The Google Pixel 9 sequence has UFS 3.1 storage, however does it matter?

Shortly after the Google Pixel 9 sequence was introduced, web rumors began to swirl that, as soon as once more, the cellphone would ship with UFS 3.1 class storage as an alternative of cutting-edge UFS 4.0. So we requested Google and may affirm that is certainly the case.

The Google Pixel 9 and Professional fashions all include UFS 3.1 storage, even if you happen to decide one of many costly reminiscence choices. In contrast, Samsung solely makes use of UFS 3.1 for its most inexpensive 128GB Galaxy S24 however ships quicker UFS 4.0 storage on its 256GB and bigger fashions.

Google isn’t alone in utilizing UFS 3.1 reminiscence, but it surely’s more and more uncommon within the flagship area. The $799 OnePlus 12 has UFS 4.0, as does the $899 ASUS Zenfone 11 Extremely and the media-focused and uber-expensive Sony Xperia 1 VI. As an older know-how, UFS 3.1 is extra of a funds staple. If this all rings a bell, the inexpensive OnePlus 12R courted controversy for falsely promoting UFS 4.0 reminiscence on its bigger capability fashions. In fact, Google will not be being deceptive.

Nonetheless, we’ve come to count on super-fast storage from flagship telephones, and it’d come as an additional disappointment given Google’s $100 worth hike. OK, so the Google Pixel 9 sequence doesn’t have the quickest storage that cash should buy. Does it even matter?

UFS 4.0’s declare to fame is, at the beginning, that it’s as much as twice as quick as UFS 3.1. Nevertheless, different parts, from the processor to the reminiscence controller, can even have an effect on the reminiscence pace of particular person gadgets. One thing to bear in mind. To check, we grabbed a couple of telephones to check their speeds in opposition to the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Professional XL.

The attention-catching pace enhancement might be seen within the sequential learn and write speeds, hitting a colossal 2.1GB/s on our quickest handset — the Zenfone 11 Extremely. These outcomes common out to about 2x and 3x quicker, respectively, on our UFS 4.0 handsets versus the Pixel 9 Professional XL.

That mentioned, sequential reads and writes should not all that vital until you’re transferring completely large particular person recordsdata (suppose a number of GBs). When it comes to transferring knowledge, the Pixel 9 is quick sufficient to saturate a typical 5Gbps (625MB/s) USB 3.0 connection when copying off the cellphone, though writing to it’s a bottleneck. Solely if in case you have a 10Gbps (1.25GB/s) USB 3.X or 40Gbps (5GB/s) USB 4 port in your laptop computer (in addition to a speedy SSD) will you see a a lot larger profit to a UFS 4.0 cellphone.

Now, you would possibly transfer recordsdata commonly if you happen to document plenty of movies, the place quicker reminiscence can matter too. To document uncompressed 8K60 video, you’d want 750MB/s sequential writes or maybe extra. Nevertheless, telephones apply compression, which implies you truly solely want about 100MB/s, so even UFS 3.1 is greater than able to 8K video with bandwidth to spare. Nevertheless, paradoxically for the Pixel, loading a big AI mannequin from storage into RAM advantages from quicker sequential reads. Maybe that is partly why the most recent Pixel Professional’s dedicate 3GB of RAM to conserving AI loaded up.

For day-to-day apps, random reads and writes are the extra conventional components in machine efficiency. Functions pull property and knowledge from all over fairly than studying a giant block of sequential reminiscence. Shifting to UFS 4.0 solely nets a few 30% acquire for random reads in our take a look at. That’s actually an enchancment and can undoubtedly make loading up the largest Android video games really feel a bit faster, but it surely’s not the identical colossal acquire we see with sequential entry. Random writes see a much bigger 40% to 200% enhance, probably relying on whether or not there’s extra caching.

Undoubtedly, there are pace advantages to UFS 4.0, but it surely’s all about context. Loading up a typical 200MB utility could be a second quicker on UFS 4.0 in comparison with UFS 3.1 (CPU and RAM pace being equal), which is hardly price worrying about. You’re solely prone to discover the distinction when managing a lot bigger apps and recordsdata.

That mentioned, there are different advantages, too. The newer know-how permits for bigger capacities in a small footprint, with 2TB out there now. UFS 4.0 is extra battery environment friendly, too; Samsung’s chips devour as much as 46% much less energy than their predecessors, whereas Micron claims its new UFS 4.0 storage is 25% extra environment friendly. Nevertheless, there are different components at play different than simply chip energy in relation to battery life. UFS 4.0 additionally boasts new capabilities for error correction and knowledge refreshing, which might assist the chips last more.

UFS 4.0 is undoubtedly a pleasant luxurious to have, particularly when paying $999 or extra for a flagship smartphone. Nonetheless, the Pixel 9’s older UFS 3.1 is unlikely to make or break your expertise by itself. All of it depends upon what you’ll use the cellphone for. Personally, I’m extra miffed concerning the Pixel 9 sequence’ measly 128GB entry-level storage capability than its pace.