Pixel 9 Professional XL Overview: Google Goes All In on AI, for Higher or Worse

8.0/ 10
SCORE

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL

Execs

• Genuinely enjoyable new AI abilities
• Smooth new design
• Seven years of software program updates
• Cameras can take nice daytime pictures

Cons

• Digital camera {hardware} hasn’t modified a lot over Pixel 8 Professional
• Gemini AI will ultimately require a paid month-to-month subscription
• Launches with Android 14, not Android 15

The Pixel 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL are Google’s newest flagship telephones, filled with one of the best tech the corporate has to supply, together with a shiny new design, a Tensor G4 processor that ought to supply extra efficiency energy and a wealth of intelligent AI tips. From its conversational Gemini Stay to its Pixel Studio generative AI picture creator, the Pixel 9 Professional has impressed me with its AI abilities — they’re definitely essentially the most thrilling components of the telephone.

However strip away the AI sizzle and the Pixel 9 Professional XL, the mannequin I have been testing, loses a few of its shine. The cameras aren’t that a lot of a step up from final yr’s mannequin and the telephone launches with Android 14, quite than Android 15 as we anticipated. It is a disgrace because the Pixel 9 collection may have been a showcase for Android 15 which might have made them standout extra, particularly as Gemini Superior and Stay may also come to different Android telephones — so it isn’t just like the Pixel 9 Professional XL has them as unique options. 

In any other case, the refreshed design appears to be like excellent and I like that the Professional telephone is available in two sizes: the 6.8-inch Pixel 9 Professional XL and a brand new smaller 6.3-inch Pixel 9 Professional. Whereas the telephones have completely different show and battery sizes, the processors, cameras and different options are similar. It is a good transfer because it means those that need a smaller handset do not need to compromise on efficiency. 

However the addition of a number of sizes has allowed Google to sneakily enhance the worth of its telephones. The bottom Pixel 9 Professional with its smaller display screen begins at $999 (£999, AU$1,699) and certain, the Pixel 8 Professional began at $999 too. However the bigger 9 Professional XL, which is the equal to final yr’s mannequin, has been elevated to $1,099 (1,099, AU$1,849). So throughout my time with the Pixel 9 Professional XL, I needed to see if the brand new telephone lives as much as its larger value.

I also needs to word that this evaluate will probably be related for each the Pixel 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL. When you’re inquisitive about Google’s common mannequin you may learn CNET’s Pixel 9 evaluate right here.

Watch this: Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Overview: AI Dominates This Telephone

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Pixel 9 Professional: All about AI

Whereas the 8 Professional did have some AI abilities, like object elimination and Finest Take, it was only the start. If its predecessor was simply Google dipping its toe within the AI water, the 9 Professional XL is Google doing a full triple somersault with a pike off the highest diving board into the AI pool with its new abilities. 

Google’s Gemini Superior is well accessed by urgent and holding the facility button whilst you ask it one thing. It is fairly good too, giving me genuinely wise responses to my questions on placing glue in a cake (do not do it), what to do in case you discover a giraffe in your hallway (keep calm) or why you should not make a automotive out of cheese. Apparently cheese lacks structural integrity. Now we all know.

Utilizing Gemini Superior is not the top, although. You can too use Gemini Stay, which lets you speak with the AI in a way more pure means, as if you had been having a dialog. The solutions are primarily the identical whichever mode you employ, however with Stay you may interrupt the move to ask facet questions or give deliberately silly opinions on issues simply to see the way it’ll reply. 

I’ve spent a lot of time taking part in round with it and whereas it is definitely nice enjoyable, I’ve usually discovered its info to be inaccurate. One time it really helpful I take heed to a tune that merely would not exist. One other time I requested for prime native consuming suggestions for me, and Gemini instructed a bar that closed years in the past. 

There are numerous different bugs and quirks I’ve discovered whereas testing, but it surely’s a brand new characteristic. I am eager to see the way it matures over the approaching months and, crucially, whether or not I discover a real use for it in my day-to-day life.

A Google spokesperson acknowledged to CNET that hallucinations are a recognized problem with massive language fashions. They stated that Google has instruments for double checking solutions. There’s the “Google it” button, for instance, which evaluates Gemini’s solutions utilizing Google search when attainable. 

