During Google’s Made By Google event on August 13th, one of the company’s most notable for photography was the launch of its Pixel 9 phones.
Google announced its new Pixel 9 line of phones, consisting of the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold based on incremental order of price and features.
These models are the newest flagship devices in Google’s Pixel phone line and unsurprisingly, Google designed them to take mobile photography to new heights.
A focus on internal camera features has been a hallmark characteristic of previous Google Pixel releases and their maker has used assorted technologies to achieve these ends. These have included computational photo processing, HDR+ and refined low-light tools like Night Sight.
With the Pixel 9 Series, Google has done the same and more again, making these particular phones especially noteworthy for people interested in mobile photography with quality optics.
In the case of the Pixel 9 phones, Google has also included a range of new features derived from AI tech.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what each Pixel 9 variant offers and what to expect from the imaging tech in these four Pixel 9 phone models.
To start with, all four of the company’s new phones extensively share features and technology despite their differences. They also all use AI in an attempt to improve photo and video performance.
The Pixel 9
Starting with the lowest-priced and most “basic” of Google’s new Pixel phones, what you get is a phone with the same dimensions as the Pixel 9 Pro and the same 6.3” display size, but with an “Actua” display as opposed to the “Super Actua” screen of the 9 Pro.
This Actua display is nonetheless claimed by Google to reach a peak brightness of 2,700 nits and be 35% brighter than that of the Pixel 8.
The Pixel 9 comes with a dual rear camera setup but without a telephoto lens. It has the same 50MP main camera and 48MP ultra-wide-lens camera as those of the Pixel 9 Pro and also comes with single-zone LDAF (laser detect autofocus) for low light focus.
In this model as in the Pixel 9 Pro, the main camera includes an optical and digital image stabilization and a Super Res zoom of 8x with “optical quality” results at up to 2x zoom.
The Pixel 9 has the same 10.5MP selfie camera as the Pixel 8 Pro.
Internally, this baseline model in the series includes Google’s Tensor G4 processor, 12GB RAM, and, supposedly, the ability to run for up to 100 hours on Extreme Battery Saver mode.
The Pixel 9 Pro
Google decided to release the Pixel 9 Pro in two sizes. One of these is the regular 6.3-inch version and the other is the Pixel 9 Pro XL edition with a 6.8” screen. Other than this difference, both phones have the same specs.
In the case of the Pixel 9 Pro versions, the displays are Super Actua OLED tech with a remarkable luminosity of up to 3000 nits peak brightness. They also offer pixel densities of 486 and 495 PPI for the Pro and PRO XL respectively.
The camera systems in the 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL are identical, offering a triple rear camera array. The main, wide, camera has a 50MP Type 1/1.31 (9.8 x 7.35mm) sensor with a 25mm equivalent f1.68 lens.
Then there’s the 0.5x ultra-wide camera with macro shooting capacity and a 48MP Type 1/2.55 sensor (5.6 x 4.2mm) and an f1.7 aperture.
Finally among these three rear cameras is a 5x telephoto camera with a 48MP type 1/2.55 (5.6 x 4.2mm) sensor and f2.8 lens. Among these three cameras, the first two above include both digital and optical image stabilization
According to Google, all three cameras can shoot images with “optical quality” results at focal lengths of 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 5x and 10x with the help of multi-camera mosaicking technology.
Unlike the Pixel 9 with its single-zone laser detect autofocus (LDAF), the Pixel 9 Pro and its XL version enjoy multi-zone LDAF.
As for the front selfie camera on these two phones, it has a hefty 42MP sensor that’s a huge leap up from the 10.5MP in the Pixel 9 standard model.
Google has also thrown in access to pro camera controls for these phones, letting users finely control focus, shutter speed and ISO.
For video recording, the two Pixel 9 Pro editions can shoot 4K at 60p and can upscale that video to 8K at 30p according to Google.
They also include Dual Exposure for better HDR in their rear cameras and of course, Night Sight Video for low-light recording.
The two Pro phones offer 16GB of RAM and the ability to charge to 70% in just 30 minutes.
Pixel 9 Pro Fold
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold offers many of the same performance specs as the Pixel 9 Pro and PRO XL models but curiously, its camera system is different.
Instead of a 50MP main camera, this phone’s version has a 48MP sensor with a 25mm equivalent lens and f1.7 aperture. The telephoto and ultra-wide cameras on the other hand both offer only 10.8 and 10.5MP sensors respectively. This is an odd downscaling from what the Pixel 9 Pro and its XL version come with.
On the other hand, as a foldable phone, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is claimed to be “the thinnest foldable” smartphone on the market and includes a very large 8” screen when fully extended.
Because of this expanded screen, the phone also includes unique photo composition features.
One of these is the ability to use the rear main camera and the other two cameras for selfie photos and the ability for both photographer and subject to see what their photo will look like.
New Camera and Phone Features
Having covered the essential camera specs of the four new Google Pixel phones, here’s a look at some key photographic features.
Magic Editor
With this feature, users can take advantage of generative AI tools right inside these phones. These let them remove subjects, change skies and reframe their photos with AI-suggested crops. This Autoframe part of Magic Editor also lets you expand a photo’s crop with generative content fill.
Another handy technology in Magic Editor is called Reimagine, which lets a user do things like change the colors of objects or modify their look and texture, thus turning smartphone photos into… something else.
Add Me
With Add Me, Google offers a fix to the problem of having a person only partially show up in a photo. This feature can merge subjects from multiple photos to have them fully appear in a group photo.
The same feature will also combine with Google’s Best Take tool to choose the best expression of one or more subjects from among multiple photos and merge these into a single composite shot.
Pixel Screenshots
One especially useful new feature in these phones will let users quickly find photos with useful information in them. It works by organizing all screenshots taken with a phone in one place and using AI to index their content for easily searching for specific text and images.
These are some of the main AI technologies that are available in all four of Google’s new Pixel 9 phones.
As for the prices and availability of these models, they’re as follows:
The Pixel 9 will have a starting price of $799. The Pixel 9 Pro will retail for a starting price of $999 and the Pro XL model will start at $1099. As for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, it will start at $1,799.
All four phone models will have more expensive options with expanded memory and storage. All four phones also come with 7 years of full OS and security updates.
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