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The SpaceX Starship launches on its fourth flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on June 6th, 2024. | Photo: Getty Images

SpaceX allegedly violated wastewater regulations at its Boca Chica, Texas, launch site — sending pollution into bodies of water nearby, according to CNBC. The news outlet says it obtained investigative records and notices that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) sent to SpaceX of violations related to its Starbase facility.
SpaceX called the story “factually inaccurate” in a post on Elon Musk’s social media platform X. The Verge has not yet been able to independently verify these reports. We’ve requested records from EPA and TCEQ, and neither agency immediately confirmed the accuracy of the allegations.
Starbase is home to Starship, the reusable transportation system SpaceX is building and testing with hopes of taking people to the Moon and, one day, even reaching Mars. But the violations SpaceX is accused of could jeopardize future launches and put the company at legal risk, according to CNBC.
The violations SpaceX is accused of could jeopardize future launches and put the company at legal risk
Starship’s first test flight last year left behind a mess. The massive spacecraft exploded in the air, and the test wrecked the launchpad. Flying debris smashed into at least one car nearby, and the plume of dust reportedly reached residents several miles away as well as nesting grounds for endangered birds and sea turtles. Starbase lies along the Texas Gulf Coast, near wetlands and wildlife refuges.
After the explosion, CNBC says SpaceX scrambled to rebuild the launchpad and install a water deluge system meant to blunt the tremendous heat, energy, and sound from launches. The company skipped a permitting process in its rush, according to CNBC. The EPA launched a probe and demanded more information on wastewater discharges about a month after SpaceX ran a full-pressure test of the system in July 2023, CNBC says. The agency reportedly notified SpaceX on March 13th that it was in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
Regardless, SpaceX moved forward with its third test flight on March 14th. Continuing to use the deluge system during launches without proper permits in place raises the legal risks, per CNBC. SpaceX eventually applied for a permit, reportedly more than 100 days after it received notice from the EPA.
TCEQ performed a compliance record review to determine whether SpaceX was following wastewater regulations on July 25th of this year, according to CNBC. It determined that SpaceX had released industrial wastewater without a permit four times since March, CNBC reports. It also says that TCEQ has received 14 at least complaints in the region “alleging environmental impacts” from SpaceX’s deluge system. TCEQ sent its notice of violation to SpaceX last week, according to CNBC.
SpaceX didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Verge, but its post on X claims that both EPA and TCEQ had allowed it to continue using the deluge system and that it was operating under a separate permit system.
“Throughout our ongoing coordination with both TCEQ and the EPA, we have explicitly asked if operation of the deluge system needed to stop and we were informed that operations could continue,” it says.

CNBC’s story on Starship’s launch operations in South Texas is factually inaccurate. Starship’s water-cooled flame deflector system is critical equipment for SpaceX’s launch operations. It ensures flight safety and protects the launch site and surrounding area. Also known as…— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 12, 2024

The company also claims that its deluge system “causes no harm to the environment.” It says it sends air, water, and soil samples from near the pad to “an independent, accredited laboratory” after using the deluge system. So far, it says, those tests have shown “negligible traces of any contaminants.”
CNBC’s reporting counters those claims, especially when it comes to mercury. SpaceX says its samples show “either no detectable levels of mercury whatsoever or found in very few cases levels significantly below the limit the EPA maintains for drinking water.” CNBC writes:
But SpaceX wrote in its July permit application — under the header Specific Testing Requirements – Table 2 for Outfall: 001 — that its mercury concentration at one outfall location was 113 micrograms per liter. Water quality criteria in the state calls for levels no higher than 2.1 micrograms per liter for acute aquatic toxicity and much lower levels for human health
On Monday, the FAA postponed meetings initially planned for this week intended to discuss draft environmental assessments for “SpaceX’s plan to increase the launches and landings of its Starship/Super Heavy vehicles scheduled at the Boca Chica Launch Site.” When asked why the meetings were delayed, a spokesperson for the FAA said it was waiting on “additional documentation” from SpaceX but would not share what those documents are.
A legal battle looks likely. A Rio Grande Valley, Texas, nonprofit called SaveRGV reportedly sent SpaceX a notice of intent to sue in June over its deluge system allegedly discharging wastewater without a permit. It’s seeking injunctive relief and civil penalties for each potential violation of the Clean Water Act.
Musk talked about deregulation in a long-winded conversation with Donald Trump on X last night. “if you deregulate, like have sensible regulations,” he said. “Because a lot of the regulations are nonsensical and cause the cost to be extreme for no reason.”

The SpaceX Starship launches on its fourth flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on June 6th, 2024. | Photo: Getty Images

SpaceX allegedly violated wastewater regulations at its Boca Chica, Texas, launch site — sending pollution into bodies of water nearby, according to CNBC. The news outlet says it obtained investigative records and notices that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) sent to SpaceX of violations related to its Starbase facility.

SpaceX called the story “factually inaccurate” in a post on Elon Musk’s social media platform X. The Verge has not yet been able to independently verify these reports. We’ve requested records from EPA and TCEQ, and neither agency immediately confirmed the accuracy of the allegations.

Starbase is home to Starship, the reusable transportation system SpaceX is building and testing with hopes of taking people to the Moon and, one day, even reaching Mars. But the violations SpaceX is accused of could jeopardize future launches and put the company at legal risk, according to CNBC.

Starship’s first test flight last year left behind a mess. The massive spacecraft exploded in the air, and the test wrecked the launchpad. Flying debris smashed into at least one car nearby, and the plume of dust reportedly reached residents several miles away as well as nesting grounds for endangered birds and sea turtles. Starbase lies along the Texas Gulf Coast, near wetlands and wildlife refuges.

After the explosion, CNBC says SpaceX scrambled to rebuild the launchpad and install a water deluge system meant to blunt the tremendous heat, energy, and sound from launches. The company skipped a permitting process in its rush, according to CNBC. The EPA launched a probe and demanded more information on wastewater discharges about a month after SpaceX ran a full-pressure test of the system in July 2023, CNBC says. The agency reportedly notified SpaceX on March 13th that it was in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

Regardless, SpaceX moved forward with its third test flight on March 14th. Continuing to use the deluge system during launches without proper permits in place raises the legal risks, per CNBC. SpaceX eventually applied for a permit, reportedly more than 100 days after it received notice from the EPA.

TCEQ performed a compliance record review to determine whether SpaceX was following wastewater regulations on July 25th of this year, according to CNBC. It determined that SpaceX had released industrial wastewater without a permit four times since March, CNBC reports. It also says that TCEQ has received 14 at least complaints in the region “alleging environmental impacts” from SpaceX’s deluge system. TCEQ sent its notice of violation to SpaceX last week, according to CNBC.

SpaceX didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Verge, but its post on X claims that both EPA and TCEQ had allowed it to continue using the deluge system and that it was operating under a separate permit system.

“Throughout our ongoing coordination with both TCEQ and the EPA, we have explicitly asked if operation of the deluge system needed to stop and we were informed that operations could continue,” it says.

The company also claims that its deluge system “causes no harm to the environment.” It says it sends air, water, and soil samples from near the pad to “an independent, accredited laboratory” after using the deluge system. So far, it says, those tests have shown “negligible traces of any contaminants.”

