear camera lens, making the Pixel the only mainstream flagship to run the rack with nothing but high resolution sensors front and back. It offers an f/2.2 aperture and a wider 103 degree field of view that makes it easier to get group shots with both 0.7x and 1.x presets. I don’t take a lot of selfies unless I’m with others, but this is a big upgrade.

As before, Google provides various photo quality options, including full resolution 50 MP shots on the main lens (and 48 MP on the ultra-wide and telephoto, though they are upscaled to 50 MP for consistency), RAW format, Pro controls, and, new to this year, 8K video recording capabilities that I understand are really 4K videos upscaled to 8K using time-consuming AI processes. I stuck with the default 12 MP pixel binning for photos, and Full HD for video, and I have no complaints. I also stuck with the standard photo and video tools, as opposed to the pro tools, for the most part. I mostly take snapshots.

Speaking of which, I had hoped to take more video if only for testing purposes, but I rarely record videos and didn’t really push any boundaries here, sorry. I stick to Full HD (1080p) resolution at 30 FPS with video stabilization on Standard, and the few videos I did take–including a few of the stunning Niagara Falls–are quite nice. Not very helpful, I know.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL benefits from Google’s ever-expanding family of useful camera and photo-related features. (I describe other helpful Pixel software later in the review.) Some of these are available in the Camera app, while others can be found in Google Photos.

The big Camera app addition this year in Add Me. It’s a good idea, at least on paper: You’re with others and want to take a group shot, but the person taking the picture won’t be a part of it. Using Add Me, you can frame the group shot leaving space to one side, a second person can take a picture of you in that space, and then the software will fuse the images together, creating a single image with everyone. I never got this to work correctly: There were color shifts and other weirdnesses that immediately identified these shots as fake. And I think one of the most social things you can do is offer to take a group shot of people you don’t know when you see this scenario playing out around you out in the world. I do this all the time, and I’m always appreciative when someone else offers to do it for me.

Beyond this, there’s a new Guided Frame feature that uses audio cues, vibrations, and visuals to help you better frame photos. This sounds interesting, but it was so annoying in use that I turned it off quickly. I really like the Framing hints that have been in Pixel for a while now–mostly for leveling shots–and stayed with that, plus a Golden ratio on-screen grid for framing.

Google Photos offers an incredible range of photo editing capabilities, and as a Pixel owner, you gain access to even more tools, including familiar favorites like Magic Eraser, Unblur, and so on. The new Magic Editor tool also offers object erasing capabilities, but it creates multiple edits so you can pick the one you like best.

It also offers to “reimagine” objects in or areas of photos, so you can do things like add clouds to the sky, flowers to the ground, or whatever. I experimented with this a lot but never found a good use for it. Here, you see some flowers added to a light pole in New York City.

Auto frame is fantastic: This Magic Editor feature uses generative AI to add content to the sides of an image, helping fill out a badly cropped picture. Sometimes it just crops an image, making a portrait shot, perhaps, but it’s the generative fill (content addition) that I find so amazing. I’ve had some good results with this.

Finally, a Pixel-exclusive Zoom Enhance feature use generative AI to try and enhance the details of zoomed-in photos. I wrote “try” there because even Google admits that this feature can be inaccurate and is still in its early stages, and the results were so-so, with muddy, painterly areas. But I do like the pixelated effect it displays while generating the enhanced image.

Security

After years of stalling, Google significantly upgraded its in-display fingerprint reader for the Pixel 9 Pro XL, opting for a superior ultrasonic unit over the low-quality optical part used in previous-generation Pixels. It now works as well as the fingerprint reader in the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra–it’s likely the same sensor–and was always fast and accurate. Which is good: Despite the improved Face Unlock camera that Google added last year, many apps, including my password manager, only work with the fingerprint reader or require it from time-to-time.

But I still enrolled with both options, so I could have the fastest experience possible with whatever apps I use. Face Unlock will often complain if I’m wearing sunglasses, so having both is nice regardless.

Under the covers, little has changed: The Pixel 9 Pro XL utilizes the same Google Titan 2 security chip as the past few generation Pixels, it’s a secure TPM-like solution with a trusted execution environment and private compute core. And with Google now supporting Pixel with seven years of OS and security updates, it’s likely you’ll want to give up on the phone before it gives up on you.

Battery

I’ve dinged Pixel in the past for its lackluster battery life and slow charging. But the Pixel 9 Pro XL pretty much solves both problems: Battery life is notably better than before, though it still underperforms the iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra noticeably. Still, it’s difficult to complain: I trust the Pixel 9 Pro XL out in the world on big photo days more than I ever have with its predecessors. This is an “all-day” battery in normal use.

