Google Pixel 9 Review: Chock-Full of AI. But That's Not What Makes It Great

Pros

• Beautiful design
• Fun and somewhat useful AI features
• Better ultrawide camera
• 7 years of software updates

Cons

• More expensive
• Doesn't feel very different from Pixel 8

The Pixel 9may look like a departure from the Pixel 8 on the outside. But it's what's on the inside that counts. Google's new crop of Pixel phones is brimming with new AI features, some of which are useful and others that are more amusing than they are practical.

I've been using the standard Pixel 9, which at $799 (£799, AU$1,349) is Google's cheapest of the bunch, for nearly a week. In that time, the Pixel 9 has made me curious -- and even a little excited -- about how AI could make our phones more efficient and easier to use in the future. In Google's eyes, the days of scrolling through your photo gallery to find the confirmation number you've saved in a screenshot or scrambling to take notes during a phone call are over. We're past the point of just using our phones to take photos; the Pixel 9 can generate brand-new images from scratch based on a few simple words. 

Let's face it, annual smartphone upgrades have gotten boring, typically bringing iterative upgrades to the camera, design and if you're lucky, battery life. So it's no wonder tech giants like Google are looking for new ways to spice up the smartphone using generative AI -- i.e. the flavor of AI that can generate convincing (but not always accurate) answers and content in response to prompts after being trained on data. Google's not alone; Apple and Samsung are taking a similar approach.

I like where Google is headed, but the Pixel 9 and Google's Gemini assistant still feel like a first step toward what the company is hoping to achieve: Making phone software more intelligent so that we can spend less time swiping, tapping, scrolling and digging. In the meantime, the Pixel 9 shines for its great camera, elegant design and clean software, just like the less AI-centric Pixels of years past. 

But at $799, the Pixel 9 is playing in a different ballpark. It's not the midrange phone the Pixel 8 and Pixel 7 were when they launched at $699 and $599, respectively. It no longer has the competitive advantage of being cheaper than the latest entry-level iPhone and Galaxy phone. The Pixel 9 feels like it belongs in that more premium camp, although it's only worth upgrading if you're coming from an older phone. When you strip away the AI features, the Pixel 9 really isn't all that different from the Pixel 8.

Read more: Google's Pixel 9 Event Proves the Smartphone Race Has Entered a New Era

Watch this: Google Pixel 9 Review: More AI, a New Look and a Higher Price

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The Pixel 9's new AI smarts

The Pixel 9's new AI features aren't exciting enough to make you want to run out and buy a new phone. But they are certainly the biggest thing that separates Google's new Pixels from those of the past. 

The new Pixel Studio app, which churns out AI-generated images on the fly, has no business being as fun as it is. I spent way too much time going down a rabbit hole typing in whatever random idea popped into my brain to see what Google could come up with. 

I created cute pictures of cats cuddling, Pikachu holding a balloon and monsters stomping through a medieval city. Honestly, I was a little surprised to see copyrighted characters appear in Pixel Studio's results.

It's not the only app for image generation; you can create pictures in ChatGPT, Canva and Midjourney (through the Discord chat app), among others. But it's nice to have a tool like this baked right into the phone without having to sign up for a new service. However, you can't use Pixel Studio to create images of people yet. 

It's also worth noting that some of the results didn't line up with the prompt exactly. When I tried to create another Pokemon-themed image of Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Mew in a forest, it came up with something that was a hybrid of Mew and Jigglypuff. 

Although it was fun as a party trick and certainly kept me entertained, Pixel Studio seems useful only in niche scenarios. Maybe you need a graphic to create a business logo or an invitation for a dinner party or board game night, for example. Or if you're like me, an app like this could be useful for creating scenery and nonhuman characters for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign (I had Pixel Studio create what I thought my character's living quarters would look like, for example). For the right audience, it could be an easy way to create graphics with no artistic or technical know-how required. But I think most people will likely forget about it after the initial curiosity wears off.

Some of Google's other AI features seem more practical. Pixel Screenshots is one of my favorites. It's an app that houses all of the screenshots on your device and lets you search for content within them. If you've screenshotted something like your Airbnb's Wi-Fi password, an order confirmation number or an address from a text message, you'll be able to retrieve that information just by typing in what you want to see. For example, I found train schedules for the Metro North (a New York area commuter train) that I had taken a screenshot of just by typing in "train times." 