CNBC’s reporting counters those claims, especially when it comes to mercury. SpaceX says its samples show “either no detectable levels of mercury whatsoever or found in very few cases levels significantly below the limit the EPA maintains for drinking water.” CNBC writes:

But SpaceX wrote in its July permit application — under the header Specific Testing Requirements – Table 2 for Outfall: 001 — that its mercury concentration at one outfall location was 113 micrograms per liter. Water quality criteria in the state calls for levels no higher than 2.1 micrograms per liter for acute aquatic toxicity and much lower levels for human health

On Monday, the FAA postponed meetings initially planned for this week intended to discuss draft environmental assessments for “SpaceX’s plan to increase the launches and landings of its Starship/Super Heavy vehicles scheduled at the Boca Chica Launch Site.” When asked why the meetings were delayed, a spokesperson for the FAA said it was waiting on “additional documentation” from SpaceX but would not share what those documents are.

A legal battle looks likely. A Rio Grande Valley, Texas, nonprofit called SaveRGV reportedly sent SpaceX a notice of intent to sue in June over its deluge system allegedly discharging wastewater without a permit. It’s seeking injunctive relief and civil penalties for each potential violation of the Clean Water Act.

Musk talked about deregulation in a long-winded conversation with Donald Trump on X last night. “if you deregulate, like have sensible regulations,” he said. “Because a lot of the regulations are nonsensical and cause the cost to be extreme for no reason.”

Read More 

Image: Google

Google is following Apple in launching a way to use your phone to communicate via a satellite in an emergency. During its big Pixel 9 reveal event on Tuesday, the company shared details of Satellite SOS, which will let you contact emergency responders and share your location when you don’t have cellular service.
The new Pixel 9 lineup will be the first Android phones to be able to use Satellite SOS, Google’s Brian Rakowski said onstage. The feature launches first in the US “regardless of your carrier plan,” Rakowski said. According to fine print shown during Google’s livestream, the service will be included “at no additional charge for the first two years after activation of devices.” A blog post by Rakowski qualifies that further, saying that it will be free for those first two years “on Pixel.” And it’s unclear when the feature might arrive for other Android phones.
Still, it’s nice to see Google introduce this feature for Android, especially following Qualcomm’s failed attempt to launch a satellite SOS feature of its own.
Apple launched its satellite service, Emergency SOS, in November 2022. It announced last year that iPhone 14 owners would get an additional year of free coverage, meaning that both iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users will have to decide if they want to pay for the service starting in November 2025.

Image: Google

Google is following Apple in launching a way to use your phone to communicate via a satellite in an emergency. During its big Pixel 9 reveal event on Tuesday, the company shared details of Satellite SOS, which will let you contact emergency responders and share your location when you don’t have cellular service.

The new Pixel 9 lineup will be the first Android phones to be able to use Satellite SOS, Google’s Brian Rakowski said onstage. The feature launches first in the US “regardless of your carrier plan,” Rakowski said. According to fine print shown during Google’s livestream, the service will be included “at no additional charge for the first two years after activation of devices.” A blog post by Rakowski qualifies that further, saying that it will be free for those first two years “on Pixel.” And it’s unclear when the feature might arrive for other Android phones.

Still, it’s nice to see Google introduce this feature for Android, especially following Qualcomm’s failed attempt to launch a satellite SOS feature of its own.

Apple launched its satellite service, Emergency SOS, in November 2022. It announced last year that iPhone 14 owners would get an additional year of free coverage, meaning that both iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users will have to decide if they want to pay for the service starting in November 2025.

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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is officially here, and the company can’t stop talking about the AI features it’s got coming.
On the hardware front, Google boosted the RAM for all of its new phones to accommodate memory-hungry on-device AI. The Pixel 9 received 12GB of RAM, while the rest will have 16GB of memory.
But the bigger side of the story is software — the phones all get a handful of new Pixel-exclusive AI features. And the Pro phones are also getting a year of Google One AI Premium, which comes with access to Gemini Advanced, Google’s most capable AI system.
Here’s a rundown of the biggest Pixel 9 AI features Google announced today.
Remember things with Pixel Screenshots

Google’s new Pixel Screenshots feature is a little like Microsoft’s Recall feature that uses AI to track everything you do on your computer via constant screenshots, except it’s more of a manual affair. If you want to keep track of something like an event you’re planning with friends or a recipe to make for dinner, you can take a screenshot and then conversationally search for the information later. Google says this is a Pixel device exclusive.
Gemini understands your screen

Screenshot: Google

Google took a cue from Apple, too, giving Gemini the ability to respond to you based on what’s on your phone screen when you ask it. The company says that after summoning Gemini, you can tap “Ask about this screen” or “Ask about this video” to direct the model to what you’re looking at for contextual replies. Google says this means Gemini can do things like add a list of restaurants from a YouTube travel video to Google Maps.
A faster, better Gemini assistant

Screenshot: Google

Gemini will be faster as a voice assistant, Google says, thanks to new models such as Gemini 1.5 Flash. The company says this model also offers higher-quality responses and won’t get things wrong quite as often as previous versions of the assistant. Google is also adding more extensions to Gemini, so it will be able to pull information from — or do things in — apps like Keep, Tasks, Utilities, and Google Calendar.
Chat with Gemini Live

GIF: Google

Google is rolling out its own version of ChatGPT’s voice chat, called Gemini Live. The company says the feature enables natural conversation, so you can interrupt Gemini mid-sentence or pause a conversation and pick it up later. Gemini Live will work even if your screen is locked, Google says. It’s only available for Gemini Advanced subscribers, though.
Reimagining your photos
Google is adding a new Magic Editor option to “reimagine” a photo by typing out what you want to see and then letting the app transform parts of the image. So, if you wanted to, you could totally replace the sky or other aspects of a background by describing something else entirely. Who needs a perfect day when you can make one, I guess?
Add Me
Along the same “what is a photo?” lines as the new Magic Editor feature, the Pixel 9 camera’s “Add Me” option lets you easily take group photos without bothering strangers to do it for you. Just take a picture of your friends, then hand your phone off and step into the same spot they were in, and the camera will stitch the two images together afterward.
Make pictures using Pixel Studio

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

A new Pixel Studio app lets you create illustrations using text prompts. You’ll need to be connected to the internet for this feature — it doesn’t work on-device like the others.
Share pictures with Circle to Search

GIF: Google

Google is adding what it says is an AI-powered ability to share parts of an image or of your screen when you use Circle to Search. After you’ve circled the portion you want, you can tap a new share button to send it via text — it’s basically cropping part of an image to share but without all the usual rigmarole of editing an image.
AI weather summaries

Google’s new Pixel Weather app will offer AI-generated weather reports.
Call notes

Google will use AI to create summaries of phone calls after you hang up. Google says this is helpful for pulling out details from a call, citing the example of being referred to a new barber shop and forgetting to write down the phone number. The company says the calls and summaries are “never sent to the cloud,” and that it notifies everybody on a call before it transcribes and summarizes it.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is officially here, and the company can’t stop talking about the AI features it’s got coming.

On the hardware front, Google boosted the RAM for all of its new phones to accommodate memory-hungry on-device AI. The Pixel 9 received 12GB of RAM, while the rest will have 16GB of memory.

But the bigger side of the story is software — the phones all get a handful of new Pixel-exclusive AI features. And the Pro phones are also getting a year of Google One AI Premium, which comes with access to Gemini Advanced, Google’s most capable AI system.

Here’s a rundown of the biggest Pixel 9 AI features Google announced today.

Remember things with Pixel Screenshots

Google’s new Pixel Screenshots feature is a little like Microsoft’s Recall feature that uses AI to track everything you do on your computer via constant screenshots, except it’s more of a manual affair. If you want to keep track of something like an event you’re planning with friends or a recipe to make for dinner, you can take a screenshot and then conversationally search for the information later. Google says this is a Pixel device exclusive.

