Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review

Intro [Music] this is Google's new flagship the pixel 9 Pro XL there are two Pro Models this year and the XL is the larger one but besides the size consideration what else is the pixel 9 Pro XL all about I'm will for GSM Marina and let's find out in our [Music] review although the pixel 9 Pro xl's Design and build naming makes it seem like it should be huge it's only slightly bigger than last year's pixel 8 Pro the screen is 0.1 in larger and the phone is less than 10 G heavier overall the reasoning behind the XL moniker is that this year there's also a smaller pixel 9 Pro for fans of phones that are more compact other changes from last year include a new Ultra wide and selfie cam a new chipset faster charging and 8K video capture the pixel 9 series introduces a design change too there's an iPhone sort of vibe with a flat back and frame the back is matte and again protected by Gorilla Glass victus 2 and the aluminum frame is glossy here the camera bump has a new striking and standout design and it doesn't extend all the way across to the frame like last year it doesn't house just the cameras and an LED flash there's actually a thermometer sensor too and as before the pixel9 pro XL brings ip68 rting rest protection against dust and water submersion on the front is what Google Screen specs and features again calls a super actual display it's a 6.8 in ltpo OLED with a 120 HZ refresh rate and Gorilla Glass vicus 2 protection the display is slightly larger than last year 6.7 in panel but has the same resolution amounting to a sharp 486 PPI you get support for HDR 10 plus video and the pixel 9 Pro XL can display Ultra HDR compliant images with boosted highlights there is a significant Improvement in Max brightness now we measured over 12200 nits with the manual slider and this can boost to a chart topping 2200 nits in auto mode that's compared to 1, 1600 nits on the pixel 8 Pro and 1,800 on the iPhone 15 Pro Max a brighter screen means that this new pixel should be even more comfy to use out in the Sun and when it comes to refresh rate the pixel 9 Pro XL can use 120 HZ to smooth out movements on screen and this can dial down to 1 Herz when idoling to save energy thanks to ltpo tech there support for high frame rate gaming here too there's a pair of stereo Stereo speakers test speakers for audio with a loudness rating of very good a step up from the previous generation the sound quality is quite similar it's well balanced but some other flagships have the edge awake like this year Google has upgraded the under display fingerprint sensor from Optical to ultrasonic it's super fast and responsive and the phone can come with Storage options 128 256 or 512 gigs or a whole terabyte of storage on board that isn't expandable through micro SD unlike Android 14 and UI previous pixel releases where the phones were the first to debut of the new version of Android the pixel9 pro XL uses the Android 14 we've seen all year that's because this phone has come out earlier in the summer as expected the layout is clean and vanilla like Google intended however Google packs plenty of specific AI based features too some we've seen before like Circle to search Gemini AI Google's Gemini AI plays a major role in the pixel 9 series you can ask it questions and get real-time answers plus it speaks over a 100 languages from the get-go Gemini can handle things like summarizing conversations from calls texts or emails so you can refer to the relevant info at a glance you also get the best AI 1 year free Gemini AI capabilities Google offers to the public via gem Advanced it normally requires a paid subscription but you'll get a year of it for free with the pixel9 pro XL Pixel Studio there are plenty of other features relying on AI too pixel Studio allows you to make AI generated images and Designs the pixel can also keep track of Search among screenshots and organize your screenshots allowing you to search for specific topics or information you've saved before Google photos editing and enhancing tools the magic editor within Google photos provides various tools such as Zoom enhancer Magic Eraser and blur and unblur best take is also available where you can replace faces or objects with a better version of them taken from another shot and a neat trick within the camera app is add me it allows you to combine people from separate shots into a single group photo or you can just clone yourself if you want to it's worth noting that while this feature is cool it is is n too reliable and requires plenty of light and similar to taking a portrait mode shot complex backgrounds can trip it up and Google is again promising the new 7 years promise of software support pixel seven full years of software support you can also rely on spare parts during that time should anything happen to your pixel all of the new pixels run on Google Tensor G4 performance Google's new in-house chipset the tensor G4 compared to the previous tensor G3 it packs a new CPU and while the GPU is the same it has a higher clock speed the TPU for AI tasks is unchanged since last year we weren't able to run performance benchmarks at the time of this review