It's not a unique feature; you can search through photos in Apple's Photos app for the iPhone in a very similar way. But it's helpful to have screenshots stored in a space that feels a little separate from your Google Photos library. Plus, Google's app extracts details from the screenshot that you can view once you tap on it, and you can jot down a note about the screenshot or add an event you've screenshotted to your calendar right from the app. It's a minor convenience, but one that feels like a step toward making our phones smarter. 

There are a few other smaller, less flashy AI features that fall into this bucket too, such as the Weather app's AI-generated daily weather summaries, Call Notes (which lets you record calls and can summarize the transcript) and Help Me Create a List, which generates lists in Google Keep based on prompts.

Google's Gemini virtual assistant is also going to play a big role in how the company plans to infuse Android with more AI. It's not exclusive to the Pixel lineup, but Google usually positions its Pixel phones as being a showcase for the ideal Android experience. I tried Gemini Live, the more conversational version of Gemini that's available to paid subscribers, on the Pixel 9 and generally found that it answered my questions naturally and didn't get deterred when I interrupted. 

But there were a few instances in which Gemini stopped responding during a conversation, which was confusing. Sometimes its answers were also inaccurate, such as when I asked it a question about an event happening on Little Island, a park on the Hudson River in Manhattan, and it provided the wrong dates.

What I'm more interested in, however, is the Gemini overlay, or the tiny window that pops up when you trigger Gemini. You can ask Gemini about what's on your phone's screen, and it'll analyze the contents to provide an answer. I love this idea in theory, but the answers weren't always accurate. When I asked Gemini to point out some healthy items on a food menu I was browsing, it gave me options that just weren't on the menu. 

When asked about Gemini's inaccuracies, a Google spokesperson acknowledged that hallucinations are a known challenge with large language models. It pointed me toward tools that Google provides for double checking answers like the "Google it" button, which evaluates Gemini's answers using Google search when possible. 

Read more: Samsung and Google's Mysterious Mixed Reality Plans: What We Know So Far

Add Me is a wild way to take group photos

Google is seemingly obsessed with the idea of making family photos and group portraits perfect. Last year, we got Best Take, and this year, Google is introducing Add Me. (This one is a little tricky to explain, so bear with me.)

The idea is to help you take a group photo with everyone in the picture without having to ask someone else to take the picture. Google does this by combining two photos. When taking the second photo, the person who took the first photo swaps places with another person in the group so that they can be in the second picture.

But here's where it gets interesting: Google uses augmented reality to show the second photographer where everyone was positioned in the first photo so that they can position and frame the second picture (with the original photographer in it) accordingly.

It works surprisingly well, but it can be a little awkward. When I handed my phone to a friend to take the second photo, he was initially confused about how the feature works. It can also be difficult to make the photo seem natural sometimes. When my coworker and I tried taking a photo by the entrance to Little Island, it looked like we had no idea we would be standing next to each other in the final photo. 

When taking the second picture, I also found that it can be hard to focus on guiding the new person entering the frame on where to stand or sit because I was so focused on making sure I was following the prompts on-screen to line up the shot correctly. 

Still, it's a lot of fun to play around with, and it's a clever application of augmented reality. But most of the time, it's probably still easier to ask another person to take the photo if possible. 

Reimagine is another new AI-driven feature available on the Pixel 9 series. As the name implies, this tool is an extension of Magic Editor that lets you "reimagine" objects in photos as something else. I found this worked best with objects in the background without much depth, like this image of Little Island "reimagined" as a cruise ship. 

But when you view the image on a screen larger than a smartphone's and zoom in, you can tell the ship doesn't look quite right. It looks a little warped and melted, almost like it belongs in a Salvador Dalí painting. Perhaps this feature is better suited for minor adjustments rather than generating entirely new objects with a lot of detail. 

Original photo

Edited with Reimagine

When Magic Editor debuted last year, it raised questions about whether making photo doctoring tools more widely accessible could be used for harm. Those questions still exist, although most of the time, you can tell a photo has been "reimagined" by looking at it (like with the example above). Google also indicates when a photo has been edited with AI in the metadata, although you have to go out of your way to actually check this. 

The Pixel 9 has great cameras, but you get more with Samsung

The Pixel 9's camera setup is more or less the same as the one on the Pixel 8, but with one crucial difference. The ultrawide camera has a 48-megapixel sensor compared with the Pixel 8's 12-megapixel ultrawide camera. They each have a 50-megapixel main sensor.

