How much choice is too much choice, and when does it become no choice at all? Whether it’s scrolling through Netflix or YouTube’s huge libraries or looking at a wardrobe bursting at the seams for something to wear, but finding nothing, it’s often simpler when there are just a couple of clear, well-curated choices from which to select.
Google has gone full “packed wardrobe” with the new Pixel 9 series. There are four different models in the range, with a fifth already on the shelf, and I’m about to tell you why Google has still gotten it all wrong.
Your choices for the Pixel 9
For 2024, you can choose between the 6.3-inch Pixel 9, the 6.3-inch Pixel 9 Pro, the 6.8-inch Pixel 9 Pro XL, and the 6.3-inch/8-inch Pixel 9 Fold Pro. The screen represents the biggest visual difference between the different phones, apart from small changes in the battery capacity. Of course, the higher up the range you go, the more technically impressive the camera gets. The 9 Pro Fold stands slightly apart, as it has two screens, and the camera sits somewhere in between all the non-folding Pixel 9 phones.
Google has four “main” phones and a foldable phone, ready to please everyone regardless of whether they want a small, medium, or large phone with a good camera or not. Or so it thinks. It has also hit those all-important price points (which is really what its newly fattened range is all about) with the Pixel 9 yours for $799, the Pixel 9 Pro for $999, the Pixel 9 Pro XL for $1,099, and the Pixel Fold Pro at the top of the pile at $1,799. Don’t forget about the Pixel 8a either, a 6.1-inch phone for $499.
This is too many examples of the same phone, with the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL being the worst offenders, as they are the same phone split in two, with one adopting the Pixel 9’s screen size, yet keeping the best camera found on the bigger phone. Inside the marketing hive mind, this means the 9 Pro is a “small” flagship phone for those who don’t want a screen as large as the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s, but don’t want to miss out on the camera. Brilliant! A big seller, for sure, they all tell each other. Except, it’s not small at all, is it?
These are not small phones
The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro are the same physical size and, interestingly, also share basically the same dimensions as the Pixel 8a, a phone with a 6.1-inch screen. They are just 4.6mm less wide than the Pixel 9 Pro XL, but 10mm shorter. All three have the same 8.5mm depth, but the weights are different, with the 9 Pro XL being 22 grams heavier than the other Pixel 9 phones, which are just a gram or two away from being 200 grams. It’s hardly a range filled with dramatically different models, and I bet people will gravitate toward the top or bottom of the pile.
None of these are small or light smartphones and, therefore, become variations on the same theme. Sure, the Pixel 9 Pro does a good impression of being a small flagship device, as it sits neatly in the middle of the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL on paper, but since when has a 199-gram, 72mm-wide, 8.5mm-thick phone with a 6.3-inch screen been small? It hasn’t, and I wonder whether anyone who really wants a high-end small phone will truly be satisfied with it.
Apple makes a smallish flagship smartphone. It’s the iPhone 15 Pro and it has a 6.1-inch screen, is 187 grams, and 70mm wide. Asus does it properly with the Zenfone 10, which weighs just 172 grams, is 68mm wide, and has a 5.92-inch screen. That’s a small phone by today’s standards, but even it looks big next to the old iPhone 13 Mini with its 5.4-inch screen, 64mm width, and 141 gram weight. Google hasn’t got anywhere near making a small Pixel phone. Instead, it now has three phones that are bigger and heavier than a Samsung Galaxy S24.
Who wants what?
None of Google’s Pixel phones are small, but it doesn’t matter as, for the most part, nobody actually buys small phones despite saying they want one. Google has really made various “Plus” phones, but most of the time, those phones are the ones no one wants either. These awkward Plus models sit in the middle of the range, pleasing nobody, as you either think the standard model will be fine or simply go all-out and buy the top one.
Google has successfully made its range confusing. I don’t want the basic model because I want the best camera, but the 9 Pro isn’t really all that smaller than the 9 Pro XL, and the bigger battery and screen are worth the extra $100, so I’ll just get that one. Or I want a really big screen and I am not so worried about the camera, so I’ll get the 9 Pro Fold. Or maybe that’s too expensive, so I’ll just get the 9 Pro XL. If I want a cheap Pixel, then the Pixel 8a is much cheaper than the Pixel 9.
The Pixel 9 range is bigger than ever before, but it does not seem to solve any more problems than before. Instead, it makes the buying decision harder as, in all likelihood, more than one phone will do what you want, or if you’re really unlucky, what you want will fit in between two models, and you won’t know which to pick.
It’s a problem of Google’s own making. If it wanted to make a small flagship phone, it should have made one, even if no one went on to buy it. What we’ve got is a collection of phones that have been made to fit a price and have ended up being much too similar, bookended by a cheap phone with older tech and a very big, very expensive phone. At least one model in the Pixel 9 range is going to be ignored anyway, and I’d rather that have been a genuinely different model from the ones we’ve got.
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