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Smartphones are constantly getting bigger, and the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL both stretch the boundaries of what’s comfortable to use with one hand. Thankfully, Apple and Google also launched the iPhone 16 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro, which offer the same premium flagship experience in a smaller, more ergonomic form factor.
Each phone boasts reasons to buy it over the other, and many of these have to do with AI. Both phones also cost $1,000, So, which one should you buy? Which phone has the best mix of hardware and software, and utilizes AI in ways that will improve your life? Let’s dive into the details.
Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Google Pixel 9 Pro: specs
| Size | 149.6 x 71.5 x 8.25mm (5.89 x 2.81 x 0.32 inches) | 152.8 x 72 x 8.5mm (6.02 x 2.83 x 0.32 inches) |
| Weight | 199 grams (7.03 ounces) | 199 grams (7.02 ounces) |
| Screen | 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED
1206 x 2622 pixels ProMotion with 120Hz dynamic refresh rate Dolby Vision, 2,000 nits brightness 460 pixels per inch |
6.3-inch OLED
1280 x 2856 pixels 120Hz dynamic refresh rate 3,000 nits peak brightness 495 pixels per inch |
| Operating system | iOS 18 | Android 14, upgradable to Android 15 |
| RAM and storage | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
8GB RAM |
128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
16GB RAM |
| Processor | Apple A18 Pro
Six-core CPU Six-core GPU |
Google Tesnor G4
Octa-core CPU Mali-G715 GPU |
| Camera | Rear:
48-megapixels primary, f/1.8, 1/1.28″, OIS 48MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 120° FOV 12MP telephoto, f/2.8, 5x optical zoom Front: 12MP, f/1.9, 1/3.6″ |
Rear:
50MP primary, f/1.7, 1/1.31″, PDAF, OIS 48MP ultrawide, f/1.7, 123° FOV 48MP telephoto, f/2.8, 5x optical zoom Front: 42MP, f/2.2, PDAF |
| Video | Rear:
4K, up to 120 fps Front: 4K, up to 60 fps |
Rear:
8K, up to 30fps Front: 4K, up to 60 fps |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 7, tri-band
Bluetooth 5.3 |
Wi-Fi 7, tri-band
Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Ports | USB-C Gen 3.2
DisplayPort |
USB-C Gen 3.2 |
| Water resistance | IP68 (maximum depth of 6m up to 30 minutes) | IP68 (maximum depth of 1.5m up to 30 minutes) |
| Battery & charging | 3,582 mAh
30W fast charging 25W wireless charging via MagSafe 15W Qi2 wireless charging |
4,700 mAh
27W fast charging 21W wireless charging with Pixel Stand 12W Qi wireless charging |
| Colors | Black Titanium, White Titanium, Natural Titanium, Desert Titanium |
Porcelain, Rose Quartz, Hazel, Obsidian |
| Price | Starts at $999 | Starts at $999 |
Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Google Pixel 9 Pro: design and display
Nirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsBoth phones have undergone subtle changes from their predecessors, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro. Unlike previous years, both now feature near-identical specs sheets to their bigger siblings, and they both offer the same flagship experience in a smaller, more ergonomic size.
The big difference is in style: Apple uses titanium in the build of the iPhone 16 Pro, which feels lighter and more premium than the Pixel 9 Pro, which uses aluminum, but comes in more vibrant colors. Even though they weigh the same 199 grams, the iPhone 16 Pro feels slightly lighter than the Pixel 9 Pro thanks to the titanium build.
The iPhone 16 Pro in front of the Pixel 9 Pro Nirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsThe choice of titanium also means the iPhone 16 Pro features more muted colors than the Pixel 9 Pro. The four titanium color choices are beautiful, but none are quite as vibrant as the Rose Quartz Pixel 9 Pro. The pink color choice means your Pixel 9 Pro can stand out, although there are more traditional color choices available if Pink isn’t your preference.
Measuring 149.6 x 71.5 x 8.25mm, the iPhone 16 Pro is 3mm shorter, 0.5mm narrower, and 0.25mm thinner than the Pixel 9 Pro, but they feel virtually identical in the hand. The iPhone 16 Pro also has a Camera Control button on the right side,and the Action button on the left, while the Pixel 9 Pro has a mmWave antenna cutout on the top, even in countries where mmWave isn’t available.
Nirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsBoth phones have a 6.3-inch OLED display, with a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The Pixel 9 Pro display is slightly higher resolution, resulting in a higher pixel density (495 pixels per inch versus 460 ppi), but the difference is minimal. The Pixel 9 Pro has a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, while the iPhone 16 Pro doesn’t get as dark at 2,000 nits. However, there’s functionally little difference in the quality or brightness of the displays during day-to-day use.
The Pixel 9 Pro has a slightly better display, but there’s no denying how good the titanium build on the iPhone 16 Pro feels in the hand. This one’s a stalemate.
Winner: Tie
Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Google Pixel 9 Pro: performance and battery
Nirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsRecent Pixel devices have been plagued by problems with Google’s Tensor GPU, and while Google has stuck with its chipset, the Tensor G4 chip in the Pixel 9 Pro is vastly improved. It’s designed with performance and AI in mind and fixes many of the problems in the previous generation, including poor battery life and overheating. It’s paired with a whopping 16GB of RAM inside the Pixel 9 Pro, which results in fast performance that left us impressed.
In comparison, the iPhone 16 Pro is powered by the new Apple A18 Pro chipset that’s designed with performance, battery life, and yes, AI, in mind. Compared to the A17 Pro chipset, it offers up to 15% faster CPU performance, 20% faster graphics performance, and 2x faster ray tracing. The neural processing unit (NPU) performance is very similar, but the improved heat dissipation on the iPhone 16 Pro means it’ll be harder to overheat your iPhone.
Nirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsThat’s what all the numbers say, but as we discovered in our iPhone 16 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro reviews, both phones offer excellent performance in most conditions. The A18 Pro chipset inside the iPhone 16 Pro is faster than the Tensor G4 and more likely to handle future use cases, but neither phone disappoints in the experience offered today.
The iPhone 16 Pro features a battery capacity of around 3,582mAh while the Pixel 9 Pro has a much larger 4,700mAh capacity. However, the tight integration of hardware and software means the iPhone 16 Pro can have a smaller technical capacity and deliver slightly better battery life than the Pixel 9 Pro. In our testing, Apple’s flagship lasts up to two hours longer, but both phones offer all-day battery life with some juice to spare.
Both phones offer “fast” charging that is among the slowest in the industry, and both phone makers have opted to use their own standard for faster wireless charging. The iPhone 16 Pro uses MagSafe for 25-watt wireless charging, while the Pixel 9 Pro requires the Pixel Stand to achieve 21W. However, both also support the Qi standard, with the iPhone 16 Pro offering up to 15W speeds when charging with Qi2 and the Pixel 9 Pro being capable of 12W charging when connected to a Qi charger.
The iPhone 16 Pro is very similar to the Pixel 9 Pro, but offers slightly better battery life and overall performance. The Tensor G4 is no slouch — and vastly improved over previous years — but Apple still holds the lead.
Winner: Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Google Pixel 9 Pro: cameras
Nirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsBoth phones use a triple-camera setup and advanced algorithms to capture photos at a variety of focal lengths. The Pixel 9 Pro has better hardware on paper, but each phone has its pros and cons. Google has a slight advantage in still photography and software features, but the iPhone 16 Pro is better for creators and anyone focused on video.
The Pixel 9 Pro has a 50-megapixel main camera, a 48MP ultrawide camera, and a 48MP periscope telephoto camera that offers up to 5x zoom. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro uses a 48MP main camera (with the Fusion branding) that captures high-resolution 24MP photos by default. There’s also a 48MP ultrawide camera with a smaller f/2.2 aperture and a 12MP periscope telephoto camera that also offers up to 5x zoom.
There are many hardware similarities between these two cameras, but it’s in the wider feature set where they diverge. The Pixel 9 Pro comes with features like Add Me — which makes it easy to include everyone in a group shot, even the photographer — Auto Frame in the Magic Editor, Zoom Enhance to capture more detail at higher zoom lengths, and Reimagine to help you reimagine photos using generative AI.
The iPhone 16 Pro also comes with a slate of camera features, although they’re more geared toward creators. The Camera Control button makes it easy to launch the camera, swipe through different functions, and zoom in or out of a photo or video. The camera control button will also enable Vision Intelligence features later this year, offering a similar experience to Google Lens, where you can point the camera at something and learn more about it straightaway.
The upgrade of the ultrawide camera to 48MP offers far more detail and better color reproduction. The revamped Photography Styles allow you to tweak and refine your photos before you take them. There’s also the ability to take 4K video portraits at 120 frames per second (fps), Dolby Vision recording, and improvements to audio recording. Audio Mix allows you to choose from four different styles and edit the audio in a video to match this professional style.
