Google Screwed Up Pixel 9 Pricing And That's A Huge Mistake In 2024

New Pixels have typically launched toward the fall season, but not this year. This time, Google is launching its latest slate of hardware earlier than expected. At Google's latest Made By Google event today, the tech giant launched a little bit of everything: new phones, new earbuds, new watches (plural, which is exciting), and a new foldable.

Notably, among these devices is the new Pixel 9, now with a whole new price tag. This is the base model Pixel that most people will probably buy. It starts at $799, which is $100 more than the Google Pixel 8 (which also had a price bump) last year. (The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 also cost $100 more this year.) Google thinks the upgrades you're getting this year are worth and extra Benjamin. There certainly are some upgrades, but I'm not convinced they'll be worth the extra money. I've had a chance to go hands on for a bit with this device, and here's what we have coming.

Right off the bat, the Pixel 9 is bringing Google's new Tenser G4 processor. By all reports, this processor upgrade is more of a modest upgrade than you might expect from a generational release. Google seems to be more interested in managing heat and performance over raw speed. I've never found the G3 to be particularly lacking, so I can get on board with this decision. The new processor is bolstered by a base of 12GB of RAM, which is a step-up over the 8GB we saw last year. That will always be a welcome change.

The screen size also gets a minor bump up to 6.3 inches, compared to 6.2 last year. The result isn't much in terms of footprint. The Pixel 9 is a little taller, but also not as thick. That yields a negligible increase in weight by a few grams. In terms of brightness, we seem to be in the middle of a brightness war, as Google has ramped its display up to 2,700 nits of peak brightness. I'm starting to think phone makers won't be satisfied until we're all carrying around portable tanning booths.

The biggest benefit to the Pixel 9 over its predecessor is arguably the 48-megapixel ultrawide sensor that accompanies the 50-megapixel main camera. The new ultrawide camera should bring some parity to the sensors, which is a nice change. Google's been in the camera game for too long to keep going with a paltry ultrawide sensor. This mirrors the ultrawide camera setup from last year's Pixel 8 Pro (and this year's Pixel 9 Pro), so this is also certainly a welcome change.

Of course, this being the Pixel (as opposed to the Pixel Pro), there is no telephoto sensor in this camera setup, which is to be expected. The selfie camera on the front of the phone is the same as last year as well, so you won't see much of an improvement in that regard.

Overall, if you're an ultrawide camera fan, this should give you a notable improvement over last year's sensor, but that seems fairly niche. I'm definitely more of a telephoto user myself. Of course, you still get all of Google's photo processing expertise as well, so the Pixel 9 should perform quite well in camera testing.

There are a few other improvements in this year's pixel. The battery gets a modest increase to the tune of around 5%, but honestly the larger screen will probably balance that out. All the same, there's every reason to suspect that this year's Pixel 9 will probably perform just as well as the Pixel 8 last year in terms of longevity. 

Google is sticking with its same software support schedule. That includes seven years of OS updates, security updates, and feature drops. Of course, this is Google, so it would be silly not to at this point.

Overall, this feels like a decent upgrade to the Pixel line, but I'm not positive it justifies its $100 price increase. I'm not sure why companies decided that 2024 was the year they had to increase prices when they've held steady for so long, but here we are. Of course, you'll have to wait for our complete review to hear our full judgements. The Pixel 9 has usually been an easy recommendation, though it already comes a little harder this year because of the higher price.