Google Pixel 9 Pro: Goodbye Pixel, Hello Gemini AI

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Have you ever stayed up late, engrossed in a deep conversation with a close friend? Well, that happened to me with Google's new Pixel 9 Pro, which I've been testing for the past week. One night when I couldn't sleep, I decided to "talk" with the phone's premier feature: Gemini Live – basically the new assistant's conversation mode.

I told Gemini that I had trouble sleeping and asked what I could do. Gemini, in an eerily human-sounding voice, offered ways I could sleep better and suggested that I reduce work stress – and yes, I realize the conversation in itself was actually work.

During the "conversation," Gemini understood my rambling half-awake questions, interruptions, mumbles and tangents in a similar way a person would. The entire interaction felt natural and I didn't have to say, "Hey Google" once. At one point, Gemini recommended that I read the book Pride and Prejudice to fall asleep. I started to feel like Gemini really got me.

But the entire time I talked with Gemini, I kept thinking: Am I like Joaquin Phoenix in the movie Her? Then, I had a horrifying revelation: Am I going to fall in love with a Pixel phone?

That's when everything came to a halt. My new friendly sidekick went silent. Gemini stopped and wouldn't talk to me. Was it something I said? Did Gemini abandon me?

In the span of five minutes, I started to truly understand Google's hype and potential around Gemini, only to witness it fail. We are still far from a time where generative AI and large language models become a seamless, trustworthy part of our daily reality.

I'm not alone in what I experienced with Gemini. My CNET colleagues, Lisa Eadicicco and Andy Lanxon, were both wowed by the AI-powered assistant in their reviews for the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL, respectively. And like me, each ran into issues. Eadicicco similarly had Gemini stop responding, which she found confusing. Lanxon received inaccurate answers, like when he asked it to recommend places where he could get a drink, only to have Gemini to suggest a bar that had closed years ago. 

It became clear while testing the Pixel 9 Pro that the phone itself isn't Google's shiny new product, Gemini is. With its latest phone lineup, which includes the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL and 9 Pro Fold, Google merely wrapped it in four different packages. Want Gemini in a phone that won't hurt your wallet too much? Get the Pixel 9. Hoping to use Gemini with a great telephoto camera? Well, there's the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL. Need a bigger screen for Gemini that can fold down to fit into your pocket? Consider the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Of course, Gemini isn't exclusive to Pixel phones, which tarnishes some of the Pixel 9 Pro's luster. Google usually positions its Pixel phones as a premier Android experience, and clearly wants Gemini to be a big part of that appeal this year.

There are other new AI-powered tools and features like Call Notes, which can transcribe and summarize phone calls. There's a new Screenshots app that's an on-device hub to store and quickly search for info contained in your screen grabs. The Pixel Studio app can generate clip art-like images from text prompts. There's also the Reimagine tool in the Photos app's Magic Editor to alter and generate aspects of a photo from your prompts.

All of these, as well as the Add Me camera tool (which uses AR to help add the photographer of an image to group photos), seemingly try to address a specific problem or use case. But often, these aren't problems or uses that are applicable to me. Yeah, it was fun generating an image of a tuxedo-clad iguana tap dancing, but how many times am I going to use that?

For better or worse, the Pixel 9 Pro's AI overshadows the hardware, which is a shame because the phone's design is actually quite nice. I am happy that Google made a smaller version of the Pixel 9 Pro XL. But this is a far cry from being a small phone in the way the 5.9-inch Asus Zenfone 10 or 5.4-inch iPhone 13 Mini were. Basically, it's the same size as the regular 6.3-inch Pixel 9, but with higher-end features like a better display, higher-resolution selfie camera, more RAM, a telephoto camera and a thermometer (yep, Google kept it around).

The Pixel 9 Pro feels better built than previous Pixel phones, thanks in large part to its new flat-sided design, reminiscent of the Galaxy S24 and iPhone 15. The camera bar that defined the look of recent Pixel phones has shrunk to a thick flat-sided, pill-shaped camera bump. It almost looks like the phone is wearing a tiny VR headset.

The new ultrasonic under-display fingerprint reader is blazing fast. At CNET's San Francisco office, my colleagues and I took a couple of minutes to marvel at how fast the Pixel 9 Pro was to unlock. 

The cameras are largely the same as last year's Pixel 8 Pro and take equally excellent photos. But they also suffer from some of the same problems with pixelation in low-light and night mode images. The 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL get a new 42-megapixel camera for selfies and video calls, which I found was a definite improvement over the Pixel 8 Pro's 10.5-megapixel front-facing camera.

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In my time using the Pixel 9 Pro, the battery life has been good and gets through a day. But I worry how the battery life will be as more features and AI tools get added over the coming years.

The Pixel 9 Pro costs $999, the same as the Pixel 8 Pro. But that's not exactly the full story. The $1,099 Pixel 9 Pro XL, aside from the name change, is for all intents and purposes the true follow-up to the 8 Pro. I do think the Pixel 9 Pro is worth its price, but I can't believe I only get 128GB of storage for a grand. The $300 Moto G Power 5G comes with 128GB of storage and costs $700 less!

Google's Pixel phones used to be a showcase for the latest version of Android. Now, it's clearly a showcase for Gemini. If you need more proof, the Pixel 9 family runs the current version of Android instead of the new and upcoming version of the operating system like past Pixels. This is just another sign that the Pixel 9 series is a turning point for Google as it shifts away from the Pixel phone we've known for years and toward a future where AI features are the biggest appeal. We're just not there yet.