An evolutionary improve that may get higher with time – Firstpost

**Execs:
**– Glorious construct and end with IP68 ingress safety
– Nice cameras all spherical
– Sharp and vibrant 120 Hz LTPO OLED show
– Clean and clear Android expertise
– 7 years of software program updates promised
– A bunch of AI function with extra anticipated over time
– Improved battery backup
– Good total efficiency

**Cons:
**– Gradual charging; no charger within the field
– Nonetheless no UFS 4.0 storage
– Very costly

Worth: Rs 1,24,999 onwards
Score: 4/5

A few months in the past, we took a detailed take a look at the entry stage mannequin within the Google Pixel 9 collection, nicely, the Pixel 9 itself. Now we shift to the opposite finish of the spectrum and dissect Google’s present flagship, the Pixel 9 Professional XL. We bought an opportunity to expertise it lengthy sufficient with a handful of software program updates making their manner in the course of the course of the assessment. Time to take a look at the way it stacks up towards its predecessor and the competitors, if there are any important upgrades, and if it’s price its hefty asking worth. Let’s get cracking.

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Design: Glorious construct and end, however fairly a handful

There was a noticeable change in design within the Pixel 9 collection. The curvy body on the Pixel 8 Professional has been changed with a flat one, and the edge-to-edge digicam band on the again is now a pill-shaped island. The cellphone does look higher, and the construct high quality and end are glorious with none tough edges. However it’s a sizable machine and the XL within the mannequin identify denotes just about that. In case you weren’t conscious, the Pixel 9 Professional XL is definitely just like the Professional variant from the final two generations of telephones from the corporate with bigger shows.  

The Pixel 9 Professional is now a compact flagship that includes a lot of the XL’s options in a smaller shell the dimensions of a Pixel 9. The nomenclature is just about on the traces of Apple iPhones with the usage of XL suffix as a substitute of Max to indicate a bigger and high variant. Coming again to the XL, it has an aluminium body and a glass again and weighs in extra of 220 grams. The cellphone does really feel heavy however the weight distribution is sort of good. The IP68 ranking for mud and fluid resistance has been retained.  

The display screen is completely flat and merges seamlessly into the body; no curved edges this time however they’re rounded simply sufficient to offer you a smoother really feel. The show and the again are protected towards scratches by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The body is shiny whereas the again has a matte end. The perimeters do appeal to the odd smudge mark that may be simply wiped away, however the again stays smudge-free, particularly on the Porcelain variant that we bought for assessment.  

The amount rocker in addition to the ability button are positioned alongside the precise edge. Their placement and that of the in-display fingerprint scanner are spot on, and one can entry them with out stretching the fingers a lot. You now get an ultrasonic scanner as a substitute of optical and is well essentially the most responsive among the many previous three generations of Pixel telephones. The SIM tray is situated on the backside together with a USB-C port and a speaker. One can use an eSIM too. A reminiscence card slot and a 3.5 mm headphone jack stay absent.

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Show: The perfect and brightest show on Pixel telephones ever

The Google Pixel 9 Professional XL has a big 6.8-inch LTPO OLED show with a decision of 2992 x 1344 pixels, which is in actual fact the identical as that of its predecessor’s regardless of it having a touch smaller display screen. The display screen right here is even brighter with a peak brightness of 3000 nits and has the narrowest of bezels. The HDR10+ compliant display screen appears to be like fairly sharp with glorious color replica and distinction. It has a 120 Hz variable refresh charge that may hold issues clean and flicker free and likewise dial right down to 1 Hz to avoid wasting battery.  

For some unusual motive, the refresh charge is about to 60 Hz by default and one must allow Clean Show from the underside of show settings to get the 120 Hz variable charge going; one thing I would definitely advise you to do. You don’t get elaborate color changes right here however the show is tuned completely tremendous out of the field. In actual fact, that is simply the perfect show I’ve come throughout on Pixel telephones to this point. You do get two show modes to select from – Adaptive and Pure. The previous makes the colors barely extra vivid whereas the latter makes them extra soothing. Each modes are completely usable and you may select one relying in your style.  

