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Intro
Google is slowly trying to become the third big player on the smartphone scene. This year, the company has decided to expand its portfolio and offer three flagship Pixel models, plus one foldable. This situation seems very similar to the three models Samsung is currently offering in its flagship portfolio, and it is also close to what Apple is doing.
This transformation also saw the Pixel 9 Pro shrink to the size of the vanilla Pixel 9 to open some space for the Pixel 9 Pro XL. Now, the Pixel 9 Pro is much closer to the Galaxy S24, than it's to the Plus or Ultra models from the Korean company.
That's why, today we're going to pit against each other the Pixel 9 Pro and the Galaxy S24 in a battle for the best Android phone.
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The latest flagships from Google, the Pixel 9 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro XL, are now available at Amazon. You can get both devices for $200 off its original price.
These two have a lot in common (Image by PhoneArena)
This year, the Pixel 9 Pro is smaller than its predecessor, and it's also radically different design-wise. It's the first big change since the Pixel 6 series introduced the Camera Bar, and now Google has moved toward a flatter design, and a more traditional camera bump.
Some might say that the Pixel 9 Pro looks strangely similar to an iPhone or a Galaxy S-series device, and we guess it's just how things are nowadays.
There are similarities in the flat sides, front and back, for sure. The thing that's different is the aforementioned camera bump. It's an evolution of the Camera Bar in the sense that it's still horizontal, but now it doesn't span across the whole body, and it doesn't look like an integral part of the frame. It's a more conventional camera bump with an oval shape protruding from the back.
The Galaxy S24 looks pretty similar from the front, with a similar aspect ratio, curves on the edges, a flat frame, and a flat display. The only design difference now seems to be the camera system.
The materials are also the usual suspects—aluminum and glass—on both phones. The Pixel 9 Pro comes with matte finish, a kind of frosted glass look and feel, but overall the materials are the same. The dimensions and weight are rather different, though. The Galaxy S24 is still the more compact phone by a couple of millimeters here and there, and it's also much lighter at 167 grams, while the Pixel 9 Pro comes at 199 grams.
Now, as far as colors are concerned, the Galaxy S24 is available in:
Marble Gray
Cobalt Violet
Onyx Black
Amber Yellow
You can get the Pixel 9 Pro in the following colors:
Obsidian
Porcelain
Hazel
Rose Quartz
Gorgeous displays but which one is better? (Image by PhoneArena)
Moving to the displays, we now have a 6.3-inch panel on the Pixel 9 Pro, much closer to the 6.2-inch display of the Galaxy S24. Both of these OLED panels come with a FHD+ resolution and a similar aspect ratio, and both use LTPO panels with dynamic 1-120Hz refresh rates.
The Galaxy S24 is rated at 2600 nits of peak brightness, and we were able to measure 1,344 nits of real-world brightness. Google advertises the Pixel 9 Pro as capable of outputting 1,800 nits of brightness in HDR mode and up to 2,700 nits of total peak brightness.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
Our display tests show that the Pixel 9 Pro screen is indeed brighter (currently the brightest one we've tested), but the Galaxy S24 can get dimmer at below 1 nit, and also has a better color reproduction out of the box. If you use your phone in bright conditions most of the time, the Pixel 9 Pro might offer something extra for you with that amazing 2,000-nit result. Otherwise, both are just great!
Performance and Software
"For Galaxy" should still win this fight, but not the war
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is still much faster than the Tensor (Image by PhoneArena)
The Galaxy S24 is a known variable in this equation. This phones comes equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, tuned specifically "for Galaxy." This means the clock speeds are a tad higher, offering a boost in performance in some cases, compared to a regular 8 Gen 3.
The Pixel 9 Pro features the in-house developed Tensor G4 processor, and even though it might not be as fast as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, especially in synthetic benchmarks, Google has spent some time making sure it can tackle machine learning tasks, hence it might have a potential advantage when we talk about AI. According to Google, it's the first silicon able to tackle multi-modal machine learning tasks thanks to its dedicated TPU portion, able to process up to 48 tokens per second (AI machine learning operations).
Speaking of AI, the Galaxy S25 features the Galaxy AI Suite, a comprehensive set of AI tools, meant to make your life easier. And despite the efforts of other big names to offer something similar, Samsung's AI package seems the most polished at the moment.
The Pixel 9 Pro, however, comes with the aforementioned on-device AI prowess, and its powering Gemini Nano. Google has decided to up its game and offer a subscription service called Gemini Advances, which includes Gemini Live - a conversational multi-modal (able to take in text, speech, image, and other inputs) version of the large language model, and when you buy one of the Pro devices from the Pixel 9 lineup you get one year Google One AI for free, including the Gemini Advanced.
