The New Google Pixel 9 Series’ Biggest Photography Features

Google’s new Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro/Pro XL, and 9 Fold Pro smartphones have a lot of compelling new features, including numerous hardware and software improvements for mobile photographers.

Each of the four new Pixel smartphones features hardware improvements. Google says its Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL, which have feature parity this generation, offer the best Pixel camera experience yet.

There’s also good news for those who don’t want the Pro models, though, as the standard Pixel 9 has the same 50-megapixel main and upgraded 48-megapixel ultrawide cameras as the flagship Pro and Pro XL smartphones.

The 9 Pro Fold has inferior cameras than the more traditional new Pixel 9 devices but still offers improvements over its predecessor, the Pixel Fold.

Looking at the 48-megapixel ultrawide camera in particular, this is an all-new imager that gathers 110% more light than the previous top-end Pixel ultrawide camera and can focus as close as two centimeters (0.8 inches), making it the camera of choice for macro photography.

While not every Pixel 9 smartphone offers the same camera setup, they do have some shared features, including a thoroughly revamped high-dynamic range (HDR) photo pipeline, which Google says optimizes exposure, tone mapping, sharpening, and contrast settings, delivering better image quality in a wide array of scenes.

All the new Pixel 9 phones also have the new Add Me mode, which “ensures no one gets left behind.” A smartphone photographer first takes a group portrait and then trades places with someone in the scene for a second shot. The phone provides a guide to ensure it all works smoothly, and in the end, there’s one photo with everyone in the frame.

While not new in and of itself, the AI-powered Magic Editor has some new tricks, including Auto Frame. This AI feature automatically generates options to improve the framing and composition of a photo that a person has already captured. It can use generative AI to fill in the blanks around a subject when moving to a wider field of view. Google says the feature is trained “on photographic techniques that emphasize the subject of your photo.”

As before, Magic Editor lets people tap on an area of their image and describe how they want it to change.

Another new AI feature is Zoom Enhance. Available on the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold, this feature promises improved upscaling by predicting fine details and filling in the gaps between pixels. This is also coming to the Pixel 8 Pro starting today.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a new Made You Look feature to help photographers get better pictures of young children. This uses the Fold’s external display — when the phone is unfolded — to show children cute animations and encourage them to look toward the camera.

While Pixel smartphones have been able to shoot panoramas for many years now, the Pixel 9 phones feature an improved panoramic user interface, and the popular Night Sight mode for standard photo and video modes has made its way to panorama.

The Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL have a unique feature for low-light imagery. 20x Super Res Zoom is available in Night Sight Video or Video Boost modes. This clever feature combines details from the upgraded telephoto camera with advanced machine learning to improve detail, regardless of the lighting condition.

Concerning Video Boost mode, this is also exclusive to the 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL. This mode uses AI upscaling to produce 8K videos from 4K recordings. This can also be used to save a high-quality 33-megapixel still frame from a video or zoom twice as far while retaining the original 4K resolution.

The Google Pixel series has long been a very compelling choice for smartphone photographers. While the new Pixel 9 series may not offer all the hardware improvements and upgrades people hoped for — although there are some on offer — the new software features help make the Pixel 9 series the best Google has yet to offer.

It will be fascinating to see how the new devices perform in real-world use, especially when they go head-to-head with the highly-anticipated iPhone 16 models from Apple, which are expected to arrive sometime this fall. Google has thrown the first punch, but will it be a knockout blow?

Image credits: Google. Featured image created using an asset licensed via Depositphotos.