Google Pixel 9 vs. every past Pixel: To upgrade or not to upgrade?

Ah, the ever-present annual conundrum for any Pixel-appreciating Android aficionado: To upgrade or not to upgrade?

Google’s latest Pixel 9 devices are here earlier than ever this year, and while they may not feel like night-and-day departures from the previous Pixel models, they pack plenty of interesting improvements.

It’s certainly enough to be tempting — and, potentially, to be a truly significant step up from your current Google-made Pixel gadget. But is it actually worth your while to get a Pixel 9, or are you better off hanging onto your current Pixel phone for a while longer?

Having lived with the Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL for a full week now, thanks to review units provided on loan from Google — and coming from the perspective of someone who personally owns a Pixel 8 Pro, has owned plenty of Pixels before that, and has spent a significant amount of time with every single Pixel model to date — lemme tell ya: There isn’t a simple, one-size-fits-all answer.

But there is some practical guidance I can give you based on my experiences with these latest Googley gizmos and my intimate knowledge of their assorted Pixel predecessors. And the most important variable to consider is which specific Pixel you’re packin’ in your suspiciously sticky palm.

So think it through with me, won’t ya? And whether you end up snagging the latest and greatest Pixel or stickin’ with your current model, be sure to mosey your way over to my free Pixel Academy e-course next. It’ll teach you all sorts of useful new stuff your phone can do for you, no matter which specific Pixel you end up possessing.

Google Pixel 9 vs. Pixel 8 (or Pixel 8 Pro)

We’ll start with the most recent generation of Pixel devices — the same generation I’ve personally got in my oversized person-pocket this very minute.

The Pixel 9 Pro (left) with the Pixel 8 Pro (right) — different styles but similar sizes.JR Raphael, IDG

(With this and all the subsequent comparisons, by the way, the same general advice applies regardless of whether you’re thinking about the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro, or the Pixel 9 Pro XL. This year, all of those devices are fairly similar and comparable in terms of their core qualities and capabilities — with the main differences being that the Pro-level Pixel 9 models have better displays, the added presence of a telephoto camera for extra-exceptional zooming (along with the new Zoom Enhance feature for extra-powerful post-capture cropping and zooming), and a better front-facing camera for shameless selfies. And, of course, the Pixel 9 Pro XL is bigger.)

This one’s a somewhat two-pronged answer: Whether you’ve got the Pixel 8 Pro or its smaller Pixel 8 sibling, your not-even-quite-one-year-old Pixel is still perfectly peachy — and still set to get Android updates for another solid six years yet. You’ve got no particularly pressing reason to make the leap to the Pixel 9, and you’d certainly be fine to stick with your current phone for another year or two at a bare minimum, maybe even longer.

That being said, as someone with a Pixel-8-generation phone, there’s a decent chance you’re a tech enthusiast and the type of person who simply likes having the best available product. So if you’re looking for a reason to upgrade, I’ll give you a handful (with advance apologies to your wallet):

Hardware design: It’s not a make-or-break update or anything that’ll have a massive impact on your day-to-day life, but the Pixel 9 devices really do have a sleek new look ‘n’ feel to ’em that’s quite enticing. It makes the previous-gen models feel a bit dated in comparison, once you get used to it. Google also says the new body makes the Pixel 9 twice as durable as its predecessors — a claim that’s tough to validate in any scientific way, but take it for what it’s worth.

Size without compromise: If you’re someone who prefers a smaller device but also wants the best of the best, the Pixel 9 marks the first time in a long time that you’ve got the ability to go compact without making any other sacrifices — via the smaller but otherwise equal Pixel 9 Pro (non-XL version).

Satellite backup: The Pixel 9 series includes two years of free access to Google’s new emergency satellite system, which lets you contact emergency services and share your location even if you’re in an area without regular cellular service. You probably (and hopefully!) won’t take advantage of that often, if ever, but it’s certainly a nice bit of added assurance to have.

Pixel Screenshots: The new and presently Pixel-9-exclusive app encourages you to capture screenshots whenever you see something you want to remember and then makes it easy to search through, ask questions about, and generally revisit that info later. It’s one of the few genuinely clever and practical applications of generative AI right now, and it really is a useful addition. (It’s possible that the app could come to older Pixel devices eventually, though Google has yet to confirm any specific plans around that.)

Call Notes: The other genuinely useful AI-powered addition on the Pixel 9 series is Google’s smart system for recording voice calls and serving up text transcripts and summaries right after. While you can emulate Call Notes on any Android device, it’s inevitably gonna be far less of a smooth, simple, and seamless setup. (Again, it’s possible this feature may make its way to older Pixel models at some point, but we don’t know for sure if or when that might happen yet.)

