I Found The Pixel 9 Pro Xl For $699 - Here's Why This Is The Android Phone Deal To Grab

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is connected sale, starting astatine $699.
• For nan price, you're getting a larger, brighter-than-ever 6.8-inch display, exclusive Google AI features, and nan astir forgiving camera strategy connected nan market.
• I conscionable wish nan guidelines retention (128GB) was astatine slightest double and nan AI features were much reliable.

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Holding nan Google Pixel 9 Pro series for nan first clip reminded maine of erstwhile I held nan iPhone 12 Pro for nan first time. The displacement from nan erstwhile year's curved creation to flatter edges made each nan quality successful its consciousness and cognition of value. The Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL exude premium, and Google knows it.

Also: I recovered nan 15+ champion Black Friday telephone deals (and which bearer offers are really worthy it)

That's why nan institution is charging you much for its caller Pixel phones this year, pinch nan modular exemplary regularly priced at $799, nan Pro astatine $999, and nan Pro XL astatine $1,099. In this economy, it's a bold move. But successful nan large picture, Google has only matched what competitors for illustration Samsung and Apple person been pricing their flagship handsets.

Right now, however, nan Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is importantly marked down for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, starting astatine $699 for nan Hazel colorway, and $749 for Obsidian and Porcelain. 

Fortunately, you person plentifulness to summation by paying Google more. From my period of testing nan Pro XL exemplary -- pinch short stints utilizing nan smaller Pro -- I've greatly benefitted from upgrades specified arsenic nan brighter (up to 3,000 nits) display, AI features for illustration Call Notes and Pixel Screenshots, nan faster 45W charging, and Tensor G4 spot that has kept nan telephone moving smoothly. The caller ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is besides crazy fast.

Adam Breeden/ZDNET

With nan Pixel 9 Pro series, nan creation -- arsenic unexpected arsenic it is -- is nan standout characteristic for me. The level edges remainder smoothly against my hand, giving maine a assured grip erstwhile swiping and typing, a curen of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 makes nan exemplary doubly arsenic durable arsenic past year's, and whether you for illustration a smaller aliases larger shape factor, you've sewage options. By comparison, nan Pixel 8 Pro feels for illustration a toy.

Also: Thousands of readers bought these phones successful 2025, but nary of america expected no. 1

My 2 gripes pinch nan Pixel 9 Pro creation are nan camera bump and frosted backmost glass. The erstwhile is simply a longstanding rumor pinch nan Google Pixel's protruding camera barroom design, which collects particulate and debris astir nan edges and fingerprint smudges connected nan visor. With nan backmost glass, I've noticed respective micro-scratches already that chipped distant nan Obsidian-colored coating. My advice: Get immoderate colour but Obsidian and you should beryllium fine.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL (left) and Pixel 8 Pro (right).

Adam Breeden/ZDNET

A caller Tensor G4 spot paired pinch 16GB of RAM intends nan Pixel 9 Pro is faster and much powerful than past year's exemplary erstwhile it comes to multi-tab browsing, loading videos connected a societal feed, editing photos, and playing games. It besides benefits on-device AI tasks, which I'll get to later.

Also: I compared nan Pixel 10 Pro to each older Google flagship exemplary - nan biggest upgrades

On my Uber thrust to nan airdrome recently, I was capable to swiftly upload clips from a merchandise motorboat arena while downloading movies to watch connected nan flight. Oh, and location search was moving successful nan background, too. The consequence was mild overheating and astir a 3% dip successful artillery life passim nan 20-minute ride, which is admirable.

That's to say, nan 5,060mAh artillery connected nan Pixel 9 Pro XL has been serving maine well, ending astir of my days pinch astir 25-30%. It's a two-day telephone erstwhile utilized lightly, but you won't beryllium huffy if you request to complaint it sooner because nan Pixel now supports 45W charging. The faster velocity won't revolutionize your greeting routine, but it's a notable bump-up from nan sluggish 30W standing connected erstwhile models.

Can you spot nan 3 AI-generated edits successful this photo?

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

The cardinal improvements to nan Pixel 9 Pro's camera strategy chiefly revolve astir AI and really its imaging motor interprets and enhances output. For example, nan image above, while crisp successful item and beautiful successful contrast, was primitively captured pinch a flimsy tilt, making nan runway look slanted. So, I utilized nan caller Auto framework instrumentality successful Magic Editor to straighten it while expanding nan sides pinch AI. For fun, I added a rainbow and a level that intelligibly didn't perceive nan Air Traffic Control tower's bid to stay grounded for illustration nan remainder of us.

Such AI devices are imaginative and whimsical, but they're besides inconsistent, unreliable (see nan left-side airplane), and require a batch of patience -- some pinch waiting for nan image generations and perchance much waiting aft that if nan results don't meet your imaginative vision.

Also: The Google Pixel 10 sewage a large audio upgrade, and not capable group are talking astir it

I'm a bigger instrumentality of nan caller Add Me and Video Boost features. The erstwhile pieces together 2 photos, 1 that you've captured of different group successful nan framework and different that includes you successful nan aforesaid frame, truthful nary 1 gets near out. It's a clever AI/AR instrumentality that solves a real-world problem, but location is 1 flimsy issue: Don't expect a seamless edit if you're posing successful betwixt subjects. Oftentimes, parts of your assemblage won't beryllium decently cropped out. So, for nan champion results, leave space!

With Video Boost, I'm happy to study that nan improved HDR+ and rendering fixes 1 of nan biggest problems pinch nan Pixel camera: nan jarring cuts erstwhile switching to nan 5x optical zoom camera during recording.

Pixel Screenshots lets you hunt and inquire questions astir images you've captured connected your screen.

Adam Breeden/ZDNET

While I'm still testing each new Pixel 9 AI feature, of which location are plenty, present are my ratings for nan my astir frequented ones:

• Pixel Screenshots (4/5): It's nan champion AI characteristic I didn't cognize I needed. Unlike Microsoft Recall, nan on-device database is curated by images you manually capture, truthful it's conscionable arsenic easy to parse done but overmuch much secure. 
• Gemini Live (4/5): Like ChatGPT's sound feature, you tin chat and inquire questions to Gemini Live while it's moving successful nan background. Since its first release, Gemini Live has worked overmuch much naturally, pinch less hiccups and dropped sound inputs. It helps to person haptic feedback that guides nan travel of nan conversation. Multimodality and synchronization pinch nan Pixel Buds Pro 2 should amended nan acquisition moreover more.
• Call Notes (2/5): The reliability of nan summarization characteristic is greatly affected by telephone quality, speaking pace, and whether location are immoderate unsocial words successful nan conversation, specified arsenic overseas names and objects. In astir cases, Gemini transcribed dates, places, and bits of important accusation inaccurately.

ZDNET's buying advice

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is simply a contender for best Android phone this year, moreover if you don't scheme to usage its on-device AI features. While nan caller exemplary is Google's astir costly telephone (barring foldable) yet, nan value bump is justified by improvements successful aspects that traditionally held nan Pixel statement back, specified arsenic charging speed, performance, and build quality.

With nan reintroduction of an XL model, nan smaller Pixel 9 Pro should entreaty to users who want a much comfortable instrumentality without compromising connected specs and camera hardware. And if some phones are retired of your budget, but you want nan halfway features, see nan cheaper Pixel 9.

This reappraisal was primitively published connected September 12, 2024, and was updated connected November 28, 2025.