Let's mention the RAM and storage situation real quick. The Galaxy S24 comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of base storage, while the Pixel 9 Pro starts at 12GB of RAM, and offers a quite flexible storage options - from the base 128GB, through 256GB and 512GB variants, all the way up to 1TB for the memory mongers out there.
Camera
Let the AI rule the game
The comparison samples speak louder than specs, for sure, but we need to take a look at those specs as well. The Galaxy S24 features largely unchanged camera hardware, compared to its predecessor, namely a 12 MP ultra-wide camera and a 10MP 3X telephoto.
The Pixel 9 Pro comes with a similar triple camera setup, with one 50MP main camera, a 48MP ultrawide camera, and a 48MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom capabilities. The main camera features Octa PD focus and a 1/1.31" image sensor under an ƒ/1.68 aperture lens, while the ultrawide comes with an aperture of ƒ/1.7 and 123-degree field of view.
On paper these sensors and lenses look superior to what the Galaxy S24 has onboard but you know how it is nowadays, post-processing is king.
Main Camera
< Pixel 9 ProGalaxy S24 >
There's a dramatic difference in how these two phones handle photos. The Pixel 9 Pro seems to apply a warm and soft filter to the images, making them look almost cinematic. On the other hand, the Galaxy S24 oversharpens the samples to the point they look almost unreal, especially put next to the ones from the Pixel. On their own, samples from both phones look good, but put next to each other, the differences are night and day.
< Pixel 9 ProGalaxy S24 >
Another interesting effect in the Pixel samples is the depth of field. The phone seems to produce closeups with a very shallow depth of field even outside Portrait mode, while the Galaxy have the focus pretty wide.
Zoom Quality
< Pixel 9 ProGalaxy S24 >
In terms of telephoto, both phones come with dedicated lenses, the Pixel 9 Pro has 5x native zoom, while the Galaxy S24 comes with a 3x lens. The differences we observed in the samples from the main camera are exaggerated here. The Galaxy seems to reveal more detail but it looks unnatural and oversharpened while the Pixel 9 Pro produces soft and warm images, probably subjectively more pleasant to the eye.
Ultra-wide Camera
< Pixel 9 ProGalaxy S24 >
The ultrawide camera samples are more of the same, really. The Galaxy image looks sharper but this can be an issue for people sensitive to such post processing, while the Pixel 9 Pro takes the opposite route and smooths the image out.
The selfies are very very close, there's good level of detail in both samples, and the white balance difference here is much smaller. The Pixel 9 Pro images look a tad more natural and reproduce the color of the skin better in our opinion.
Battery Life and Charging
Advantage Pixel, potentially
There's a potential advantage for the Pixel 9 Pro, when it comes to battery life. Despite the smaller size and the downsized battery (the predecessor launched with a 5,050mAh cell inside), Google still found space to cram in a 4,700mAh battery. The Galaxy S24, on the other hand, comes with a 4,000 mAh battery, so the Pixel has a potential advantage here.
Our battery tests displayed a clear advantage for the Pixel 9 Pro when it comes to web browsing (about 1 hour more battery life), and YouTube streaming (2 hours more). When it comes to gaming, though, the limitations of the Tensor chips come into play and the efficiency drops significantly.
When it comes to charging, both of these phones aren't breaking any speed records. The Galaxy S24 comes with a rather uninspiring 25W wired charging support, and Google offers a slightly more powerful 45W of wired charging support, citing 0-55% in 30 minutes.
50MP main 48MP ultra-wide 48MP telephoto, 5x optical
42MP front
50MP main 12MP ultra-wide 10MP telephoto, 3x zoom
12MP front
Battery Size
4,700 mAh
4,000 mAh
Charging Speeds
45W wired wireless support
25W wired wireless support
Which one should you buy?
Normally, the newer model has an intrinsic advantage over the older one. Google has an upper hand when it comes to software updates and distribution, and the potential to offer better AI features.
On the other hand, the Pixel 9 Pro costs $200 more than the Galaxy S24, with the latter enjoying additional trade-in and promo deals. Both phones offer a similar form factor, size and camera features, and both have long seven-year software support.
In the battery department the Pixel 9 Pro may have a slight advantage, depending on what kind of images you like, but on the other hand the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy still has the upper hand over the new Tensor G4.
With the Galaxy S25 series right around the corner, things are looking gloomy for the S24. Either way, our advice would be, If you're into Samsung phones, wait for the Galaxy S25 to land, and get the newer model or alternatively get the S24 on a much better deal. If you want to try a Pixel, the Pixel 9 Pro is one of the best Google has even produced.
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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