The Pixel 9 Call Notes feature (left) and Pixel Screenshots system (right) are productivity-aiding highlights of Google’s new Pixel devices.JR Raphael, IDG

One big reason not to factor into your Pixel upgrading decision, if you ask me, is the thing that Google is emphasizing most prominently about the new Pixel 9 models — and that’s AI, in a more general sense, and the prominent new role played by the company’s next-gen Gemini virtual assistant on these devices.

Using the Pixel 9 at home, at work, and out and about in the real world, Gemini continues to be more befuddling than beneficial. It’s incapable of performing the types of tasks most of us actually want and need from a smartphone assistant — a.k.a. the stuff Google Assistant used to handle so easily — and the new generative-AI-powered features it adds into the equation just aren’t all that compelling, reliable, or relevant for the Android assistant environment.

The highly touted Gemini Live conversational chatbot experience might be the most effective illustration of all. This overview of the Gemini Live experience pretty much sums it up: It’s awkward, factually challenged, and very much a solution in search of a problem. You might enjoy playing around with it for a few minutes, but odds are, you won’t be pulling it up and conversing with it often — not for any productivity-related purposes, at least. (And remember, too: The Gemini Live feature is available only with a paid Gemini Advanced subscription, which you get for a year with any Pixel 9 Pro purchase but otherwise costs 20 bucks a month to continue using.)

And hey, who knows? Maybe this’ll evolve and improve over time. But you shouldn’t buy a piece of technology based on its theoretical future potential. You should buy it based on what it can do today. And today, there’s no sugarcoating it: The Gemini AI experience just isn’t great.

(The good news is that while the Pixel 9 does still signify the beginning of the end of Google Assistant as an Android phone and tablet entity, you can still opt to switch back to Google Assistant on all the Pixel 9 models as of now, if you’re ever so inclined.)

To be clear: These really are phenomenal phones — absolutely the best Pixels I’ve ever used and arguably among the best all-around smartphones created to date. But they’re those things in spite of all the overhyped AI hullabaloo, not because of it.

That aside, the Pixel 9’s camera setup is a nice little bump up from what the Pixel 8 series offered, and the new Add Me feature for group photos is a nifty trick and something you might appreciate once in a while. The Pro models also have a much better selfie camera than what was present in last year’s phones. If you take a lot of selfies and care about their quality, this might be significant for you. By and large, though, unless you’re the sort of person who stares intently at side-by-side images to search for subtle differences, I doubt you’ll notice much of a meaningful change in the types of non-selfie photos you get from these phones compared to the Pixel 8 models.

Now, don’t get me wrong: The Pixel 9’s camera capabilities are incredibly impressive! But so is the camera setup on the Pixel 8. For most common purposes and in terms of real-world impact, the difference is relatively subtle from one generation to the next. It’s a welcome bump forward, in other words, but we were already starting at such a high level that the realistic gains here aren’t exactly gonna be life-changing for most of us.

The same goes for other internal upgrades — like a 35% brighter display and 20% longer battery life, according to Google’s estimations. I don’t doubt that these claims are accurate, and they represent nice little boosts that any Pixel owner would eagerly accept. I just think you’d be hard-pressed to really be aware of ’em in everyday use, and I wouldn’t treat ’em as significant factors in any upgrade decision.

➜ The verdict, in short: If you’re itchin’ for something new and you’re the type of person who geeks out over the finer points of mobile technology (hiya!), you’ll be thrilled with the Pixel 9 upgrade coming from a Pixel-8-series phone. But at the same time, it’s certainly not a critical or particularly monumental upgrade, practically speaking, and there’s nothing in the new phone that you need or that’ll make a massive difference in your day-to-day life. The purely sensible advice would be to hang onto your current phone for a while longer — though particularly with the current trade-in values for Pixel-8-series phones, you can give yourself plenty of excuses for making the leap now, if you want. And as a fellow Pixel 8 series owner myself, I don’t think you’d regret it one bit if you do.

Google Pixel 9 vs. Pixel 8a

Got Google’s most recent midrange Pixel model? Moving to the Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro would absolutely be an improvement for you, but that’s in large part because you’re moving from a more budget-minded proposition into premium flagship terrain.

The regular Pixel 9 (left) may be comparable in size to the Pixel 8a (right), but beyond the surface, it’s a whole different story.JR Raphael, IDG

That means you’ll get a fancier-feeling and more premium phone body (for whatever that’s worth to you), along with a higher-quality screen and plenty of extra bells and whistles — including a slew of new camera-related goodies.

