This week, we bought one other large Pixel 9 leak, one which fully redefines how we’re excited about your entire lineup. Relatively than growing simply two smartphones, Google is definitely engaged on a trio of Pixel 9 models. One is a direct successor to the Pixel 8, whereas the opposite two fashions will cut up the Professional sequence in half, providing a smaller mannequin with a telephoto lens for the primary time for the reason that Pixel 4. It is a web page seemingly borrowed from Apple’s playbook specifically, dividing a equally premium expertise throughout two sizes of smartphone.
However if you take a look at your entire leaked Pixel lineup for 2024 — not together with the Pixel Fold 2, which appears to exist in its personal realm — it appears like Google’s smartphone sequence is in a bizarre spot, particularly when attempting to match it to current-gen pricing. Actually, it appears like this 12 months’s launches might spell the top of Pixel as a “worth” choice, whether or not or not the corporate is definitely even prepared for that transfer.
Google’s Tensor period has been all about worth
However it’s come at the price of true match and end
For the reason that transfer to Tensor, Google’s smartphone lineup has seen its ups and downs. There’s rather a lot to love about these telephones — imagine me, I’ve reviewed greater than half of them, and used all however the Pixel 6 Professional and Pixel 6a as a day by day driver. However lots has held the Pixel lineup from greatness since its reinvention in 2021. Efficiency points, delayed updates, and headache-inducing bugs have been seen on virtually each Tensor-powered cellphone, and that is to say nothing of device-specific complications just like the Pixel 6’s poor reception.
In some ways, Google has held these merchandise again from greatness in comparison with the extra secure experiences supplied by, say, Samsung. In flip, the corporate was capable of downplay a lot of this criticism by promoting its telephones at costs properly beneath the competitors. The Pixel 6 and Pixel 7, for instance, solely price $600, whereas their Professional counterparts every launched at $900. Examine these fashions to, say, the Galaxy S22 sequence, which spanned from $800 to $1,200 relying in your most well-liked mannequin, and you may see why Google’s smartphones appeared much more compelling to budget-minded customers.
That is not even accounting for frequent reductions, typically showing only one month after launch, or the Pixel A-series, which supplied related experiences at even cheaper costs. Mixed, these parts made all of it too straightforward to disregard some — not all, however some — of the problems we have seen come and go during the last two and a half years.
With the Pixel 8 sequence, although, issues have began to vary. The smaller mannequin nonetheless prices simply $700, however at $1,000, the Pixel 8 Professional is priced identically to the Galaxy S24+. Consider these gross sales and Google’s smartphones often come out on high, however contemplating simply how wonderful Samsung’s {hardware} is as of late — and, much more crucially, how secure One UI feels — and it is no surprise why I am discovering Pixels tougher to advocate to common customers. There’s simply too many complications, and the value distinction is not almost as large because it as soon as was.
Google’s inconsistent Pixel expertise makes its telephones inconceivable to advocate
Three generations into the Tensor experiment, the time has come to cease making excuses for Google’s buggy software program
Google’s shifting in direction of Professional {hardware} — and Professional costs
However can the general expertise maintain up?
With the upcoming Pixel 9 sequence, I believe Google’s about to drop its price range mindset totally. The corporate now has two Professional-branded fashions to promote: the 6.2-inch Pixel 9 Professional, and the please-don’t-actually-be-called-this 6.7-inch Pixel 9 Professional XL. That is along with a daily Pixel 9 and the Pixel 8a that we count on to launch at I/O in Might. With this many telephones, Google both has to threat undercutting its personal gross sales by pricing its units too shut to one another, or — extra seemingly — increase prices throughout the board to ascertain a extra premium person expertise.
I will admit, my mind defaulted to the previous. Initially, I sat all the way down to attempt to determine the mathematics right here, assuming — maybe foolishly — that Google would not blow previous the $1,000 mark for the Pixel 9 Professional XL, all whereas having to begin at a rumored $550 value level for the Pixel 8a. 4 telephones unfold over simply $450? You may really feel the cannibalization occurring in actual time.
It wasn’t till a dialog on this week’s Android Police podcast (an excellent podcast, if I do say so myself) with former AP EIC Daniel Bader that I noticed there is a purpose that math would not work. With two Pixels adorned with Professional branding, Google can unfold its pricing vary up right into a a lot greater tier, seemingly marking the top of its smartphone sequence residing on this price range flagship area. The truth is, contemplating that leaked roadmap from 2022 would not point out a Pixel 9a for 2025, Google is likely to be trying to solely goal the high-end area with new {hardware} beginning subsequent 12 months.
A Pixel pricing construction rivaling Samsung and Apple
Matching its closest rivals
And so, here is how I see it. The Pixel 8a will already be on sale for (seemingly) $550 when the Pixel 9 debuts this fall. You fit within the primary Pixel 9 at a brand new value of $800 — matching the Galaxy S24 and normal iPhone 15 — whereas the 6.2-inch Pixel 9 Professional lands on the $1,000 tier. The Pixel 9 Professional XL, in the meantime, strikes into the $1,100 or $1,200 area, mirroring Apple’s technique for its iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max. Not solely is {that a} a lot more healthy $650 unfold between the Pixel 8a and the Pixel 9 Professional XL, but it surely helps to set greater revenue margins on each Professional fashions as an entire. And hey, it brings again the identical $800 to $1,200 vary Samsung makes use of — go determine.
Here is the issue: Google has but to repair these underlying match and end points plaguing its telephones, and it is unclear if something will change this 12 months. Tensor G4 is about to be a small enchancment over its predecessor, with the actual adjustments — and a transfer to a completely customized, TSMC-manufactured chipset — at the moment rumored for 2025. However bear in mind, that SoC was initially meant for the Pixel 9, which might’ve set Google up completely to maneuver up into this higher-end vary of smartphones.
If the corporate does have one factor going for it, it is a shift to solely supporting Tensor-based units with Android 15. With out having to concurrently develop its Pixel expertise for each Qualcomm and Tensor-based {hardware}, we might see large enhancements in stability from Google beginning with this fall’s OS launch. That mentioned, let’s not get forward of ourselves — the corporate has an extended approach to go to show it is on the proper path.
Google Pixel 9: Information, leaks, rumored value, and launch window
The Pixel 9 sequence is Google’s greatest cell shakeup since Tensor — here is what we’re anticipating
Begin saving your pennies for that subsequent Pixel
Supply: 91Mobiles
If Google is making this bounce one technology too early, it’s going to be fairly apparent as soon as the Pixel 9 evaluate embargo is lifted come October. Reviewers — myself included — are much less prone to be as forgiving in direction of inconsistent experiences should you’re paying Apple and Samsung costs for lower-quality {hardware}.
That mentioned, we can’t actually know what Google has in retailer for Pixel followers till it takes the stage this fall, and with months to go, pricing particulars may not even be set in stone but. Simply do not be stunned if this 12 months’s {hardware} prices much more than it used to — even when Google’s not fairly able to justify it.
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Google Pixel 8
$499 $699 Save $200
The Google Pixel 8 is Google’s greatest cellphone but, and it is essentially the most distinct common mannequin when in comparison with the Professional model. It comes with an exquisite kind issue that matches properly within the arms and has the same old software program prowess that you just count on from a Pixel.
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Google Pixel 8 Professional
$749 $999 Save $250
The Google Pixel 8 Professional is the corporate’s newest flagship, boasting a brand new Tensor G3 chip, a brighter display, and a brand new digicam array able to capturing much more mild. As standard, the actual energy lies in Google’s Tensor chip, which gives much more photograph enhancement and picture modifying options.