Google may have launched the Pixel 8a alongside this month’s I/O Developer Conference, but many are looking forward to the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro. These handsets will build on the AI-first smartphones of the Pixel 8 family and will cement Google’s view of AI in a smartphone. As I/O discusses the upcoming software, the latest leaks offer a clear look at the hardware.
New photos of the three devices, the presumptively named Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 XL, come from the team at Rozetked. They show the new design language of the camera, the similar sizes of the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, and the new addition to the family in the form of the premium Pixel 9 XL.
With the launch of the Pixel 6, Google adopted a new design language for the Pixel family. It replaced the familiar camera island of traditional smartphone design with the camera bar, a raised area stretched across the back of the device. This offered the same benefits of volume and depth of a camera island while giving the product line a unique identifying feature.
It has stayed consistent on the Pixel range to this day, but it was tweaked on the Pixel Fold to a bar that reached most of the way over but with a distinctive curve. This curve is coming over to the Pixel 9 family; welcome to the new physical branding.
Google will reportedly offer a third Pixel device at the launch of the Pixel 9 series. While there are three models in the Pixel 6, 7, and 8 family, the 6a, 7a, and 8a were launched some nine months after the original handsets.
From the reported specs and sizes shown here, the Pixel 9 will continue to be the family’s base phone. The higher-specced phone, currently carrying the Pro label, will now carry the XL label. The new Pro will now offer the higher specs of the XL in a smaller form factor.
Last year’s Pixel launch event took place in the first week of October, shortly after the iPhone’s launch, and there’s no reason to expect a different approach this year.
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