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL {Hardware} and efficiency: Not the perfect however largely adequate

The Pixel 9 Professional XL is powered by Google’s fourth technology Tensor G4 SoC that powers your complete Pixel 9 collection. The corporate has dropped the additional core used within the Tensor G3 and gone again to an 8-core structure. Regardless of that, there was a leap in total efficiency, even when it isn’t a giant one. When it comes to uncooked processing energy, it’s nonetheless no match for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, not to mention the Elite. It’s nearer to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC in artificial benchmarks, which isn’t unhealthy.  

By now we all know that artificial benchmarks are simply indicative relatively than absolute. Additionally, it’s exhausting to gauge the AI crunching capabilities of the Tenson G4 utilizing our present set of benchmarks, and people skills are anticipated to get even higher with time. That mentioned, the Tensor G4 breezes by means of day-to-day duties like accessing numerous social media or chat apps at a go, watching movies, shopping the web, opening a number of tabs on a browser and switching between them with out a murmur.

The Pixel 9 Professional XL comes outfitted with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB inner storage, nonetheless, the corporate continues to be caught with UFS 3.1 storage as a substitute of shifting on to UFS 4.0. By the final quarter of 2024, one may discover the quicker UFS 4.0 storage even in telephones priced underneath Rs 30,000. Time for an improve, Google. Shifting on, the cellphone largely stays cool however will get a bit of heat after half-hour of gaming or in the event you click on dozens of images at a go; nothing alarming although.  

Whereas there have been no warmth associated system crashes or restarts, the efficiency does throttle because the temperature rises. There was a noticeable enchancment on this entrance because the drop isn’t abrupt or too quickly. The efficiency did drop to about 57 per cent in the direction of the top of the stress take a look at however largely stayed nearer to 70 per cent or above for many components. The efficiency throttling does impression the body charges in gaming however isn’t noticeable in each day duties.  

We ran just a few artificial benchmarks to gauge its efficiency and evaluate it with that of Pixel 9, Pixel 8 Professional and two earlier technology OnePlus flagship telephones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Gen 3 chips. You’ll be able to verify the precise scores of the Pixel 9 Professional XL within the picture beneath, whereas I provide you with a efficiency synopsis. In Geekbench 6, the Tensor G4 managed to outscore the G3 on the Pixel 8 Professional by over 16 per cent in single-core efficiency and by a measly 3 per cent margin in multi-core. The G4 has one much less core than the G3, however the fewer newer cores do a greater job.

It performs barely higher than the Pixel 9 too that has the identical chipset, most likely due to the additional RAM. As in comparison with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on the OnePlus 11, the Pixel 9 Professional XL scores 25% and 6% higher within the single-core and multi-core benchmarks respectively. Within the PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark, the Pixel 9 Professional XL does an incredible job and outscores the Pixel 9, Pixel 8 Professional and OnePlus 11 by a great 20 per cent at the least, which is nice.  

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip on the OnePlus 12 manages to keep away from the XL with a 12% and 40% lead in Geekbench (single and multi-core respectively) however their scores are comparable in PCMark. Whereas all telephones maxed out the 3D Mark Wild Life benchmark, the XL had some technical points working the Wild Life Excessive benchmark, so it might be exhausting to objectively evaluate their outcomes. However the true world gaming efficiency of the Pixel 9 Professional XL is completely acceptable, and you may play a lot of the video games on the market on it. You might have to decrease the graphics setting in some circumstances for good body charges.  

There was no room for criticism in different areas. The sound output is sort of good. The 2 audio system on the cellphone produce a loud and punchy sound output with good stereo separation. The cellphone is Bluetooth 5.3 compliant and has tri-band WiFi with assist for a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7 requirements. The decision high quality and reception on this 5G compliant cellphone had been completely tremendous in the course of the course of our testing.

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Battery backup: Improved battery life and charging specs, however not charging velocity

Although the battery capability has barely modified compared to the Pixel 8 Professional, the battery backup on the 9 Professional XL sees additional enchancment. The 5060 mAh battery lasts a day and a half of reasonable use, which is par for the course within the phase and fairly good for all of the AI crunching it does. After all, it gained’t final as lengthy in the event you take pleasure in plenty of gaming. The charging instances, nonetheless, nonetheless stay gradual. And as you’ll have guessed, Google doesn’t embrace a charger within the bundle.  