I could see the difference in some photos taken with the ultrawide camera, but not so much in others. This photo taken at Little Island has more vibrant colors than the Pixel 8's image for example.

Pixel 9

Pixel 8

But in this photo of an amphitheater, I couldn't see the difference until I zoomed in and looked at the wooden stage area.

Pixel 9

Pixel 8 

Overall, the Pixel 9 takes vivid photos that are bold but still feel realistic, which can be a tough balance to strike. I didn't see too much of a difference between photos taken with the Pixel 9 and those taken with the Pixel 8, but the iPhone 15 took photos with sharper details in a few circumstances.

I appreciate the Pixel 9's camera, but you could argue that you get more for your money with Samsung. The Galaxy S24, which starts at the same $800 price as the Pixel 9, has three rear cameras: a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 10-megapixel telephoto camera. If you care about getting zoomed-in shots -- perhaps you attend a lot of concerts or sporting events -- but don't want to splurge on a "pro" phone, the S24 might be the better choice.

Each of the photos below was taken at a 7.8x zoom. The Pixel 9's image actually looks pretty good for a phone without a telephoto lens. But when you zoom in on a big screen, you can see that Samsung preserved more detail with less artifacting. 

Pixel 9

Galaxy S24

Read more: Buying a Foldable Phone? What to Know Before Deciding

Pixel 9 gets a makeover and all-day battery life

The Pixel 9 has a new look, and I'm a big fan. The camera bar now has a floating island style design rather than stretching across the back of the phone, and the metal edges are flatter. 

This gives the Pixel 9 a more seamless shape since the edges aren't interrupted by the camera module. I love the way it looks and feels so much that I don't want to put a case on it, especially in this new peony pink color.

I'm just going to say it: The Pixel 9 looks more like an iPhone, and that's a good thing.

The screen is also a bit larger and brighter compared with the Pixel 8, which makes it easier to see in sunlight, although I still find myself cranking up the brightness outdoors. Like the Pixel 8 generation, the Pixel 9 family will also get seven years of software upgrades. 

The Pixel 9 runs on Google's Tensor G4 processor, the same chip that powers the Pixel 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL and 9 Pro Fold. Google's chips aren't known for being powerhouses, but the Pixel 9 gets by just fine in my experience. Between the additional RAM (12GB compared with the Pixel 8's 8GB), 120Hz refresh rate display and Tensor G4, everything from swiping around the operating system to playing games and taking photos felt smooth and fast. That's to be expected of a phone at this price.

The same goes for battery life; the Pixel 9 can easily get through a busy day on a single charge, as an $800 phone should. Google's new phone has a slightly larger battery than the Pixel 8, and so far I'm seeing promising results. 

On a busy day that involved going to a park, taking lots of photos, keeping the screen brightness high and going out with friends at night, I had 38% of my battery left after about 16 hours of general use. On a much less busy day that was mostly spent at home, I had 64% after roughly the same amount of time.

But of course, battery life will always vary depending on how you use your phone. And I'm still running CNET's battery tests, so be sure to check back for future updates.

The Pixel 9's 27-watt fast charging was able to replenish 54% of the battery in 30 minutes, almost directly lining up with Google's claims. That's also slightly faster than the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24, both of which recharged around 50% of their battery during the same test. 

Read more: Samsung Breaks Down How Bixby Will Evolve Alongside Galaxy AI

Pixel 9 final thoughts

The Pixel 9 is loaded with new AI features, many of which are fun, amusing and moderately useful. But that's not why you should consider buying this phone. It's the Pixel 9's quality camera, premium build and reliable battery life that make it worth your time and attention. 

Google is on the right track with the Pixel 9's new AI tricks; features like the ability to search screenshots, summarize phone calls and generate to-do lists feel like progress toward making our phones easier to navigate. But none of the Pixel 9's new software tools feel upgrade-worthy on their own, at least not yet.

If you're a Pixel fan upgrading from an older phone, like the Pixel 6 or earlier, you'll find a lot to love about the Pixel 9. But keep in mind that for the same price, Samsung's Galaxy S24 has a brighter screen and a dedicated telephoto lens for taking zoomed photos.

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Every phone tested by CNET's reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone's features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it's bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor's performance to the extremes using standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

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