I revisited the Google Pixel 9 Professional; it did not go how I anticipated

As onerous as it’s to imagine, the Google Pixel 9 Professional is already six months previous. It’s a cellphone I used fairly a bit final summer time/early fall, and as a longtime Pixel fan, it’s one I actually loved.

However as this job usually goes, I ultimately needed to put the Pixel 9 Professional away to check/overview different telephones. Quick ahead to March 2025, and it’s been some time since I final spent any high quality time with Google’s flagship. With its six-month anniversary right here, I figured now was nearly as good a time as any to revisit it. So, for the final week, I’ve been again on the Pixel 9 Professional as my major smartphone.

How’s it been? It’s been … fascinating. There’s so much I nonetheless actually like concerning the Pixel 9 Professional (love, even), however different components haven’t held up practically in addition to I remembered. It’s resulted in a irritating week with a number of ups and downs, and regardless of how a lot the cellphone continues to get proper, I’ll be placing it again in my workplace closet as soon as this text is printed. Let me clarify why.

I need to begin on a optimistic word. Whereas I’ve points with the Pixel 9 Professional (which I’ll get into later), there’s a lot the cellphone will get proper. As has usually been the case for Pixel telephones, virtually all the pieces I like most concerning the Pixel 9 Professional revolves round its software program expertise.

Google’s Pixel software program has been top-tier for just a few years now. After utilizing OnePlus and Samsung telephones earlier than beginning this revisit, I used to be shortly reminded of the small particulars that make utilizing a contemporary Pixel so irresistible.

Face unlock is a wonderful instance of this. Whereas many Android telephones right this moment have a face unlock possibility, it’s solely good for getting previous your lock display. If you wish to open 1Password, entry your banking apps, or authenticate a Google Pockets buy, you’ll want to use your fingerprint sensor.

That’s actually not the top of the world, however the Pixel 9 Professional permits you to use its face unlock function for all these issues — and it’s extremely handy. It really works so seamlessly and within the background that you just virtually overlook something is going on. I don’t need to actively take into consideration scanning my fingerprint after I need to test my bank card balances. I open the Chase app on the Pixel 9 Professional, and in lower than a second, my face is scanned, and I’m in.

I additionally love Pixel Screenshots, not essentially the devoted app, however the little shortcuts you get after taking sure screenshots. Sooner or later, I took a screenshot of a film ticket receipt in my electronic mail so I may then go into Google Pockets and add it as a move. After capturing the screenshot, the Pixel 9 Professional gave me an “Add to Pockets” shortcut. I tapped it, and similar to that, the ticket was in Google Pockets. It’s additionally been useful for screenshotting native occasions I discover whereas scrolling via Google Information or Instagram and placing them on my calendar with the “Add to Calendar” button that seems.

The Pixel Climate app is unbelievable. The “AI Climate Report” is no matter, however the app’s design, customizability, and swath of data make it my favourite climate app on Android. Pixel Recorder remains to be the very best audio recording/transcription app I’ve used. And practically eight years after its launch, Now Enjoying continues to be some of the useful smartphone improvements within the final decade.

And people are simply my favourite Pixel options! That’s not mentioning the quite a few (and glorious) calling instruments, photo-editing methods like Zoom Improve or Add Me, and extra. Distinctive and useful software program is the place the Pixel sequence has lengthy stood out, and after going again to the Pixel 9 Professional, I can confidently say that time holds true in early 2025.

Right here’s the place issues get a bit extra difficult. On a technical degree, the Pixel 9 Professional has unbelievable cameras. The 50MP major, 48MP 5x telephoto, and 48MP ultrawide sensors maintain up extremely properly, and I shouldn’t have something to complain about with them.

However in observe, I’ve been irritated with the Pixel 9 Professional’s cameras. Not as a result of the sensors aren’t succesful, however as a result of I’ve discovered myself rising increasingly more aggravated with Google’s picture processing.

For the final a number of years, Google’s Pixel cameras have had a really distinct look — one which favors a number of HDR and really minimal distinction. That’s true of the Pixel 9 Professional, and the entire pictures I take with it — objectively — look good. They’re clear, sharp, and oh-so constant. However they’re additionally, a minimum of to my eye, extremely uninteresting.

The photograph of my canine mendacity on the sofa is a primary instance. The Pixel 9 Professional’s photograph is technically nice. My canine is targeted, the photograph is sharp, and there’s good, pure bokeh round his rear legs. Nevertheless it simply appears to be like so rattling drab. There’s no popping shade. No sense of distinction. The entire picture feels flat.

The identical scene captured by the OnePlus 13 appears to be like significantly better to me. The blue sofa and yellow pillow are extra vibrant, whereas my canine’s fur has a deeper, hotter brown shade. You lose a tiny little bit of element at midnight fur round his eyes, and the window within the background is barely extra overblown, however the image as an entire feels extra alive.

It’s an analogous scenario with the photograph of my cat together with his head peeking out over some blankets. It’s onerous to be upset with both shot, however as soon as once more, I’m drawn to how the OnePlus 13 captured the scene. The cat’s inexperienced eyes pop extra, his brown and black fur are richer, and even the colours within the work on the wall within the background stand out in a means they don’t within the Pixel’s picture. The Pixel 9 Professional delivered a technically nice photograph, nevertheless it doesn’t make me really feel something.