We tried a bunch of third social gathering USB-PD chargers with capacities starting from 30W to 67W together with the brand new UltraProlink Enhance Blade 67 GaN charger, to cost the Pixel 9 Professional XL. The Enhance Blade 67 occurs to be the slimmest (lower than 15 mm thick) and one of many lightest 67W quick chargers I’ve ever used. It really appears to be like like a compact energy financial institution relatively than a charger and is super-convenient to hold round attributable to its measurement. You’ll be able to cost two units concurrently by means of its two USB-C ports at 45W and 20W speeds.

Google has bumped up the quick charging specs from 30W to 37W utilizing USB-PD 3.0 chargers for the XL, however that didn’t appear to have any impact on the charging velocity. The quickest time we clocked for charging the Pixel 9 Professional XL from 1% to 100% was 82 minutes – precisely what the Pixel 8 Professional takes to cost absolutely. That’s nonetheless too gradual! A quicker charging resolution is lengthy overdue for the Pixels. Whereas we don’t anticipate it to compete with sure manufacturers that may do it in underneath half-hour with proprietary chargers, Google ought to attempt to deliver it underneath an hour at the least.

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL Digicam efficiency: Nearly the identical cameras as Pixel 8 Professional

We had used the Pixel 8 Professional extensively and nonetheless charge it as probably the greatest digicam telephones round. The Pixel 9 Professional XL makes use of nearly the identical set of cameras. You get three cameras on the again that cowl all the key bases. It makes use of the identical 50MP main digicam with dual-pixel PDAF and optical picture stabilisation (OIS) and the identical 48MP periscope telephoto digicam with dual-pixel PDAF and OIS that gives 5X optical zoom.  

The ultra-wide digicam right here sees a marginal change. Whilst you nonetheless have a 48MP unit with dual-pixel PDAF, the optics are a bit of totally different with a brighter f/1.7 aperture and a barely narrower 123 levels FOV. The ultra-wide digicam additionally doubles up as a macro digicam. With a mixture of {hardware} and software program, the Google Pixel 9 Professional XL captures some spectacular pictures throughout numerous modes and lighting. Whereas the efficiency continues to be largely much like its predecessor, it’s nonetheless among the many greatest within the phase presently.

The principle digicam captures some glorious pictures in brilliant in addition to low gentle circumstances. The colors are near pure and the distinction is great, as has been the case with Pixel telephones through the years. The main points and dynamic vary in captured pictures is topnotch. And the entire above is relevant for low gentle pictures too. The cellphone routinely switches to Evening Sight mode when the sunshine is low or you are able to do so manually.  

It brightens up the darkish areas within the picture just a bit with out going overboard or compromising on the element. Pixel telephones have been nice at portrait pictures and the Pixel 9 Professional XL isn’t any totally different. In portrait pictures, the sting detection is on the cash with a close to good foreground and background separation. It really works nicely with people in addition to different topics like flowers or animals (in the event that they keep nonetheless).

The telephoto digicam right here is among the greatest round. You’ll be able to stand up to five instances nearer to the topic with the 5X optical zoom, and OIS compensates for a little bit of shaky arms fairly nicely, leading to sharp and detailed captures. You even have the 30X digital zoom possibility, and thru Google’s AI magic, it delivers surprisingly good outcomes for digitally zoomed pictures. After all, they aren’t nearly as good as the pictures captured utilizing optical zoom however usually usable. The AI algorithm does mess up sometimes, so it’s a good suggestion to click on a few additional pictures whereas at it.

Shifting on to the 48MP ultra-wide digicam, the output is spectacular and the colors and dynamic vary are akin to that of the primary digicam. Its low gentle efficiency is commendable too. The ultra-wide digicam has auto-focus, which permits it to seize some high quality macro pictures from up shut. While you get nearer to a topic, the cellphone routinely switches to macro mode; you get an choice to disable it. I felt the standard of macro pictures, although not unhealthy in any respect, was a notch beneath that of its predecessor’s in sure circumstances.