but based on what we saw on past pixel phones which had rather similar Hardware we'd expect the Peak Performance to be less than flagships running on the top Snapdragon chipset still when using the pixel9 pro XO the interface and both native and thirdparty apps ran hiccup Battery endurance and charging speed free the pixel 9 Pro XL has a 5,60 mAh battery and did a decent job in our battery test tests earning an active use score of 12 hours and 32 minutes that's an improvement over the 11 hours and 14 minutes of last year but still it falls a bit short of some competitors the new pixels have improved charging rated at 37 watts compared to last year's 27 there's no charger included in the Box though using a compatible adapter we were able to charge the pixel 9 Pro XL from 0 to 67% in half an hour and a full charge took an hour and 18 minutes that 5 minutes quicker than what we've gotten on the pixel 8 Pro the pixel 9 Pro XL supports wireless charging too and reverse wireless charging now we're on to the Camera specs cameras there's a new Ultra wide Cam and selfie camera but the other cameras are the same so on the back there's a 50 map main cam a 48 map 5 times telephoto zoom and a 48 mapix Ultra wide cam all with auto focus but let's start off with the rear Main camera: Photo quality main camera it captures excellent photos during the day with crisp detail and that's rendered nicely there are hints of pixelation in certain situations but the sharpening is conservative and textures don't look overprocessed the contrast is high with shadows looking a bit dark on occasion but the dynamic range is great the color rendition is pretty balanced with not as much pop as the Galaxy phones but it's more lively than the iPhones the pixel does a fine job of capturing skin tones and it renders facial features nicely too two times digital Zoom from the main cam is decent but there is some loss of detail if you examine closely still you can take shots of people at two times with relative confidence after dark the main camera does a respectable job exposures look great overall with well preserved highlights and without gloomy dark patches and the color saturation here is on point the detail level is good though in the shadows the details may come out a bit soft Telephoto camera: Photo quality now we have the telephoto cam it's five times Zoom photos are solid we have no complaints about the dynamic range or colors overall the photos come out plenty sharp but some competitors are sharper also this camera doesn't have the extra close focusing capability that is trendy right now in low light while the telephoto camera provides good exposures and color saturation the dtl level leaves more to be desired it almost seems like what you'd get from a digital Zoom Ultrawide camera: Photo quality onto the ultra wide camera it captures very good daylight photos with plenty of detail and an organic looking rendition the colors and dynamic range are in line with the other cameras at night the ultrawide delivers bright exposures with pleasing tonal development however the pixel level detail and sharpness aren't great when looking closely there has been a clear upgrade Selfie camera: Specs and photo quality with the selfie camera this year there's now a 42 megap front-facing camera camera and again it has autofocus selfies from the new front-facing cam come out at 10.5 megapixels due to pixel binning they're nicely detailed with Vivid colors lifelike skin tones and excellent dynamic range the pixel 9 Pro XL can record Video quality (all cameras) video in 4k with all of its cameras and this year the main and telephoto cam also get support for 8K video recording for our quality analysis we'll stick to 4K though the main Cam's 4K videos have high contrast and warmish colors however the sharpness is unimpressive the videos are rather soft more so than the competition and even more than the pixel 8 Pro and looking at the clips from the telephoto and ultrawide we're getting more of the same perhaps it's the early software and Google changed things up a bit down the line but we're not thrilled with the results as they are now in low light the main Cam's 4K videos are again behind the competition in terms of sharpness though the difference is smaller one thing we can't complain about is stabilization it's thoroughly great walking shake and pans are nicely smooth out on all the cameras so that's the pixel 9 Pro XL Conclusion it's a classy Flagship with a clean and great looking design Cutting Edge AI features and super long software support this display is the brightest around and for still photos these cameras are great our biggest gripe is with video recording if you want sharp and crisp 4K videos other flagships can do it better also if you're after the most powerful chipset around a pixel may not be the way to go but if those things don't concern you the pixel 9 Pro XL is solid all around and is a flagship worth considering at this price level thanks Alternatives and selfie video quality for watching guys if you're looking for Alternatives you can check out last year's pixel 8 Pro or the Samsung Galaxy s24 Ultra let us know what you think and I'll see you on the next one