Google's pixel 99 Pro and the 9 Pro XL which is the version that I have here finally feel like incredible premium flagships the software to me were always top tier but the hardware was it was fine but this new design I don't know what it is but something about it just feels premium oh yeah maybe it's because it looks pretty close to an iPhone and this design is something that I really enjoy now before anyone starts getting mad these companies borrow ideas and design inspiration all of the time and I'm not saying that they look identical or anything but Google basically squared off its phone and flatten the display which are two design elements that I really like and two design elements that happen to be the staple of the iPhone for the last few years now the camera visor on the back that is pretty wild and unique and it's actually kind of jarring at first but honestly after a while I kind of like the Symmetry going across the back here as opposed to the camera Island that you kind of get in the top left corner on the iPhone 15 Pro Max now I haven't looked at the actual specs of you know the millimeter of thickness or whatever but the pixel seems a little bit chunkier and heavier in the hand and just by looking at it you can kind of see that I kind of wish they went full iPhone and borrowed the titanium frame because this stainless steel is not my favorite and I didn't even like it when Apple had it it scratched and smudged too easily I really like the transition over to the titanium and maybe this will be something that Google does next year yeah overall these phones just look and feel super premium and I know that seems a little trivial and it's all subjective but I think it's a little important when you're dropping close to if not more than $1,000 on a smartphone these days you just want it to look and feel nice now in terms of colors I went with this Hazel option here uh it's just gray it looks like the natural Titanium on the iPhone to me they look almost nearly identical uh and I really like that color option but there's also black p porcelain and a pink color option as well now I'm not going to do a full one toone comparison between this and the iPhone 15 Pro Max though I will be referencing those two phones a lot uh but I won't be going through everything we'll save that for maybe the 16 Pro or Pro Max that should be right around the corner here but I do want to talk a little bit more about like the cameras which should mostly be the same as last year considering that the main sensor is still that 50 megapixel camera that takes very good photos I think a lot of people last year honestly preferred the pixels photos over uh the iPhone 15 Pro Max in our comparison and I was kind of on the fence leaning iPhone and this year honestly I really don't know I'm going to wait and Reserve camera judgment and opinions for that 9 Pro versus 16 pro video that will be coming out maybe next month or so but again it's 2024 most of these premium flagships take fantastic photos as you can see here uh the ultra wide did get beefed up to a 48 megapixel sensor but the the images do get bend down to 12 and the telephoto is capable of 5x optical zoom and it still looks fantastic and you still get good portrait mode photos you get raw photos if you want all in all I really like them honestly the biggest thing that we're going to talk a lot about this year with a lot of Flagship phones is not so much the hardware but the hardware and the software working together and more importantly ai ai ai ai you're all probably sick of hearing it I'm sick of talking about it but again that's where all of these flagships are headed and they're all getting beefed up processors to handle these features and the pixel is right in line with them nothing is different on that aspect so let's talk about some of the Intriguing AI features that Google has to offer this year and we'll start with the camera specific one since we were just talking about the photos and so number one this add me feature is pretty mind-blowing it's a really cool idea but kind of seems like a lot of work where in most cases you might just be able to ask another person person that's randomly nearby to take a photo of everyone involved now I'm not able to showca I work alone so I it was really hard for me to Showcase uh this live in action but I can show you some of the photos and some of the materials that Google has to offer to show you how this works but it's a great feature when you're in a pinch and need a group photo of everyone so what you can do is take a picture of your group and then whoever took the picture can be added in after by someone else you're directing where to stand and then you're taking the other picture and Google will then a use AI to fuse these pictures together making it look like a natural group photo in theory it's good in a pinch but probably not noticeable unless you really start zooming in and pixel peeping and then you'll start noticing some of the weird areas where the computer generated image is a bit Wonky where it's got to fill in might get a little messed up but it's still a pretty neat feature overall and it definitely works really well for the most part and it's definitely Innovative now that's going to be the theme across these AI features is it works well enough but there are some areas that need Improvement there's a new Zoom enhanced feature where you can zoom in on a photo and then AI will kind of help the clarity of the image when you crop it personally I think it just over sharpens the photo you really can't tell a huge difference in person it's a little more noticeable but on camera you probably won't notice