Google’s new superphone goes all out on battery, camera and smarts, leading a new line of Android devices that can run the company’s Gemini AI system with a next-generation conversational voice assistant that is a huge leap forward.
The Pixel 9 Pro XL is the biggest normal phone Google makes, costing from £1,099 (€1,199/$1,099/A$1,849) and is joined for the first time this year by a smaller 9 Pro model with the same specs and camera costing £999 (€1,099/$999/A$1,699). The XL is therefore for people who want a huge screen and big battery.
The design of the phone is even more brutish and interesting than last year’s Pixels. The camera bar on the back now stands fully proud, reminiscent of Google’s Nest Doorbells in shape. The sides of the aluminium body have been flattened off, resembling Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max, too.
The huge and super-bright 6.8in screen rivals the very best from Samsung and others, coming into its own when watching video or using it outdoors in direct sunlight.
Inside is Google’s latest Tensor G4 chip, which is up to 20% faster for browsing and 17% faster when launching apps, feeling a bit snappier in day-to-day usage than predecessors. The XL handles games and apps just fine, but it is not up to par with rivals from Qualcomm and Apple on raw processing performance in benchmark tests. Instead, Google designed the chip with the help of its Deepmind subsidiary to increase efficiency and AI processing power, allowing it to run the company’s Gemini Nano system and other models significantly faster.
The result is noticeably longer battery life than its predecessors. The 9 Pro XL lasts up to 52 hours with more than seven hours of actively using the screen on a mixture of 5G and wifi. That is a solid two days between charges and rivals some of the longest-lasting phones available.
Specifications
Screen: 6.8in 120Hz QHD+ OLED (486ppi)
Processor: Google Tensor G4
RAM: 16GB of RAM
Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB
Operating system: Android 14
Camera: 50MP + 48MP ultrawide + 48MP 5x telephoto, 42MP selfie
Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 7, UWB, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and GNSS
Water resistance: IP68 (1.5m for 30 minutes)
Dimensions: 162.8 x 76.6 x 8.5mm
Weight: 221g
Next-gen AI features
The Pixel ships with the same Android 14 as previous models and seven years of software support, making it one of the longest-lasting phones on the market.
The big new additions are all AI related. The 9 Pro XL is one of the first phones to run Google’s latest Gemini Nano AI models on the device, which has enabled a series of new features injecting AI into all sorts of places, from the keyboard to the weather app.
One of the most interesting is the new Screenshots app to collect your screen caps and make them searchable, so you can ask it for a ticket reference for a concert you saved and it will give you a summary and show you the right page. Sometimes it’s summary isn’t 100% accurate, but it’s close enough to show you the right screenshot for a quick glance.
The Pixel Studio app quickly generates images in a range of styles via text prompts, allowing you to edit them, insert objects and turn portions of the image into stickers. It is quite fun but needs an internet connection to work. It won’t yet generate images of people or other blocked terms, and struggles with text on images.
Magic Editor in Google Photos has a few upgrades, too, including the ability to automatically reframe an image by cropping or expanding the canvas using generative AI. The “reimagine” feature goes one step further and can fully recast a photo using a text prompt, such as making it look like a cityscape is sunken under water. There are safeguards on what you can insert into images, but as with all things they can be circumvented. How far you go with it is up to you.
Gemini Live
The most impressive AI feature is the new Gemini Live experience. Unlike text chat or previous voice assistants, Live is fully conversational with human-like responses including a bit of personality and just the right level of brevity.
You simply speak to Gemini as if it was a person for a flowing back and forth open conversation. One conversation I had discussed the fastest parkruns in south-east London, detailing the quickest courses for a personal best. It told me all sorts of facts about each park, including the running surfaces and the travel time via car or public transport for a start from my home. We then discussed the predicted weather and whether the number of people likely to be in attendance could be a hindrance.
It isn’t perfect all the time. It can go on a bit, but you can just talk over the top of it to interrupt it. In one conversation about boys names, it kept suggesting “Jasper” over and over, sounding almost comically obsessed by it. But in all my interactions with it, Gemini Live is light years ahead of what you’d get from Siri, Alexa or others, and actually feels like something I could use daily.
It is not exclusive to the Pixel, but Live does require a £19-a-month Gemini Advanced subscription to access, a year of which is bundled free with any of the Pixel 9 Pro phones.
Camera
The 9 Pro XL’s triple camera setup on the rear is similar to last year’s Pixel 8 Pro, featuring 48MP ultra wide, 50MP main and a 48MP 5x telephoto camera, all of which are excellent.
It captures very detailed and crisp photos across the board but is particularly good in low light and preserves detail in high-contrast scenes very well. The Pixel has an additional 2x zoom option on the main and 5x telephoto cameras, the latter producing the equivalent of a 10x optical zoom to meaningfully close the distance to objects. The additional digital zoom up to 30x is very good in bright light, too.
The new 42MP selfie camera on the front is noticeably brighter and a bit sharper than previous iterations. But Google’s new “Add Me” feature may be the best for group shots. It blends two photos taken back to back to allow the photographer to be added to group shots by swapping over camera duties with another member of the party for the second photo. An augmented reality overlay shows where the additional people should position themselves to be in the combined shot. It works pretty well but requires the second photographer to know how to use the mode properly so took a bit of practice to get right and it sometimes couldn’t handle certain objects, such blending legs erroneously into the edges of tables.
The camera app has many other fun and creative modes but the Pixel is still better than any other at getting good photos in tricky conditions with no user knowledge required.
Sustainability
Google does not provide an expected lifespan for the battery but it should last in excess of 500 full-charge cycles with at least 80% of its original capacity. The phone is repairable by Google and third-party shops, with genuine replacement parts to be available from iFixit soon. Screen replacements will cost about £200.
The Pixel 8 Pro is made with at least 18% recycled materials, including recycled aluminium, plastic, rare earth elements and tin. The company breaks down the phone’s environmental impact in its report. Google will recycle old devices free of charge.
Price
The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL costs from £1,099 (€1,199/$1,099/A$1,849).
For comparison, the Pixel 8a costs £499, the Pixel 9 costs £799, the Pixel 9 Pro costs £999, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra costs £1,149 and the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max costs £1,199.
Verdict
With the Pixel 9 Pro XL, Google has produced its first true superphone to rival Samsung’s S24 Ultra and Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max.
A huge and glorious screen, long battery life, standout looks and a class-leading camera make it one of the best phones you can buy. It is really big, however, requiring two-handed use most of the time, so if that’s a problem its smaller sibling the 9 Pro may be a better option.
Google’s cutting-edge AI additions continue to be a mixture of fun tricks and useful tools, particularly in the camera department, with features such as Magic Editor and Add Me. Gemini Live is a most impressive new thing and meaningfully improves on AI assistants on a phone, but whether it will be worth paying a monthly fee for after the free first year remains to be seen.
The increased price this year stings but the Pixel still undercuts Samsung and Apple’s rivals, and will receive seven years of software support so it should last a long time.
Pros: seven years of software updates, great camera with 5 and 10x optical zoom, great screen, great battery life, recycled aluminium, impressive local and generative AI features, Gemini Live included for a year.
Cons: bump in price, face unlock option not as secure as Face ID, raw performance short of best-in-class, temperature sensor is still a gimmick outside the US, AI doesn’t always get things right.
