Google Pixel 9 256GB - Obsidian

Upgrading from the Pixel 7 to the Pixel 9 doesn't bring a huge amount of upgrades to the table, although there certainly are some nice improvements so I don't regret the purchase. Photos appear to be much clearer and crisper coming from the Pixel 9 vs my Pixel 7, ensuring that every piece of fur on my cat's body is captured in excellent clarity.My only gripe is that the price does seem steep for what you are getting with the Pixel 9, if it were ~£100 to £200 less then I would have no trouble giving this phone 5 stars!The main benefits I have noticed vs the Pixel 7 would be:• Camera quality of both the front and rear cameras - Especially having access to Macro mode is a big improvement, allowing photos to be taken much closer to the subject than before.• Form ... MoreUpgrading from the Pixel 7 to the Pixel 9 doesn't bring a huge amount of upgrades to the table, although there certainly are some nice improvements so I don't regret the purchase. Photos appear to be much clearer and crisper coming from the Pixel 9 vs my Pixel 7, ensuring that every piece of fur on my cat's body is captured in excellent clarity.My only gripe is that the price does seem steep for what you are getting with the Pixel 9, if it were ~£100 to £200 less then I would have no trouble giving this phone 5 stars!The main benefits I have noticed vs the Pixel 7 would be:• Camera quality of both the front and rear cameras - Especially having access to Macro mode is a big improvement, allowing photos to be taken much closer to the subject than before.• Form factor - I find the size & shape of the Pixel 9 to be a nicer feeling in the hand than the Pixel 7, as it is slightly smaller. The Pixel 7 was just a little too large for one-handed use without the phone slipping out of my hand. That said, the Pixel 9 without a case is quite slippery, so I have paired it with a grippy case to make sure I don't drop & damage the phone.• Gemini AI - The many features using AI built into this phone & apps is impressive and makes life more convenient and fun. Easily building shopping lists in the Keep notes app, or generating AI images in the Pixel Studio app are very handy.The only negative experience I've encountered so far is that the phone occasionally stops charging while on a Pixel Stand 1. This has happened a few times, and I've found that removing and reconnecting the phone to the stand usually resolves the issue. It's worth noting that this may be a specific case and not a widespread problem.

The Google Pixel I think is a decent smartphone that has no bloatware of any kind, though I won't say as compared to the other brand of a smartphone of a different OS that I have (iPhone with IOS), it can be a learning curve being introduced to the Android OS, however there can be similarities with different twists when its commonly navigating the home screen, accessing settings, taking photos and video, switching between apps and so on.I have taken photos so far with the smartphone which features a 50 megapixel main camera and what I like with the camera app is the feature of having the photo always level, to which we always want the photo at zero degrees; I haven't so far encountered or seen a setting for that for the iPhone's main camera app as I have looked as ... MoreThe Google Pixel I think is a decent smartphone that has no bloatware of any kind, though I won't say as compared to the other brand of a smartphone of a different OS that I have (iPhone with IOS), it can be a learning curve being introduced to the Android OS, however there can be similarities with different twists when its commonly navigating the home screen, accessing settings, taking photos and video, switching between apps and so on.I have taken photos so far with the smartphone which features a 50 megapixel main camera and what I like with the camera app is the feature of having the photo always level, to which we always want the photo at zero degrees; I haven't so far encountered or seen a setting for that for the iPhone's main camera app as I have looked as much of the settings as I can.Going back to the Pixel, the Magic Editor is quite a feature I have read about, but will be needing some practice on moving objects, expanding, as I know what's great is the Add Me feature in group photos which the person taking the photo, can be in the group photo as well being added later and that places of a person in the group trades to take the other photo, which is convenient than having two pictures with the two different persons; its just one.Video recording was briefly taken and seems to be on par and usual; much more to tinker settings and experiment with later on, but it feels common with the zooming in and out and so on.Regarding the phone and dimensions and though this is a non pro size, its fits well and has quite some screen area as front facing camera is a dot.I have used a nan sim card with ATT from a family members phone and it works well accepting the network, making calls, etc. I think Google can do a better job of the placement of the sim card tray; i is at the bottom which could be where the speakers and microphone are placed and the hole for the sim card ejection, is on the same area of the sim card slot but the adjacent/opposing microphone hole can be mistaken for the sim ejection hole to put in your sim ejecting tool or safety pin and it did however unfortunately happened with me for a split second of putting the tool in that microphone hole. Of course I was careful in time, but others may need to be aware about this. I think the sim card slot (if google pursues in next pixel models that support a sim card) should be on either side of the phone.This phone will serve as an travel overseas phone and to use the country's service provider whenever we visit, and use it to make calls and surf the web, and use it as a tethered hotspot with our smartphones to make voip calls and also surf the web are our phones still are currently locked to our service provider at moment (and though our service provider has "international day passes", it more costly). But also it would be used to add a line to our account which we'd port our landline # soon since the old POTS will be phased out very shortly.

