Google Pixel 9 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: Which should you buy? | Digital Trends

Google’s Pixel 9 series smartphones are now on shelves. This year, Google’s lineup has four phones, similar to Apple’s iPhone line. They are the Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Now that Google has brought back the XL version, the Pixel 9 Pro is a smaller version of the Pro flagship. So how does it compare to last year’s Apple device, the Apple iPhone 15 Pro? Let’s take a look.

Google Pixel 9 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: specs

Google Pixel 9 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: design and display

Google took a page from Apple this year regarding some elements of the Pixel 9 lineup’s design. It seems that ever since Apple went with the flat edges on the iPhone 12, a lot of competitors have followed suit, including Google.

The Pixel 9 Pro now features flattened edges on the frame, just like the iPhone 15 Pro. However, the corners are more rounded on the Pixel 9 Pro. The Google phone also has the revamped camera bar from previous generations, which is now an elongated capsule that houses a triple lens camera system. Rather than extending into the edges of the frame, the new camera bar ends just short of the edges.

For the Pixel 9 Pro, Google went with a glossy frame, which does give it a more “premium” look, but is also more prone to fingerprints and smudges. The back glass has a matte finish, however, which should reduce the amount of smudges and fingerprints. The Pixel 9 Pro uses Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for improved durability.

The Pixel 9 Pro is available in four colors: Rose Quartz, Hazel, Obsidian, and Porcelain.

The design of the iPhone 15 Pro is similar to previous years, but Apple did make some nice changes. The iPhone 15 Pro switched to a titanium frame instead of stainless steel, making the device a bit more lightweight. The titanium frame also has a brushed metal look, rather than polished. The edges are still flat, the back glass is a matte finish, and the camera module remains unchanged.

For the front glass, Apple uses its proprietary Ceramic Shield. For the entire iPhone 15 lineup, Apple switched over to USB-C from Lightning, making the iPhone 15 Pro one of the first iPhones with USB-C, Apple also switched out the silent/ring toggle for the brand new Action button, which is exclusively on the Pro models.

As far as displays, the Google Pixel 9 Pro has a 6.3-inch Super Actua LTPO OLED panel that features thinner and more uniform bezels than its predecessor. It has a resolution of 1280 x 2856 at 495 pixels per inch (ppi) and a dynamic refresh rate between 1Hz and120Hz. In terms of brightness, it can reach up to 2000 nits for HDR content and 3000 nits peak brightness. It has a small hole-punch cutout for the front-facing camera.

The iPhone 15 Pro sports a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with 2556 x 1179 resolution at 460 ppi. It uses Apple’s ProMotion display technology with a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling. In terms of brightness, it’s typically 1,000 nits, 1,600 nits for HDR content, and 2,000 nits peak. Apple introduced the new Dynamic Island on the iPhone 15 Pro, which changes size and shape depending on content, and also hides the front-facing TrueDepth camera.

The iPhone 15 has four color options to pick from: Blue Titanium, Natural Titanium, Black Titanium, and White Titanium.

Winner: Tie

Google Pixel 9 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: cameras

If you want a smartphone with a great camera, both of these have some pretty impressive specs, but one definitely edges out the other.

The Pixel 9 Pro has a triple camera system on that revised camera module. It sports a 50-megapixel Octa PD wide camera with f/1.68 aperture and an 82-degree field of view (FOV), as well as a 48MP Quad PD ultrawide lens with f/1.7 aperture and a 123-degree FOV, and a 48MP Quad PD telephoto camera with f/2.8 aperture and a 22-degree FOV with 5x optical zoom. For the front facing camera, it is a 42MP Dual PD with autofocus, f/2.2 aperture, and 103-degree ultrawide FOV.

On the iPhone 15 Pro, we have a triple-lens camera system as well, but with slightly less impressive numbers. It has a 48MP main wide camera with f/1.78 aperture, a 12MP ultrawide lens with f/2.2 aperture, a 12MP telephoto with f/2.8 aperture, and only 3x optical zoom. The front-facing camera is only 12MP with f/1.9 aperture. While the iPhone 15 Pro Max has the new periscope telephoto lens, Apple could not include that on the smaller Pro due to size constraints. Again, the iPhone 15 Pro doesn’t take bad photos, but when you look at the specs on paper, the Pixel 9 Pro definitely outclasses it. Now, hardware is only half the picture of a phone’s true imaging might.

Thankfully, the Pixel 9 Pro delivers in quite a stunning fashion. The best part about it? It makes the chore of clicking good pictures totally effortless. The images captured across all three sensors are sharp, saturated, and realistic in terms of tonal accuracy.

But where the Pixel 9 Pro truly lifts its game is the long-range zoom capture. The optically stabilized periscope-style camera benefits from the pixel-binning pipeline, and as the user extends into the hybrid or digital zoom territory, the onboard AI does a great job with pixel reconstruction, sharpening, and color correction.

Winner: Google Pixel 9 Pro

Google Pixel 9 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: performance

Both Google and Apple use custom processors that they’ve developed in-house for their respective devices. Inside the Google Pixel 9 Pro is the new Tensor G4 chip from Google, as well as 16GB RAM. You can also choose from four different storage capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.

This isthe first time that there is 16GB of RAM in a Pixel phone, as Google previously capped it at 12GB. The reason for the bump in RAM across the board is due to all of the new AI features and tools integrated into the software, as AI requires a lot of power to run.