Take into accout, too, that Gemini Superior and Stay require a subscription to Google One’s AI bundle, and whilst you do get a yr free whenever you purchase the Pixel 9 Professional, it’s going to ultimately value you $20 a month — though you get 2TB of cloud storage thrown in too. Gemini providers may also be obtainable on different Android gadgets and probably come to older Pixel telephones by way of a characteristic drop, so the Pixel 9 collection aren’t the one telephones you need to use to entry conversational AI.

Pixel 9 Professional: Generative AI and picture modifying

The brand new Add Me device digitally provides you, the photographer, into group photos so no one will get omitted. This is the way it works: You’re taking a gaggle shot of your pals after which hand the telephone to one in every of them. Subsequent, you progress and stand in an area the place no one was whereas your good friend takes one other photograph after which the telephone blends the photographs collectively to place you within the image alongside everybody else. 

It truly works fairly nicely and whereas it is positively simpler to ask a passerby to take the group shot for you, it is nice for these instances when no one is round to assist. Or, in case you’re a narcissist like me, you may merely use it to place your self in the identical picture twice. It would not use generative AI, however as an alternative depends on augmented actuality to line the pictures up and computational abilities to mix the photographs collectively.

Plenty of the AI options are primarily based round imagery. Use the Reimagine operate to pick components of a picture, kind in a immediate and have Google’s generative AI convey your thought to life. You need to use it to interchange backgrounds round a topic, add objects, change the sky to a sundown, add in a wolf lurking behind you (if that is what you are into) or create bizarre apocalyptic pirate scenes just like the one beneath. You are solely restricted by your creativeness — a cliche, however one which’s truly true on this case.

The Reframe device makes use of generative AI to increase the canvas of a picture or assist you to crop it in a extra creative means — it’s going to even generate components of the picture that had been minimize off within the authentic. Samsung’s Galaxy S24 line and different telephones with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip may also do that.

When you do not need to take precise photographs then you may play with Pixel Studio, which can merely generate a picture in quite a lot of kinds out of your textual content prompts. 

Right here, I requested for a fox peering right into a wardrobe with ivy popping out. To this point so good, however I iterated and requested for the wardrobe to be in a misty forest. 

Then I modified the type to anime, which regarded cute, and at last I added an owl sitting on prime. What scene is not improved by including an owl to it?

It took seconds to create these variations and I like the outcomes. Once more although, it may be hit or miss, with some outcomes trying downright weird. 

Once I requested it to jot down “want you had been right here,” like a postcard, that is what it produced. It struggles to generate phrases and it may’t but produce photographs of individuals, however apparently that characteristic will come later. 

What it may do is generate photographs of copyrighted and trademarked materials like Pikachu and Mickey Mouse, so I will be to see how Google handles the curiosity I think it should get from the likes of Disney, Nintendo and others. 

All of those instruments labored nicely in my evaluate time up to now. Whereas the outcomes aren’t all the time good, I sometimes discovered I can get higher outcomes by merely asking the AI to have one other go. 

The larger query I suppose is, do you really need this? With the outcomes usually being considerably weird-looking and the precise picture high quality and particulars being fairly poor, the usefulness of such a picture era proper now appears restricted. Maybe for designers or different creatives wanting to easily play with concepts, it may need some long run software however I think most individuals might discover it little greater than an intriguing novelty or just an alternative choice to utilizing clip artwork, like a poster for a church bake sale.  

Pixel 9 Professional: New options and design

The 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL have a refreshed design with a brand new digicam bar that is extra of a pill-shaped island than a full strip, and the perimeters of the telephone at the moment are flat and polished quite than easily rounded. Personally, I feel it appears to be like nice. I assumed the Pixel 8 Professional regarded a bit cartoony and childlike, whereas the Pixel 9 Professional appears to be like elegant all the way in which. 

Whereas the bottom 9 Professional has a 6.3-inch show, the Pixel 9 Professional XL that I have been testing measures 6.8 inches. Need one thing that slides extra simply into your denims? Go for the smaller 9 Professional. Want a bit of additional display screen actual property to take pleasure in video games or films on? Try the 9 Professional XL.
The XL’s show appears to be like nice, with vibrant colours and sufficient decision to make tiny textual content and high-res movies look stunning. It is brilliant sufficient for me to make use of comfortably below what passes for a sunny day in Edinburgh, though these of you in a brighter place like California may battle somewhat extra. 