So the Pixel 9 continues the industry trend to market primarily on Artificial Intelligence features and capability. Google Gemini, Add Me, Screenshots, Pixel Studio, etc. I'm of the mind that AI things are interesting, and can be fun, but there is too much mud in the water as far as the morality of how these companies have obtained their datasets that kind of puts a damper on the whole thing for me, and this is the biggest issue in the Image generation side of the whole AI generative content thing. But my personal feelings on all that aside, the Pixel 9 is a solid new entry in the Pixel lineup, and this years entry feels far more like a flagship device than they have in years past.I love the matte finish on the frame, but wish they would have continued that with ... MoreSo the Pixel 9 continues the industry trend to market primarily on Artificial Intelligence features and capability. Google Gemini, Add Me, Screenshots, Pixel Studio, etc. I'm of the mind that AI things are interesting, and can be fun, but there is too much mud in the water as far as the morality of how these companies have obtained their datasets that kind of puts a damper on the whole thing for me, and this is the biggest issue in the Image generation side of the whole AI generative content thing. But my personal feelings on all that aside, the Pixel 9 is a solid new entry in the Pixel lineup, and this years entry feels far more like a flagship device than they have in years past.I love the matte finish on the frame, but wish they would have continued that with the back glass like they did on the pro models. The smooth back glass feels slippery, almost greasy, and that sucks because otherwise the phone looks amazing. and makes me feel like a skin, or case is almost mandatory to keep it from feeling like dropping it is an inevitability rather than a bad handling issue.Performance wise we aren't really looking at any major gains from last year, but we did get increased ram, mainly to handle those AI workloads on device. Add Me, in the camera, being probably the most interesting if you remember that it's there after the initial novelty wears off. This lets you, as the name suggests, add yourself to group photos in instances where you don't have someone outside the group to take the picture or have a reliable way to prop the device up and use a timer. It's also just interesting in that you can just use it to take pictures that can't exist, like a picture of yourself, hanging out with, yourself... Good fun nonsense. But I feel like this is less of an AI feature and more of an editing feature that's automated?Contrary to the popular opinion from what I have seen others saying, I happen to like the screenshots app. Keeping my screenshots out of my photo gallery, and separated out and indexed in a clean and easy to navigate way is nice, an added bonus being if your pulling up a screenshot to show someone, and they accidentally swipe or back out there's no chance of them seeing the nonsense photos you have taken as well, so that's a fringe benefit. If you know, you know.We get the same main cameras as the Pro this time minus the telephoto one, and that means not losing out on camera quality, though the pro still gets the better front facing camera, so if your big into the selfie game, you might still prefer that one. I myself don't tent to take pictures of myself, so no loss for me. Overall the camera quality is good, though the sometimes can look a little over processed to me, sometimes a little too sharp, but still good quality, and I don't think it will make your pictures look bad on your insta.For mobile gamers, sorry to say, your still getting left out. The latest Snapdragon in competing phones still puts this to shame, that isn't to say you can't game here, but your not going to be putting the settings on Max in every game you try, CoD Mobile runs well though, I myself do not game on my phone that often, I have plenty of other devices for that, and the few mobile games I do play, I tend to play on a tablet because my eyes suck and a smaller phone screen doesn't let me enjoy the experience as much as I'd like.Overall the Pixel 9 is a nice phone, I think the focus on AI is more of a detractor from the phones general premium feel and smooth operation. There's a lot to like here, it's been a joy to use, and coverage is generally pretty good in my area, but I've not had any signal quality issues, dropped calls, or other problems of note. So if your looking for a clean android experience with a solid camera and smooth performance with a longer software support cycle than most, the Pixel 9 is a pretty good choice.