The iPhone 15 Pro uses Apple’s A17 Pro chip and has 8GB RAM, and storage sizes range from 128GB up to 1TB. While the iPhone 15 Pro has half the RAM of the Pixel 9 Pro, it is the most RAM that Apple has put in an iPhone so far, as all previous iPhones only had 6GB RAM. The 8GB RAM that is in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max also make these the only older iPhone models that are capable of running Apple Intelligence, which is Apple’s suite of AI features in iOS 18.

In our time with the iPhone 15 Pro it became clear that the A17 Pro chip gives it plenty of power and performance, as we’ve never had issues using it daily. Everything is fast and snappy, launching and switching between apps is seamless, and scrolling is as smooth as it can be.

Now, the Google Tensor G4 silicon powering the Pixel 9 Pro is a rather odd situation. Compared to its predecessors, this one performs reliably well. UI interactions are smooth, gaming performance has also seen a lift in terms of stability, and above all, the connectivity modem inside is a huge sigh of relief. 

Our tests suggest that the Tensor G4 still has a lot of ground to cover when it comes to catching up with the iPhone 15 Pro’s raw performance, and even Qualcomm’s flagships. But as the saying goes, benchmarks aren’t the real indicators of actual performance, though they certainly offer a glimpse of what to expect. 

During real-world usage, the Pixel 9 Pro won’t burden users with a subpar performance. However, it might hobble here and there for scenarios like high-res, high-frames-per-second video capture ,and gaming. Stutters aren’t really a problem, but the heat stress is there on the Google flagship. 

Winner: Apple iPhone 15 Pro

Google Pixel 9 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: software and updates

On the software side of things, it’s night and day here. One is Android, the other is iOS. It really comes down to your preference.

Google will still bundle in some cool software tricks for the Pixel 9 line, including the Pixel 9 Pro. With the Tensor G4 and 16GB RAM, the Pixel 9 Pro runs Gemini Nano with multimodality, which means it can understand text, image, audio, and speech inputs all together. Gemini will also be the default assistant through Gemini Live, and it will feel more natural to have a conversation with than Google Assistant.

Other software goodies include a new Add Me feature with the camera. This lets you add yourself into a group photo by taking two photos (one with you in it). Add Me then merges both images into a composite one where everyone is present. There will also be a new Auto Frame in the Magic Editor, which can recompose a photo to improve the overall composition. There will even be a standalone Pixel Screenshots app, separating your screenshots from your other photos. They’re searchable too.

Google promises seven years of OS upgrades, feature drops, and security patches.

The iPhone 15 Pro launched with iOS 17, but it now has iOS 18. Though Apple hasn’t yet said how long the iPhone 15 Pro will be supported, most Apple devices gets updates for at least five or more years.

Apple made a lot of changes with iOS 18 this year, especially with the addition of Apple Intelligence. If you get an iPhone 15 Pro now, you’ll be able to utilize Apple Intelligence tools like text summarization, priority notifications, writing tools, a much smarter Siri with on-screen contextual awareness, and multimodal requests. There’s even be ChatGPT integration.

There are also some big non-AI features in iOS 18. This includes even better home screen customization where you can place apps and widgets anywhere on the grid, lock screen shortcut customization, a revamped Control Center, RCS support in iMessage, and more.

But again, these iOS 18 features aren’t readily available yet, and some of them will only arrive next year.

With the Pixel 9 Pro, however, you get a year’s worth of free Google One AI Premium, and with it, access to Gemini Advanced. On the iPhone 15 Pro, you get ChatGPT integration with the next-gen Siri, but some of the more advanced features like ChatGPT Search are locked behind a subscription paywall.

Winner: Google Pixel 9 Pro

Google Pixel 9 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: battery and charging

The Pixel 9 Pro has a fairly large 4,700mAh battery, which Google says should last over 24 hours on a single charge. If you use Extreme Battery Saver, that can be stretched out to about 100 hours.

The Pixel 9 Pro has fast charging up to 30 watts, which gives you about 50% in 30 minutes. There is also fast wireless charging around 23 watts and Battery Share reverse wireless charging.

Apple typically doesn’t release specific numbers for batteries on its devices, and instead relies on real-world use to measure the metric. But the iPhone 15 Pro has a 3,274mAh battery inside, which is quite small compared to the Pixel 9 Pro’s. It definitely does not get over 24 hours of battery life, as it’s very common to need to charge it at some point during the day.

Even though Apple switched over to USB-C with the iPhone 15 Pro, it did not improve charging speeds. It still has about 30W fast charging, so you get to about 50% in 30 minutes. Wireless charging is 15W and reverse wireless is 4.5W.

On the Pixel 9 Pro, you’ll burn about 60% to 75% of battery by the end of an average day. On the iPhone 15 Pro, those figures are nearly identical. The charging speeds are also on the same level.

Winner: Tie

Google Pixel 9 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: verdict

Considering that the Apple iPhone 15 Pro is last year’s iPhone, the Google Pixel 9 Pro is the better buy at this point in time. With the iPhone 16 now available, the iPhone 15 Pro is a bit outdated at this point.

The Pixel 9 Pro is shaping up to be a great choice, especially for those who have been wanting a smaller Pixel Pro phone. The revamped design is a breath of fresh air for the Pixel 9 lineup, and Google did a great job with the color choices.

Those who also want a powerful phone should pick up the Pixel 9 Pro. The Tensor G4 chip sounds promising, and for the first time, the Pixel 9 Pro will have 16GB RAM, which should mean great performance, especially with all the AI tools. The triple lens camera is also a big upgrade.

If you’re looking for a new phone right now, then you can’t go wrong with the Pixel 9 Pro, especially if you prefer smaller phones.