Google Pixel 9 Pro - Unlocked Android Smartphone with Gemini, Triple Rear Camera System, 24-Hour Battery, and 6.3" Super Actua Display - Obsidian - 256 GB

I've had the Pixel 9 Pro XL for a week, and after countless hours of testing, I am quite happy with my purchase. To be clear, I am a regular person (not a professional reviewer) and I paid for the phone with my own money. No handouts or compensation here. I would venture to say that the majority of complaints about this 9th gen Pixel are from people who don't have one (Verified Purchase?). This is a great phone. Everything just works, and works well. It is responsive and fast; while Samsung and Apple flagships may win benchmarks, in real world use, this phone is able to handle everything I've thrown at it. And real world use is where this phone shines. I come from Samsung and did not like their bloated UI and baked-in Samsung apps. This is the purest possible Android experience and it shows. Everything just works, intuitively, and works well. It's been a few years since I used an iPhone as my daily driver, but anyone who is stuck on iPhone as the "just works" phone, check this phone out. If you prefer the Google ecosystem (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, etc), the Pixel is the way to go. They are all deeply integrated without the bloat or workarounds on other phones. I've heard of problems attaining the fastest charging levels without buying the expensive Google charger, but I charge on a wireless charger at night while I sleep. Even using a third-party (and cheap) wireless charger, it charges decently. It seems this phone requires the charger to bump voltage to get the 37 watt charging, so if you care about squeezing in your charges at the fastest charging speeds, perhaps get the official Google wired charger or be very thorough in your charger research. But I dont think you'll need it. For me, charging speeds don't matter with this big battery. It has lasted me all day, every day, and I have intensely used it from sunup to sundown. Never once have I risked needing to charge it between 5am and 10pm. As long as the phone lasts all day and only needs to be charged at night, I don't think it matters if it takes 90 minutes to charge. But that's a personal decision for you to make for yourself. The camera is amazing. It takes some of the best photos I've seen come from a phone. And while there are plenty of choices out there for post-processing your photos, having features like Video Boost or Zoom Enhance baked right into the Photos app makes it a simple joy to take photos and edit them. I challenge anyone to find a simpler and easier workflow for taking the best possible photos. If you want to take amazing photos and be able to edit and enhance them in a few seconds without switching between an array of apps, this phone is for you. Of course third-party editing apps are a Play Store away, but you probably won't them them. I know Google hypes the AI, but generally that's not why I got the phone, so I'll leave the in-depth AI reviews to others. Some of it is fun -- Magic Editor is a fun toy and Zoom Enhance stretches the boundaries of what's possible on a phone camera, but things like Gemini Live feel a little half baked. Don't get me wrong; Gemini Live is a leap forward for Google, but the AI as a whole feels disjointed. Gemini Live doesn't communicate directly with regular Gemini, and while it's great for chatting, it can't do even basic tasks (which requires switching to the other Gemini). It's also quite perplexing that there are still basic Google Assistant functions that Gemini can't call up. It feels like it should be a basic ask to relay all Assistant functions, but it's not that simple. These are minor annoyances that will hopefully improve in the future, but (to Google) if you're going to hype the AI so much, please have it more integrated and seemless than this. It feels like a miss that the feature you're hyping the most is the one with the most blemishes. But AI is quickly evolving. Maybe my comments will be moot in a week. And like I said, since I didn't get the phone for the AI, this isn't a ding for me. I'll update if any issues arise, but so far I'm very satisfied with my purchase. This is my first Pixel, and I can see why there are Pixel fans. This phone might not be everything to everyone, but it's not supposed to be. If you want a premium phone that feels great, looks great, and does what it does very well, give this newest Pixel a shot. If you're using an iPhone but not yet too deeply invested in their closed box, or if you're a Samsung owner who's tired of the bloat, I recommend checking out the Pixel 9 Pro XL. It's great to have so much choice in the smartphone world, and I believe this is a choice worthy of your attention.

