Google has officially unveiled its latest flagship phone, the Google Pixel 9 Pro, but how does it compare to Apple’s high-end iPhone 15 Pro?
Keep reading to discover all the biggest differences between the Pixel and the iPhone Pro when it comes to the design, cameras, performance, battery life and more.
The iPhone 15 Pro features the Dynamic Island
Both the iPhone 15 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro come in two screen sizes. In the iPhone’s case, this is 6.1 and 6.7 inches, whereas the Pixel 9 Pro is available in larger 6.3- and 6.8-inch variations.
Both screens are also incredibly bright, with the iPhone 15 Pro hitting up to 2000 nits at peak brightness, while the Pixel 9 Pro even surpasses this to hit 3000 nits at its peak.
One standout difference here is the notch; the Pixel 9 Pro features a notch-less design with a simple hole punch camera in the centre, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro transforms the notch into a fully blown software feature that hides the camera and expands and contracts to display useful information. This is called the Dynamic Island.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro is packed with AI features
The Pixel 9 Pro comes with Google’s Gemini AI assistant built-in.
You can press and hold the power button to activate Gemini AI, pull information from apps like Gmail and Maps or chat with Gemini to learn and complete tasks using whatever is on your screen.
There are also plenty of photo and video editing tools available, including Add Me to insert the photographer into group photos, Night Sight Video for low-light recording, Video Boost to enhance resolutions to up to 8K and Astrophotography for capturing the Milky Way. Meanwhile, the Magic Editor uses AI to help you edit backgrounds, move objects and expand your image beyond what the camera can capture.
The iPhone 15 Pro is powered by the A17 Pro
The iPhone 15 Pro features the most powerful smartphone processor we’ve tested so far.
The A17 Pro is an incredibly fast 3nm chipset that achieved multi-core scores around 2000 points higher than the top-performing Android smartphones. The same goes for the GPU, which is more difficult to showcase due to the fact our benchmarking software caps out at 60fps on iOS.
This translated to a rapid, near-instant experience on iOS, in our experience, that allows for high-end gaming with top-end graphics, along with fast export times for photo and video editing. This level of performance also makes the iPhone 15 Pro a fantastic investment for the long term as it’s likely to feel fast for longer as other phones fight to catch up with the flagship iPhone.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro is powered by Google’s latest G4 chipset paired with the brand’s Titan M2 security coprocessor and a huge 16GB of RAM. We haven’t gotten the opportunity to put the Pixel 9 Pro through its paces in our benchmark tests just yet, so you’ll need to wait for our final review to learn how these two smartphones compare when it comes to performance.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro has a bigger battery
The same goes for battery life, which is tough to compare without having tested both phones fully.
However, on paper, the Pixel 9 Pro stands out with its 24+ hour 4700mAh battery life, which can last up to 100 hours with the Extreme Battery Saver mode switched on. The Pixel also benefits from 45W wired charging, with Google claiming the phone can hit 55% in 30 minutes, along with up to 21W wireless charging and a Battery Share mode.
The iPhone 15 Pro packs a smaller 3274mAh battery which we found offered surprisingly solid all-day battery life. Fast charging is limited to 20W, though we found that the phone was capable of hitting 58% in 30 minutes, putting it about on par with Google’s estimates. Wireless charging caps out at 15W, though there is MagSafe support onboard.
