Google Pixel 9 Series (9/9 Pro/9 Pro XL/9 Pro Fold)

[Fried_Gold]

I personally went with Garmin after ditching my Apple Watch, I'm not really bothered about the smart watch notifications etc so I turned them off on my Garmin anyway. It's purely for fitness and telling the time.

I do like the look of the Samsung Watch Ultra though. 🤔

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I agree, but I don’t understand their thought process here. At the Pixel 7 and 8 prices, you could forgive some of the corner cutting because you can see some of those savings going to the customer. But now they’re peddling a phone with not flagship hardware at a premium price and even at a lower storage amount. Feel like the people at Google drank their own kool aid.

Also, let’s be honest, it’s been a good few years now where Google hasn’t really been at the forefront of innovation from a software or hardware standpoint. I can’t think of the last app or piece of software they’ve released that was ground breaking or best in class. Feels like they’re sunsetting an app or service every month. They’re even trailing in AI and ML where they should have a huge advantage thanks to their infrastructure and deepmind being in house. Seems like Google has really fallen off lately.

I think we are both in agreement, we’re just approaching it from different angles. My thought process for the P6/7/8 were all the same. It came down to incentives from Google. When I purchased my 7 Pro, I received a fantastic trade in price for a P4a, like 85% of it’s original value along with a $200 store credit. I couldn’t pass that up. My 8 Pro purchase came with a free PW2 and I traded in another phone and used my $200 credit that was about to expire. So my recent Pixel purchases have all been made with freebies or incentives from Google.

This year appears to be one where Google has pretty much taken away all the incentives and increased the price of their phones. So they turned their phone into an iPixel by trying to make their phone look like an Apple product. That’s not enough for me this year to bite on another upgrade when the upgrade is small compared to last year, spec wise. But I do like the look of the P9 phones. I will probably wait for the P9a fire sales 4-6 months after launch.

 

[jamezr]

Without going into my profession too much, I am fairly involved with AI (albeit in a different industry) and have spent a fair amount of time with all the big LLMs. Before OpenAI went public with Chat GPT a few years back, it was widely thought of that them and the DeepMind team at Google were ahead of the rest in the AI game. Since going public and starting the arms race, Google has woefully fallen behind. They should have such a head start with their infrastructure and all the software/services they offer where AI/ML could be integrated. However, Gemini has been hugely underwhelming and the list of features they've rolled out to their services falls far behind what Microsoft and OpenAI are doing.

With that said, I agree that Apple is falling way behind. And they recognized it, so rather than throwing a ton of money and trying to play catch-up, in the short term they are taking the Microsoft route and just paying Open AI. It was a mistake to fall this far behind in the AI race but it's a smart move to use OpenAI as a stopgap. But it will all depend on how they leverage it and what features they bring into their ecosystem. In the Apple Intelligence presentation, I wasn't overly improve other than the calculator feature which is brilliant.

Now back to Google...Google are not in front of AI, or at least not at the moment. Gemini lags behind GPT 4o and Claude in almost every metric and from someone that has used all 3 extensively, it's not close. Now this could change at any moment because of how dynamic the whole AI/ML race is right now. But just curious, where do you think Google leads in AI at the moment? LLM? Not close. Services? Nope, that's Microsoft by a lot. Maybe photography based ML but they are all doing variations of the same thing at this point.

I guess my question is...where has Google created some killer feature or tool with AI/ML? So far...they haven't. And I expected more given this history and the advantage they should have in this field. Could it all change tomorrow? Sure, but until then I will continue to be underwhelmed.

I will go into what I do for a living. I work in the financial industry in cybersecurity. Mainly in data analytics and Cloud security. I helped build my companies AI in our cloud environments in our test, QA and Prod tenants. Mainly for CoPilot but tailored for our specific uses cases. That includes the data and LLMs. I know how this stuff works. Its a LOT to build to make an AI model work. In our use cases, we cannot have anything go outside of our environments as that is a security breach. All must be contained under our umbrella so to speak. It takes a lot more to build if it is self contained.