Gemini understands your screen

Screenshot: Google

Google took a cue from Apple, too, giving Gemini the ability to respond to you based on what’s on your phone screen when you ask it. The company says that after summoning Gemini, you can tap “Ask about this screen” or “Ask about this video” to direct the model to what you’re looking at for contextual replies. Google says this means Gemini can do things like add a list of restaurants from a YouTube travel video to Google Maps.

A faster, better Gemini assistant

Screenshot: Google

Gemini will be faster as a voice assistant, Google says, thanks to new models such as Gemini 1.5 Flash. The company says this model also offers higher-quality responses and won’t get things wrong quite as often as previous versions of the assistant. Google is also adding more extensions to Gemini, so it will be able to pull information from — or do things in — apps like Keep, Tasks, Utilities, and Google Calendar.

Chat with Gemini Live

GIF: Google

Google is rolling out its own version of ChatGPT’s voice chat, called Gemini Live. The company says the feature enables natural conversation, so you can interrupt Gemini mid-sentence or pause a conversation and pick it up later. Gemini Live will work even if your screen is locked, Google says. It’s only available for Gemini Advanced subscribers, though.

Reimagining your photos

Google is adding a new Magic Editor option to “reimagine” a photo by typing out what you want to see and then letting the app transform parts of the image. So, if you wanted to, you could totally replace the sky or other aspects of a background by describing something else entirely. Who needs a perfect day when you can make one, I guess?

Add Me

Along the same “what is a photo?” lines as the new Magic Editor feature, the Pixel 9 camera’s “Add Me” option lets you easily take group photos without bothering strangers to do it for you. Just take a picture of your friends, then hand your phone off and step into the same spot they were in, and the camera will stitch the two images together afterward.

Make pictures using Pixel Studio

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

A new Pixel Studio app lets you create illustrations using text prompts. You’ll need to be connected to the internet for this feature — it doesn’t work on-device like the others.

Share pictures with Circle to Search

GIF: Google

Google is adding what it says is an AI-powered ability to share parts of an image or of your screen when you use Circle to Search. After you’ve circled the portion you want, you can tap a new share button to send it via text — it’s basically cropping part of an image to share but without all the usual rigmarole of editing an image.

AI weather summaries

Google’s new Pixel Weather app will offer AI-generated weather reports.

Call notes

Google will use AI to create summaries of phone calls after you hang up. Google says this is helpful for pulling out details from a call, citing the example of being referred to a new barber shop and forgetting to write down the phone number. The company says the calls and summaries are “never sent to the cloud,” and that it notifies everybody on a call before it transcribes and summarizes it.

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Google’s new smartwatches are bigger, brighter, and more capable than ever. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Google announced not only its forthcoming Pixel 9 lineup during its Made by Google event on Tuesday but also a slew of other devices, including the Pixel Watch 3. The smartwatch will be available on September 10th starting at $349.99, with preorders opening today.
For the first time, Google’s smartwatch will be available in two sizes — 41mm and 45mm — both of which use the same processor as the Pixel Watch 2 but sport larger, brighter displays. Google claims the wearable can last up to 36 hours, while thinner bezels offer more space to display information, read messages, and perform other tasks.

On the software front, Google’s forthcoming wearable offers several advanced running features, including one that lets you send custom workouts from your phone to your wrist. Your Daily Readiness Score also now takes into consideration how hard your heart is working during a training session, while the new Loss of Pulse Detection feature can connect you with help if it detects a lack of pulse — though, due to regulatory hurdles in the US, it will only be available in Europe at launch. Google’s third-gen watch also integrates with more Google devices, allowing you to view a Nest Doorbell feed on your wrist or control your Google TV.
In our brief time testing the Pixel Watch 3, we were impressed by just how many new features it offers. We’ve yet to test its health and wellness capabilities, but the watch is certainly brighter and the Nest Doorbell / Nest Cam integration shows promise. The Wi-Fi connection wasn’t working great during our testing, but we could have easily had a conversation with somebody on the other side.
We’ll be publishing our full review soon, but in the meantime, you can preorder either model from Google.
How to preorder the Google Pixel Watch 3
As mentioned earlier, the Pixel Watch 3 now comes in two sizes, 41mm and 45mm, both of which are accompanied by small and large bands. Both models are available for preorder in either a matte black aluminum case with an obsidian band or in a polished silver case with a porcelain band. The 41mm is also available in two additional styles: one with a champagne gold aluminum case and a hazel band, and another with a polished silver finish with a rose quartz band. The 45mm configuration, meanwhile, is available in matte hazel aluminum case with a hazel band.
Starting today, you can preorder the 41mm Pixel Watch 3 directly from Google with Bluetooth / Wi-Fi for $349.99. Google is also selling an LTE-enabled configuration for $100 more, with both models slated to arrive on September 10th. If you want a larger watch, Google is selling the 45mm model with Bluetooth / Wi-Fi for $399.99 or cellular connectivity for $499.99.
As for deals, Google is currently offering a number of preorder discounts, letting you save up to $350 on the Pixel Watch 3 when you trade in an eligible smartwatch. You can also get two years of data for free when you buy any LTE-enabled model.

Google’s new smartwatches are bigger, brighter, and more capable than ever. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Google announced not only its forthcoming Pixel 9 lineup during its Made by Google event on Tuesday but also a slew of other devices, including the Pixel Watch 3. The smartwatch will be available on September 10th starting at $349.99, with preorders opening today.

For the first time, Google’s smartwatch will be available in two sizes — 41mm and 45mm — both of which use the same processor as the Pixel Watch 2 but sport larger, brighter displays. Google claims the wearable can last up to 36 hours, while thinner bezels offer more space to display information, read messages, and perform other tasks.

On the software front, Google’s forthcoming wearable offers several advanced running features, including one that lets you send custom workouts from your phone to your wrist. Your Daily Readiness Score also now takes into consideration how hard your heart is working during a training session, while the new Loss of Pulse Detection feature can connect you with help if it detects a lack of pulse — though, due to regulatory hurdles in the US, it will only be available in Europe at launch. Google’s third-gen watch also integrates with more Google devices, allowing you to view a Nest Doorbell feed on your wrist or control your Google TV.

In our brief time testing the Pixel Watch 3, we were impressed by just how many new features it offers. We’ve yet to test its health and wellness capabilities, but the watch is certainly brighter and the Nest Doorbell / Nest Cam integration shows promise. The Wi-Fi connection wasn’t working great during our testing, but we could have easily had a conversation with somebody on the other side.

We’ll be publishing our full review soon, but in the meantime, you can preorder either model from Google.

How to preorder the Google Pixel Watch 3

As mentioned earlier, the Pixel Watch 3 now comes in two sizes, 41mm and 45mm, both of which are accompanied by small and large bands. Both models are available for preorder in either a matte black aluminum case with an obsidian band or in a polished silver case with a porcelain band. The 41mm is also available in two additional styles: one with a champagne gold aluminum case and a hazel band, and another with a polished silver finish with a rose quartz band. The 45mm configuration, meanwhile, is available in matte hazel aluminum case with a hazel band.

Starting today, you can preorder the 41mm Pixel Watch 3 directly from Google with Bluetooth / Wi-Fi for $349.99. Google is also selling an LTE-enabled configuration for $100 more, with both models slated to arrive on September 10th. If you want a larger watch, Google is selling the 45mm model with Bluetooth / Wi-Fi for $399.99 or cellular connectivity for $499.99.

