Google Pixel 9 early impressions

Google launched the Pixel 9 series on August 14, and in the past week, you’ve probably heard all there is about all four new smartphones. If you haven’t, here’s our detailed post on just that. What we’re focusing on today is the base variant of the series – the vanilla Pixel 9.

Now although Google is doing a lot of new things with the 9 series as a whole, the Pixel 9 may seem like an iterative update over 2023’s Pixel 8. That doesn’t however take the thunder away from the phone, because getting your hands on a flagship Pixel phone that’s not the ‘a’ series has been difficult these past few years. That changes this year, with the entire Pixel 9 series officially available in India.

ALSO READ: Google Pixel 9 Pro XL early impressions

But let’s not let ease-of-availability take away from what’s great about this phone (and there’s a lot). Here are our early impressions of the Google Pixel 9.

Products in focus

Google Pixel 9 5G (12GB RAM, 256GB, Porcelain)

Price ₹79,999/-

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Google Pixel 9 design

The Google Pixel 9 takes the tried and tested glass sandwich design but somehow does it better. On the back of the phone, the signature horizontal camera module is now rounded off at the edges, and while I liked the flat-out rectangles of previous versions better, this new one doesn’t exactly step down in any way.

Design is subjective after all, and the new look of the camera module, something that’s maintained across all the new 9 series phones, might just grow on me with time. The back panel looks great, but I really would have loved it to sport the matte look you see in the Pixel 9 Pro.

Regardless, the phone feels solid to the touch, and well-built with a balanced weight all around. This phone doesn’t just look good in the hands, it feels good as well.

Turn the phone around and you have a 6.3-inch OLED panel that feels like the new “right size” for most people. It hits the halfway mark between the compactness of something like the iPhone 15 while sporting enough screen for gaming or streaming. It’s also a 120Hz LTPO panel, so refresh rate can be as high or low as the situation demands.

Google Pixel 9 key specifications

The Pixel 9 is powered by the new Tensor G4 chipset, which should be an improvement compared to older generations in terms of speed and efficiency, but that remains to be tested.

Google has thrown in a dual-camera setup as well, including a 50MP main camera and a 48MP ultrawide camera – both of which I will be testing out thoroughly in my full review very soon.

The Pixel 9 also comes with a 4,700mAh battery, which seems adequately sized for this phone. Some good optimisation and we may just see segment-leading battery life in real-world use here.

However, what has me worried is the charging speeds. Google mentions that the phone can charge at up to 45W speeds with Pixel chargers, and how fast charging will be with non-Google solutions remains to be tested.

Google Pixel 9 early impressions

The Google Pixel 9 seems like it ticks all the boxes for the compact, no fuss flagship for everyone in 2024. It looks great, is well-designed and built, packs the performance promise, and is future proof thanks to Google’s seven-year promise.

ALSO READ: How to buy the new Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro XL phones in India

That seems great for its starting price of Rs 79,999. All that remains to be seen is how well the phone fares in actual use-cases, which we shall address in our full review of the phone very soon. Stay tuned to Unboxed by Croma until then.