Google Differentiates Pixel – and Android – with Useful AI Features, Better Hardware
Google needs to show consumers that Android has unique AI capabilities ahead of Apple AI, and its flagship Pixel line and Gemini impress. The Pixel 9 family brings unique and delightful features that consumers can easily understand and use, like group pictures and multi-window YouTube. There are beginnings of features that will save lives with SOS by satellite on the Pixel 9 and Loss of Pulse Detection on the Pixel Watch 3. Google has also addressed form factor concerns with the Pixel Watch – there’s a big one now – and Pixel 9 Pro Fold – it’s lighter. We’ll need to go hands on to know if the latest Tensor SoCs are competitive with Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Apple.
Why Does Pixel Exist?
When Microsoft launched the Surface, it mostly stuck with standard Windows rather than heavily customizing the software to its own hardware. Google also could not afford to upset key smartphone vendors who keep the Android ecosystem healthy. Google originally charged a premium for average hardware; that made Pixel palatable to Android licensees but consumers widely ignored the phones. Smartphones are more personal and more integrated – offering more sophisticated image processing and a clean user interface were not enough. Unfortunately, that not only made the Pixel business hard to justify on a financial basis, it had a strategic cost: without strong investment from the platform owner – in phones, but especially in the broader hardware ecosystem – Apple steadily grew its share at the high end of the market.
Google began to rectify this with the launch of its first Pixels with its own Tensor chips in 2021, followed by the Pixel Watch in 2022, and the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet in 2023. Over the years Google has add unique-to-Pixel features, first-to-Pixel features, improved its hardware specs, and honed a distinctive design identity. The Pixel Fold did upset Samsung, impinging on one of the few segments the company had carved out against Apple. Overall, though, the investment in Pixel, Android, and AI functionality has benefited everyone. Sometimes it can be good to compete with your licensees: Google’s commitment underlies OnePlus’ new watches and tablets, while Circle-to-Search was a key ingredient in Samsung’s Galaxy S24 sales. Pixel sales are also up significantly. That’s from a small base, but you have to start somewhere.
It is worth noting that the entire Android business model could change; the DoJ won its antitrust case against Google’s Search and advertising business and nobody knows what remedies it intends to demand.
Phone Hardware: Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, 9 Pro Fold
The Pixel 9 series gets a design refresh – the “camera bar” is even more prominent now – and there are upgraded specs on its displays, cameras, memory, and processor. Google now offers a choice of Pixel 9 Pro sizes – a 6.3" and 6.8" XL. All Pixel 9’s get Google’s new Tensor 4 processor with up to 20% additional battery life and presumably a large NPU for all the AI processing Google is running on the devices. Google is now matching a key feature Apple started offering with the iPhone 14 that is likely to save lives: satellite SOS. This will roll out starting in the U.S., and Google would not provide details on which satellite provider it is using. [Update: Skylo has a press release taking credit. Mystery solved!]
There are even more AI photo editing features than before. Google has also made big improvements to video capture, including up to 20x zoom with HDR, and huge improvements to panorama photos, including low light panoramas. Panorama photos look best in VR; I can't wait to view Pixel panoramas in my Apple Vision Pro.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold naming is awkward, but it is intended to imply that the new foldable is essentially the top trim Pixel that doubles as a tablet. This is only partly true; it does have a trio of rear cameras including a 5x optical zoom, but sensor sizes are smaller across the board to fit on the folding chassis. The original Fold weighed in at a hefty 283g – noticeably heavier than competitors from Samsung or OnePlus, and one of my biggest gripes with the product. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is down to 257g; that’s still heavier than the 239g of the Galaxy Z Fold6 or OnePlus Open, but in the hand it no longer feels burdensome to hold. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is thinner than before as well, but it is still on the wide side. The passport-style aspect ratio is gone, but rather than go super-narrow like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series, Google opted to take the Pixel 9 (not XL) shape for the outer display. This means that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is usable closed with minimal compromise, and then gets huge when opened up.
Google is adding foldable specific features for parents and sports fans: YouTube Multi-View turns the Pixel 9 Pro Fold into a sports bar, and Made You Look adds cute animation to the exterior screen to engage small children and hopefully get a photo of them smiling. I suspect that in the real world every picture will be of toddlers reaching out towards the display, but, still, it’s cute.
Phone Software and AI
The hardware updates are solid, but it's the AI features that are most exciting. Some are Pixel exclusive at launch, but Google will be releasing many of them to trusted partners like Samsung and Motorola in the coming months to maximize their impact on Android overall. Gemini as a generative AI assistant is already rolling out to Android phones of all kinds, many price points, and many languages. Google made sure to call this out as a tweak at Apple. That covers all the usual generative AI use cases for drafting email, creating pictures, writing poems, and answering questions.