The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro are also in a completely different league when it comes to processing power, which can make the phone feel a fair bit snappier. That being said, the Pixel 8a is certainly no slouch with performance for most average-mammal needs, and you may or may not notice any obvious difference in your day-to-day use (especially if you aren’t doing a ton of multitasking and other high-resource-requiring work).

The biggest question to ask yourself is why you went with the Pixel 8a in the first place. If it’s because of the price and value, then moving up to the Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro probably isn’t an advisable move. Your 8a still has a solid six and a half years (!) of active software support under its belt, and nothing about this upgrade would dramatically revolutionize your core user experience or what your phone’s capable of doing — outside of photography, at least, but even there, we’re talking more niceties and added abilities as opposed to core competency.

If past trends hold true, meanwhile, we’ll see the next midrange Pixel — the Pixel 9a — sometime next spring. So that’s also on the way as a possible upgrade within your current “a”-series path, should you want to move to something new but stay within the same pricing range.

➜ The verdict, in short: If you’re jonesing for a more premium Pixel experience, you’ll be delighted by the move to a Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro — but that’s mostly because you’re hopping from one product tier to another. For most people who bought the 8a in the first place, sticking with that phone for another year or two, at a minimum, will make more sense.

Google Pixel 9 vs. Pixel 7 (or Pixel 7 Pro)

Still rockin’ one of 2022’s Pixel 7 series devices? You fall into a fun gray area of whether an upgrade to a Pixel 9 model would be worth your while.

The Pixel 9 Pro (left) is about the same size as the Pixel 7 Pro (right), though with a much rounder, sleeker-seeming body.JR Raphael, IDG

As the last Pixel before Google moved from a three-year to its current seven-year software update promise, your device is only slated to receive Android operating systems updates through next fall — October of 2025. That means you could easily wait another year (or arguably even two) to make the leap to a new phone, and I don’t think you’d be missing out on anything incredibly important if you did.

That being said, you’d absolutely appreciate the same series of Pixel-9-introduced improvements we mentioned a moment ago, when talking about Pixel 8 owners. In addition to that, you’d gain the ability to use your phone’s Face Unlock system everywhere — as a secure way to sign into banking apps or anywhere else authentication is required — which is something that isn’t possible in the Pixel 7 series.

That improvement alone was what convinced me to pull the trigger on a Pixel 8 last year, when that capability first came into the equation. Small of a detail as it may seem compared to the more attention-grabbing Pixel tricks, it’s a real game-changer and something that has a meaningful, ongoing impact on your day-to-day life — likely multiple times every single day.

You’ll also gain the unusual advantage of an on-device thermometer, which seemed silly when it first debuted with the Pixel 8 series last year but has since grown into a valuable addition — now that it supports actual human temperature-taking. We can never find regular thermometers in my house, and even when we do, they’re frustratingly inconsistent and inaccurate in their readings. The Pixel 9’s thermometer (on the Pro models only) is always there and ready, and it’s been incredibly consistent with its measurements in my experience. (As luck would have it, an under-the-weather kiddo has given me plenty of opportunities to test it out.)

Still, this one mostly comes down to a matter of added niceties and conveniences — of want over need. If you want it, it’s well worthwhile, and you’ll certainly see enough of a difference to justify the change. But you definitely don’t need it, and if you aren’t feeling the urge to get something new, there’s really no reason not to stick with what you’ve got for another year or so.

➜ The verdict, in short: The Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro would be a nice upgrade for you but by no means a necessary one. Ask yourself how much you truly want one of the devices and how much you can stomach the cost — taking into account any trade-in variables — for what’d be an inessential, if also enjoyable and efficiency-enhancing, purchase.

Google Pixel 9 vs. Pixel 7a

The story with the Pixel 7a is honestly pretty similar to what we said a moment ago with the Pixel 8a — though with the added consideration that the 7a will only receive Android OS updates through May of 2026.

That means, in all likelihood, that it’ll get this year’s upcoming Android 15 update, get next year’s Android 16 update, and then reach the end of its road in terms of ongoing OS support. That’s a decent amount of life left, if you aren’t in any rush to jump into something new. And even when you do replace your current phone, you may prefer to stay on the midrange path and go with the more affordable Pixel 8a (or a future Pixel “a” model) instead.

The Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro would be a significant upgrade from the 7a in every possible measure, and you’d absolutely notice the difference. But your current phone is still fine. And just like with the Pixel 8a, the real question here is how badly you want to move to a more premium, high-end phone experience and how much you’re willing to spend to get it.

