Our Phone of the Year doesn’t score high on benchmark tests. It doesn’t have the best camera (though it’s pretty close). It doesn’t last the longest on a single charge. It doesn’t come with a pen. And yet the Google Pixel 9 Pro is still my favorite phone for many reasons, and it takes our big phone award in the TechRadar Choice Awards 2024.
The first reason is pure instinct. I have a stack of all of the best phones on my desk. All of them. I have the iPhone 16 Pro, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and even the coolest lesser-known phones like the OnePlus Open Apex Edition. When I review a phone, that’s the only phone I use, but then I can put it away. Since I finished reviewing the Pixel 9 Pro, I haven’t stopped using it, not for a single day.
The Pixel 9 Pro works very well. It nails the basics so nicely that it never lets me down. Phones can come packed with features that I may try once or use semi-annually (sorry, S Pen), but the most important features are the things we take for granted: making phone calls; dealing with notifications; sending messages.
The Pixel 9 Pro excels at these things in ways other phones can’t match. It does a great job screening calls for me using AI. It lets me manage notifications easily, with fine controls, so I’m not overwhelmed by alerts and I can respond quickly. It has a great keyboard and excellent voice recognition, so I can type or talk when I want to send a text.
I even like the AI, at least the features I bother to use. I use Google’s Gemini AI every day, in some way, and I feel like I’m just getting started.
I don’t generate writing or images, that’s not my thing. I do talk to Gemini frequently. Gemini created the best chocolate chip banana muffin recipe I’ve ever made, then adapted the recipe when I had no brown sugar and wanted to use leftover date syrup instead. A recipe book couldn’t have done that.
I sometimes ask Gemini for advice, personal and professional. I might paste an entire story into Gemini and ask what I’m missing. Gemini is terrible at writing prose, but excellent at suggesting new possibilities and missed opportunities. I also once got into an argument with my sister over email, and I pasted the entire email thread into Gemini and asked what I had said wrong. It was surprisingly insightful.
The only new phone this year that feels new
Another big reason the Google Pixel 9 Pro is my favorite phone of the year: it’s the only phone that feels new. The iPhone 16 Pro is identical to last year’s phone. The 5G antenna spot has been replaced by a camera button, though it looks the same. From Samsung, the last big Galaxy refresh seems a long time ago, and far, far away. The Galaxy S24 Ultra still looks like the Galaxy Note, a phone that Samsung retired.
The Pixel 9 Pro is Google’s first big design change since the Pixel 6. I found that old design appealing, but it was getting stale. The new Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro devices look very sharp. Fans and haters alike are comparing them to the iPhone 16 in build quality and materials. Best of all, Google says the new Pixel phones are more durable than ever, which should help them survive through the seven years of Android updates Google is promising.
My first inclination was to declare the iPhone 16 Pro my favorite phone this year, and I think that it could eventually be a better phone. However, Apple’s launch has been uncharacteristically disappointing. Apple never disappoints fans, but this year it shipped a phone that literally is not ready.
The iPhone 16 doesn’t do everything Apple promises it can do. Besides the lack of Apple Intelligence, even the Camera Control button arrived without all of its features. Autofocus will be coming to the Control in a future update, a huge miss from Apple on a feature that should have been available on day one.
I’ve been endlessly impressed by the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but it’s just too much for most people, in terms of cost and features. Samsung boldly launched its best phone seven months before the iPhone and Pixel launched, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra held up better than any previous Samsung phone I’ve reviewed.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is still one of the fastest phones you can buy, and its cameras are vivid and versatile. It also offers much more than most people need, and those extra features make it the most expensive phone that doesn’t fold in half. That waterproof S Pen isn’t cheap.
The best of the best of the best Pixel phones and more
I think the Pixel 9 Pro is a great value for what you get, and Google will inevitably drop the price on this phone. The Pixel 9 Pro XL is frankly just as good, but I appreciate that Google hasn’t hobbled its smaller flagship phone with lesser cameras or less RAM.
I prefer having a more pocketable device, but get the Pixel 9 Pro XL if you want a bigger screen and more battery; it’s essentially the exact same phone. I also liked the Pixel 9 Pro Fold very much; it’s my favorite foldable phone. Still, it costs more than a Pixel 9 Pro plus a brand new iPad mini, and it’s hard to swallow the sky high price.
It’s been a great year for phones, and the Pixel 9 Pro represents the best of this year’s mobile technology. It has the coolest new design, with durability to match. It has great software that nails the basics, doesn’t overpromise, and even lets you have some fun playing with future technology like AI. It takes amazing photos and lets you edit and share them with ease. It performed well in my real-world review tests, benchmarks be damned.
The Pixel 9 Pro is the best phone of 2024, and I’ve seen them all. It’s the phone I keep using, even though I can use any phone. And if you can find a Pixel deal for a few hundred less after you read this, that only makes the best phone even better.
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philip.berne@futurenet.com (Philip Berne)