Ok I owed a iPhone 15 pro max, the s24 ultra, the s24 plus and now the pixel 9 pro xl. I returned the s24 plus to switch to this pixel. S24 ultra with its sharp corners and weight was too much - sold that on ebay. Thank you Amazon for your great return policy. Now I have a pixel!!!!! Ok the YouTube reviews really miss some key points here. I am using the Nova launcher in this btw The phone is buttery smooth. I mean smooth like perfect animations. The weigh feels great. Quality build but not too heavy or big. Same size at s24 plus and weigh feels same in hand but a little more rounded and comfortable. The haptic feed back is the best I have ever seen. And it is integrated everywhere in the os. Super awwsome experience. I can type like a pro on this better than iPhone due to the haptics and keyboard smarts. The os is great no duplicate Samsung apps and confusion with Samsung account etc. that can lead into a hot mess. the speakers in this blow Samsung's out of the water. a perfect balanced sound with bass. Not tinny like Samsung. Speakerphone actually works well. Build quality is apple level. Screen is stunning. And the CAMERA. Rank #2 in all mobile cameras. See Dxo reviews. Yes iPhone 16 pro is ranked below this. No shutter lag like the samsungs. It just knows how to take the picture Everytime. Then there is Google snap seed app and the ai features which take this to a different level. The ai is super cool. The phone argued with me over the buffalo bills season so far with a logical conversation. It was surreal. Go bills. Phone does not get hot and charges fast too. The whole worry about this being a tensor 4 chip is far overblown. This phone is super fast in day to day with no issues at all. Battery life is great too Android auto work great as well. The os is really tight always one step ahead of me. Phone features are great too. With RFC now adopted by apple iMessage this is the phone to get! Ps. The camera will blow your mind!!!!! Bye bye Samsung and apple. Helllooooo pixel!

I have been using Samsung phones since they first came out, with the S4 being one of my most memorable experiences. I appreciated some of the more rugged, active-style Samsung models I could take to work with me, especially during my younger years working on the pipeline. However, as I grew older and focused on my education, my phone became essential for assisting me with schoolwork, alongside my laptop, throughout most of my college career. Now that I am finishing my education and starting my career, I rely on my phone to help me accomplish various goals throughout the day. Before switching to the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, my last phone was the Samsung Galaxy S21. Simply put, the Pixel 9 Pro XL is exceptional. It receives regular and helpful updates from Google and tends to get updated Android versions faster than other phone variants. This is great if you prioritize updating your software efficiently and promptly. This phone charges relatively quickly. It also has a feature that allows it to charge slowly overnight, which helps extend battery life. Speaking of the battery, it lasts all day long. I can often get close to three-quarters of a second day if necessary, even with regular work and personal use. I have never had to enable power saver mode, and when the phone drops to 20%, it automatically shifts to a lower power mode, extending battery life significantly. The screen is clear and highly functional; I have experienced no sensitivity issues. The picture quality and resolution are excellent, and the videos play smoothly without any problems. The camera is user-friendly and takes stunning photos. You can see the attached pictures in my review. Although I'm not a professional photographer, the images have great detail, with a good balance of shadows, contrast, highlights, and other important elements. The "Add Me" function on the camera is fairly easy to use. When you take the first picture and then add yourself to a second one, if you position yourself correctly, it can be tough to tell that the picture wasn't taken in one shot. Overall, I highly recommend making the switch if you're considering it. I've heard positive feedback from others who transitioned from iPhones to this phone, and it does include some features that could facilitate the change. While I'm not an iPhone user myself, I suggest talking to someone who is to explore that perspective further. Lastly, if you get it, get a case. With a screen protector, fingerprint functionality will be subpar. But I want an unblemished screen, so I suffer the effects.

Beautiful phone but also really fast, maybe one of the most optimized phones I've had in terms of system and resource management. Processor is not so good for gaming but it will suffice for some casual gaming. For $650 this is a top phone.

-Look & Feel The look and feel of the phone is premium. I love the way it looks all around, especially the back cover, and that the the sides of the phones are shiny but have none-chrome look to it. It certainly look premium for the value for money. As for the feel of the phone, it's really slippery all around. There's really nothing on the phone that has texture or anything that can add grip to the phone. As a result, I have to be very careful when handling it on a day to day basis. -Build quality The overall build quality feels good and seems durable. However, there are a few things to note: it's using the older Gorilla Glass Victus 2 though, an old glass from years ago. Also, on my particular model, I noticed that the lower right edge of the screen, where the screen meets the frame, is slightly sharper than the rest of the edges that are normally smooth. I'll assume that's within tolerance levels, but it's something that I'll be very careful and watch over as I'm concerned if it's a weak point of the screen if it's not perfectly aligned. -Camera The camera quality is fantastic. By default though, the main camera isn't taking pictures at 50MP and needs to be toggled on in the settings. I've used the main camera, telephoto, and selfies cameras to take some really nice pictures while on vacation. A feature I would regularly use is the add-me which is able to add one person, the person taking the initial photo, into the group picture. The other feature I enjoy is the ability to remove people or objects in a photo, such as a person in the background or objects, and I've found it useful to clean up the photo. It's not perfect, as certain edges where adjustments were made can smudge, but it does a good job. -Software The software in the phone is truly amazing for me. I really like the built in Google AI features on the phone and how useful they are. I can quickly edit photos, circle and search for things on my screen, ask the AI to look at my phone screen and ask the AI questions about what I'm looking at, and it can interact with other Google apps to make changes. A neat benefit when I got the phone was that there was an offer for a free 1-year subscription included to the Google Gemini AI Pro. That's a really nice value included with it. I would say that the AI is a big highlight of the phone features and I'm very happy with it. -Battery Life Battery life has been holding up just fine for me. I can start off the day at 100% and get through the day with out 30% left by the evening. I do regularly use my phone throughout the day as I look through emails, answer calls, reply to text, and sometimes watch videos. I'm overall happy with it so far. Overall, I'm very happy with the phone so far. The AI software is very useful from a day to day basis and I found myself using it a lot more than I did with my old phone. It is unlocked right out of the box and I was able to get my physical sim card and esim setup running at the same time. It's a beautiful looking phone and the build quality overall is solid. The few criticisms I have of the phone is that my particular unit has a slightly sharp edge on the bottom right corner where the screen meets the frame and that has me slightly concerned in the long run. Also, the phone is very slippery to handle by design and can easily slip out of the hand if not careful. Just a tip, for some reason, the default resolution isn't set to the highest and needs to toggled in the settings.

