– Advertisement –
After 8 long years, Google finally decided to bring the Pixel devices officially to the Malaysian market. And here it is, the Pixel 9 – my first foray into the world of Pixel devices. Yes, I have never used a Pixel device until now.
After spending the past week using the phone and learning what makes a Pixel device special, here is our full review of the Pixel 9.
Design
And now, let’s talk about the design first. The Pixel 9 uses a glossy glass back and the phone looks and feels very nice to touch. It’s very similar to the shape of the Galaxy S24 and S24+, but the corner curve radius is larger and it’s a tad bit thicker and the frame curves to the back and front a little.
It feels really nice to hold. I do have a soft spot for small phones that I can use with one hand – so that’s my personal preference. Though I kinda… keep pressing the volume buttons instead of the power button because the location is swapped compared to all the other phones I used. It will definitely take some time to get used to this button placement.
That new camera bump design is also a conversation starter. Some say this new design, but some say the Pixel 8 looks better. I’m indifferent as I think they both look very unique – and the phone doesn’t rock when we place it on the table.
Cameras
Speaking of the cameras, let’s talk about it now. While the specs of the cameras might not be the latest and greatest, Google knows what they’re doing. The Google Pixel 9 doesn’t have a telephoto camera, and that’s one of the main differences between the Pixel 9 and the Pro variants.
To have a look at all the photos and videos taken with the Google Pixel 9, please watch the video at the top of this review. We also showcase the AI features there – which can’t be conveyed through words and pictures.
Software
But there are more AI features built into the software. For example, the Pixel Screenshot is an amazing feature to have. It’s kinda like the Windows 11 Recall feature where it detects words from each screenshot and we can search for them by just entering the keyword. Handy to have since I do take lots of screenshots of random things.
We also have the new Weather app that has an AI summary of what’s going to happen. Kinda neat.
We also have an image generator called Pixel Studio that works surprisingly well. I mean, I can’t describe it to you – but I’ll let you see how it works.
Of course – we also have Gemini as well.
All of these are packed into the Pixel UI on top of Android 14. Google said that the Pixel 9 series will have 7 generations of Android OS upgrades and 7 years of security patches – and the upgrade to Android 15 is not counted in this software support policy – so we should be getting until Android 22 on the Pixel 9 series.
Performance
Then comes the biggest “controversial” ever – Google’s choice of using the Tensor chipset, their custom-designed chip. I know many of you are going to say that the new Tensor G4 sucks – but I disagree. The Pixel 9 is the smoothest phone I’ve used so far – and I think this chip is wildly misunderstood.
Firstly, look at our gaming test. Yes, it stutters a lot while we’re playing Genshin Impact but for whatever reason, other games like COD Mobile, COD Warzone, PUBG Mobile, and surprisingly – Wuthering Waves ran well. I was actually surprised to see Wuthering Waves running so well. Do note that the Pixel devices were never advertised for gaming.
You can watch our gaming test video at the top right corner there. We don’t go benchmarks because those scores from a benchmark really doesn’t mean much.
Secondly, the thermal limit. This phone is cool to the touch even while playing Wuthering Waves at the advanced graphical preset at 60fps. That is because the thermal limit of this phone is only at around 45°C, which is low. Comparing it with other similarly-sized phones like the Galaxy S24 and the Xiaomi 14, those phones have a thermal limit of 47°C. That extra 2°C can allow the phone to get better benchmark scores, but they’re not sustainable. That’s why we don’t rely on benchmarks and we do gaming tests.
We did another video talking about thermal limits and thermal throttling before – so watch this for more information.
Thirdly, this chip is made for AI. Not just any basic AI tasks that we tell it to do – it’s constantly doing some sort of processing in the background. When I take a picture, you can see this “processing” icon. When I take a screenshot, the Pixel Screenshot app analyzes through the screenshot.
Battery life
And even though it needs to do so much background processing, we’ll have to talk about the efficiency now because if it does so many things, then the battery life should be bad, right? That’s where it is surprising.
With that 4,700mAh battery – it can last for more than 15 hours in our standardized battery life test at 120Hz! That’s amazing – and that’s why I said that the Tensor G4 is misunderstood. It’s made with a purpose, and Google did it very well.
Charging speed
As for the charging speed, the Google Pixel 9 can support up to 45W via USB-PD charging standard and it can charge from 15% to completion in around 80-ish minutes.
As far as I know, while the Pixel 9 supports up to 45W via USB-PD, it doesn’t actually take in 45W. It’s similar to Samsung’s phones.
Screen
Okay, we have to talk about the screen as well. The Pixel 9 has a 6.3-inch Actua Display with 2424×1080 pixels in resolution and up to 120Hz refresh rate.
While the specs sound boring, this phone has a maximum brightness of nearly 2100 nits brightness! That’s the absolute brightest screen that I’ve tested so far.
As for the color accuracy, there are two different color modes to choose from – adaptive and natural. They don’t have any detailed description of what they do. Even by just looking at the screen, the dark background changed a lot. To get a better idea about the differences, I just tested both of them.
The adaptive color mode can reach nearly 100% of sRGB and 78.19% of DCI-P3 color gamuts. As for the natural color mode, it has a lower coverage at around 97.79% of sRGB and 69.55% of DCI-P3.
Personally, I just use the adaptive color profile. That’s what it defaults to anyway.
A few more things to mention
Okay, a few more things to mention. The Google Pixel 9 uses a USB 3.0 port at the bottom – and transferring files in and out of the phone is super quick.
It does have display output via USB-C and it mirrors the display.
It doesn’t have an audio jack like most other phones, and it also only has a single physical SIM card slot.
Should you buy the Pixel 9?
Okay, so – should you buy the Google Pixel 9? I think if you don’t care about gaming on a phone at all – then yes, go for it. This phone is amazing for photography and not gonna lie – I want to replace one of my phones with this. There are a lot of good and actually useful features like the Pixel Screenshots, and I think the Tensor G4 does what it is designed to do very well. Great efficiency too. It’s a misunderstood chipset.
Just one word of advice – please do not get the 128GB storage version. You need at least 256GB. You’ll thank me later.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews!
Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