As for deals, Google is currently offering a number of preorder discounts, letting you save up to $350 on the Pixel Watch 3 when you trade in an eligible smartwatch. You can also get two years of data for free when you buy any LTE-enabled model.

Read More 

The new Pixel 9 generation starts at $799 for a 6.3-inch model. | Image: Google

Google announced its full lineup of Pixel 9 phones at its latest Made by Google event, and boy, how full that lineup is. There are four — count ‘em — four new Pixel phones (in three different sizes) all coming within about a month of one another: the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Each of them features new processors, improved specs over last-gen models, seven years of OS updates, and at least somewhat new camera setups — all with a bunch of Google’s Gemini AI stuff mixed in.

Confused already? No worries. Let’s break down what you actually need to know about Google’s new quartet of phones, including where you can preorder them ahead of launch.
Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9
The new Pixel 9 is Google’s latest entry-level into its flagship class of phones (the Pixel 8A covers the midrange tier). It sports a 6.3-inch 120Hz OLED display, Google’s new Tensor G4 processor, two rear cameras (a 50-megapixel standard wide and 48-megapixel ultrawide), 12GB of RAM, and comes in four colors — including a sleek and vibrant rose quartz. Sadly, it also has a higher starting price of $799 with base 128GB of storage, which is $100 more than the Pixel 8 at launch. Though, if history serves, it’s possible the Pixel 9 may eventually see its share of hefty discounts. But for now, you can preorder the Pixel 9 direct from Google to get one right away when it lands on August 22nd.

Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9 Pro
Stepping up to the Pixel 9 Pro nets you the same processor as the standard Pixel 9, but with a bevy of improved specs. You get more RAM, a better screen with a refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz, a third rear camera (a 48-megapixel telephoto), a higher-resolution selfie camera, and 8K video recording. This all comes packaged with the same size, weight, and battery capacity (4,700mAh) as the regular Pixel 9. That’s right, for the first time, the standard Pixel and the Pro model are near-identical twins, meaning you don’t have to step up to a giant phone to get the best features.
The new Pixel 9 Pro starts at $999 with 128GB of storage, and you can preorder one ahead of its September 4th launch from the Google Store.

Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL
Google’s new two-pronged approach to the sizing of its pro phones means the word jumble that is the Pixel 9 Pro XL now exists. The phone features a very large 6.8-inch OLED display and a large, 5,060mAh battery. Otherwise, it mostly matches its smaller pro counterpart in specs, from the cameras to the processors and RAM. One other added feature of the 9 Pro XL is faster wired charging, which Google claims will allow you to charge up to 70 percent in around 30 minutes with a 45W USB-C charger (which is not included, of course).
The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL launches on August 22nd with a starting price of $1,099 for 128GB of storage. It’s available for preorder starting today at the Google Store.

Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold
Google’s sophomore foldable has a new naming convention and a little more feature parity with the new Pixel phones it’s launching beside. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold borrows the Tensor G4 processor and 16GB of RAM from the Pixel 9 Pros, though all three of its rear cameras have lower resolution sensors with no option for 8K video (it tops out at 4K). But the tradeoffs are all made for the sake of the folding screen, which opens from its 6.3-inch cover screen to an eight-inch screen with up to 120Hz refresh.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the highest-priced device in the range, starting at $1,799 with 256GB of storage. You can preorder it from Google to get one when it launches on September 4th.

The new Pixel 9 generation starts at $799 for a 6.3-inch model. | Image: Google

Google announced its full lineup of Pixel 9 phones at its latest Made by Google event, and boy, how full that lineup is. There are four — count ‘em — four new Pixel phones (in three different sizes) all coming within about a month of one another: the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Each of them features new processors, improved specs over last-gen models, seven years of OS updates, and at least somewhat new camera setups — all with a bunch of Google’s Gemini AI stuff mixed in.

Confused already? No worries. Let’s break down what you actually need to know about Google’s new quartet of phones, including where you can preorder them ahead of launch.

Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9

The new Pixel 9 is Google’s latest entry-level into its flagship class of phones (the Pixel 8A covers the midrange tier). It sports a 6.3-inch 120Hz OLED display, Google’s new Tensor G4 processor, two rear cameras (a 50-megapixel standard wide and 48-megapixel ultrawide), 12GB of RAM, and comes in four colors — including a sleek and vibrant rose quartz. Sadly, it also has a higher starting price of $799 with base 128GB of storage, which is $100 more than the Pixel 8 at launch. Though, if history serves, it’s possible the Pixel 9 may eventually see its share of hefty discounts. But for now, you can preorder the Pixel 9 direct from Google to get one right away when it lands on August 22nd.

Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9 Pro

Stepping up to the Pixel 9 Pro nets you the same processor as the standard Pixel 9, but with a bevy of improved specs. You get more RAM, a better screen with a refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz, a third rear camera (a 48-megapixel telephoto), a higher-resolution selfie camera, and 8K video recording. This all comes packaged with the same size, weight, and battery capacity (4,700mAh) as the regular Pixel 9. That’s right, for the first time, the standard Pixel and the Pro model are near-identical twins, meaning you don’t have to step up to a giant phone to get the best features.

The new Pixel 9 Pro starts at $999 with 128GB of storage, and you can preorder one ahead of its September 4th launch from the Google Store.

Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

Google’s new two-pronged approach to the sizing of its pro phones means the word jumble that is the Pixel 9 Pro XL now exists. The phone features a very large 6.8-inch OLED display and a large, 5,060mAh battery. Otherwise, it mostly matches its smaller pro counterpart in specs, from the cameras to the processors and RAM. One other added feature of the 9 Pro XL is faster wired charging, which Google claims will allow you to charge up to 70 percent in around 30 minutes with a 45W USB-C charger (which is not included, of course).

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL launches on August 22nd with a starting price of $1,099 for 128GB of storage. It’s available for preorder starting today at the Google Store.

Where to preorder the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold

Google’s sophomore foldable has a new naming convention and a little more feature parity with the new Pixel phones it’s launching beside. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold borrows the Tensor G4 processor and 16GB of RAM from the Pixel 9 Pros, though all three of its rear cameras have lower resolution sensors with no option for 8K video (it tops out at 4K). But the tradeoffs are all made for the sake of the folding screen, which opens from its 6.3-inch cover screen to an eight-inch screen with up to 120Hz refresh.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the highest-priced device in the range, starting at $1,799 with 256GB of storage. You can preorder it from Google to get one when it launches on September 4th.

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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Okay, sure, Google basically spent the last few months spoiling its annual hardware event by repeatedly leaking — and, in some cases, just flat-out announcing — all of its upcoming phones, wearables, headphones, and TV gadgets. But the annual Pixel event is still a big day in the gadget world and also a chance to find out exactly what Google thinks the future looks like.
In this episode of The Vergecast, we talk through all the new devices, from the Pixel 9 lineup to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 to the Pixel Watch 3. We also discuss last week’s launches, particularly the new TV Streamer. Google is now nearly a decade into this phase of its hardware journey and appears to still be serious about being a big player in gadgets. So, the question is: will any of these products make real noise in the market? Maybe the new Fold is the foldable phone we’ve been waiting for, but at $1,800, that’s a big ask. Or maybe the TV Streamer can be the better set-top box we all deserve and need.