Powering the telephone and all its AI options is the most recent Google-made Tensor G4 processor. I am unable to benchmark it but so I do not know precisely the way it stacks up towards the competitors, however in on a regular basis use it feels fast and responsive, with video games like Genshin Influence taking part in with extraordinarily clean body charges and AI picture era taking just a few seconds to course of every time.

It launches with final yr’s Android 14 on board, with an replace to model 15 promised for later this yr. It is a disgrace Google hasn’t taken the chance to launch the brand new software program with its new telephones, though we do a minimum of get a beneficiant seven years of software program and safety updates. That signifies that the Pixel 9 collection will nonetheless be secure to make use of till a minimum of 2031.

Pixel 9 Professional: Cameras

The cameras are one space I hoped to see some greater enhancements. Whereas there’s every kind of recent software program trickery, from the brand new generative AI instruments to the Add Me operate and an up to date panorama mode, the digicam {hardware} itself stays almost unchanged from final yr’s mannequin. The principle digicam’s decision, sensor measurement and aperture are the identical, as is the decision of each the ultrawide and telephoto cameras. 

The selfie digicam is the one space that is seen a big bump, going from 10.5 megapixels on the Pixel 8 Professional to a way more beneficiant 42 megapixels. Unsurprisingly, selfies look nice — even when your hair would not. 

The Pixel 9 Professional can take great-looking photographs, with beautiful exposures, good colours and tons of element seen from all of its cameras.

I have been impressed with most of the pictures I’ve taken up to now. However the Pixel 8 Professional took nice photographs too and past some new AI tips, the cameras have not actually moved on. Night time time photographs battle, with numerous check pictures displaying overly blotchy darkish areas and a normal lack of element, particularly when utilizing the ultrawide digicam. 

And whilst you can shoot information in DNG uncooked format, the uncooked photographs look terrible in comparison with the JPEG information and want lots of work in Lightroom to make them satisfactory. I discovered this to be the case on the Pixel 8 Professional, too, and I am disenchanted Google hasn’t labored on this extra for the reason that final mannequin.

It signifies that whereas the Pixel 9 Professional is nice for almost all of informal photographers on the market, the intense photographers amongst you may be higher suited with a few of its rivals. The Xiaomi 14 Extremely with its large 1-inch kind picture sensor has completely astounded me with its picture high quality, whereas Apple’s iPhone 15 Professional maintains its place as among the best general digicam telephones round. It is also price ready to see what new pictures and video manufacturing abilities Apple may put into the upcoming iPhone 16.

Pixel 9 Professional: Must you purchase it? 

There is definitely so much to love concerning the Pixel 9 Professional XL. I like the brand new design, the brand new AI abilities are a minimum of nice enjoyable to mess around with. And whereas the cameras aren’t a lot of a step up during the last mannequin, the telephone can take nice photographs in daytime outside circumstances. The Pixel’s picture era and conversational Gemini Stay are the primary issues setting the telephones other than the competitors proper now, and if these options go away you chilly then you may most likely look elsewhere. 

That stated, AI will solely change into extra part of all telephones with Samsung increasing its Galaxy AI throughout its telephone line and Apple launching Apple Intelligence for its newer iPhones. So whether or not you need AI in your telephone or not will quickly be a moot level — you will merely need to have it. And the Pixel 9 Professional’s mixture of nice design, slick software program and strong cameras positively make it a fantastic handset to get your first true style of AI in your telephone. 

How we check telephones

Each telephone examined by CNET’s opinions crew was truly utilized in the true world. We check a telephone’s options, play video games and take photographs. We study the show to see if it is brilliant, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and construct to see how it’s to carry and whether or not it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s efficiency to the extremes utilizing standardized benchmark instruments like GeekBench and 3DMark, together with our personal anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution movies and taking part in graphically intense video games at excessive refresh charges.

All of the cameras are examined in quite a lot of circumstances from brilliant daylight to darkish indoor scenes. We check out particular options like evening mode and portrait mode and examine our findings towards equally priced competing telephones. We additionally take a look at the battery life through the use of it day by day in addition to operating a collection of battery drain checks.

We have in mind further options like help for 5G, satellite tv for pc connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus help, quick charging speeds and foldable shows, amongst others that may be helpful. We steadiness all of this towards the worth to provide the verdict on whether or not that telephone, no matter value it’s, truly represents good worth. Whereas these checks might not all the time be mirrored in CNET’s preliminary evaluate, we conduct follow-up and long-term testing in most circumstances.