The Pixel 9 series has three models, barring the Fold. While Pixel 9 is the entry level vanila model, Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL are nearly identical except for the screen size. So for this article, I will focus on Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro and explain all the differences, including those minor options and hidden settings that no one talks about. Since hardware specs are already available on Google Store, I will mainly focus on the software. After all, Pixel phones are famous for their software experience.
Camera Features
Despite average hardware and specs, Pixels have always punched above their belt when it comes to photography and videography. And this time is no different. However, not all features make it to the base model. Here is a table that shows which camera features are available on Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro.
Video Feature | Pixel 9 | Pixel 9 Pro/Pro XL |
---|---|---|
Add Me | ✅ | ✅ |
Auto Reframe | ✅ | ✅ |
Night Sight | ❌ | ✅ |
Video Boost | ❌ | ✅ |
Super-Res Zoom | ❌ | ✅ |
Let’s go through them quickly.
- Add Me – Whoever is clicking a group photo can’t be part of it. Add Me feature solves that problem. Click a photo of the entire group. Then ask one of the group members to click another photo while you stand next to the group in an empty space. An AR overlay will guide you to where you should be while clicking a second photo and then merge it with the first. You can get creative with it and add yourself!
- Auto Reframe – Part of Magic editor, it will use generative AI to reframe your photo making it look far better than what you clicked based on photography principles like ‘rule of thirds‘. Other tricks include generating images around the subject to fill empty spaces.
- Super-Res Zoom – As the name suggests, this will let you zoom in on your subject from a distance. You can zoom in up to 20x while using night sight and video boost (more on these two next). When you zoom in, it will use AI to expand pixels to reduce blur ensuring the clarity is maintained.
- Night Sight – Makes taking low-light panorama photos easy and the output is much more detailed and crisp.
- Video Boost – By default, Pixel 9 Pros can shoot in 4K@24/30/60fps resolution. However, with Video Boost, you can turn that video into 8K@30fps.
Native App Features
Apart from these, I found some small settings and options in two different native apps that are available on the Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL models but were missing on the Pixel 9. Here they are in no particular order.
The Phone app in the Pixel 9 Pro has Audio Emojis and contact ringtones features. To find Audio emoji, go to Phone app’s Settings > General. It’s a new way to express emotions using pre-recorded sounds while you are on a call. Some sound effects include applause, poop, party popper, etc. They will play for a short while when selected. I wish there was a way to record and play your own sounds or in short, create your own audio emojis.
Surprisingly, the ability to set custom ringtones for individual contacts is an old feature but still didn’t make it to the Pixel 9. Maybe an update will fix it but the demo unit we received had it missing.
Similarly, Google Messages app gets a few additional features in the Pixel 9 Pro series. You get profile discovery and the ability to show expressive animations. However, expressive animations is not exactly new. It was enabled by default before but now, you can disable it from the settings. A much requested feature.
Profile discovery was announced last year. The photo that you have added to your Google account will begin to show in Messages chats, much like iMessage in the Apple ecosystem.
We are still testing the Pixel 9 series in different settings to see how it performs and whether it meets expectations. We recently concluded our benchmark test where we test Pixel 9 series’ Tensor G4 chipset and found some interesting facts.