An early one-week impression: the Pixel 9 brings useful hardware upgrades and new software, but its iPhone-like design and price rise leave the reviewer torn.
Tensor G4 chip runs smoothly in early testing
Brighter display that is easier to use outdoors
12GB RAM, a 50% increase over the predecessor
Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner performs much better
Ultrawide camera upgraded to 48 megapixels
Design closely resembles the iPhone and loses personality
Glossy back is very slippery
Still lacks LPTO for low refresh rates
Shipped with Android 14 rather than Android 15
Gemini features are unclear and sometimes inconsistent
Verdicts, pros and cons are short summaries in our words of each publisher's review; scores are as the publisher gave them. Specs are taken from the reviews' spec boxes — where they differ, we show the value most of them give; price is the US launch price of the base model. Read the originals for the full picture.