Google has more AI than just Gemini. There is also the Google assistant and all the machine learning built into that. Then their post processing algorithm built into every Pixel device along with their cameras. That algorithm is known as being the best in the business btw.... Then lets throw in circle search and photo editing Samsung uses and available on Pixel phones.
Then throw in the Google search....also the best in class and in the business.
All of the above products uses AI. I think they have been leading the industry in AL myself. People just take it for granted.

But now for OpenAI and ChatGPT....then have taken things to a new level and made AI more presentable for everyday people to use. It is like chat bot with AI built into it.


My opinion is Google has the ability to make Gemini as good or better than competing products. But it competes against their business model. Unless Google charges a LOT of money for using Gemini they will lose money. They would rather people use Google search. Search enables them to sell ads targeted to specifically what the search is aimed at. Then also how many people use Google search for something....get presented with a YouTube video on exactly how to do what they searched for in the first place? People watch the YT video and it is a win win for Google.
They make money and more money. They do not need Gemini to be the best on the market.

 

[The Game 161]

Without going into my profession too much, I am fairly involved with AI (albeit in a different industry) and have spent a fair amount of time with all the big LLMs. Before OpenAI went public with Chat GPT a few years back, it was widely thought of that them and the DeepMind team at Google were ahead of the rest in the AI game. Since going public and starting the arms race, Google has woefully fallen behind. They should have such a head start with their infrastructure and all the software/services they offer where AI/ML could be integrated. However, Gemini has been hugely underwhelming and the list of features they've rolled out to their services falls far behind what Microsoft and OpenAI are doing.

With that said, I agree that Apple is falling way behind. And they recognized it, so rather than throwing a ton of money and trying to play catch-up, in the short term they are taking the Microsoft route and just paying Open AI. It was a mistake to fall this far behind in the AI race but it's a smart move to use OpenAI as a stopgap. But it will all depend on how they leverage it and what features they bring into their ecosystem. In the Apple Intelligence presentation, I wasn't overly improve other than the calculator feature which is brilliant.

Now back to Google...Google are not in front of AI, or at least not at the moment. Gemini lags behind GPT 4o and Claude in almost every metric and from someone that has used all 3 extensively, it's not close. Now this could change at any moment because of how dynamic the whole AI/ML race is right now. But just curious, where do you think Google leads in AI at the moment? LLM? Not close. Services? Nope, that's Microsoft by a lot. Maybe photography based ML but they are all doing variations of the same thing at this point.

I guess my question is...where has Google created some killer feature or tool with AI/ML? So far...they haven't. And I expected more given this history and the advantage they should have in this field. Could it all change tomorrow? Sure, but until then I will continue to be underwhelmed.

It’s easy to see why Apple went GPT route

I don’t think Apple expected al to be so huge so quick. I think they will be using Gemini as well at some point. ChatGPT gets them in the door this year and the Siri improvements due to chatGPT could be game changing for Siri

I certainly don’t think people should buy google phones based off al alone which was a big part of the marketing last year.

 

[Awesomesince86]

I will go into what I do for a living. I work in the financial industry in cybersecurity. Mainly in data analytics and Cloud security. I helped build my companies AI in our cloud environments in our test, QA and Prod tenants. Mainly for CoPilot but tailored for our specific uses cases. That includes the data and LLMs. I know how this stuff works. Its a LOT to build to make an AI model work. In our use cases, we cannot have anything go outside of our environments as that is a security breach. All must be contained under our umbrella so to speak. It takes a lot more to build if it is self contained.

Google has more AI than just Gemini. There is also the Google assistant and all the machine learning built into that. Then their post processing algorithm built into every Pixel device along with their cameras. That algorithm is known as being the best in the business btw.... Then lets throw in circle search and photo editing Samsung uses and available on Pixel phones.
Then throw in the Google search....also the best in class and in the business.
All of the above products uses AI. I think they have been leading the industry in AL myself. People just take it for granted.

But now for OpenAI and ChatGPT....then have taken things to a new level and made AI more presentable for everyday people to use. It is like chat bot with AI built into it.


My opinion is Google has the ability to make Gemini as good or better than competing products. But it competes against their business model. Unless Google charges a LOT of money for using Gemini they will lose money. They would rather people use Google search. Search enables them to sell ads targeted to specifically what the search is aimed at. Then also how many people use Google search for something....get presented with a YouTube video on exactly how to do what they searched for in the first place? People watch the YT video and it is a win win for Google.
They make money and more money. They do not need Gemini to be the best on the market.

