Hands-on iPhone 16 Pro Max review: Two-minute preview
At a glance, the iPhone 16 Pro Max doesn't look or feel much different from what preceded it, and perhaps that's to be expected. The competitive game of smartphones is now one of inches. The question is, can the small or even invisible changes add up to something big?
In the early going with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I'd say the answer is yes.
Design-wise, it's a doppelganger for the iPhone 15 Pro Max...except it isn't. As soon as I held a sleek Titanium Black one, I was struck by the screen. It's still Super Retina XDR, but somehow, it seems much larger. Where the iPhone 15 Pro Max offered a 6.7-inch display, this one is 6.9 inches. That is Apple's largest iPhone display ever. Thankfully, Apple did not do this by simply making the whole device larger (it is a bit larger but more or less a wash-on weight difference). One way Apple gained so much visible screen real estate was by shrinking the black bezel surrounding it way down. I suspect that someday, that bezel will disappear altogether.
A bigger screen does make everything seem bigger, brighter, and better. But it's not just that.
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There is one other truly noticeable physical difference between the old and new iPhones. The iPhone 16 Pro Max (actually the whole line of iPhone 16 phones) has the new Camera Control.
This button is a bigger deal than I imagined, and I'm almost embarrassed to say that I already like it quite a bit.
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Covered in sapphire, the roughly half-inch long button sits on the phone's left side a couple of inches down from the power/sleep/Siri button. It's recessed (which is important, and I'll explain why in a bit) and is both a physical button and a haptic one.
A hard press gives instant access to the iPhone 16 Pro Max camera. That's a nice trick, but, of course, you could program the Action Button to do so, too. However, when I pressed lightly on Camera Control, I felt a little haptic vibration and then could sweep up and down on the button to quickly switch between the phone's cameras. If I lightly pressed twice, I gained access to deeper image controls.
Using the Camera Control, however, was not initially obvious. I was pressing too hard and then not hard enough. It took me about 20 seconds to figure it out.
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
I could use Camera Control to switch zoom, depth of field, and image styles. Oh, and you're not blindly guessing which settings the Camera Control enables. Every time I used it, a little black cutout appeared on the screen right next to the button to show me every setting and control.
Yes, if you hold the phone in landscape mode, it begins to feel like you're using a traditional camera...with one caveat. The feature that would let me light press to lock focus and long press to shoot is not yet enabled. I can, though, always full press to complete taking a photo.
I even saw how Snapchat is already using Camera Control to control images simply and send photos to friends with the press of a button.
Camera Control seems like a slight misnomer. The button will also be used to enable Vision Intelligence, which lets you point the phone at an object and press the button to get a description. It's like Circle to Search without the circle or, I guess, Google.
As I noted above, the button is recessed, and I found that it's quite hard to trigger it accidentally. That's a good thing.
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The other big changes are in software and silicon. Inside the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the new A18 Pro. This is the apex Apple silicon mobile chip, a 3nm CPU that has more power for the Pro phones. It should also provide enough power to game to your heart's content. The iPhone 15 Pro Max was a pretty decent little gaming console, so I would expect no less from this bigger and better-equipped beast. I'll know more when I finally test the phone.
You won't need to play a game to experience this power, though. Like the A18 found in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, the A18 Pro has all the juice you need for the Apple Intelligence.
In my brief experience with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, this is not full-boat Apple Intelligence. When the iPhone ships next week, it won't have any Apple intelligence, but an iOS update should roll out next month and then Apple will slowly seed the rest of Apple Intelligence into these iOS 18-running iPhone 16 handsets over the coming months.
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Here's what I did quickly try the demo iPhone 16 Pro Max phones running a later version of iOS 18:
I brought up some photos and navigated to the new Clean Up tool. I found photos that Apple had taken and some that others in the demo room added to the phone. In one, I used my finger to paint over offending objects and watched as they disappeared. I didn't make it easy for the phone, and sometimes there was only a partial deletion. When I used a canned photo with a distinct person in the background, Apple Intelligence Clean Up automatically found and highlighted them. I tapped the screen, and they disappeared. It was as if they were never there.
I tried the Writing tools, which I still think are sort of hidden, in Notes. There were many offers to change the text to be more professional, more concise, or a total rewrite. This is not a feature I am likely to use, but I suspect some will think it a godsend.