In reality, it might just be that Google’s whole hardware plan is actually just an AI plan. These new devices come with lots of spec upgrades in the name of better AI performance and ship with new features like Pixel Screenshots that promise to use Gemini to make your life better and simpler. So much of the hardware world is following this plan, so we chat about whether Google — or anyone — is actually showing us what AI hardware might look like.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, check out all our coverage of this year’s Pixel launch. Here are some links to get you started:

Google Pixel 9 launch event live coverage: all the news
Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is a Pro show
Google’s new Pixel Buds Pro 2 seem better in every way that matters
The Pixel 9 Pro XL showed me the future of AI photography
Google Pixel Watch 3 hands-on: a big leap forward
The Google TV Streamer might be the Apple TV 4K rival we’ve been waiting for
Why Google decided now’s the time to move on from Chromecast
The Nest Learning Thermostat gets its biggest upgrade in over a decade
Google’s Pixel Fold one year later: I can’t wait for the sequel

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Okay, sure, Google basically spent the last few months spoiling its annual hardware event by repeatedly leaking — and, in some cases, just flat-out announcing — all of its upcoming phones, wearables, headphones, and TV gadgets. But the annual Pixel event is still a big day in the gadget world and also a chance to find out exactly what Google thinks the future looks like.

In this episode of The Vergecast, we talk through all the new devices, from the Pixel 9 lineup to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 to the Pixel Watch 3. We also discuss last week’s launches, particularly the new TV Streamer. Google is now nearly a decade into this phase of its hardware journey and appears to still be serious about being a big player in gadgets. So, the question is: will any of these products make real noise in the market? Maybe the new Fold is the foldable phone we’ve been waiting for, but at $1,800, that’s a big ask. Or maybe the TV Streamer can be the better set-top box we all deserve and need.

In reality, it might just be that Google’s whole hardware plan is actually just an AI plan. These new devices come with lots of spec upgrades in the name of better AI performance and ship with new features like Pixel Screenshots that promise to use Gemini to make your life better and simpler. So much of the hardware world is following this plan, so we chat about whether Google — or anyone — is actually showing us what AI hardware might look like.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, check out all our coverage of this year’s Pixel launch. Here are some links to get you started:

Google Pixel 9 launch event live coverage: all the news
Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is a Pro show
Google’s new Pixel Buds Pro 2 seem better in every way that matters
The Pixel 9 Pro XL showed me the future of AI photography
Google Pixel Watch 3 hands-on: a big leap forward
The Google TV Streamer might be the Apple TV 4K rival we’ve been waiting for
Why Google decided now’s the time to move on from Chromecast
The Nest Learning Thermostat gets its biggest upgrade in over a decade
Google’s Pixel Fold one year later: I can’t wait for the sequel

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Gemini gets a new voice chat mode. | Image: Google

Google is rolling out a new voice chat mode for Gemini, called Gemini Live, the company announced at its Pixel 9 event today. Available for Gemini Advanced subscribers, it works a lot like ChatGPT’s voice chat feature, with multiple voices to choose from and the ability to speak conversationally, even to the point of interrupting it without tapping a button.
Google says that conversations with Gemini Live can be “free-flowing,” so you can do things like interrupt an answer mid-sentence or pause the conversation and come back to it later. Gemini Live will also work in the background or when your phone is locked. Google first announced that Gemini Live was coming during its I/O developer conference earlier this year, where it also said Gemini Live would be able to interpret video in real time.

GIF: Google
Gemini Live adds voice chatting to Google’s AI assistant.

Google also has 10 new Gemini voices for users to pick from. The feature has started rolling out today, in English only, for Android devices. The company says it will come to iOS and get more languages “in the coming weeks.”
In addition to Gemini Live, Google announced other features for its AI assistant, including new extensions coming later on, for apps like Keep, Tasks, Utilities, and YouTube Music. Gemini is also gaining awareness of the context of your screen, similar to AI features Apple announced at WWDC this year. After users tap “Ask about this screen” or “Ask about this video,” Google says Gemini can give you information, including pulling out details like destinations from travel videos to add to Google Maps.

Gemini gets a new voice chat mode. | Image: Google

Google is rolling out a new voice chat mode for Gemini, called Gemini Live, the company announced at its Pixel 9 event today. Available for Gemini Advanced subscribers, it works a lot like ChatGPT’s voice chat feature, with multiple voices to choose from and the ability to speak conversationally, even to the point of interrupting it without tapping a button.

Google says that conversations with Gemini Live can be “free-flowing,” so you can do things like interrupt an answer mid-sentence or pause the conversation and come back to it later. Gemini Live will also work in the background or when your phone is locked. Google first announced that Gemini Live was coming during its I/O developer conference earlier this year, where it also said Gemini Live would be able to interpret video in real time.

GIF: Google
Gemini Live adds voice chatting to Google’s AI assistant.

Google also has 10 new Gemini voices for users to pick from. The feature has started rolling out today, in English only, for Android devices. The company says it will come to iOS and get more languages “in the coming weeks.”

In addition to Gemini Live, Google announced other features for its AI assistant, including new extensions coming later on, for apps like Keep, Tasks, Utilities, and YouTube Music. Gemini is also gaining awareness of the context of your screen, similar to AI features Apple announced at WWDC this year. After users tap “Ask about this screen” or “Ask about this video,” Google says Gemini can give you information, including pulling out details like destinations from travel videos to add to Google Maps.

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The Pixel 9 Pro XL, or the newest face of “What is a photo?” | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

I played a new kind of AR Pac-Man game yesterday, guiding a circle on a phone screen toward a series of little dots that seemed to hover around a conference room. In this version, you don’t level up when you finish; instead, you get a panoramic photo.
I got to spend a couple of hours using the Pixel 9 Pro XL on the eve of Google’s annual hardware event. Becca got to play with the new phones, too, and you can check out her impressions in the video below. And while my time was focused on the 9 Pro XL, it shares all of its camera features and hardware with the smaller Pixel 9 Pro. The standard Pixel 9 comes with a lot of the same capabilities — including the new panorama mode — though not all of them.
The updated panorama interface I played with is the result of a complete overhaul of the Pixel camera’s panorama mode. Pixel camera PM Isaac Reynolds says his team “literally deleted every line of code and started at zero.” The new panorama mode incorporates processing advancements like Night Sight that the original mode didn’t offer. And the new UI is a little more delightful than the old one, which always gave me anxiety when it scolded me for moving too fast or tilting the camera too far off-axis.

A crop of my non-conference-room panorama. You can access the full image here.

An updated panorama mode isn’t the highlight of the Pixel 9’s most noteworthy new photo features — it probably doesn’t even make the top five. There’s the new Add Me camera feature that helps put the photographer into a group shot by blending two separate photos.
Magic Editor in Google Photos now comes with an option to “reimagine” parts of your photo with nothing more than a tap of the screen and a text prompt. You can also record 4K video, shoot it up to the cloud, and get an 8K clip back courtesy of AI-fueled upscaling. It all makes an updated panorama UI feel like small potatoes.
But potatoes of all sizes matter, especially when it’s the camera you carry every day. Consider, for a moment, sharpening. As Reynolds explains to me, the Pixel camera’s HDR Plus processing pipeline has gone through something of an overhaul this year. The changes center on how sharpening is applied and how the camera handles edges between light and dark elements in the image. This is most evident in faces, he says.

I took a handful of comparison photos between the Pixel 8 Pro and the 9 Pro XL on a short excursion in Palo Alto, and I’ll be honest — I’m having a hard time seeing the difference in most of my shots, faces or no. I’ll do a lot more testing under different conditions when I get more time with the Pixel 9, but the changes in sharpening might be the kind of thing you have to go looking for. On the other hand, I definitely see a difference in how the two cameras handle 30x Super Res Zoom — details are noticeably clearer in the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s shot above.
I also tested out Video Boost briefly. It’s meant to make videos in low light more appealing but was kind of underwhelming the last time I tried it. With this update, Video Boost works while zooming, enhancing detail, and smoothing out transitions. It’s also twice as fast to process once it’s uploaded, an improvement Reynolds attributes to using TPUs in the cloud rather than CPUs.