I agree with most of what you’re saying, but you moved the goalposts a little. We were talking about current AI innovation and Google falling behind. The latest AI innovations, at least from a consumer standpoint, have been LLMs and build ML functionality into services and customer facing applications. Their LLMs have been lacking thus far and are far being the competition. But as I mentioned, that could change in a day with a new release.

My gripe with Google is that given their infrastructure and history, I expect them to be the ones making strides in cooking AI and ML into services, hardware, software. More stuff like they’ve been doing with Google Photos and post processing features. Even boring but helpful stuff like autocomplete in Gmail and summarization in Chrome have been good additions. I just want to see more.

A lot of the examples you gave are areas where they were leading and have stagnated and sat on that lead. Since we’re in a phone forum, let’s looks at the Pixel. When’s the last time a Pixel had a really standout software feature? I would argue it’s call screening which was what, 5 years ago? Google and Pixel phones used to be so great because they were so different and had features that made you want to use them. I feel like they’ve kicked that model and are drifting towards the Apple model each year. And that’s a shame.

And yes I agree with Search being their bread and butter they just need that to stay top of class so they can maintain a data monopoly. But sounds like that could be under threat given the ruling last week.

Oh and regarding work, we do similar things albeit I’m on the engineering side. I stay vague with the details but it’s in the Defense industry.

 

[Aneres11]

UK Prices.

Pixel 9 pre-order upsell revealed early by UK retailer

It looks like the free storage bump will apply even to the 1TB Pixel 9 Pro XL

www.tomsguide.com

Looks like they're pulling a Samsung and letting you double the storage for the same price as the lower storage model. So 256gb costs the same as the 128gb and so on as you go up. All the way to 1TB.

This isn't the exact prices. More guesstimates based on what Vodafone have leaked by accident so take eitu a bit of a pinch of salt.

Pixel 9 - £750
Pixel 9 Pro - £914
Pixel 9 Pro XL - £1022

Aaaand now we wait for the moaning about how Google have nothing going for them to charge these prices and then people continue to buy them only to then buy the iPhone and then go back to pixel and then buy the S25 only to say how great it is to then realise the camera is garbage to come back to the Pixel 9 to then rinse and repeat. 😜😅.
I include myself in the above - minus the Samsung bit 🙊.

 

[Tig Bitties]

I'm excited about the larger sized batteries going into these. The Pixel 9 Pro XL will have a 5,400mAh battery and the Pixel 9 Pro a 5,000mAh the biggest battery ever in the smaller phone. Hope that battery leak is correct. I might actually go for the smaller phone for once.

 

[robvalentine]

UK Prices.

Pixel 9 pre-order upsell revealed early by UK retailer

It looks like the free storage bump will apply even to the 1TB Pixel 9 Pro XL

www.tomsguide.com

Looks like they're pulling a Samsung and letting you double the storage for the same price as the lower storage model. So 256gb costs the same as the 128gb and so on as you go up. All the way to 1TB.

This isn't the exact prices. More guesstimates based on what Vodafone have leaked by accident so take eitu a bit of a pinch of salt.

Pixel 9 - £750
Pixel 9 Pro - £914
Pixel 9 Pro XL - £1022

Aaaand now we wait for the moaning about how Google have nothing going for them to charge these prices and then people continue to buy them only to then buy the iPhone and then go back to pixel and then buy the S25 only to say how great it is to then realise the camera is garbage to come back to the Pixel 9 to then rinse and repeat. 😜😅.
I include myself in the above - minus the Samsung bit 🙊.

That's me lol. Using S24U ATM my P8P keeps looking at me with pleading camera lenses lol.

 

[Tig Bitties]

I currently have both the Pixel 8 Pro and S24 Ultra.

Will definitely use the S24U as a trade-in for either the 9 Pro or 9 Pro XL. But I haven't had a "small" size phone in years.

 

[Tig Bitties]

What's the excitement level for you folks on the Pixel 9 Pro / 9 Pro XL?

Dying for it? Or just ho hum another annual release.

