by Juli Clover
Apple is planning to unveil its new iPhone 16 models in September, but Google decided to move its usual October smartphone announcement to August, beating Apple to new AI-powered devices. We picked up Google’s new Pixel 9 Pro XL and thought we’d compare it to the iPhone 15 Pro Max since we don’t have an iPhone 16 to pit against it just yet.
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Design wise, the Pixel 9 Pro XL has an iPhone look and feel, and Google has done a lot better matching software with a high-end smartphone design. The Pixel 9 Pro XL has a more premium design than prior Pixel models, and this is the first time that Google has done two “Pro” models like Apple. Google didn’t use titanium and instead opted for stainless steel for the chassis, so the Pixel 9 Pro is bulkier and heavier than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Google has adopted a unique camera design for the Pixel series, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL has a camera bar with a triple-lens setup. There’s a 50-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 48-megapixel telephoto lens (with 5x zoom like the iPhone 15 Pro Max), and a 48-megapixel ultra wide lens, pixel binned to 12-megapixels.
That last camera is what we’re expecting to see for the iPhone 16 Pro models, with Apple planning to adopt a 48-megapixel Ultra Wide camera that does better in low light. Right now, the iPhone 15 Pro models only have a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide camera. Pixel binning means that multiple pixels are combined to create a better image without a larger image size.
We’re going to save a full camera comparison for when the iPhone 16 Pro Max launches, but the Pixel 9 Pro XL is taking incredible photos, which is to be expected from any premium smartphone these days.
All of the Pixel 9 smartphones have a whole host of AI features, some of which Apple can’t yet match with Apple Intelligence. There’s a “Reimagine” feature for adding AI objects into existing photos, which Apple has no plan to adopt. When the new Pixel phones first came out, reviewers were able to do things like add dead bodies, bombs, and blood into their images, but Google has shut that down. Google also tweaked its Pixel Studio image generation app to prevent people from using it to do things like create Nazi versions of Elmo.
Other image capabilities include “Add Me” for putting an extra person into an image (AI artifacts included), Video Boost for improving video content, and Zoom Enhance for digital zooming in further than the 5x optical zoom with enhanced clarity.
Google added Call Notes, which is essentially identical to the call recording option Apple introduced in the iOS 18.1 beta. You can record a phone call and get a transcription of what was said. The Pixel Weather app offers an AI roundup of local current and upcoming conditions, which is useful, and there’s a surprisingly nice Screenshots app.
If you screenshot an article or a website, the Pixel 9 will remember where the screenshot came from and it can bring you back to that website later. It doesn’t work within apps, unfortunately, but it’s still nice to have.
With Gemini integrated into the Pixel 9 models instead of Google Assistant, you can have live conversations with an AI. It’s definitely weird to have a chat with your phone, and that may be something that never really catches on. Plus it costs extra money because you’ll need the premium version of Gemini. Overall, the Gemini integration is better with context and is more helpful than before, so it will be interesting to see how it compares to the revamped version of Siri that Apple is working on.
We’ll come back to the Pixel 9 Pro XL later in 2024 and 2025 to see if Apple is able to match the feature set both with the iPhone 16 models and with future Apple Intelligence capabilities.
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