4 reasons to buy a Pixel 9 Pro / XL (and 3 reasons NOT to!)

Pixel hype season starts early this year. It's not even the fall yet, and already we have new flagship Pixel phones to enjoy. The Pixel 9 Pro, Pro XL and Pro Fold debuted at a busy Mountain View launch event that gave us a flavor of just how far Google has come as the Pixel enters its tenth year.

As usual, most of the stuff worth caring about has to do with AI and Google services. But there were also some surprises around more traditional smartphone features and specs. So let's jump into my top 4 reasons to care about -- and perhaps ultimately BUY a Pixel 9 Pro or Pro XL ---- and also 3 reasons why you might want to skip this generation.

0:00 Intro
0:37 Cameras
3:49 Pro in 2 sizes
5:16 Killer design
6:36 AI that's actually useful?
8:20 Gemini still unproven
9:38 Tensor G4 disappointment?
10:42 128GB for $1100?

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[smitty]

I'm jumping from a Pixel 4 to this. Arrives in a week. I'm pumped.

[YonkoChris]

The pro specs on a reguar sized pixel is tempting

[celorenzo]

I bought the P9 pro XL. They gave me $699.00 for my trade in and a $200.00 Google store credit. Go pixel ! It was my choice, you do whatever you choose.

[pgordhan]

Couple of things that irk me:

1. It's evident the best part of Gemini AI is tucked behind a paywall so it's nice that everyone gets it free to begin with but then when they lose it it'll feel worse off.
2. The pricing is messed up because last years 8 Pro was bumped to £999, which means they should've kept this years 9 Pro XL at £999 (as it's roughly the same size), and put the regular Pro at £849 which is what the 7 Pro was priced at, which is also a rather comfortable price point.

So the P9 at £699, the P9P at £849, and the Pro XL at £999.

[huntedsoul]

Thanks for the balanced view, unlike the others who thinks we asked for more Ai and should be excited for 128gb in 2024, with an apple level price tag.

[nikc]

I absolutely hate that they went with the mirror polish sides on the pro. The matte sided on the 'lesser' 9's looks much more premium. Especially after a few weeks when the pro is covered in fingerprints and scratched.

[elwd]

I'm not planning to upgrade my 8 Pro this year just because I'm holding out for the TSMC chips in a few years. As much as I love my Pixel, Tensor is the biggest letdown in these phones. The fact that it's average in terms of battery and performance and still produces stellar performance is a testament to how good Google has optimized the Pixel experience. The Pixels are one flagship processor away from becoming the best Android phone on the market, imo.

[chancesareshewears]

I bit on the $700 trade in for my Pix8 pro plus the $200 google store credit..That's crazy good deal.

[jazzyknght]

9 pro is the most appealing model to me. i opted for p6 instead of p6p back then due to the form factor but without the telephoto lens, it is painful to take zoom in photo, and 2yrs later i got the p8p, happy with the purchase but wish it has a smaller form factor. so p9p it definitely the best take google has made!! hopefully they will keep this line in future

[joselde]

The tensor performance is what gets me. Charging that kind of money for a chip that can’t compete with what some phones put out a year to 2 years ago is a travesty. With snapdragon and apple chips you know you’re phone is good for 2-3 years if not more when it comes to processing speed during that time.

[rockowilson]

I'm soo over these pastel colors. Give me a metallic cherry red color already. 🍒

[RTPeters]

It's insulting to even have 128 GB of storage. I get that they want people to pay for cloud storage but c'mon...

[wade_county]

I'll wait for the Pixel 10. Barely an upgrade from the Pixel 8 as much as these content creators want you to believe.

[aliquresh]

I love the new design, but I'm sticking to my Pixel 8 for now.

[unkitjc]

I am not able to form a "complete" opinion about how to think about making a flagship android phone purchase, because on one hand the Pixels cost more this year than they did last year - purely hardware to hardware the upgrades seem minimal. On the other hand, they both will potentially get 7 years of OS updates, not just security updates. Oh and I almost forgot that the Pixel 8 Series & Pixel 9 series now both have launched with Android 14, so now I am thinking they're both going to see end of life software updates at the same time? On top of that I don't know if Google will maintain the Pixel Feature Drop for the full duration of OS updates (hardware limitations aside). The time scale we're looking at is unprecedented, I hope the coverage of new launches take these things into account.

[rajah]

I'll be picking up the Google pixel 9Pro XL.
It will be my first Pixel phone.

[kreamypie]

Skip the 9 and wait for 10. Google will probably do something special to pixel phones for its 10th gen pixel phone

[ArthurZakaryan]

I like the aesthetic of the P9P phones but upgrades wise, to the hardware, there doesn't seem to be enough there over the 8 Pro I'm using now.

I feel like they are saving a bigger overhaul for next year's phones.

[curtiswrigley]

Have they fixed the modem? Funny how no reviewers test the modem any more. Pixel modem so far has been terrible.

[shApYT]

It's a skip cause the next one is gonna be TSMC