Most importantly, the results look good enough that I’d actually want to use it again. Details in the boosted video I took of that distant tower look much better than in the original footage, and the jerky transitions as I switched lenses are much smoother.
There are no ghosts in the panorama Pac-Man game, but you can see a ghost of yourself when you use Add Me, and boy, is it weird. It uses a similar kind of onscreen UI to guide you through taking a photo, handing off the camera to someone in the shot so you can trade places, and taking another shot by lining up the ghostly image of people in the first frame with the new subject. The resulting image blends the frames together so it looks like everyone was in the photo at the same time.

Add Me is very convincing at first glance; you only notice the signs of AI tinkering when you look closely around the edges of the subject who’s been added to the frame. It’s easy enough to use, and asking your friend to use it is probably less awkward than asking a stranger for a group shot. At the very least, it’s a thoroughly manual process that doesn’t seem like something an evil-doer could easily manipulate to sow chaos in an election year. Probably.
I played around with a few other AI features, including an auto re-framing tool in Magic Editor, which suggested I re-compose an image of a walking path to focus on a solitary mile marker pole. It might be an improvement, honestly, except for the weirdly long shadow generative AI added in the frame. And there’s Reimagine, which lets you use text prompts to replace elements of an image using gen AI. I want to use it a lot more on my own photos before I draw any solid conclusions, but for better or worse, it seems highly capable — a real what-is-a-photo-pocalypse waiting to happen.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
There’s a lot going on under that weird little camera oval.

That’s the funny thing — the Pixel camera is a powerful tool whose makers take extraordinary care over how sharply it renders foliage and how easy it is to shoot a panorama. And sitting right next to that camera pipeline is a whole new set of AI tools designed to help you recompose, upscale, or prompt your way to an ideal image — not the one you took, but the one you imagined.
Reynolds isn’t bothered by this reality. Most of the generative AI features on the Pixel 9 Pro are editing features in Google Photos, and even as the technology behind them bleeds into the camera app, he thinks offering the right controls matters more than anything. “Whether it’s in camera or in Photos, either way, you get to make the decision.” More than the placement of the feature, how it behaves for the user is the important thing. “Whether it’s sticky or not matters… whether it’s reversible, I think, matters more than whether it’s in camera or in Photos. So I don’t see an enormous difference between the two.”
I’m not sure how ready I am to reimagine the sky in my photo. But as the images we take and the images we see online increasingly lean on AI in some way, it’s going to get a little messy — and there’s no arcade-inspired interface to help us connect the dots.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL, or the newest face of “What is a photo?” | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

I played a new kind of AR Pac-Man game yesterday, guiding a circle on a phone screen toward a series of little dots that seemed to hover around a conference room. In this version, you don’t level up when you finish; instead, you get a panoramic photo.

I got to spend a couple of hours using the Pixel 9 Pro XL on the eve of Google’s annual hardware event. Becca got to play with the new phones, too, and you can check out her impressions in the video below. And while my time was focused on the 9 Pro XL, it shares all of its camera features and hardware with the smaller Pixel 9 Pro. The standard Pixel 9 comes with a lot of the same capabilities — including the new panorama mode — though not all of them.

The updated panorama interface I played with is the result of a complete overhaul of the Pixel camera’s panorama mode. Pixel camera PM Isaac Reynolds says his team “literally deleted every line of code and started at zero.” The new panorama mode incorporates processing advancements like Night Sight that the original mode didn’t offer. And the new UI is a little more delightful than the old one, which always gave me anxiety when it scolded me for moving too fast or tilting the camera too far off-axis.

A crop of my non-conference-room panorama. You can access the full image here.

An updated panorama mode isn’t the highlight of the Pixel 9’s most noteworthy new photo features — it probably doesn’t even make the top five. There’s the new Add Me camera feature that helps put the photographer into a group shot by blending two separate photos.

Magic Editor in Google Photos now comes with an option to “reimagine” parts of your photo with nothing more than a tap of the screen and a text prompt. You can also record 4K video, shoot it up to the cloud, and get an 8K clip back courtesy of AI-fueled upscaling. It all makes an updated panorama UI feel like small potatoes.

But potatoes of all sizes matter, especially when it’s the camera you carry every day. Consider, for a moment, sharpening. As Reynolds explains to me, the Pixel camera’s HDR Plus processing pipeline has gone through something of an overhaul this year. The changes center on how sharpening is applied and how the camera handles edges between light and dark elements in the image. This is most evident in faces, he says.

I took a handful of comparison photos between the Pixel 8 Pro and the 9 Pro XL on a short excursion in Palo Alto, and I’ll be honest — I’m having a hard time seeing the difference in most of my shots, faces or no. I’ll do a lot more testing under different conditions when I get more time with the Pixel 9, but the changes in sharpening might be the kind of thing you have to go looking for. On the other hand, I definitely see a difference in how the two cameras handle 30x Super Res Zoom — details are noticeably clearer in the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s shot above.

I also tested out Video Boost briefly. It’s meant to make videos in low light more appealing but was kind of underwhelming the last time I tried it. With this update, Video Boost works while zooming, enhancing detail, and smoothing out transitions. It’s also twice as fast to process once it’s uploaded, an improvement Reynolds attributes to using TPUs in the cloud rather than CPUs.

Most importantly, the results look good enough that I’d actually want to use it again. Details in the boosted video I took of that distant tower look much better than in the original footage, and the jerky transitions as I switched lenses are much smoother.

There are no ghosts in the panorama Pac-Man game, but you can see a ghost of yourself when you use Add Me, and boy, is it weird. It uses a similar kind of onscreen UI to guide you through taking a photo, handing off the camera to someone in the shot so you can trade places, and taking another shot by lining up the ghostly image of people in the first frame with the new subject. The resulting image blends the frames together so it looks like everyone was in the photo at the same time.

Add Me is very convincing at first glance; you only notice the signs of AI tinkering when you look closely around the edges of the subject who’s been added to the frame. It’s easy enough to use, and asking your friend to use it is probably less awkward than asking a stranger for a group shot. At the very least, it’s a thoroughly manual process that doesn’t seem like something an evil-doer could easily manipulate to sow chaos in an election year. Probably.

I played around with a few other AI features, including an auto re-framing tool in Magic Editor, which suggested I re-compose an image of a walking path to focus on a solitary mile marker pole. It might be an improvement, honestly, except for the weirdly long shadow generative AI added in the frame. And there’s Reimagine, which lets you use text prompts to replace elements of an image using gen AI. I want to use it a lot more on my own photos before I draw any solid conclusions, but for better or worse, it seems highly capable — a real what-is-a-photo-pocalypse waiting to happen.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
There’s a lot going on under that weird little camera oval.

That’s the funny thing — the Pixel camera is a powerful tool whose makers take extraordinary care over how sharply it renders foliage and how easy it is to shoot a panorama. And sitting right next to that camera pipeline is a whole new set of AI tools designed to help you recompose, upscale, or prompt your way to an ideal image — not the one you took, but the one you imagined.