➜ The verdict, in short: For most 7a owners, there’s no pressing reason to upgrade — though going from that phone to the Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro would be a substantial and immediately noticeable improvement, if you simply wanted to give yourself the added advantages of the more premium Pixel path without any more waiting.

Google Pixel 9 vs. Pixel 6 (or Pixel 6 Pro)

Pixel 6 pals, you’re next! And if you’ve been reading everything up through this point, you’ve probably got a pretty good guess of where we’re going with this.

With each subsequent generation of Pixel, the argument for making the upgrade gets more compelling — and that’s absolutely true in the case of the Pixel 6.

The Pixel 6 is set to receive current OS updates only through this coming October, which means you’ll receive Android 15 soon but then likely not see any additional OS updates after. That puts a firm, but not quite imminent, shelf life on your device, and you’d be well-advised to consider a new phone by sometime next year — ahead of Android 16’s release — at the very latest.

As for right now, upgrading to a Pixel 9 model would give you some noticeable, meaningful improvements — including the presence of Face Unlock for authentication (a huge quality-of-life upgrade, if you ask me!) along with a much snappier and more consistent fingerprint sensor as a backup option and some fairly significant camera upgrades. And, of course, you’d gain access to all the other productivity-boosting Pixel-9-specific elements we mentioned in the first section of this story.

➜ The verdict, in short: You could hold off one more year, if you’d rather, but upgrading to the Pixel 9 now would be a substantial upgrade for you — and the time is nigh for when such a move will become highly advisable. If you’re ready now, you’ll be delighted with the change the Pixel 9 brings you. If not, you could put the purchase off one more year and go with the Pixel 10 in 2025 instead.

Google Pixel 9 vs. Pixel 6a

Once again, the Pixel 6a situation is pretty similar to what we’ve described with other Pixel “a” models — though here, we’re looking at a two-year-old device down to its final year of active OS update support.

Practically speaking, the 6a’s OS update support end-date of July 2025 means that it’ll likely receive this year’s upcoming Android 15 update and then reach the end of the road for any additional OS updates beyond that. Even with security updates still in the picture, it wouldn’t be fully optimal and advisable to continue using past that point.

Still, after Android 15, we likely won’t see another major Android OS update until sometime next fall — and by then, there’ll be a whole new crop of Pixel products to choose from. So you could easily hold off a little while longer and then think about getting either a new midrange model or one of next year’s Pixel 10 phones as a replacement.

Once more, the Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro would be a significant upgrade in every possible measure, and you’d absolutely notice and appreciate the difference. But, again, your current phone is still reasonably okay — if a little long in the tooth.

➜ The verdict, in short: The argument for upgrading from a Pixel 6a is a strong one, given how much things have moved forward in the time since that phone’s release — but still, this is far from a must-upgrade scenario. And, just like with the Pixel 8a, the real question is if you even want to move to the higher-end Pixel path whenever you do upgrade or if you’d rather stick with the less expensive midrange “a” phones. That’s a decision only you can make.

Google Pixel 9 vs. Pixel 5 or any earlier Pixel model

This last Pixel 9 upgrade decision is the easiest: If you’re using the Pixel 5 or any Pixel model earlier than that, you should strongly consider stepping up to the Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro now.

These older Pixels are no longer actively being supported with current OS updates or even security patches, and all current features and added conveniences aside, that means they’re no longer advisable to use when it comes to the ever-important areas of optimal privacy, security, and performance for your phone.

➜ The verdict, in short: It’s time for a new device, plain and simple, and the Pixel 9 models will be a tremendous, night-and-day leap forward for you in every possible measure. If you’re on an older Pixel “a” model, you could consider going with the Pixel 8a instead, should you wish to spend a little less dough. But with any older Pixel, the Pixel 9 or Pixel 9 Pro would be the best upgrade you could make right now, and you would be positively thrilled with the change (in addition to being maximally protected, in terms of being on the most current software possible and avoiding any privacy-, security-, or performance-related liabilities).

Wait — what about the Pixel Fold?

Using the first-gen Pixel Fold? The advice above doesn’t really apply to you.

Folding phones are their own beast, and it’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison to try to stack them up next to a standard slab-style device at this point.

If you simply aren’t happy with your Fold experience and think you’d rather go back to a more standard sort of phone form, you’d be quite pleased with a move to a Pixel 9 model.

Otherwise, stay tuned for more on the second-gen Pixel Fold — a.k.a. the Pixel 9 Pro Fold — soon. It isn’t slated to ship until sometime in September, and Google consequently hasn’t made review units of it available for assessment quite yet.

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