Let’s Remove the AI Hype - Pixel 9 Pro XL Review

Intro this is going to be a weird kind of video cuz yes I know I'm supposed to be a tech YouTuber and yes I know I'm supposed to be excited by every little Improvement every little software feature but what I should be and what I end up being are at times two very different things now self-replication apart honestly I like the AI stuff but I also have my reservations on the actual usefulness of what they can and cannot do on a smartphone in the long run that's it if you like me are on the fence about AI how good is the pixel 9 Pro XL for you that's the angle I'm going for with this video now if this is your first time here or in case it's slipped your mind my name is Ash you're watching C4 rch and let's get [Music] started from a build and design Build & Design perspective I think Google's done just fine there is a certain look that we associate with very expensive flagships and Google's recreate that look quite well on the pixel9 pro XL the glossy metal frame the mat glass back it gives off a very iphony Vibe but that camera visor to the back it definitely adds a Google twist to it talking about Google twists I hate the power button placement being above the volume rockers it always takes a few days to get used to it's not a big complaint but it sure was annoying for the first week or so now the back and the display they're both covered by coring Gorilla Glass Victor is to underneath this panel sits an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that's placed at a very comfortable position it's also quite fast and responsive there's an ip68 rating for water indust resistance and the temperature sensor returns if that is something you were into now the soft map finish to the back it's slippery and the 9 Pro XL is quite boxy and Thick at 8 and half mm add to it a weight of over 220 G this phone like most other expensive flagships it's not too ergonomic that said it does feel premium when you hold it it's got a certain heft to it that feels nice and hand now I do like the camera visor design it makes cleaning accumulated dust easier than on say the s24 ultra and the fact that it's pretty much a horizontal line means there is no wobbling when you set this pixel on a surface and use it now the display here Display Google's calling it a super actu display basically it's a OLED panel with an almost Quad HD resolution a solid 486 BPI it's got a refresh rate of 120 HZ with ltpo tech perent to variate as needed Google B of A brightness peak of 3,000 nits which is for HDR in my testing it output about 1,300 nits and manual mode and a whopping 2200 Nets under Auto pretty much the highest I've seen on any phone till date so using this pixel outo on a sunny day definitely not an issue there are a pair of stereo speakers loud and Rich here's a side by side with the iPhone 15 Pro Max see how the pixel fair is slightly better [Music] [Applause] [Music] under the hood Google's own tensor G4 Performance Powers the pixel 9 Pro XL you also get 16 gigs of lpddr 5x Ram paired with 128 256 512 or up to a terabyte of ufs 3.1 storage that's probably a let down but here's the thing the pixel 9 Pro XL it's not a performance Powerhouse it's not the phone to buy if you're looking to say game now if you look at the compound benchmarks it puts it close to the Snapdragon 8s gen 3 the graphics scores they're just above A+ gen 1 levels and even that you lose a major chunk off when the phone's pushed so yes you can run some games on it most Android games aren't too demanding but this is definitely not a phone to buy if gaming is high priority that said weak as the Software specs might seem on paper with practical usage here's where this phone shines the pixel 9 series this time did not bring with them the latest version of Android so Android 15 is something we don't have yet we are going to get soon is this a calculated move from Google Now they did say 7 years of Android updates they've launched it at 14 so it's is it going to get updates till 21 or since this year is actually 15 is it going to get updates till 22 now that's something only time will tell us suppos anyways the interface like I said it's where the pixel shines now to be fair we've seen phones with say the Ag and one perform really well with day-to-day use so regular use doesn't really need a whole lot of horsepower these days but even then this combination the pixel experience with a responsive phone a smooth display I definitely find it on par with the pro iPhones the smoothness factor is in fact amongst the best I've seen on the Android side of things and no matter how you're using this phone Battery & Charging the 5060 mAh battery on the inside will get you through a day on a single charge that said there is no charger in the Box the unboxing experience is quite bad Bones the 9 Pro XL it can be charged at up to 37 WTS so it gets you about 40% in 15 minutes a full charge takes you about 80 minutes and there's also wireless charging support now I did say we're going to remove that AI hype didn't I AI Features now here's why there are a lot of interesting things that you can do with Gemini Advanced here on the pixel9 pro XL but they do require a subscription the first year comes free with this phone meaning in other words