Reynolds isn’t bothered by this reality. Most of the generative AI features on the Pixel 9 Pro are editing features in Google Photos, and even as the technology behind them bleeds into the camera app, he thinks offering the right controls matters more than anything. “Whether it’s in camera or in Photos, either way, you get to make the decision.” More than the placement of the feature, how it behaves for the user is the important thing. “Whether it’s sticky or not matters… whether it’s reversible, I think, matters more than whether it’s in camera or in Photos. So I don’t see an enormous difference between the two.”

I’m not sure how ready I am to reimagine the sky in my photo. But as the images we take and the images we see online increasingly lean on AI in some way, it’s going to get a little messy — and there’s no arcade-inspired interface to help us connect the dots.

Read More 

The plural is actually “Pixels Pro,” like attorneys general.

Google’s Pixel phone lineup is getting a little bigger this year. The Pixel 9 series now counts one standard model — the Pixel 9 — and three Pro models: the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. They all offer updated designs, new Tensor G4 processors, and AI features up the wazoo.
The Pixel 9’s updated design language is giving iPhone from the front — the curved edges are out and flat sides are in. The back panel, however, is all Pixel. The camera bar is now an elongated, free-floating camera oval protruding from the back of the phone.

The Pixel 9 Pro now comes in two sizes.

The standard Pixel 9 keeps the same basic size and shape with a bigger 6.3-inch screen, and the 9 Pro XL is roughly the size of the Pixel 8 Pro with a bigger 6.8-inch screen. The Pixel 9 Pro is the new offering, landing right in the middle: about the size of the Pixel 9 with most of the 9 Pro’s features on board.

The phone formerly known as the Pixel Fold, now updated as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, features tweaks mainly to its size and shape. It’s now 5.1mm thick when unfolded, compared to 5.8mm. It’s also taller than the previous model, measuring 155.2mm on the long edge with a 6.3-inch outer screen; the Pixel Fold measured 139.7mm long with a 5.8-inch screen.

After some exhaustive research, including making a spreadsheet, I can say once and for all that I know what makes a Pro phone worthy of the “Pro” moniker: lots of RAM. Okay, maybe that’s not it exactly, but all three Pro devices do come with 16GB of RAM. The Pixel 9 comes with 12GB now, too. That matters when you’re trying to run AI on-device, and the Pixel 9 series comes with an updated Gemini Nano model that adds multimodality so it can analyze images and speech as well as text.

New AI features coming to the Pixel 9 series include a new Recall-like ability to catalog and retrieve information from your screenshots; unlike Microsoft’s approach, it only works with screenshots you take manually. It happens on-device and is a Pixel-exclusive feature. There’s also a new app called Pixel Studio that uses generative AI to turn your text prompts into illustrations, though it doesn’t run on-device.

A new screenshots app acts like a catalog of all the information you’ve saved in screenshots on your phone.

But most of the AI magic is reserved for photos, as usual. And as usual, you’ll be left questioning the nature of a photo, given the potential of these tools. Magic Editor has a new option to “reimagine” a scene. Rather than just tweaking lighting, you can select parts of an image and use text prompts to completely transform them with generative AI. There’s also a feature called Add Me, which helps you add someone to a group photo. The UI guides you through the process of taking an initial photo, then letting the photographer hand off the phone and step into the frame for a second shot, which AI merges into a single frame with everyone accounted for.
The Pixel 9 series will be the first Android phones in the US to come with Satellite SOS, which, much like Apple’s satellite emergency feature, will help you connect to emergency services when you’re outside of phone reception. That’ll come later this year, presumably with Android 15. With Google’s hardware event earlier than usual this year, this crop of Pixel phones will ship with Android 14 rather than syncing up with the latest Android OS release. But like the previous generation of Pixel phones, the Pixel 9 series will come with seven years of OS updates and security patches.
On the camera front, the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL all use a 50-megapixel f/1.7 like last year’s models, and they all come with updated ultrawide cameras. The 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL include a new 42-megapixel selfie camera with autofocus. The Pixel 9 still uses a 10.5-megapixel selfie camera, but it gains autofocus for the first time.

Now that’s a pink phone.

Google has put in some work under the hood, too. Panorama mode features a new UI and support for Night Sight, and the HDR Plus pipeline has been adjusted to fine-tune sharpening and contrast. Video Boost — an off-device AI-powered processing feature only available on the 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL — can be used to create upscaled 8K footage and works with digitally zoomed video clips to add back detail and smooth out transitions as you zoom in and out between lenses.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s camera specs still lag behind the other Pro Pixels. It has a 48-megapixel f/1.7 main camera and lower-res ultrawide and telephoto cameras compared to the 9 Pro and Pro XL. Pixel camera PM Isaac Reynolds tells me that the Fold’s hardware has improved relative to last year, including new matching selfie cameras on the inner and outer screens. But more advanced camera hardware would have made for a thicker phone, so compromises have been made.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s inner screen could be great for making weird AI art to text your friends.

But the inner screen is the main attraction on a folding phone, and not only is it bigger this time around — 8 inches versus 7.6 — but it also gets much brighter at up to 2,700 nits in peak brightness mode, compared to 1,450. That should make it much easier to use outside in bright light.
The Google Pixel 9 goes on sale on August 22nd, and it starts at $799, which is a $100 price bump over last year. The Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL start at $999 and $1,099, respectively, with the XL shipping on August 22nd and the 9 Pro arriving in September. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold costs $1,799; it ships on September 4th.

The plural is actually “Pixels Pro,” like attorneys general.

Google’s Pixel phone lineup is getting a little bigger this year. The Pixel 9 series now counts one standard model — the Pixel 9 — and three Pro models: the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. They all offer updated designs, new Tensor G4 processors, and AI features up the wazoo.

The Pixel 9’s updated design language is giving iPhone from the front — the curved edges are out and flat sides are in. The back panel, however, is all Pixel. The camera bar is now an elongated, free-floating camera oval protruding from the back of the phone.

The Pixel 9 Pro now comes in two sizes.

The standard Pixel 9 keeps the same basic size and shape with a bigger 6.3-inch screen, and the 9 Pro XL is roughly the size of the Pixel 8 Pro with a bigger 6.8-inch screen. The Pixel 9 Pro is the new offering, landing right in the middle: about the size of the Pixel 9 with most of the 9 Pro’s features on board.

The phone formerly known as the Pixel Fold, now updated as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, features tweaks mainly to its size and shape. It’s now 5.1mm thick when unfolded, compared to 5.8mm. It’s also taller than the previous model, measuring 155.2mm on the long edge with a 6.3-inch outer screen; the Pixel Fold measured 139.7mm long with a 5.8-inch screen.

After some exhaustive research, including making a spreadsheet, I can say once and for all that I know what makes a Pro phone worthy of the “Pro” moniker: lots of RAM. Okay, maybe that’s not it exactly, but all three Pro devices do come with 16GB of RAM. The Pixel 9 comes with 12GB now, too. That matters when you’re trying to run AI on-device, and the Pixel 9 series comes with an updated Gemini Nano model that adds multimodality so it can analyze images and speech as well as text.

New AI features coming to the Pixel 9 series include a new Recall-like ability to catalog and retrieve information from your screenshots; unlike Microsoft’s approach, it only works with screenshots you take manually. It happens on-device and is a Pixel-exclusive feature. There’s also a new app called Pixel Studio that uses generative AI to turn your text prompts into illustrations, though it doesn’t run on-device.

A new screenshots app acts like a catalog of all the information you’ve saved in screenshots on your phone.