At such instances, you can even use the 5X optical zoom to get nearer to the topic with out obstructing the sunshine to get higher outcomes, as you possibly can see from a few of our digicam samples beneath. The entrance digicam sees a giant enchancment over the Pixel 8 Professional, and the brand new 42MP ultra-wide unit with PDAF clicks noticeably higher and sharper selfies and high quality portrait pictures too with pure pores and skin tones.  

The principle digicam can report movies at 8K decision at 30 fps. The rear cameras also can do 4K movies at 24, 30 and 60 fps and slow-mo 1080p movies as much as 240 fps. OIS and gyro-EIS lend stability to the captured footage. A ten-bit HDR possibility can also be out there. The recorded movies from the rear cameras are sharp and stabilised however not in the identical league as Apple or Samsung. The entrance digicam also can report 4K or 1080p movies at 30 and 60 fps.

Listed here are some digicam samples shot on the Google Pixel 9 Professional XL:

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL OS and person interface: Nearly as good as its will get on Android, now with an even bigger dose of AI

This cellphone runs Android 15, and like all Pixel telephones, you get the cleanest and the perfect Android expertise in the mean time. You get pure Android expertise with none bloatware and with the Materials You design language. The person interface is fluid, completely lag free and largely void of any main bugs now. Even higher, Google has promised 7 main OS updates for the Pixel 9 collection, which ought to hold the cellphone related and safe for a very long time.  

The buzzword for the Pixel 9 collection has been AI, or a better-than-before Gemini integration. You do get a handful of instruments on this cellphone to mess around with, together with the favored Google apps which are seamlessly built-in. However extra importantly, you get a super-charged digital assistant that’s able to doing much more than the same old Google assistant present in most Android telephones.  

Options like object recognition utilizing Google Lens or speech recognition or translation had been already out there. Now you could have issues like ‘circle to look’ whereby you circle an object on the display screen and Google offers you extra details about it. Along with the Magic Eraser and Camouflage choices to play along with your images, you additionally get the Magic Editor to boost your pictures in several methods. Google additionally bundles Pixel Studio to utilize generative AI and let your creativity run wild and create pictures starting from regular to summary to absurd.  

There are much more issues to speak about and much more issues that can get added over time. I’ll focus on all that in a separate article. Meals now, one can verify Pixel Recommendations on the cellphone every now and then to discover new or enhanced options made out there. Additionally observe that AI, although enjoyable to make use of, continues to be in its infancy and can solely get higher with time. So hold your expectations in verify until then. Additionally, not all options could also be out there in all geographies.

Google Pixel 9 Professional XL: Worth, options and verdict

The Google Pixel 9 Professional XL is priced at Rs 1,24,999 for the 256 GB inner storage variant with a one yr guarantee. We really feel the pricing is way from aggressive and hasn’t seen any change but since its launch. You might have to attend for the Pixel 10 launch or the festive gross sales later this yr to get a great deal on it. It is a wonderful all-round cellphone, little question, however I nonetheless wouldn’t need to pay a six digit sum for it given the plethora of choices out there underneath a lakh Rupees in India, and a few from Google itself.

As for options, there are a handful of them so that you can think about, however let’s begin with its siblings. When you can dwell with fewer AI options and a barely slower processor, the Pixel 8 Professional with 256 GB storage usually sells for a great Rs 50,000 decrease, and its digicam efficiency is at par. That makes it a far superior worth proposition. If you need all of the XL options in a smaller kind issue, the Pixel 9 Professional is a wonderful different and may prevent at the least 15K.

Past Google, you even have Apple’s iPhone Professional choices from 15 and 16 collection in addition to Samsung’s S24 collection telephones. If nice cameras and essentially the most highly effective processor round are what you search, one also can think about the Vivo X200 Professional for 95K. Nevertheless, in the event you spot the Google Pixel 9 Professional XL underneath a lakh Rupees, it might be a strong purchase and stays arguably the perfect Android cellphone round.