Review: Google Pixel 9 Pro XL — the best Android experience

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• Design

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is the biggest and best Android smartphone on the market today. It offers an amazing user experience and is capable of matching the best smartphone cameras in the world, in any environment.

Google announced their 2024 flagship smartphone line-up just a week ago.  This year they launched four new Pixel 9 devices, the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro, the Pixel 9 Pro XL and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

With their respective availability being staggered in the coming weeks there will be reviews trickling out so it will be difficult to keep up.  We suggest you keep your eye on TechGuide for reviews as they are published.  

First cabs off the rank are the Pixel 9 and the Pixel 9 Pro XL – their ‘traditional’ Pixel-sized and specced phones.  Dan has been checking out the Pixel 9 for the past week or so whereas I’ve had my hands on the Pixel 9 Pro XL.  

 

You can read his thoughts here but if you want to hear my thoughts on the big dog, the Pixel 9 Pro XL, read on below.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL is a direct replacement for the Pixel 8 Pro with size and specs (accounting for the usual yearly spec bump) virtually identical to each other.  This year, like most things in life, the Pixel 9 Pro XL has seen a price hike.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL price starts as $1,849 which is $150 more than last year.  We did see the spec bumps but not much out of the usual yearly bump.  Inflation.

 

WHAT’S NEW

The design is of course the first thing you see that is new.  The soft curving rear of the Pixel phones of previous years are gone, replaced with a newer boxier design and a metal frame around the sides of the phone.  It reminds me a lot of the iPhone 15 but that’s not a bad thing.

The rear of the phone has a boxier design too with the camera bar now a camera pill.  I’m here for it and, combined with the matte glass finish on the rear of the device, the new edging and shape offers a stylish, premium looking and feeling design.

 

The camera bump is such that the phone still sits easily and safely on its back on your desk without any rocking when using it.  The volume rocker, power button and USB-C port are still there in the same location.

Google has released a new colour with the Pixel 9 Pro XL, Rose Quartz (it is also available in Obsidian, Porcelain and Hazel) which is a pastel colouring of a soft pink and I’m here for it.  It’s the pink that is soft and is worn by both men and women these days.  

The front of the Pixel 9 Pro XL houses a massive 6.8-inch Super Actua display with a peak brightness a massive 3000nits and bezels that are even smaller, 15% smaller than last year in fact!  At 2K resolution (1344 x 2992 LTPO OLED at 486 PPI) it supports a refresh rate of anywhere between 1Hz and 120Hz offering a smooth experience and also a lasting battery. Big, bold and beautiful with colours that pop and an easy, flowing experience. 

Inside is Google’s new processor, the Tensor G4 which offers 20% faster web browsing and 17% faster loading of apps.  The new chipset also allows the Pixel 9 Pro XL to run Gemini Nano onboard allowing you to get the most out of their AI assistant.  

 

On a day to day basis it seems snappier than last year but for me it’s more that the added AI workloads and software do not slow it down.  The Pixel Experience, which in my opinion is the best smartphone experience in the world, is not slowed or encumbered by the new AI processing requirements thanks to the new chipset.

This year Google has also finally improved their fingerprint sensor.  Yes, you can still use face unlock securely for all banking apps and unlocking your phone but for some a fingerprint is easier (eg. if wearing a mask etc).  The in-display fingerprint sensor is now an ultrasonic sensor making it not only still accurate and consistent but also lightning fast.  

 

WHAT’S GREAT

Some of the things I think are great about the Pixel 9 Pro XL I’ve already discussed above – the design being number 1 on the list.  This is a big change for Google and I’m surprised they’ve gone with a design that is so similar to the iPhone 15

Google has some useful and innovative camera software features and this year they have introduced even more.  There’s a new Add Me, where you can add yourself, the original photographer, into a photo after you’ve taken it.

 

The other big new feature is Auto Frame in Magic Editor.  The editor will suggest new framing of photos you have already taken based on  ‘known photographic techniques’, you can even add or remove people or things in the background to finish the edit.

The Zoom Enhance on a Pixel is not just new but quite impressive. The Pixel 9 Pro XL includes a 5x optical zoom, but can also offer a 30x zoom.  Zoom Enhance lets you crop out a section of a photo and have Google AI process it to make it look like a zoomed in shot.