But most of the AI magic is reserved for photos, as usual. And as usual, you’ll be left questioning the nature of a photo, given the potential of these tools. Magic Editor has a new option to “reimagine” a scene. Rather than just tweaking lighting, you can select parts of an image and use text prompts to completely transform them with generative AI. There’s also a feature called Add Me, which helps you add someone to a group photo. The UI guides you through the process of taking an initial photo, then letting the photographer hand off the phone and step into the frame for a second shot, which AI merges into a single frame with everyone accounted for.

The Pixel 9 series will be the first Android phones in the US to come with Satellite SOS, which, much like Apple’s satellite emergency feature, will help you connect to emergency services when you’re outside of phone reception. That’ll come later this year, presumably with Android 15. With Google’s hardware event earlier than usual this year, this crop of Pixel phones will ship with Android 14 rather than syncing up with the latest Android OS release. But like the previous generation of Pixel phones, the Pixel 9 series will come with seven years of OS updates and security patches.

On the camera front, the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL all use a 50-megapixel f/1.7 like last year’s models, and they all come with updated ultrawide cameras. The 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL include a new 42-megapixel selfie camera with autofocus. The Pixel 9 still uses a 10.5-megapixel selfie camera, but it gains autofocus for the first time.

Now that’s a pink phone.

Google has put in some work under the hood, too. Panorama mode features a new UI and support for Night Sight, and the HDR Plus pipeline has been adjusted to fine-tune sharpening and contrast. Video Boost — an off-device AI-powered processing feature only available on the 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL — can be used to create upscaled 8K footage and works with digitally zoomed video clips to add back detail and smooth out transitions as you zoom in and out between lenses.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s camera specs still lag behind the other Pro Pixels. It has a 48-megapixel f/1.7 main camera and lower-res ultrawide and telephoto cameras compared to the 9 Pro and Pro XL. Pixel camera PM Isaac Reynolds tells me that the Fold’s hardware has improved relative to last year, including new matching selfie cameras on the inner and outer screens. But more advanced camera hardware would have made for a thicker phone, so compromises have been made.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s inner screen could be great for making weird AI art to text your friends.

But the inner screen is the main attraction on a folding phone, and not only is it bigger this time around — 8 inches versus 7.6 — but it also gets much brighter at up to 2,700 nits in peak brightness mode, compared to 1,450. That should make it much easier to use outside in bright light.

The Google Pixel 9 goes on sale on August 22nd, and it starts at $799, which is a $100 price bump over last year. The Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL start at $999 and $1,099, respectively, with the XL shipping on August 22nd and the 9 Pro arriving in September. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold costs $1,799; it ships on September 4th.

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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Alongside a fleet of new phones and two sizes of its Pixel Watch 3, Google has just announced its latest flagship earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro 2. They’re priced slightly higher at $229, but Google has included enough improvements that I don’t think most people will be dissuaded by that.
The overall design is quite similar to the original Pixel Buds Pro, but these are lighter and 27 percent smaller. Google has also brought back the wing fins, which should produce a more stable fit when you twist them into your ears during exercise.

The wing fins are back for a more stable fit during vigorous activity.

The company claims that the Pixel Buds Pro 2 deliver noise cancellation that’s twice as powerful as the first-gen pair and now do a better job of reducing higher-frequency sounds. Could we be inching into Bose territory? Hopefully so. Google is putting a new chip — the Tensor A1 — in these earbuds, similar to the way Apple outfits AirPods with its own silicon.
Overall sound quality has also substantially improved, according to the company. The Pixel Buds 2 feature 11-millimeter drivers, and “multi-path processing on the Tensor A1 chip adds an additional signal path for music” without any of the ANC processing interfering with your source audio. (On some earbuds and headphones, music can sound slightly different depending on whether noise cancellation is enabled.)

Colors include hazel gray, porcelain, pink, and green.

The case is identical in shape to the previous model, but Google has added a speaker to it. This will let you easily locate the Pixel Buds Pro 2 if they go missing using the company’s now-more-capable Find My Device network. The earbuds are rated IP54 against dust and water.
Voice calls should be even clearer than before, as Google has updated its Clear Calling algorithms. And when it’s you doing the talking to someone else in the real world, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 support conversation detection and will automatically pause your music and engage transparency mode when your voice is detected. Yes, hands-free voice commands are still present; Google envisions people constantly chatting with its Gemini AI using this feature, but personally, I rarely use voice for anything other than adjusting volume, starting up a playlist, or calling someone.

The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are 27 percent smaller than their predecessors.

Battery life can reach eight hours of continuous listening (with ANC enabled) or up to 30 hours overall if you count extra juice from the case. The Pixel Buds Pro 2 use Bluetooth 5.4 and are relatively futureproofed with LE Audio support, though they still lack a higher-bitrate codec like LDAC or AptX Adaptive. Like the first pair, you can take advantage of spatial audio head tracking, and these earbuds include multipoint connectivity for seamless handoff between two source devices at once.
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are shipping on September 26th, so it’ll be a few weeks before I’m able to test them and reach a verdict on those ANC and sound quality improvements. But they look like a more capable version of what was already a very good set of earbuds, and that’s exactly what I was hoping to see.
Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Alongside a fleet of new phones and two sizes of its Pixel Watch 3, Google has just announced its latest flagship earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro 2. They’re priced slightly higher at $229, but Google has included enough improvements that I don’t think most people will be dissuaded by that.

The overall design is quite similar to the original Pixel Buds Pro, but these are lighter and 27 percent smaller. Google has also brought back the wing fins, which should produce a more stable fit when you twist them into your ears during exercise.

The wing fins are back for a more stable fit during vigorous activity.

The company claims that the Pixel Buds Pro 2 deliver noise cancellation that’s twice as powerful as the first-gen pair and now do a better job of reducing higher-frequency sounds. Could we be inching into Bose territory? Hopefully so. Google is putting a new chip — the Tensor A1 — in these earbuds, similar to the way Apple outfits AirPods with its own silicon.

Overall sound quality has also substantially improved, according to the company. The Pixel Buds 2 feature 11-millimeter drivers, and “multi-path processing on the Tensor A1 chip adds an additional signal path for music” without any of the ANC processing interfering with your source audio. (On some earbuds and headphones, music can sound slightly different depending on whether noise cancellation is enabled.)

Colors include hazel gray, porcelain, pink, and green.

The case is identical in shape to the previous model, but Google has added a speaker to it. This will let you easily locate the Pixel Buds Pro 2 if they go missing using the company’s now-more-capable Find My Device network. The earbuds are rated IP54 against dust and water.

Voice calls should be even clearer than before, as Google has updated its Clear Calling algorithms. And when it’s you doing the talking to someone else in the real world, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 support conversation detection and will automatically pause your music and engage transparency mode when your voice is detected. Yes, hands-free voice commands are still present; Google envisions people constantly chatting with its Gemini AI using this feature, but personally, I rarely use voice for anything other than adjusting volume, starting up a playlist, or calling someone.

The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are 27 percent smaller than their predecessors.

Battery life can reach eight hours of continuous listening (with ANC enabled) or up to 30 hours overall if you count extra juice from the case. The Pixel Buds Pro 2 use Bluetooth 5.4 and are relatively futureproofed with LE Audio support, though they still lack a higher-bitrate codec like LDAC or AptX Adaptive. Like the first pair, you can take advantage of spatial audio head tracking, and these earbuds include multipoint connectivity for seamless handoff between two source devices at once.

The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are shipping on September 26th, so it’ll be a few weeks before I’m able to test them and reach a verdict on those ANC and sound quality improvements. But they look like a more capable version of what was already a very good set of earbuds, and that’s exactly what I was hoping to see.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

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