That’s the purpose I hold coming again to. Whereas I’ve by no means checked out an image from the Pixel 9 Professional and thought it was outright unhealthy, I additionally don’t really feel strongly concerning the footage I take with the cellphone. Are they technically good? Completely. However I need distinction. I need depth. I need some character and feeling. I discover all of that missing on the Pixel 9 Professional in a means it’s not from a cellphone just like the OnePlus 13, and it’s made me need to work together with the Pixel digicam much less and fewer.

That leads me to all the pieces else concerning the cellphone. Much like the cameras, the Pixel 9 Professional as an entire remains to be high-quality and gratifying. However there are just a few nagging points right here and there which are shortly including up in a means I don’t like.

The Tensor G4 chip is an effective first instance. It stays a superbly succesful chip for day-to-day duties — dealing with social media apps, YouTube, and extra and not using a downside. However as quick and responsive because the Pixel 9 Professional is, its repeated tendency to warmth up even throughout mild use is regarding.

On a number of events, the Pixel 9 Professional has gotten noticeably heat whereas doing the best of duties — corresponding to watching YouTube for ten minutes or responding to an energetic Telegram group chat. It’s not uncomfortably scorching or something like that, however these are duties the place I wouldn’t count on the cellphone to heat up in any respect.

What about battery life? It’s okay. I’ve ended a few days with 45% battery nonetheless remaining, however that was with three hours or much less of screen-on time. On a heavier day with 5 and a half hours of display time, the cellphone dipped to fifteen% by across the similar time at evening. That is superb endurance, however I persistently noticed higher battery life from the Samsung Galaxy S25 — a cellphone whose battery is 700mAh smaller than the Pixel 9 Professional’s.

Whereas an enchancment over earlier Tensor chips, Tensor G4 by no means stood out in thermal administration or battery effectivity. And in a world the place the Snapdragon 8 Elite exists and has none of those issues, the shortcomings of Google’s in-house silicon are tougher to miss.

Then, there’s the show. For probably the most half, it’s unbelievable. Colours are vibrant, textual content is sharp, and it strikes a great steadiness of being colourful with out saturation overload. However as soon as once more, little annoyances elevate their head.

Regardless of having an distinctive 3,000 nits of peak brightness, I’ve needed to elevate the brightness degree greater than different fashionable flagships. My Pixel 9 Professional usually sits at round 75% brightness for indoor use, in comparison with about 50% on my OnePlus 13. I’ve additionally seen a weird quirk with utilizing the Pixel 9 Professional outside in vivid daylight. In these situations, the perimeters of the show get a distracting shadow impact that doesn’t depart till I’m going again inside. I’m not the one one who’s seen this, and so far as I can inform, there’s no clear repair.

Lastly, there’s the {hardware}. From a high quality standpoint, the Pixel 9 Professional is about nearly as good because it will get. Between the matte glass again, the chrome steel body, and little particulars just like the buttons and haptics, all of it’s distinctive. I beloved all the pieces concerning the {hardware} after I first used the Pixel 9 Professional, however coming again to it in March 2025, one thing about it isn’t clicking.

My fundamental problem is the burden. At 199g, the Pixel 9 Professional is heavy for a cellphone with a 6.3-inch show. There are many heavier telephones on the market weighing 200g or extra, however they virtually all have a lot bigger our bodies to unfold that weight throughout. Cramming 199 grams right into a cellphone this dimension simply doesn’t work. It makes the Pixel 9 Professional really feel cumbersome in a means that equally weighted telephones don’t, and it’s been an actual distraction whereas utilizing the cellphone this previous week.

For context, the Samsung Galaxy S25 has an analogous 6.2-inch display, but it weighs considerably much less at simply 162g. It seems like a correct “small” cellphone and what I count on from telephones this dimension. The OnePlus 13 technically weighs greater than the Pixel 9 Professional at 210g, however due to its bigger bodily physique and higher weight distribution, it feels lighter within the hand.

That is all to say that I don’t discover the Pixel 9 Professional to be a really comfy smartphone. I like its craftsmanship and its appears to be like, however I don’t notably take pleasure in holding it. And in day-to-day use, it’s been tough for me to miss.

If I sound conflicted all through this text, that’s as a result of I’m. I used to be desirous to return to the Pixel 9 Professional. It’s a cellphone I beloved just some months in the past, and I used to be prepared for it to dazzle me once more. Whereas components of it nonetheless do, different features of the cellphone haven’t held up in any respect how I used to be anticipating.

I like the Pixel 9’s face unlock. Now Enjoying is one in every of my all-time favourite smartphone options. The construct high quality is unmatched, and Google’s total software program expertise is so easy and welcoming in a means few different Android skins are.

Nonetheless, as I used the Pixel 9 Professional once more, the complaints I discussed all got here collectively in a means I discovered tough to disregard. It’s not that I feel the Pixel 9 Professional is a foul cellphone, however I don’t assume it matches me properly anymore — probably as a consequence of a mix of newer and extra succesful flagships, sure features of the cellphone not getting older properly, and my very own altering desires/wants. There’s an outstanding smartphone expertise throughout the Pixel 9 Professional, and I want I may overlook my points with the cellphone to completely embrace it.