Gemini Live is a new, more conversational version of Gemini that requires a subscription, but calling it “conversational” undersells just how natural Gemini Live sounds. Each of its ten voices sounds like a human – far more human than the Majel Barrett voiced Star Trek computer. I got a quick demo and it’s uncanny how well it can manage pauses and interruptions. You can ask Gemini Live the same types of AI things as Gemini — help planning a trip, suggestions for naming things, etc. — but it feels like you’re talking to a personality, not a search engine. Gemini Live is rolling out today on Pixel, Samsung, and other Android phones. Google is promising a full seven years of Pixel Drops (new feature updates), so as it improves Gemini Live with multi-modal Project Astra features and more, today’s Pixel 9 will benefit. OS and security updates get a seven year promise as well.
Other key AI features:
Add me: an AI and AR -driven feature that lets you take a group photo, the have someone from the group take a second photo with you added in. This is delightful and solves a pain point – one parent is never in all the family pics.
Call summary: Gemini nano can be used for on-device transcription of live phone calls. Callers are notified that they're being recorded, and all data stays on device. If you’re going to have a call where you know you’ll want a record of what was discussed, promised, or described, this is an incredible capability.
Pixel Screenshots: This is the manual version of Microsoft's (recalled) Recall – you take a bunch of screenshots, then Gemini can be used to search or transcribe the information on them.
Pixel Studio: Google’s fun generative AI image app.
The only thing missing was any notion of Google expanding Gemini to third-party apps. Google did show off integration with Google’s own apps like Calendar and Keep, but the long-term danger of Apple AI is not that it works within Apple’s own apps, but across its app ecosystem. When a consumer’s assistant can pull from features and data across their iOS apps to provide richer context and do things on their behalf, it’s going to be impossible for them to move to Android, no matter how natural Gemini Live sounds.
Building out the Ecosystem: Pixel Watch 3 and Buds Pro 2
At one time, wearables were nice high-margin accessories vendors could add to a phone-centric ecosystem. They still can fill that role, but a great smartwatch can be an ecosystem anchor – once you buy an Apple Watch, it is exceptionally difficult to switch to an Android phone. Google spent years ignoring the watch market, but woke up a few years ago and finally has a full competitive response. With Google investing in WearOS again, Samsung was persuaded to move off Tizen for its Galaxy Watch. The original Pixel Watch in 2022 was pretty but the 41mm watch had dismal battery life. Last year’s Pixel Watch 2 rectified the battery life problem, but it remained at just a single, relatively small size in a market that has gone Ultra. This year, Google embiggend the Pixel Watc 3 with a 45mm version. Perhaps next year we’ll get a Pixel Watch Ultra. In the meantime, the 45mm looks right on larger wrists, with a bigger display and larger battery, while the 41mm Pixel Watch 3 is available for those with smaller wrists.
Google is incorporating more of its Fitbit software into the Pixel Watch, continuous heartrate monitoring is more accurate, and Readiness no longer requires a subscription. Still, the most exciting addition is Loss of Pulse detection. In critical emergencies when the watch knows it’s being worn but pulse and movement have stopped, it will dial emergency services for you. This can speed response during cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, overdoses, etc. and should save lives. Loss of Pulse is coming to select EU countries and the UK; I assume that U.S. medical approval is taking longer.
Google is also getting serious about earbuds. The $230 Pixel Buds Pro 2 feature custom Google A1 silicon for better audio processing and ANC. My brief demo was inconclusive – oh, the ANC definitely worked, but I need to directly compare them to Apple, Bose, Samsung, and another pair of earbuds I have been impressed with. The improvements to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 fit are straightforward: the tiny buds can be twisted a bit into your ear to lock in the fit during exercise. This worked for me. Finally, you’ll be able to use Pixel Buds Pro 2 to talk with Gemini Live. Surprisingly, this was the best demo; having an AI you can chat with in your ear was more intimate than the same experience anchored to the phone.
Conclusion
Google showed off smartphone hardware with solid upgrades, significantly improved its wearables, and provided a compelling AI story that is both expansive and easy to understand. Gemini can do all the usual generative AI things like create pictures or write email drafts, but it also powers new useful features on your device, while Gemini Live brings sci-fi virtual assistants to life. This was the most complete Google devices event the company has done, and the Android ecosystem is better for it.
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