As good, the fast charging is truly fast for the first time. In fact, it’s notably terrific: It supports up to 37-watt wired charging, and the 47-watt Anker chargers I use can finally live up to their potential. It’s truly impressive to charge the large 5060 mAh battery to 55 to 60 percent in under 30 minutes given my experience with previous Pixels. That said, charging slows as you get closer to 100 percent: A full charge from a dead battery took over 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Wireless charging is improved as well, but I don’t ever use this type of device. According to Google, it supports 23-watt charging using Pixel Stand, but since it doesn’t support Qi2 or MagSafe, semi-inexcusable in 2024, the Pixel 9 Pro XL will see pokey 12-watt charging on Qi-compatible chargers.

As before, Pixel 9 Pro XL also supports Battery Share, which lets you wirelessly charge other phones–or devices, like some earbuds–by placing them on its back. I used this to help keep a visiting friend’s phone from dying when we were out at a restaurant. It was slow, and works better without a case, but better than nothing.

Unique hardware features

The Pixel 9 Pro XL offers IP68 dust and water resistance, just like the iPhone 16 Pro Max, meaning it can be submerged in up to 5 feet of water for up to 30 minutes and continue working normally. I didn’t test that, of course, but a boat trip in front of the twin waterfalls of Niagara Falls provided a surprisingly wet experience that was akin to the hardest rainfall I’ve ever experienced. At one point, the Pixel warned that its USB port was blocked, but it quickly said everything was OK. And aside from some difficulty using the touchscreen while it and I were soaking wet, there were no issues then or late.

Software

First, the bad news: Thanks to its earlier-than-usual launch and the later than expected launch of Android 15, the Pixel 7 Pro XL comes with last year’s Android 14, somewhat undercutting Google’s promise of seven years of OS upgrades. I received this device almost six weeks ago, and Google still hasn’t released the Android 15 upgrade, but I enrolled it in the beta and so I’m now running the final version of that software. It’s possible some of the features I noted here are Android 15-specific.

Most are Pixel-specific, of course. Pixels include many, many more features than Google provides in the stock version of Android that it licenses to other companies. These additions are a key differentiator for Pixel, a key selling point for those shopping on the Android side of the mobile platform divide. There’s nothing else like it in the Android ecosystem, and Google provides quarterly Pixel Drops that add even more unique features.

With the Pixel 9 series, that gap is only growing, thanks to Google’s embrace of on-device AI that takes advantage of the Tensor chip’s NPU and the additional RAM the new phones include. Indeed, the sheer amount of software included with the Pixel 9 Pro XL makes reviewing this product difficult. There’s just so much going on here, most of it incredibly useful.

I can’t possibly discuss them all. But Pixels ship with live, real-time language translation that works with any audio. It features dramatically good text and call spam detection, can navigate voice-based phone menus for you, can wait on hold when needed, and screens calls it’s not sure about. There are incredible interface customization features, some of which Apple mimicked in iOS 18, and lots of little things, like going into Do No Disturb mode when you lay it on the table screen-down. All the incredible camera and photo editing capabilities, many discussed previously. A new Satellite SOS feature if you’re in trouble but out of cell range. It goes on and on.

For this round, Google is of course pushing AI pretty hard. So many of the new features are AI-based and fall under the Gemini umbrella.

Most obviously, Google has improved the Gemini app on Pixel with Gemini Live conversational capabilities, and it replaces Google Assistant for the most part. When I press and hold the power button, a Gemini panel pops up on the bottom of the screen and tries to be helpful. It offers to tell me more about the screen I’m looking at, or I can type or speak a text prompt about anything, or upload a photo to Gemini Advanced–Pixel 9 series buyers get a full year of this paid service, a $240 value–to learn more. This is incredibly useful: I use my phone in so many situations to learn more about something or to find information I’ve forgotten.

Interestingly, Assistant does pop-up from time-to-time. For example, when I ask Gemini to create an alarm, it happily agrees, and then notes that Assistant is doing the work.

Gemini Live is pretty incredible. You can basically just converse with it about any topic, and it responds with audio, not text, though it generates a transcript when you’re done. It remembers context, is oddly personable, and will put itself on hold if you get distracted and stop conversing. I always imagined older people sitting alone in a room interact with Alexa on an Amazon Echo device, or whatever, and how weird that could be. But this experience feels more natural, like a back and forth. Not that I engaged with it beyond a few test conversations. For example, I asked about how well the Red Sox did this season–not well–and went down a few interesting paths. (Gemini Live requires a Gemini Advanced subscription.)

