“Pro” no longer means “large,” and the Fold is the biggest screen ever.
Google announced its fall lineup of Pixel phones today: three standard phones and a second tablet-esque folding model. There are new chips, new cameras, Satellite SOS, and some notable promises, like the 9 phones being “twice as durable” as their Pixel 8 equivalents and getting seven years of updates. But as you might expect this year, they’re primarily showcases for all the things Google’s Gemini AI promises to do for you.
Here’s what’s new, what’s coming, and when you can ask your phone to make a shopping list for taco night for a family of six.
Gemini is in the power button, the screenshots, and a free premium subscription
It’s not just you—Google really is “infusing AI into everything we do,” as noted on its Keyword blog today. Here’s a short list of what Google says Android phone owners can do with Gemini:
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- Speak to Gemini “naturally the way you would with another person”
- Bring up an overlay (holding power button) over other apps to ask about things on-screen
- Generate images from that overlay and drop them into apps, like Gmail or Messages
- Use “Gemini Live,” a “mobile conversational experience” in which you could, for example, “brainstorm potential jobs well-suited for your skillset or degree”
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Gemini Live is launching today for Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android, with iOS coming soon. New extensions to Gemini, and contextual overlay for non-Pixel devices, should arrive “in the coming weeks.”
You might think you won’t use Google’s Gemini as much as Google thinks you will, but Google aims to change your mind with one free year of the Google One AI Premium Plan (i.e., “Gemini Advanced“), which is bundled into a Pixel 9 Pro or Pro XL purchase. That also grants you access to what Google is doing with Gemini in Gmail, Docs, and maybe search, along with a 2TB storage plan.
Holding the power button on an AI-enabled Pixel 9 Pro will bring up a dashboard that allows for writing, asking, or searching through interconnected Google apps for information. Like Google Lens, you can ask Gemini about what’s on your screen or ask it about something in a photo you snap. It’s a little unclear which features may eventually get backported to the Pixel 9 or other Android phones generally. That’s probably the idea: if you’re excited about this stuff, Google strongly suggests paying $200 more.
What’s the difference between “Pro” and “XL”?
From the first Pixel phones through the Pixel 4, the “XL” model was extra large: bigger battery, and a larger and better (QHD vs. FHD+) screen . Starting with the Pixel 6, the “Pro” phone also had more memory, storage options, camera lenses, and power. Now Pixel phones include a Fold, and Google’s AI focus provides justification for a “Pro” model beyond just size.
With the 9 series, the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro are each the same size, give or take a single gram of weight, and have the same battery, at around 4,700 mAh. The Pixel 9 Pro has a higher-resolution screen, 200 more nits of brightness at 2,000, and a variable refresh rate from 1 to 120 Hz, but it’s still the same 6.3-inch screen. The 9 Pro has 16GB RAM, while the regular 9 has 12, and the 9 Pro offers storage options between 128GB and 1TB, while the regular 9 is 128GB or 256GB.
The cameras on each model have dozens of differences, of course, which we’ll discuss below. And the Pixel 9 Pro has an Ultra-Wideband chip (UWB) to better locate things.
The Pixel 9 Pro XL has a larger screen (6.8-inch) at higher resolution (1344×2992, 486 PPI) than the Pro and a bigger 5,060 mAh battery. It otherwise matches all the specs of the Pixel 9 Pro, minus the camera. There’s a lot of camera in all the Pixels, but some more than others.
Camera specs
Do you like cameras? Do you like machine learning? Do you like phones with cameras and ML-based editing? Google sure hopes so. Here’s what the newest models offer for shooting and touching up.
All three Pixel 9 phones have two starter cameras on the back: a 50 MP wide-angle and a 48 MP ultrawide. The Pixel 9 Pro and XL tout a third camera, a 48 MP 5x telephoto that zooms up to 10x at optical quality and 30x through software. The standard Pixel 9 ultrawide can zoom up to 2x optical and “Super Res Zoom” to 8x.
The Pro and XL models can also pull off 8K video recording at 30 fps, along with 4K and 1080 video, which all models can capture up to 60 fps. Digital zoom on the 9’s video footage goes to 7x, while the Pro and XL run up to 20x.
There are a few features and editing tools that are different among the models. The Pro and XL models get Pro Controls and high-res export, plus Zoom Enhance on photos. For video, the Pro and XL have exclusive Video Boost, Night Sight, and Super Res Zoom video.
All of these phones have a Tensor G4 chip inside, and the Pixel 9 has 4GB less RAM than the other two. Are the exclusive Pro and Pro XL editing features just differentiation for the sake of differentiation? Could the Pixel 9 offer those same features, if slightly slower?
What about the new Fold?
There’s a new fold, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and Google introduced it to the press as “an epic display of Google AI.” But it also has “the largest display on a phone” at 8 inches, and it has a hinge made of stainless steel and an “aerospace-grade high-strength aluminum alloy cover.”
The external screen is roughly the same size as the Pixel 9 (or Pro) at 6.3 inches, and the whole thing folds out to a 6.1×5.9-inch square-ish shape. Google is claiming 24-plus hours of battery life at 4,650 mAh battery capacity. It ships with 16GB of RAM, and storage is generally 256GB or 512GB. The cameras on the back are a 48 MP wide, 10.5 MP ultrawide, and 10.8 MP telephoto at 5x zoom, and the front and inner cameras are 10 MP video-call handlers.
Further Reading
Pixel Fold review: The first foldable that actually feels like a tablet
We would need some hands-on time with the Fold’s version of Android to really know what’s new. Google did a lot of work on tablet UI for the initial Pixel Fold, but we noted a sizable punchlist of remaining things to fix, including unusable space.
What, when, and how much
The devices Google announced today will be available on these dates, starting at these prices:
- Pixel 9 ($799), 9 Pro ($999), and Pro XL ($1,099): August 22
- Pixel 9 Pro Fold ($1,799): September 4
This post was updated at 1:13 p.m. to note the inclusion of Satellite SOS on all Pixel 9 models. It was updated again at 8:55 p.m. to note the difference in screen options for the Pixels 1-4.
