Google Pixel 9 Pro XL Review: Is AI The New King of Android?

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL: A Phone That’s All About AI, But Does It Deliver?

Love it or hate it, AI features on smartphones are here to stay and are only going to become more prevalent. This year, even Apple, a company known for its reluctance to embrace new technology, has jumped aboard the AI train with iOS 18. Google, on the other hand, has been actively pushing AI innovation for several years, and its latest flagship, the Pixel 9 Pro XL, is a testament to this commitment.

I’ve been using the Pixel 9 Pro XL for a few weeks now, and while its AI features are impressive, I’ve found that its success depends on your perspective. Google’s focus on AI has also led to some much-needed hardware upgrades, which make this a powerful smartphone even without considering its AI capabilities.

Google 9 Pro XL Design: Finally, a Pixel That Feels Premium

• Dimensions: 162.8mm x 76.6mm x 8.5mm
• Weight: 221g
• Durability: IP68 (dust and water resistant)

"This feels like an iPhone," was the first thing a non-techy friend said when they saw the phone. While that might not seem like the highest praise, it highlights how the Pixel 9 Pro XL embraces a design that feels familiar and high-end.

The phone features a flat aluminum frame, beveled edges, and a flat back, all of which have become synonymous with Apple’s iPhone design since the iPhone 12. The only real giveaway that this isn’t an iPhone is the tiny, embedded selfie camera instead of a large cutout.

The rear camera module, now a flattened capsule, still protrudes significantly. The size also makes it difficult to use as a stand like you could with the shorter Pixel 9 Pro.

Despite the glass and metal construction, it’s the finish of the edges, camera module, and ports that truly impress. This is a huge improvement over the Pixel 8 Pro and far superior to the iPhone 15 Pro Max which suffers from misaligned panels and sharp edges.

Even with the inclusion of a vapor chamber cooling system and wireless charging, the Pixel 9 Pro XL manages to be as light as the titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max and slimmer than its predecessor, the Pixel 8 Pro. The IP68 rating ensures resistance to water and dust, but remember that water damage is not covered under warranty.

Google 9 Pro XL Display: Bright, Beautiful, But With Rounded Corners

• Display: 6.8-inch, 1,344 x 2,992 pixels, 1Hz – 120Hz
• Display Type: Flat, LTPO, OLED
• Display protection: Gorilla Glass Victus 2 (front and rear)

The new "Pro XL" name signifies a slightly larger display (on paper) compared to previous Pro models. It’s incredibly bright, reaching 3,000 nits peak brightness, making it viewable even in direct sunlight. The colors are natural and accurate thanks to the "Natural" color preset in the settings.

While not as sharp as the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s display, it still delivers a crisp and clear viewing experience. The under-display fingerprint reader has been upgraded to an ultrasonic sensor, which is significantly more reliable than previous models.

The biggest drawback to the display is the excessive curvature of the rounded corners. This leads to wasted screen space, similar to iPhones. Even with the status bar pushed higher up, there is still plenty of wasted space, reducing the usable area of the 6.8-inch display to almost the same as the Pixel 8 Pro’s 6.7-inch display.

The combination of rounded corners and skinny bezels ultimately means the Pixel 7 Pro’s display feels larger due to its wider aspect ratio and sharper corners. However, despite this, the placement of content on the screen still feels aesthetically pleasing.

Google 9 Pro XL Software: All About AI, But Is It Too Much?

• Software: Pixel UI
• Version: Android 14
• Software commitment: 7 years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop updates

Google’s Pixel UI remains visually similar to previous iterations, but this time it’s heavily infused with AI features, particularly on the "Pro" models. These features are designed to enhance your experience and automate tasks in creative ways.

Add Me is a fun and potentially useful feature, but it blurs the line between reality and fabrication. You can add yourself to a photo you were not physically present in. While it’s technically not cheating, it does raise questions about authenticity and potential guilt.

Pixel Screenshots provides a convenient way to organize and manage your screenshots. You can search through them, find specific details, and even extract information from them. It’s a handy tool for those who rely heavily on screenshots.

Pixel Studio is another AI-powered tool that is still in beta. It allows you to create images by typing descriptions or using your artistic vision. It can be used to create whimsical creations like edible dog cakes, Oreo pizzas, or even a bridge on fire. However, Google is constantly placing limits on what the tool can generate, ensuring it doesn’t create harmful or inappropriate images.

Reimagine is a powerful image editing tool within the Photos app that lets you reframe photos or completely change the background. It’s impressive how realistically it can change the surroundings while retaining the original subject, although results can vary depending on the image.

Zoom Enhance utilizes AI to magically enhance photos captured at 15-30X digital zoom. It adds pixels and sharpens the image, resulting in slightly better results than the original.

Gemini Live, Google’s conversational AI, is a major highlight of the Pixel 9 Pro XL. While not as powerful as Open AI’s GPT-4, it’s incredibly responsive and conversational. However, it is still under development and its responses are not always accurate. Despite its limitations, Gemini Live offers a uniquely engaging AI experience.