Kind of the same as the upcoming iPhone 16 Pro line, yeah it'll be better but year to year not really.

S25 Ultra leaks, cool new rounded design, and the newest [H]ardware, but nothing crazy better at all from the S24 Ultra.

Currently rocking the Pixel 8 Pro, and very satisfied, but I like new releases and brighter screen and hopefully better internals and more efficient battery are nice. And I like the new design of the Pixel line, looks more upscale and also funky cool. But hopefully it's not hard edge like the iPhone 12 and more like the comfortable iPhone 15 line.

 

[Bkdodger]

I can't say I'm excited we shall see come release. I like the new look but then again I like my P8P too haha .. The smart thing would be wait till next year but I'm sure somehow we all get tempted

 

[Carrotstick]

So they are leveraging other peoples technology and re-branding it as their own calling it Apple Intelligence.

This isn’t true not all of Apple Intelligence is made by Open AI or Google. The LLMs are Apple made and you can see them on the hugging face website.

Anyway, Google isn’t leading it’s actually Anthropic based on the current situation then it’s open ai then Google.

 

[Carrotstick]

S25 Ultra leaks, cool new rounded design, and the newest [H]ardware

I’m very excited for the s25 U it will pack the new CPU cores from Qualcomm and it’s based on N3E.

 

[jamezr]

This isn’t true not all of Apple Intelligence is made by Open AI or Google. The LLMs are Apple made and you can see them on the hugging face website.

Anyway, Google isn’t leading it’s actually Anthropic based on the current situation then it’s open ai then Google.

Sure seems to me that they are using Chat GPT for more than what you are saying. Does Apple have the resources to do it. Yes they do but they haven't shown to have the appetite to do so given how far behind Siri is.

Then even using Chat GPT for the most part Apple intelligence probably won't be ready until next year

This article and others say Apple is using Open AI LLMs

"Apple Intelligence includes different text and image models that Apple built and developed. As part of Apple Intelligence, the company also partnered with OpenAI to provide more large language model capabilities, including directly accessing ChatGPT from inside Apple's operating system platforms"

OpenAI and Apple's partnership, explained

Learn about the partnership between OpenAI and Apple bringing the new generative AI program called Apple Intelligence to Apple's devices.

www.techtarget.com

https://openai.com/index/openai-and-apple-announce-partnership/

 

[Carrotstick]

Sure seems to me that they are using Chat GPT for more than what you are saying. Does Apple have the resources to do it. Yes they do but they haven't shown to have the appetite to do so given how far behind Siri is.

Then even using Chat GPT for the most part Apple intelligence probably won't be ready until next year

This article and others say Apple is using Open AI LLMs

"Apple Intelligence includes different text and image models that Apple built and developed. As part of Apple Intelligence, the company also partnered with OpenAI to provide more large language model capabilities, including directly accessing ChatGPT from inside Apple's operating system platforms"

OpenAI and Apple's partnership, explained

Learn about the partnership between OpenAI and Apple bringing the new generative AI program called Apple Intelligence to Apple's devices.

www.techtarget.com

https://openai.com/index/openai-and-apple-announce-partnership/

The models released in the 18.1 beta are all Apples own models. The OpenAI integration won’t happen till late 2024 or even next year.

Apple will also include Gemini too as a partner probably after the ChatGPT.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1819888268173074473

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1819890201227076094

 

[robvalentine]

What's the excitement level for you folks on the Pixel 9 Pro / 9 Pro XL?

Dying for it? Or just ho hum another annual release.

Kind of the same as the upcoming iPhone 16 Pro line, yeah it'll be better but year to year not really.

S25 Ultra leaks, cool new rounded design, and the newest [H]ardware, but nothing crazy better at all from the S24 Ultra.

Currently rocking the Pixel 8 Pro, and very satisfied, but I like new releases and brighter screen and hopefully better internals and more efficient battery are nice. And I like the new design of the Pixel line, looks more upscale and also funky cool. But hopefully it's not hard edge like the iPhone 12 and more like the comfortable iPhone 15 line.

having switched back to P8P last night after my pleading camera lenses comment lol, I'm probably going to stick to p8p until next Year (or more likely a few days before switching back to s24U lol. I really like the cirved sides, and rounded corners (main bug bear with the s24U along side cameras and random lock ups)

 

[Supersonicc]

Morning all, nice to see all the regulars back, I see Pixel day is arriving early this year! Last year was great!

