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CNET’s key takeaways
Android phones typically get a foul rap for being overly convoluted. And to be honest, that is typically nicely justified. Samsung’s Galaxy S25 vary, for instance, has deep menu programs for messing about with practically each side of the telephone, together with options just like the Edge Panel sidebar and quite a lot of Samsung’s personal AI instruments. You even get Samsung’s model of some apps, so you find yourself with two apps for images, two apps for internet searching and so forth.
For a lot of Android customers, the deep customizability of the OS has all the time been a promoting level over the extra simplistic iOS discovered on Apple’s iPhones. However simply since you need an Android telephone, does not essentially imply you are a fanatical tech nerd who needs to tinker with menus all day.
The Pixel 9 Professional is the best Android telephone I’ve ever used, and there is plenty of key the explanation why.
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My expertise with the Pixel 9 Professional
First, it is Google’s personal telephone, that means there isn’t any secondary producer software program pores and skin excessive of the working system. It is pure, uncut Android. Google’s interface is clear, straightforward to learn and uncluttered. Naturally, it makes use of Google’s personal apps by default. Samsung, in the meantime, hundreds its telephones up with its personal browser, electronic mail shopper and photograph gallery, all of which sit beside Google’s Chrome, Gmail and Pictures apps, that means you have already got duplicates of every instrument.
Samsung will not be the one phone-maker to do that. Nearly all Android telephone corporations load their telephones up with no less than their very own browser and gallery app, whereas some corporations, like Samsung and Honor, go so far as making their very own electronic mail purchasers and calendars.
With its pure Android software program, the Pixel 9 Professional gives a super-clean and easy-to-use expertise.
I not too long ago reviewed the Honor 400 Pro, and one of many large points I discovered with that telephone was how a lot unsolicited stuff comes pre-loaded as commonplace. Third-party apps from TikTok, LinkedIn, WPS workplace, Temu and quite a lot of others are all proper there as quickly as you flip it on for the primary time, making the telephone really feel cluttered, bloated and complex earlier than you’ve got even had an opportunity to put in one app of your personal. The Pixel has none of this.
It is the identical with AI instruments. Samsung has its Bixby assistant, plus an enormous number of its personal AI capabilities. The Honor 400 Professional packs a bunch of AI options for real-time translation and transcription, as do the OnePlus 13 and numerous different current Android telephones. However all of them include Google’s Gemini Superior, too, together with Circle to Search. The Pixel does not must pointlessly double up. If you wish to use AI together with your telephone, its instruments are baked into the guts of the telephone expertise with out you needing to additionally activate and signal right into a third-party service.
This straightforward strategy extends to the digital camera, too. Open the default digital camera app and also you’re met with a neat interface, comprised principally of the shutter button and zoom ranges, with different taking pictures modes discovered alongside. It does not attempt to overcomplicate issues right here, as an alternative letting you rapidly shoot photographs with out messing about with settings.
It is an strategy that works right here, and in consequence, the Pixel 9 Professional takes a few of my favourite automated photographs from a phone camera, doing an important job of balancing publicity and colours. I really like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s camera, however to get one of the best from it, it is advisable shoot in Professional mode, taking handbook management of the settings, which makes it extra suited to superior photographers who wish to fine-tune their photographs.
The digital camera’s easy software program makes it straightforward to take images with little effort in your half.
The Pixel does provide deeper management if you would like it, conveniently hidden behind a small settings icon, relatively than requiring you to change utterly right into a “Professional” mode. For these of you eager to take handbook management of your white steadiness to heat up a ravishing sundown, the Pixel 9 Professional gives a straightforward manner in.
The specs
- 6.3-inch LTPO OLED show, 2,856×1,280 pixel decision, 1-120Hz adaptive refresh price
- Google Tensor G4 processor
- 16GB RAM
- 4,700-mAh battery
- 50 megapixel predominant digital camera, 48 megapixel ultrawide, 48 megapixel telephoto zoom
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Google has clearly taken notes from Apple’s strategy in making the Pixel vary. Apple’s telephones could also be derided by Android followers for his or her lack of customization and “locked down” nature, however iPhones are famously extra easy to function. They’ve built-in {hardware}, software program and companies that make them straightforward to know whether or not you are new to smartphones or a veteran gadget obsessive.
Apple’s “you do issues our manner” strategy is a giant a part of the telephone’s success, and the Pixel 9 Professional feels just like the closest approximation of the Apple expertise you’ll find on Android. If you happen to’re in search of a clear expertise with a smartphone that does not try to get in your manner with useless extras, the Pixel 9 Professional is definitely price a glance.
Watch this: Google Pixel 9, 9 Professional and 9 Professional XL Fingers-On