AI is also present in other apps, such as the weather app with AI weather reports, Keep for generating lists, and even the new Car Crash Detection feature. Satellite SOS has been announced at launch, but is currently only available in the U.S.

Google 9 Pro XL Performance: A Mixed Bag

• Processor: Google Tensor G4
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 256/512GB

While the Pixel 9 Pro XL excels in AI, its raw performance falls behind competitors. Foldables like the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro are miles ahead with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.

However, the Pixel 9 Pro XL doesn’t experience any noticeable stuttering, even during heavy multitasking. This is likely due to the 16GB of RAM which ensures apps remain in memory and also helps with the speed of AI tasks.

Benchmarks:

Despite the VC cooling system, gaming performance is still below par compared to other flagships. The reason for this is the display’s slow touch sampling rate. This causes a noticeable lag, even with the new Adaptive Touch feature that adjusts touch sensitivity based on the environment.

You would expect that with a new chip, more RAM, and a VC system, the camera would be buttery smooth. This is not the case. The phone still struggles after shooting several portrait photos consecutively, a problem that was experienced with the Pixel 8 Pro.

The phone includes two speakers, which provide rich sound quality. The main speaker, however, is located at the bottom of the phone and gets easily covered and muffled when playing games or watching videos.

Google 9 Pro XL Cameras: "Pixel" Perfect?

• Main camera: 50-megapixel (OIS), f/1.6 aperture, AF
• Ultra-wide camera: 48-megapixel, 0.5X, f/1.7 aperture, AF
• Telephoto camera: 48-megapixel (OIS), 5X optical, f/2.8 aperture, AF
• Selfie camera: 42-megapixel, f/2.2 aperture, AF

The Pixel 9 Pro XL’s primary camera captures detailed images with excellent dynamic range and sharpness. Colors are balanced and natural, closely matching real-life scenes. The 2X magnification level is a digital crop of the primary sensor, but it’s surprisingly impressive.

While the Portrait mode works well even in low light, edge detection can be inconsistent. Sometimes it’s perfect, and other times it’s a complete mess.

Selfie camera edge detection, even compared to the Pixel 8 Pro, is not impressive. Despite the high-resolution sensor, the overall image quality is similar with minor improvements in daylight and low light.

The 5X telephoto camera captures sharp photos with good detail in all lighting conditions. It delivers decent results up to 10X magnification, but beyond that, image quality suffers. The new Zoom Enhance AI tool can be used to improve blurry images, but the results are not transformative.

The ultra-wide camera produces slightly soft images in daylight with blown-out highlights and purple fringing. This is an issue that the Pixel 8 Pro manages better. However, in low light, the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s ultra-wide camera captures more detail, especially in darker areas.

Video quality benefits significantly from the new VC cooling system. This prevents automatic downscaling and quality drops due to heat. While the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s video quality is still not as good as the Pixel 8 Pro, the VC cooling system makes it much better than older Pixels.

In low light, noise is noticeable, but overall video quality is acceptable. However, it’s still not on par with the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s incredibly stable frame rates. Video Boost comes to the rescue by enhancing clarity, boosting contrast and colors, and stabilizing video for smoother panning movements. It even works on footage captured in low light (Night Sight Video), reducing noise and enhancing quality.

A downside of Video Boost is that it takes time to process the video and there is no estimate of how long it will take for the boosted video to be ready.

Google 9 Pro XL Battery: Meets Pixel Expectations

• Battery capacity: 5,060mAh
• Charging rate: 45W
• Wireless charging: 23W

Given the minimal battery increase over the previous model, I didn’t expect much in terms of battery life. Our video loop battery life test yielded 12 hours and 19 minutes, slightly lower than the Pixel 8 Pro. With heavy usage (photo and video capture, calls), the phone lasted a full day, but with only 18 percent remaining by the end of the workday.

This is acceptable for a Pixel, but it’s still a one-day smartphone and falls behind the competition.

Using a 65W GaN charger, charging took 1 hour and 30 minutes. Google claims the full 45W charging rate can only be achieved with its proprietary charger, which is not yet available in India.

Google 9 Pro XL Verdict: A Solid Pixel with a Focus on AI

The Pixel 9 Pro XL, priced at Rs. 1,24,999 for the 256GB variant and Rs. 1,39,999 for the 512GB variant, is the high-end Pro model Google should have released last year.

While it lags behind Samsung and Vivo in terms of raw performance and hardware, it offers a significant level of AI integration. Although Google positions the AI as helpful and time-saving, it does raise ethical concerns. The Pixel 9 Pro XL demonstrates the potential of AI on a smartphone, but users can choose to embrace or ignore it.

This year’s Pixel Pro also feels more premium than previous models and addresses some of the major hardware shortcomings of past Pixels, such as heat management and display brightness. Battery life is a point of contention, and Gemini Advanced features are expensive. However, many Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro users, and even some iPhone users, may be tempted to upgrade due to the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s significant improvements.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL is a solid phone with a strong commitment to AI. It’s a compelling option for those who are eager to embrace the future of smartphone technology, but it’s essential to consider the ethical implications and the price tag before diving in.

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