Pixel Screenshots is like a limited version of Microsoft Recall: Instead of automatically keeping track of everything you do on the device so you can find anything later, it only works with screenshots you explicitly take. This is interesting on the surface, but I’ve long taken screenshots to remind myself of something later, and I have never needed to use Pixel Screenshots to find that information. And even when I’ve forced the issue with something simple–“find pictures of birds”–it pauses and then reports back with, “I can’t help with that. Try asking something else.” (A simpler search–“bird”–works.)

Pixel Studio is an app-based version of Gemini’s generative AI image creation and editing capabilities, and it does require an Internet connection. It’s pretty good when it works–I often get “An unknown error occurred” messages instead of images–and roughly on-par with the Copilot/DALL-E-based Microsoft Designer. But the images are limited to a square (2048 x 2048) aspect ratio and there’s no “photographic quality” setting, though it seems capable of it. Plus, the usual Google-imposed limits on editing photos with people in them.

Thanks to the bundled Gemini Advanced subscription, there are Gemini features throughout many of the in-box Google apps, like Gmail, Keep, and Docs, as well. I haven’t done much with any of that yet, but this will change and improve a lot in the coming months, alongside similar advances in the Apple and Microsoft ecosystems. So I’ll be keeping an eye on it, and suspect this will be recurring topic over the coming year. But I can’t imagine I’ll pay for Gemini Advance when that bill comes due in late 2025. I have no intention of paying for AI.

Pricing and availability

The Pixel 9 Pro, with its 6-inch display, starts at $999, while the larger Pixel 9 Pro XL I purchased, with its 6.8-inch display, starts at $1099. Those prices are almost identical to the starting prices of the iPhone 15 Pro ($999 and up) and iPhone 15 Pro Max ($1199 and up) that Google is overtly targeting. And while that may seem reasonable, Pixel sells poorly and has usually undercut Apple’s (and Samsung’s) pricing by a wide margin. That’s no longer the case, and while I feel like the device and its software are on par with the iPhone, I also feel that Pixel doesn’t have the reputation or sales to warrant this price increase. The Pixel 8 Pro, which aligns with this year’s XL, started at $999, and even that was controversial.

As bad, those starting prices provide the buyer with just 128 GB of storage, a paltry amount for anyone who wants to take advantage of the phone’s 50 MP native picture sizes and 8K video capabilities. And you’ll pay another $100 for each 128 GB jump in storage: A 256 GB Pixel 9 Pro XL costs $1199, while a 512 version is $1319. Those are roughly on par with the prices you’ll pay for a similarly configured iPhone Pro Max. And that means that the Pixel Pros are no longer the best values in flagship smartphones. That’s too bad.

Also unfortunate, some of those storage tiers are tied to specific color choices, highlighting the boutique nature of this business. (Microsoft does this with its Surface PCs as well.) Among the limitations, Rose Quartz is only available in a single storage size, 256 GB, and only Obsidian gets the 1 TB option.

Google did offer some compelling trade-in prices on the new Pixels at launch, however, and I received an incredible $700 for my Pixel 8 Pro, which softened the blow nicely. (My ostensibly more valuable iPhone 15 Pro Max netted just $650 when I traded it in to Apple a few weeks later.) But that offer has passed, and if the Pixel 9 Pro or Pro XL is too expensive for you now, Google offers zero interest 36-month financing. Or, you could wait for the inevitable sale. Google lowers the price pretty often, and Black Friday is generally the best time for those who missed a Pixel launch window.

The Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL are available in four colors: Porcelain (light beige), Rose Quartz (pink), Hazel, and Obsidian (black). I was delighted to see Hazel, which is pretty close to my favorite color, make a return–that was the color I chose for the Pixel 7 Pro a few years back, but it sadly wasn’t available on the 8 Pro–and it’s a subtle gray-green color that’s perhaps more gray than green. Whatever, I like it a lot.

Recommendations and conclusions

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is highly recommended. It’s the cure for Apple envy with its iPhone-like premium design and construction and gorgeous large OLED display. It offers the best camera experience of any mainstream flagship smartphone, hitting the sweet spot between the iPhone’s dull default and the Galaxy S24’s overly-saturated default. It is jammed packed with truly helpful Pixel-exclusive features, with many more on the way each quarter, and keeping track of them all is next to impossible. The battery life and quick charging performance are much improved over last year, as is the in-display fingerprint reader, rendering previous criticisms moot. My only complaint, really, is the price: Be sure to shop sales so you don’t end up paying as much for a Pixel 9 Pro XL as you would for a comparable iPhone.

At-a-glance

Pros

• Stunning premium design
• Gorgeous display
• Terrific camera and photography features
• Truly helpful Pixel features
• Future-proof components
• Fast and accurate facial and fingerprint recognition
• Improved battery life and quick charging

Cons

• Expensive
• Maybe a bit too much like the iPhone
• There’s almost too much software to keep track of