Last week marked the arrival of the Google Pixel 9 series which comes in a total of four models, including one foldable. The Pixel phones stand as a testament to Google’s place among the elite for camera capabilities in smartphones. Google also gave the Pro models a 42MP front camera and added a new 42MP ultra-wide of its own in the Pixel 9. The Pro Models too have received increased optical zoom up to 10x from 5x on all three of the lenses.

Google Pixel 9 and 9 Pro XL DXOMark Review

Aside from the improved hardware, the Pixel 9 series also comes with an AI-powered face-tracking camera. The vanilla Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL’s DXOMARK camera results have been revealed and here’s how the two phones performed. The Pixel 9 came top in the premium rankings ahead of its predecessor, the Pixel 8. Internationally, the Pixel 9 ranked 7, one place behind the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro.

DXOMARK said the Pixel 9 captures nice portraits with good face exposure, pleasant colors, and natural skin tones. It also fared better against competitors in preserving the detail of a scene’s brightest highlights. The Pixel 9 also produces a neutral white balance and enhanced colors. The bokeh effect of the Pixel 9 had high blur intensity as well, though there could be slight depth artifacts in more complex scenes.

In low-light conditions, the Pixel 9 offers a nice rendering but there was loss in detail and noise occasionally. Its autofocus was also fast and accurate and locked on target almost always. The Pixel 9’s video performance was almost on the same level as the Pixel 9 Pro XL. It offered good stabilization for both still videos and recording while walking. The Pixel 9 Pro XL shined in DXOMARK’s tests as it came 2nd in the premium and global ranking. It was just five points shy of the 1st position, which is currently held by the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra.

On DXOMARK, the Pixel 9 Pro XL was one of the best devices for the friends and family category with the phone capturing correct skin tones. It could even freeze motion in still images and track the subject across complex video scenes. While it showed good exposure, accurate white balance, autofocus, and nice colors in low light, the Pixel 9 Pro XL did suffer low texture and high noise levels.

Like the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro XL also has accurate target exposure and a very wide dynamic range. It also captures better highlight detail than its competitors. The test results also showed good portraits across various lighting conditions. When it comes to bokeh, the results were fairly neutral but there were slight inaccuracies, which were higher in comparison to its rivals. For video, the Pixel 9 Pro stands among the top contenders as it showed accurate and stable exposure, a wide dynamic range, nice colors, and few artifacts.

Overall, the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL seem to have similar issues such as dynamic range instabilities, chroma noise in low light, and sharpness differences between video frames. Based on the results, the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL are one of the best premium camera phones to buy in India as most of the top rivals are not available here. The closest competitors are the iPhone 15 series for the Pixel 9 lineup.