5 Things Google Needs to Fix for the Pixel 9 Series Performance Issues, Battery Life, Charging Speed, Display and Fingerprint and Video Camera.
The Pixel 9 and the Pixel 9 Pro are to be announced next week, promising to give us everything new. But as someone who has used the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro and done a ton of videos on them, they have had their shortcomings in the past. This time around, I want to talk to you guys about the 5 things Google needs to fix for the Pixel 9 series to be in the conversation for the phone of the year.
1. Performance Issues
One of the biggest complaints I received anytime I talked about the Pixel 8 or the Pixel 8 Pro was the performance. You guys don't like Tensor. I’ve seen comments saying it's trash, that it can never be anything more than it is currently, and that it’s always going to be a discount Exynos chip. While Tensor is not the best, especially when compared with other objectively better phones like the 15 Pro Max and the S24 Ultra, Google has integrated Tensor so well with the Google experience that it does not feel like an inferior phone.
However, Tensor does have its issues. There’s shutter lag when taking pictures, and processing pictures takes a few seconds each time, which gets annoying. Intensive tasks like gaming can cause frame rate drops and overheating. With the Pixel 9 and the Tensor G4, I really hope that Google gets it right this time. Competition benefits consumers with the best innovations, and I’m hopeful that the Pixel 9's performance will rival that of iPhone and Samsung devices.
2. Battery Life
People often ask me about the battery life on the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro, and my experience has been mixed. Sometimes the battery lasts the whole day, and other times it dies before 3 pm. With the Pixel 9 Pro, I hope they give us a 6,000 mAh battery instead of 5,000. But a bigger battery doesn’t matter if the chip inside the phone isn’t well optimized. This is the last leg for Google with Tensor G4, and they need to get it right this time around.
3. Charging Speed
The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are some of the slowest phones to charge if you’re in a hurry. The charging speed caps at 30W, taking roughly 90 minutes to go from 0 to 100. That’s the full length of a football match! Sometimes you need to quickly top up your phone, and it’s frustrating when it only reaches 50% in an hour. Will the Pixel 9 have SuperVOOC fast charging like OPPO? I highly doubt it. The most they might give us is 45W like the S24 Ultra, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
4. Display and Fingerprint Scanner
The Pixel 8 and 8 Pro's displays are very good, with features like 2,400 nits of max brightness, a 120Hz refresh rate, and symmetrical bezels. But the optical fingerprint scanner is a major letdown. It’s low-grade, slow, and often takes multiple tries to unlock. I’m begging Google to finally put the ultrasonic fingerprint reader in the Pixel 9 and the Pixel 9 Pro. Face unlock also needs improvement because it doesn’t recognize you at night, forcing you to use the frustrating fingerprint scanner.
5. Video Camera
The Pixel series takes the best pictures from a smartphone, better than the iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, or S24 Ultra. However, Google needs to fix the video camera. If they want younger demographics like Gen Zs and Gen Alphas to consider their phones, especially in North America, they need to make the video camera so good that it rivals the iPhone. The Pixel 9 and the Pixel 9 Pro need to objectively improve their video capabilities to the point where people notice and start considering their options.
Thank you for reading, and I hope Google listens to these points. Let’s see if the Pixel 9 series can live up to the hype and become the phone of the year.
Categories: Mobiles