Both phones take fantastic photos, and personal preference will play into this. The iPhone 16 Pro ekes out a win, however, thanks to better photographic styles and video recording.
Winner: Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Google Pixel 9 Pro: software and updates
Nirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsBoth companies have made strong promises about software and updates, with Google promising seven years of security and software updates for the Pixel 9 Pro. At the same time, Apple makes no guarantees, but its phones have usually been supported for just as long, if not longer.
The Pixel 9 Pro launched on Android 14, but can be updated to Android 15 after the recent launch. The update for the Pixel 9 Pro brings a host of new features, including the ability to hide sensitive apps and improvements in theft protection, the ability to generate passkeys, and App Pairing. This last feature allows you to save combinations of two apps and launch them with a single tap.
The iPhone 16 Pro, meanwhile, ushers in iOS 18, which introduces one of the biggest overhauls to the iPhone experience. If you’re an Android user, many of the new features in iOS 18 will feel familiar, because it’s the closest that the iPhone has ever come to replicating the Android experience.
Some of the biggest iOS 18 features include a customizable home screen — you can finally move apps wherever you want — a customizable control center, a new private folder for your apps, and the ability to lock apps behind a paywall. There are also huge overhauls of Apple Photos, new features in iMessage, support for the RCS standard for messaging, a new Passwords manager, and much more. It’s a huge overhaul of the iPhone experience.
The iPhone 16 Pro screen next to the Pixel 9 Pro Nirave Gondhia / Digital TrendsBoth companies are also betting big on AI. Google dedicated much of its Pixel event to showcasing the power of Gemini as your voice assistant. There are new tools for creating and editing images, custom weather reports, a new screenshots app, and many more features that leverage Generative AI to usher in a host of new features.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro also bets big on AI, but takes a different approach. Apple Intelligence powers the revamped Siri, but it isn’t launching until later this month. The full rollout of the new Apple Intelligence features won’t be available until early next year, and while features like Apple Intelligence Summaries are some of the best use cases for AI, it’ll take six months from launch for the iPhone 16 Pro to get the full suite of AI features.
It’s worth noting that the Pixel 9 Pro comes with one year of Gemini Advanced for free (after which, it’s $20 per month), while the Apple Intelligence features on the iPhone 16 Pro are entirely free — except for the ChatGPT integration, which uses your existing subscription — although Apple may choose to charge for some features in the future.
Both phones focus on AI, and while Apple Intelligence has a lot of promise, the delay in launch means the Pixel 9 Pro offers better overall software and AI features right now.
Winner: Pixel 9 Pro
Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Google Pixel 9 Pro: price and availability
Christine Romero-Chan / Digital TrendsBoth phones cost $999 for 128GB of storage, and each charges a $100 premium for the 256GB version. The Pixel 9 Pro costs $1,219 for the 512GB and $1,449 for the 1TB models, while the iPhone 16 Pro costs $1,299 and $1,499, respectively.
Things get a little confusing when you consider the Pixel 9 Pro colors, however. The Porcelain and Hazel colors only come with up to 512GB of storage, while the Rose Quartz model is bizarrely only available with 256GB of storage. If you want the top storage, you have to go for the Obsidian (aka Black) color.
The iPhone 16 Pro is far simpler. The four titanium color choices — Natural Titanium, White Titanium, Black Titanium, and the hero, Desert Titanium — are available in all storage options.
Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Google Pixel 9 Pro: verdict
Christine Romero-Chan / Digital TrendsTwo similar phones, from two companies that you’ve heard of. This sums up this comparison, at least on paper. Once you dive in, you realize that the differences are subtle, but they do exist.
Both phones weigh the same, but the iPhone 16 Pro feels lighter. The cameras are very similar, and each camera excels in different ways. Even the software is fairly similar, with iOS 18 taking great strides to offer Android-esque levels of customization.
Which smartphone is best depends on which platform you prefer. If you prefer iOS, then buy the iPhone 16 Pro. For Android lovers, the Pixel 9 Pro is a fantastic smartphone. If you want to make the switch in either direction, there’s no better time, but if you’re thinking of switching to Android, it’s worth noting that the Pixel 9 Pro is a great alternative, but the OnePlus 12 is the best Android alternative to the iPhone.
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