Definitely excited to see if all the leaks are true with the 9 series.

I'm very interested to see both battery improvements & camera video enhancements to the 9 series. Apple is still the king of video quality, so I expect Google to have made new changes.

Personally, this year I will likely be sticking with my 8 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max until Google drops prices on the 9 Pro/XL. I want to see what Apple actually do with AI too.

I am in Europe so the prices will be high as always but even in the UK it seems Google is now going to do a Samsung on the prices so double the storage. This will be disappointing if true unless Google throw in the watch again. The pre-sale perks are one of Google's strengths.

Google Pixel 9 series UK prices and promo offers leak

You'll get a storage upgrade for free in the pre-order period. So far we've had leaked pricing for the EU and US, and so today it's time to look at the UK...

m.gsmarena.com

 

[danb1979]

Morning all, nice to see all the regulars back, I see Pixel day is arriving early this year! Last year was great!

Definitely excited to see if all the leaks are true with the 9 series.

I'm very interested to see both battery improvements & camera video enhancements to the 9 series. Apple is still the king of video quality, so I expect Google to have made new changes.

Personally, this year I will likely be sticking with my 8 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max until Google drops prices on the 9 Pro/XL. I want to see what Apple actually do with AI too.

I am in Europe so the prices will be high as always but even in the UK it seems Google is now going to do a Samsung on the prices so double the storage. This will be disappointing if true unless Google throw in the watch again. The pre-sale perks are one of Google's strengths.

Google Pixel 9 series UK prices and promo offers leak

You'll get a storage upgrade for free in the pre-order period. So far we've had leaked pricing for the EU and US, and so today it's time to look at the UK...

m.gsmarena.com

Yup; prices feel very high here in the UK

Trade in prices are laughable

I'll see what Google release re their next Fold (official release, not leaks) and then decide whether to go new Pixel Fold or swing over to Samsung for their ZF6 and Watch Ultra and say goodbye to my 15PM and AWU2 (and 1st Gen Pixel Fold), which I'll probably replace with an 8a simply for business use

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I have made my decision and as nice as the iPixel 9 series looks, I will wait for the 9a next year if the rumored prices and lack of trade in values and incentives turn out to be true. Google better add an extra year of service to the 9/9P/9XL if they ship with Android 14. I will be curious to see if they wind up with unsold inventory due to disappointing sales for the 9 series.

 

[jamezr]

The models released in the 18.1 beta are all Apples own models. The OpenAI integration won’t happen till late 2024 or even next year.

Apple will also include Gemini too as a partner probably after the ChatGPT.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1819888268173074473

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1819890201227076094

Funny how they don't claim all the LLM and data is their own. Plus Apple's own models are for the documents and images....that data because it is already on the device or in people iCloud data.. But all the rest of the heavy lifting is all Open AI and their underlying LLM and channels. If Apple was able to do all the things you say....as they claim...why would they need Open AI and Chat GPT? They would save themselves the cost of the partnership and embarrassment. They would save face and just build it all themselves....

Anyway...enough off topic talk of Apple Intelligence...this is a Pixel thread.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Haven't smartphones plateaued a few years ago? An iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max are basically the same phone. Same as Pixel 8 Pro and the 9 Pro, they're prob the same phone performance wise. Not talking benchmarks, but give either phone to your average Joe Blow, and I bet they couldn't even tell which iPhone it is and will say the older one feels as fast as the newest one.

Isn't the iPhone 16 lineup just more of the same again from Apple? Another tweaked iPhone 15 which was a tweaked iPhone 14, etc... Really nothing major or huge upgrade wise at all.

Same with the Pixel line, I recall getting the 7 Pro after having the 6 Pro for a year, and there was like almost no difference whatsoever, the Pixel 7 Pro felt like a Pixel 6.25 Pro. Yes I like the 8 Pro best due to the FLAT screen, other than that, it's not a big leap from the 7 Pro.