Siri has an all-new look, and she now makes the iPhone 16 Pro Max screen glow when you summon her. The effect is beautiful on the big-screen phone. It was a loud room, so Siri only caught part of my request. I think I asked for her to show me a photo of where I am, but she only heard "where I am" and quickly brought up my location.
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
While I took a few pictures, I can't offer anything definitive about the cameras. What I will say is that there is good news in this updated camera array. Now we have two 48MP cameras, one on the main Fusion camera and another on the new ultrawide. There's also still the 12MP 5x tetraprism lens. The main camera is reportedly faster than ever, with virtually no shutter lag. Between that and the updated image pipeline, I expect photography on this big phone to be better than ever.
I have not tried out the new Cinematic Slow Motion, which looks insanely cool, nor did I get a chance to try the studio-grade mics. I did see the latter in action and was impressed by how the In-frame setting could cut away any sound not coming from whatever was in the frame. I also thought the studio quality, which left in the background noises but emphasized the main subjects' sounds, was quite good.
The new 4k 120fps-capable camera looks like it will transform how people take dramatic videos. I like that there's a new speed control that will allow for easier stepping up and down of playback speed (half or quarter speed).
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
My takeaway from all these new photo and video tools is that this may be the ultimate pro videographer phone option. Apple, by the way, shot its entire Glowtime video presentation on an iPhone, and it's no wonder. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is a powerful device with some serious skills.
Apple is promising better battery life on all the iPhone 16 models, but the gains may be especially great on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Its much larger battery, coupled with the efficient A18 Pro and more battery management, might add hours to the battery life, but I won't know for sure until I test it.
Finally, there's the look of this phone. As I mentioned above, I got to touch the Titanium Black. It is a gorgeous device, and I really can't understand why you would want any other color. But if you're so inclined, it's available in White, Natural, and new Desert Titanium (think sand but shinier).
Is this the best iPhone Apple has ever made? Possibly, It'll certainly claim a spot near the top of our best iPhone list and maybe even best smartphones. I'll offer my definitive take when I finish my full review.
Hands-on iPhone 16 Pro Max review: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,149
Pre-orders open on September 13, shipping from September 20
The iPhone 16 Pro Max was announced at Apple's 'It's Glowtime' event on Monday, September 9. iPhone 16 preorders will begin on Friday, September 9, and the new phone will hit store shelves on Friday, September 20.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,149 for the model with 256GB of storage, with that price rising to $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,849 for the model with 1TB of storage. For context, those are the same starting and maximum prices as the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Full iPhone 16 Pro Max pricing is as follows:
Hands-on iPhone 16 Pro Max review: Specs
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Below, you'll find a roundup of the iPhone 16 Pro Max's key specs.
Tecno has AI now, because of course it does - it's 2024 and if you don't have it, you lose. Or something like that. At IFA in Berlin, Tecno has introduced its "AI Vision", which isn't a pair of glasses or contact lenses, but its very own AI feature suite that will "enhance productivity, provide more practical value, and offer easier creative fun". The features will be rolled out on "Tecno's outstanding smart device ecosystem" soon.
At the core of the brand's AI Vision is the revamped Ella AI Assistant, which is "connected to Gemini", whatever that means. Ella has "smart Q&A conversational...
Tecno has AI now, because of course it does - it's 2024 and if you don't have it, you lose. Or something like that. At IFA in Berlin, Tecno has introduced its "AI Vision", which isn't a pair of glasses or contact lenses, but its very own AI feature suite that will "enhance productivity, provide more practical value, and offer easier creative fun". The features will be rolled out on "Tecno's outstanding smart device ecosystem" soon.
At the core of the brand's AI Vision is the revamped Ella AI Assistant, which is "connected to Gemini", whatever that means. Ella has "smart Q&A conversational...
This year's IFA in Berlin is quite busy for Honor, bringing a slew of new devices to global markets, including the MagicBook Art 14 included. But in addition to the Intel-powered version, the company also announced a the MagicBook Art 14 Snapdragon PC.
This model is now making its official debut, not being released in China first, and by the looks of it retains much of the same hardware but with the Snapdragon X Elite inside. This will potentially enable better energy efficiency, longer battery life and more on-board AI features.