Good phone, latest google flagship and you get priority updates with a long support life. Also much easier to root and mod than non-google phones thanks to the bootloader being unlocked. Camera quality is also high and phone feels responsive. Battery easily lasts a full day with regular use, but it can fall short if you're using it heavily. Few minor complaints: 1) It was quite expensive when I bought it and the phone was a good 9 months old at that time. Later I found that if I had waited another month or so, I could've gotten it for $300 cheaper. 2) The saturation out of the box is quite low and you can't really increase it. I was coming from a 10 year old S8+ and the colors were much better on that phone. I was, however, able to make changes to the saturation using an app after rooting, but you will need to put in some work to get it to work. 3) The phone can get a bit hot at times.

~16 months after purchasing, it bricked itself - suddenly stopped charging and wouldn't turn on. Prior to that, it has just been unsatisfactory. When I purchased it, it was the top phone from one of the top manufacturers, and honestly, it's been one of the worst phones I've had in years. Not unusable, just inconvenient. For example, the keyboard disappears if you move the phone while texting, and you have to back out of the program and go back in to get it back. Lots of stuff like that that you wouldn't expect from one of the most expensive and supposedly well-regarded brands. Sometimes I wonder if all the glowing reviews are just about wanting to be on the bandwagon, because the phone was... fine. But nothing more special than any other phone - not faster or smoother despite having high stats, not better battery, not more spectacular pictures. And then it's a piece of junk after a little over a year. I'm probably going to keep using Android, because it's what I'm used to, but after this, my third Google phone, I won't be getting another phone from them. The one star is the price to value rating.

Having been a Pixel user since the very first model, I can say the build quality has come a long way from the 1st pixel. They have consistetnly felt premium in hand. Personally I think it is a really good looking, high-end device feeling device, and the chrome accents give it a sleek, modern look that stands out. Display & Performance The screen is phenomenal, especially with its 3,000 nits peak brightness, making it incredibly easy to see even in direct sunlight. Just a tip: don’t forget to toggle on the 120Hz refresh rate in settings to get that silky-smooth experience! While some tech enthusiasts might nitpick the Tensor G4 chip, the 16GB of RAM ensures that daily tasks and multitasking are generally pretty snappy. For the average person, speed will definitely not be an issue. Software & Longevity The "pure Android" experience is still the big draw for me, just like in the Nexus days. One of the best perks is that updates are pushed out directly by Google with no carrier delays. Plus, knowing this phone is supported with Security, OS, and Feature drops until August 2031 gives me a lot of peace of mind for the long haul. Or at least till I upgrade to the 11 or 12(depending on what they release). Camera & AI The camera remains a powerhouse. It might face stiffer competition now, but it still produces fantastic results. The AI tools are a lot of fun to use, and Gemini is integrated naturally into the software. While the basic Gemini is great, I’ve found that the Pro version (part of the Google One AI Premium plan) offers the best experience. I received a one-year subscription with my purchase, which is a really good deal IMO if you can still find it offered. Full disclosure I was a subscriber before the deal so I did find value in upgrading Battery & Audio The battery life is solid. It will get you through a full day of medium to medium high usage even at 120Hz refresh rate, but it’s definitely not a "multiday" champion and will need a charge by bedtime. Call quality is excellent, call screening feature is great and the speakers are good for music and videos if you don't have earbuds or headphones connected. Final Verdict Paired with the Pixel Buds Pro 2, the ecosystem feels more cohesive than ever. If you're looking for a premium Android phone with long-term support and smart AI, I highly recommend the Pixel 9 Pro XL.