Same with the S24 Ultra, besides the flat screen, the S23 Ultra is basically just as good, and no slouch in comparison, they're basically the same phones performance wise.

My point, getting a new smartphone every year nowadays seems stupid and pointless. The iPhone 16 Pro Max will feel almost exactly the same as the iPhone 15 Pro Max. And the Pixel 9 Pro XL will prob feel no different than the Pixel 8 Pro.

I think Apple, Samsung, Google, etc... probably know big leaps in smartphones now only come every 2 to 3 years between releases. So getting the iPhone 16 Pro Max coming from an iPhone 12 Pro Max, yes that would feel like a big time leap. Or coming from a Pixel 4 XL going to a Pixel 9 Pro XL would feel like a big freaking deal. But if you already have last years flagship, there's really ZERO reason to get today's flagship.

 

[Tig Bitties]

I've upgraded Pixel Pro phones almost annually for years, but this is the first year, I'm on the fence, I don't have a big desire to upgrade or spend extra ca$h on a new smartphone. My Pixel 8 Pro has been wonderful, no issues really to speak of it. "It just works" LOL . Smooth performance, bright display, good battery life, no deal breaking bugs or issues whatsoever.

But I do like the new design of the Pixel 9 Pro, and the brighter screen and more efficient better battery would be nice to have. But I will only upgrade if there's some killer trade-ins giving up my Pixel 8 Pro, or trading in my S24 Ultra which I never use. But I'm certainly not going to fork over $1200 cash on a new P9P.

 

[JohnRckr]

I've upgraded Pixel Pro phones almost annually for years, but this is the first year, I'm on the fence, I don't have a big desire to upgrade or spend extra ca$h on a new smartphone. My Pixel 8 Pro has been wonderful, no issues really to speak of it. "It just works" LOL . Smooth performance, bright display, good battery life, no deal breaking bugs or issues whatsoever.

But I do like the new design of the Pixel 9 Pro, and the brighter screen and more efficient better battery would be nice to have. But I will only upgrade if there's some killer trade-ins giving up my Pixel 8 Pro, or trading in my S24 Ultra which I never use. But I'm certainly not going to fork over $1200 cash on a new P9P.

For me, this is the first time I even noticed Pixel phones.. I will be watching the event tomorrow and I’m excited, I really want to leave Apple ecosystem and this could be the phone I am looking for..

 

[Tig Bitties]

Since I don't use my S24 Ultra, wonder what kind of trade-ins places like Best Buy will have if I turn that in for a new Pixel 9 Pro?

 

[jamezr]

Haven't smartphones plateaued a few years ago? An iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max are basically the same phone. Same as Pixel 8 Pro and the 9 Pro, they're prob the same phone performance wise. Not talking benchmarks, but give either phone to your average Joe Blow, and I bet they couldn't even tell which iPhone it is and will say the older one feels as fast as the newest one.

Isn't the iPhone 16 lineup just more of the same again from Apple? Another tweaked iPhone 15 which was a tweaked iPhone 14, etc... Really nothing major or huge upgrade wise at all.

Same with the Pixel line, I recall getting the 7 Pro after having the 6 Pro for a year, and there was like almost no difference whatsoever, the Pixel 7 Pro felt like a Pixel 6.25 Pro. Yes I like the 8 Pro best due to the FLAT screen, other than that, it's not a big leap from the 7 Pro.

Same with the S24 Ultra, besides the flat screen, the S23 Ultra is basically just as good, and no slouch in comparison, they're basically the same phones performance wise.

My point, getting a new smartphone every year nowadays seems stupid and pointless. The iPhone 16 Pro Max will feel almost exactly the same as the iPhone 15 Pro Max. And the Pixel 9 Pro XL will prob feel no different than the Pixel 8 Pro.

I think Apple, Samsung, Google, etc... probably know big leaps in smartphones now only come every 2 to 3 years between releases. So getting the iPhone 16 Pro Max coming from an iPhone 12 Pro Max, yes that would feel like a big time leap. Or coming from a Pixel 4 XL going to a Pixel 9 Pro XL would feel like a big freaking deal. But if you already have last years flagship, there's really ZERO reason to get today's flagship.

All of the above is the reason why Samsung and Google released folding phones.....