The device still uses a 14.6-inch OLED touchscreen...
If you’ve heard of the HoverAir X1, you’ll already have some idea of what the DJI’s latest drone, DJI Neo is capable of. But in true DJI fashion, the Neo isn’t simply capable of incredibly easy-to-operate autonomous flight to capture photos and videos, it can also be flown like a camera drone and even used as an FPV drone when paired with DJI’s FPV controllers and goggles.
It’s often said that one size rarely fits all, but the Neo does an impressive job of catering to a wide range of drone pilots from absolute beginners looking for pure simplicity to advanced FPV pilots and everyone in between. It’s an interesting and exciting concept that moves the Neo away from simply being a clone of the HoverAir X1.
(Image credit: James Abbott)
It’s still an extremely simple drone, electronics and algorithms aside, with only downward visual positioning and a single-axis gimbal. Stabilization is provided in-camera unless switched off with Rocksteady or HorizonBalancing modes available. Stabilization is achieved thanks to the 1/2-inch sensor providing plenty of pixels to cover up to 45 degrees of horizontal tilt when capturing video.
Photo and video capture is pretty basic with 4K 30fps being the only UHD option, while FHD can be shot at 30, 50 and 60fps. 12MP photos can only be captured in JPEG format and can be set to 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. This comes as little surprise given the competitive price of the Neo, but with multiple controller and flight options available, a little more functionality in the photo and video department is always welcome.
DJI Neo: release date and price
Released September 5 2024
The base kit costs just $199 / £169 / AU$299
Fly More Bundle costs £299 / AU$539 but not available in the US
The DJI Neo was announced and is available for sale in the DJI Store and other retailers on September 5 2024. Despite the multiple ways the Neo can be controlled, there are two main kits available with the base kit including the drone, battery and accessories costing $199 / £169 / AU$299.
This kit allows for controller-free and app-controlled flight, while the Fly More Bundle includes the drone, a DJI RC-N3 Controller, three Smart Batteries and a Battery Charging Hub. This kit costs $289 (DJI Neo Combo in US which doesn't include the controller) / £299 / AU$539.
The Fly More Bundle allows for controller-free, app control and to fly the Neo like a camera drone using the RC-N3 Controller. The Neo can also be paired with the DJI FPV Remote Controller 3 and DJI Goggles 3 for manual FPV flight, or the goggles and the DJI RC Motion 3 for intuitive FPV control.
If you don’t already own these devices, they will drive up the cost of the Neo substantially to the point where the DJI Avata 2 could be the better option if FPV is your thing.
(Image credit: James Abbott)
DJI Neo: design and handling
Micro whoop design
Enclosed propellers
Single axis gimbal
To cut a corner or two, the easiest way to describe the Neo is to say it’s a little like a mini DJI Avata 2; it has propeller guards, but with top and bottom guards to protect people during autonomous flight, and the camera sits at the front and moves and stabilizes mechanically on a single axis. Horizontal stabilization is applied electronically in-camera.
DJI Neo key specs
Camera: 12MP 1/2-inch sensor Video resolution: Up to 4K Frame rates: 4K 30fps / FHD up to 60fps Video transmission range: 6.2 miles (FCC), 3.7 miles (CE/SRRC/MIC) Flight modes: Sport, Normal, Cine (Manual with the FPV Controller 3) Battery: 1435mAh / up to 18 minutes flight time Charger type: USB-C / Battery Charging Hub Weight: 4.76oz / 135g Dimensions: 5.12x6.18x1.90in / 130×157×48.5mm
In DJI’s signature light grey that’s used for the Mini series of drones, the Neo is incredibly small and lightweight. It’s essentially slightly larger than the palm of your hand, which is ideal for palm take-off and landing, and weighs in at a mere 4.76oz / 135g. This makes it regulator-friendly in most regions since it’s below the all-important 250g threshold, but remember to check local rules if it’s your first drone.
Despite the low weight, the Neo is built to a high quality and feels robust in the hand. The top-mounted propeller guards are removable to allow the propellers to be changed when necessary, but the main propeller guards are part of the airframe. This suggests that home repairs won’t be possible if damage occurs in a crash so if you plan on using the Neo for FPV, taking out DJI Care Refresh would be a good choice.