 

It’s super simple to do from Google Photos simply open the photo, tap edit and then scroll to the Zoom Enhance option under ‘Tools’

Gemini AI is good but from my limited testing it has very limited use cases.  I’m sure the more you use it the more ways you’ll discover to use it.  I was helping my daughter search for her first car so I asked Gemini AI to compare the 2022 Suzuki Swift GL and GLS models.  It gave me a very useful and handy list that helped us to decide which car to go with.

 

Google’s Assistant Voice typing deserves a mention in the What’s Great segment.  As someone who is on the road a lot for work I often have to quickly reply to messages without touching my phone.  

Assistant Voice typing is the fastest and most accurate voice typing on the market.  No other brand or manufacturer comes even close.  It not just listens to what you are saying but checks to see if it makes sense and corrects it to what it should be more often than not.   Not only does it type what you want it to but you can command it to send the message when you’re done dictating it.

 

The Pixel 9 Pro XL does support a faster charging speed this year, as do the rest of the Pixel 9 series – if you purchase Google’s new 45W USB Type-C charger for $49.99.  The Pixel 9 series now supports fast wired charging rates up to 27 W on Pixel 9, up to 27 W on Pixel 9 Pro and up to 37 W on Pixel 9 Pro XL. 

Unfortunately we haven’t gotten our hands on a Pixel Charger for testing, but on their Google Store page, they advise ‘Pixel 9 Pro XL can charge to 70% in about 30 minutes’.

 

GEMINI AI

A big ticket item for Google this year is Gemini AI and I’m sure the more we use it the better it, and we, will become.  There were times it wasn’t great and it kept trying to do things before I had finished my command as I was pausing to try and tell it exactly what to do.

Within Gemini AI there are a couple new AI features – Pixel Studio and Pixel Screenshots.

 

Pixel Studio is, in a nutshell, an AI image generator that runs directly on your phone.  It provides for a simple interface and allows you to generate an image from a text prompt which you can modify, or play around with an existing image, including removing objects or even clipping parts out to create stickers to add to your AI images.  Handy for trolling a friend in a chat but not earth shattering — it is still hit and miss in its accuracy, as most AI image generators are.

 

Pixel  Screenshots is an app where all your screenshots are dumped automatically and you can organise them into collections allowing similar information to be grouped together.  Gemini AI processes them all allowing the app to be searchable – eg. What is the password for the Guest Wi-Fi at the AirBNB?

Gemini AI will also summarise the information on each screenshot that is also searchable within the app.  I’d like it to go one step further and search the Internet for similar products etc and tell me about them if I ask.

 

CAMERA

Google’s Pixel smartphone cameras have always excelled thanks to their excellent computational photography capabilities.  The Pixel 9 Pro XL is no different offering great imaging in all situations with night video better than ever with Night Sight Video.

The rear camera array includes a 50 MP main sensor, a 48MP Ultra-Wide sensor with 123° field of view that can also double as a macro sensor for shots as close as 2cm, and a 48 MP telephoto sensor with optical zoom up to 5x. 

 

 

On the front, Google has updated the 12MP front-facing sensor used on the Pixel 8 Pro to a massive 48MP sensor on the Pixel 9 Pro XL, which also has a wider 103° field of view. 

The photos offer crisp details, colours that pop but are also not over saturated that so many other manufacturers do.  It is fast to focus and takes great photos quickly.  What’s not to love?  

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is a healthy upgrade from its predecessor, the Pixel 8 Pro.  It received a bump in power, overall specs including an improved camera and has even smaller bezels than last year.  The new design is exceptionally premium and stylish making it great to look at and to hold.

Its camera is able to match the best in the business, producing amazing pictures in any scenario or environment and with Google adding even more AI features to its computational photography the Pixel 9 Pro XL is a photographic beast.

The catch is the cost — it compares well to similarly specced phones though — and starting at A$1,849 it is not cheap.  If you are looking in this price range and you want the biggest and best smartphone Google has to offer then you are not missing out on anything.  It is the best Android smartphone on the market.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is available now through the Google Store online, as well as JB HIFI, Telstra, Optus, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and Vodafone starting at A$1,849.

Another Aussie view:

Head over to GadgetGuy for Chris’ take on the Google Pixel 9 Pro for another Aussie perspective on this cracking device.