Google Pixel 9 review: the phone that Android needs

One minor update after another doesn’t look like much year-over-year. A faster fingerprint sensor? Uniform bezels? Not the stuff of headlines. But eventually, the little stuff adds up to something significant. That’s the feeling I get holding the Pixel 9, and I like it a lot.

The Pixel 9 is the only non-Pro phone in the 9 series at this point, which, as best I can tell, means it has 12GB of RAM instead of 16GB and doesn’t have a telephoto lens. It’s smaller than the aptly named Pixel 9 Pro XL, the same size and shape as the regular Pixel 9 Pro, and it doesn’t fold in half like the other 9 Pro does.

But mainly, the Pixel 9 just works. The screen is bright and the battery goes all day. The fingerprint sensor is quick and accurate, finally. Although it’s pricier than last year’s model at $799 versus $699, that’s basically the going rate for a non-Pro flagship phone. And for the first time, the Pixel line feels like it has earned a place right alongside Samsung and Apple. Google just needed a few years to get here.

Let’s get it out of the way: from the front, the Pixel 9 looks like an iPhone. The rounded screen corners, the flat sides — it’s all iPhone and that’s fine. Compared to recent Pixel generations, it feels about 80 percent less likely to fly out of my hand when I pick it up from a table, which I appreciate way more than the distinct look the curved edges provided. The 6.3-inch screen is a little bigger than the Pixel 8’s. Its 1080p screen is on the low side, resolution-wise, but looks sharp enough that it never bothered me.