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I’ve already listed all of the controller options so I won’t go into detail again, but will instead focus on the DJI Fly app and the RC-N3 Controller, which are part of the standard kits and are likely to be the most commonly used control methods.
The Neo can be flown without an app, using just the mode button on the top to initiate autonomous flight, using the DJI Fly app as a ground station for autonomous flight or using the on-screen controls.
The Fly More bundle include the DJI RC-N3 Controller, which extends the transmission distance from 50m when using the app with the Neo’s WiFi to standard camera drone distances.
These are, of course, governed by the aviation authority where you live. The RC-N3 Controller also makes the Neo behave like a camera drone, with standard controls and features such as Return to Home.
DJI Neo: features and performance
Unremarkable flight speeds
Intelligent flight modes
AI subject tracking
The Neo is pretty pedestrian in terms of flight speed at just 1.11mph in Cine mode, 13.42mph in Normal mode and 17.89mph in Sport mode when flying autonomously or using the RC-N3 Controller. It feels slow but is certainly fast enough to track most subjects, including cyclists, with that top speed.
Flight speed is doubled to 35.79mph when using the DJI FPV Remote Controller 3 in Manual mode, so it does have some grunt tucked up its sleeve if you have the right controller and DJI Goggles 3. Not to mention, the skills and ability to fly in this mode alongside the cash available to purchase the controller and goggles if you don’t already own a set.
For beginners though, these speeds won’t cause any issues and the ability to fly the Neo with or without any other device, through voice control or manually like a camera drone using the DJI Fly app controls or the RC-N3 Controller is ideal. For drone-only use of the Neo, it can take off and land in the palm of your hand once the selected intelligent flight mode has completed, except for Follow mode.
(Image credit: James Abbott)
Intelligent flight modes include Follow, Dronie, Circle, Rocket, Spotlight and Custom (Omni, Helix, and Boomerang). AI subject tracking also aims to keep the subject in the centre of the frame during photo and video capture, so if you’re taking a group photo with the Neo, for example, you’d have to make sure you’re standing centre front.
The overall design of the Neo has safety in mind, and when used with the RC-N3 Controller you can enjoy GPS, an on-screen map and Return to Home. There’s no collision avoidance, but there are downward vision positioning sensors with a precision range of 0.5-10m. Plus, the Neo offers up to level 4 wind resistance, which is 18mph.
When used with the DJI RC Motion 3 Controller, as well as enjoying intuitive motion controls for FPV flight, you can also take advantage of Easy ACRO where you can Flip, Roll and 180° Drift the Neo. It’s an easy way to enjoy acro flight without advanced manual flight skills and is inherited from the Avata 2 when paired with the Motion 3. This is by far the easiest way to fly FPV flight.
DJI Neo: image and video quality
1/2-inch sensor
Up to 4K 30fps video
12MP JPEG photos
The Neo features a 12MP 1/2-inch sensor which allows for 45 degrees of horizontal tilt when using Image Stabilization with either Rocksteady or HorizonBalancing modes. The camera provides a 117.6-degree field of view, with a full-frame equivalent focal length of 13mm, so nice and wide for close-to-subject tracking.
Keeping things simple, the aperture is fixed at f/2.8 with fixed focus providing focus from 60cm to infinity. The ISO range extends from ISO 100 to 6400 in both Manual and Auto shooting modes, with the shutter speed ranging from 1/8000 to 1/10 sec for photos and 1/8000 to 1/30 sec for video.
(Image credit: James Abbott)
Photo and video functionality is pretty basic, but you get everything you need at a consumer level with 4K video locked at 30fps with a bitrate of 75Mbps, so it’s reasonably compressed but not too much.
The color profile is Standard for straight-out-of-camera footage, with no flat profile available for color grading within a professional workflow. Looking at the design of the Neo and the camera, it doesn’t look like it would support ND filters to control shutter speed, but I could be wrong.
Photos can only be captured in JPEG format, which is a shame but no big deal since DJI’s JPEG processing is respectable. Photos can be captured in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, with Single and Timed Shot available, so once again basic but adequate for a beginner drone.