anything crazy uh but in the magic editor portion you can now select different parts of the image and then instead of like erasing or shifting objects you now have this reimagine option where you can have a new AI generated part of the image which is basically fabricating your photo but it can make for some pretty cool pictures as you can see we have this blue sky now making a dark and stormy or golden Sunset I mean you have endless possibilities and it does look pretty good for the most part Apple did showcase a new editing feature using Apple intelligence but there needs to be more of these potentially useful AI features for editing photos and taking better images in general or correcting photos I think that's more useful to the general public there are also some interesting AI features like call notes which is pretty similar to Apple's version where it will record your phone call and then transcribe it automatically in a note for you but it's not in a note for you like placed in your notes app it's kind of in the phone app and then you can share it to a different app if you need to uh and for some reason there's an entire app dedicated for screenshots which actually people are making fun of this a bit but I kind of like this idea especially if screenshots be removed from your main photo library and it does kind of seem like that's happening and only be in this app the app does a good job of offering a search uh for specific screenshots that might have words or whatever the uh the image that you're looking for might be and there's also if you're taking a screenshot of a link let's say you have a recipe or something it'll automatically there's a little Chrome option you just tap that and it'll take you back to that website which is really really handy especially if there were other things in that website that you want to reference later now I tried taking a screenshot of other things in apps like Tik Tok for example thinking that that would act as like a pseudo bookmark in a specific screenshot app for you um but it doesn't actually do that it doesn't open within other apps and it would be really cool if it could work with thirdparty apps like that but right now that linking feature appears to be reserved for just web pages I understand why Google might think this is a good idea to separate this feature from the photo Z but I think just maybe making this an entire like portion of the app maybe down at the bottom you have tabs there's a screenshot Tab and then this app just kind of Acts within the photos app it might make things a little easier and you can still keep the Clutter of your library your main library free from screenshots but then you have this kind of all-in-one app for convenience speaking of separate apps there's also the new pixel studio app which is basically the same exact concept as what Apple showed off with its playground app that Apple showcased at WWDC and that hopefully should be coming later this year I can't really kind of do a onetoone comparison yet but it's a prompt-based app that can let you feed ideas and it will generate your image based on your prompt now there was a little bit of a scandal when this first initially launched a few days ago or last week where some users were able to make some pretty obscene and offensive things like a Nazi version of Elmo for example but I tried to replicate this and uh this was just shortly after news broke about this my app appeared to have already been patched which is pretty crazy fast on Google's part you can generate some pretty cool looking pictures though in different styles uh like this apple with a menacing face or a kitty with a top hat and monocle nightmare fuel stuff if you want to but it's there if you need it last but not least you have the new Google Gemini built into the phone it's basically taking over as your new Google Assistant but kind of I mean it actually appears to be working in tandem with Google Assistant as you can see by the Gemini and Google Assistant logo that appears from time to time together either way it's smarter and more helpful than ever before and it's probably one of the better phone assistants out there it understands context and you can even get fully conversational with it if you want to assuming you pay for the premium version of Gemini which if you buy a new pixel you'll actually get one year for free now the conversational aspect is definitely impressive and it can be helpful but I still find it a little bit weird to have full-blown conversations with my phone like this uh I don't know that I'm ever going to use that whatever the request though Google's new AI assistant should be able to help you out and once Apple intelligence and the fully baked version of Siri is out and operational and out of beta or maybe if it just appears uh you know like it's kind of close to coming out of beta I'll hopefully have a battle of the AI assistance video so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss that all in all there's a lot to like with the new pixel 9 and 9 Pro lineup it's got great cameras fantastic software along with some nice AI features all packed into a phone that's finally sporting some really high-end feeling and looking hardware and I can finally say that this actually does feel like the iPhone for Android users and I'd love to hear from you in the comments down below what do you think about the new pixel 9 9 Pro or 9 Pro XL uh what are your thoughts about the new AI features what do you want Apple to borrow in the future let me know in those comments down below this is been with Mac rers thanks so much for watching and I hope to see you around in the next video