you're going to have to continue paying annually to do most of these things are these features cool sure like we have Gemini live which lets you have like a normal uninterrupted conversation with Google's AI assistant super cool but it is not necessarily reliable like here's a conversation I had with it pause and read through it to see how many times I had to correct it I'm sure it will get better with time now there are other AI features that aren tied to the subscription and are still cool I'm sure you've been seeing tons of add me images on social media basically you take a picture and then you can add yourself to it then there's Magic Eraser that lets you remove stuff from images once you've taken a shot works really well here then there is autof framing which gets you to better focus on a subject then there's reimagine which lets you type in prompts to change details in an image pretty well implemented there's a dedicated screenshots app a new weather app there's pixel Studio an image generator all pretty cool now let's move on to the Cameras Optics to the back the pixel 9 Pro XL it has three cameras the primary is a 50 m pixel 1X 1.31 in sensor that's been paired with an optically stabilized f1.7 lens images as expected from pixels they were excellent excellent detail excellent dynamic range when you compare these images side by side with say the s24 ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max you see the pixel has a bit of a pinkish Hue at times like once again look at the set Now Bing that it's every bit on par with the flagships it's challenging even under low light there are times like here with that wall texture where I feel the pixel outperformed the s24 ultra and the 15 Pro Max and for the most part baring some very slight color misses the 9 Pro XL was exceptional under low light with video you can shoot 8K via the primary camera and I compared the 4K 60 footage with those shot by the same two phones once again the Pixel It held up quite nicely the video quality is excellent the Eis Jitter which I usually get annoyed by on pixels it's not present here that said it is not on par with the other two when it comes to the smoothness of switching to another sensor while shooting the ultra white and the Periscope they also do well on par with other Flagship offerings that's it the coolest part here for me is if you were a 90s kid like me and you grew up watching all those TV shows where they just would say something like pause Zoom enhance and miraculously pull out detail out of a few pixels that can actually kind of be done on the 9 Pro XL Zoom enhance is what it's named it uses machine learning to add detail when you zoom in it does it reasonably well it's not as magical as what we've seen on TV but it does lead to cleaner zoomed in shots which is a nice touch for selfies we got a 42 megapixel shooter and the pictures turned out all right pixel phones have always had an edge when it comes to selfies and while that gaps narrowed in recent years it's still the leader here especially with video 4K 60 super smooth the typical pixel contrast excellent dynamic range now before we jump to the conclusion a big shout out to video sponsor and bernick this is the Anbernic RG40XX V new RG 40xx V a vertical blown up Game Boy form factor handheld with an ultra narrow bezel it's got an excellent d-pad responsive buttons it can emulate a lot of old school consoles up to Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 that 4in 4x3 panel works great for these type of games the ergonomics are also pretty awesome and the price at about $65 it's very competitively priced to know more about amberx rg4 XXV check out the link in the description below now coming back to the pixel9 pro XL where does this leave us Pricing no this is a very expensive phone now depending on the market you're in it's priced equal to or slightly cheaper than the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the s24 ultra and remember this phone its base is 128 gigs the other two start at 256 and for the most part except the very important raw performance the 9 Pro XL keeps up with its competition so yeah you do lose raw performance but what do you gain for it the AI stuff which to me is nice but some of it at least feels like novelty like how much would I use pixel Studio a year from now do I see myself using adme enough that I miss it when I'm on other phones other features like autof framing and reimagine aren't even done on phone meaning it's only a matter of time before they make their way over to other phones Gemini Advanced and Gemini live are cool but do I see myself paying for Google AI after the free year is over to me the 9 Pro XL if it were a good 20 30% cheaper I'd love to pick it up but if Google wants to price themselves at the same level as Samsung and Apple flagships then Google needs to either offer the same level of performance as a Samsung or Apple Flagship or at least provide some kind of unique features that are going to remain exclusive to the phone they are selling at this price so the current price the 9 Pro XL as much as I found myself liking it it's not a phone I'd recommend and that's my two cents what do you think about the 9 Pro XL let me know in the comments below thanks for watching Ash out [Music]