Last week’s survey suggests that the new Pixel 9 Pro could be Google’s best-seller. It received the most positive votes and has the greatest potential to grow in popularity if it lives up to its reviews.
It’s a great upgrade over the Pixel 8, though it also costs a lot more — concerns about the price are certainly reflected in the survey. On the positive side, Google has more or less covered all the markets that are interested in a Pixel phone, so availability is less of an issue.
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, the big dog of this generation, definitely seems expensive – more people are worried about its price than the price of a new foldable phone! Honestly, $1100/€1200 is a lot to spend on a phone, even if you can keep it for 7 years.
But will you? All eyes are on the Tensor G4, as its performance doesn’t look competitive right now, let alone in the 2030s. The chip is shared by all Pixel 9 models, and all but the regular phone have 16GB of RAM (this one has 12GB, which lets it run Google’s AI models on the device).
Speaking of which, the Google Pixel 9 faces a difficult task – it is quite expensive, and it lacks a telephoto lens and an improved selfie camera (it has a 10.5 MP module instead of 42 MP as in the 9 Pro duo).
No LTPO display, even though the Galaxy S24 can be had for under $800/€900 and has an LTPO display and a 10MP 3x camera. The S24 series also has 7 years of support, so Google’s only advantage here is first-party features like Zoom Enhance (that said, One UI also has its advocates).
Is the Pixel 9 Pro Fold the best horizontal foldable phone money can buy? Well, aside from the people who simply don’t want a foldable phone, most people think Google has a point (and so do we). People aren’t all that interested in reviews, since most of them have already made up their minds. People are, however, interested in discounts. Seriously, $1,800 is a lot of money.
We’ve got the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL to review, so expect a detailed report soon. We should get the others too, but they’re set to launch in September, so not yet. For now, check out our hot take on the Pixel 9 series.