There’s no microSD card slot on the Neo, but you do get 22GB of on-board storage which DJI says equates to 40 minutes of 4K 30fps video or 55 minutes of 1080p 60fps video. This can be transferred to the the DJI Fly App when connected to the Neo’s WiFi using Quick Transfer, or downloaded to your computer when the Neo is connected via the included USB-C PD cable.
How I tested the DJI Neo
Limited access to features due to pre-release issues
Flown with the DJI RC-N3 Controller
DJI Fly app options checked
I was flying a pre-release version of the DJI Neo and faced several issues between my phone and the pre-release version of the DJI Fly app, which meant that the camera feed wasn’t showing in the app.
This made simple autonomous flight impossible because the drone needs to see a face before it will take off. It was, however, possible to fly the Neo with my phone connected to the DJI RC-N3 Controller.
There was still no camera feed and capturing photos and video was impossible, but with GPS available and standard flight controls, I was able to test the flight performance. Plus, with the propeller guards.
I was able to confidently fly close to and through tight gaps; it wasn’t FPV, but it was still a clear advantage of the Neo’s design that provided enjoyable flights.
Honor will begin the global rollout of the Magic V3 on September 5 during IFA 2024 in Berlin. Today, we learned it will come with three cloud AI features that will be powered by Google Cloud.
Honor Magic V3's global version will bring several on-device AI features like Magic Portal on Foldable, allowing two different floating apps to work simultaneously, enabling better multitasking.
Google will then add the following features – AI Eraser, Face to Face Translation, and Notes Live Translation. They will need online connectivity for the processing and language packages, but...
Working with PDFs has become an important facet of working in the digital world, and what better way to do it than working on them online, from any web browser, and any machine?
There’s a plethora of services which do this, including Wondershare’s (mostly free) HiPDF. This review focuses on Wondershare's online service, but a desktop app, PDFElement, is available.
Having tested all the best PDF editors and the best free PDF editors, I wanted to see how Wondershare's offering stacked up against rivals - and just what "free" gets you.
Wondershare HiPDF: Pricing & plans
Most of the tools are free, but the advanced features are also available at an incredibly low price right now. And if you prefer working with a desktop or mobile app, Wondershare has your back with dedicated paid-for versions.
So yes, most of the tools HiPDF offer are free, although free does come with some restrictions. For instance, you have no access to OCR and batch processing. There are also usage limits for file size and page count, ‘Chat with PDF’ allows for a total of 50 questions, and the AI detector tool can detect 5,000 characters in total.
You can remove all those restrictions, by subscribing. HiPDF Advanced will cost you $70. However, there’s currently an amazing deal of $2 for the first year, which is a great incentive to get you to try it out.
On top of that, you also have a 7-day free trial to check out all the features, or just explore the free ones for as long as you please.
If you’re not a fan of working online through a web browser, know that Wondershare also offer a desktop version for Mac and Windows called PDFelement. This app does watermark its output, limits how many pages you can convert, and prevents you from saving an OCR conversion. All these and other restrictions are lifted when you grab a subscription, which ranges from $80 to $130.
There’s also a mobile version for iOS, although its features are locked behind a subscription, from $7 a week, to $30 for the year, or $70 for a perpetual licence.
A simple interface, with a convenient sidebar to the left, with the rest of the page dedicated to listing all available tools, broken down by category.
Login to your Wondershare account (or create a free on for this purpose), and you’ll be graced with HiPDF’s home page. There’s a sidebar to the left, granting access to specific functions such as ‘Annotate’, ‘Edit’, ‘Convert’ and more.
However, should your needs be more specific, the main part of the page is dedicated to all the tools HiPDF offers, organised by categories. You’ll see ‘Most Popular’ first, followed by ‘AI Tools’. All the features you’d come to expect from a PDF service are present and correct: Edit, Convert to and from a PDF format, Organise your file, and Protect it.
Lastly, there are some image manipulation tools, to help you perform basic functions such as rotating an image, converting it to another format, cropping it, or compressing it.
To be frank, all of these Image Tools should be available with an Image library app that comes pre-installed on your computer, but if you like working in Wondershare, this presents you with another reason to stick with that company’s offerings.
Tools: 4.5/5
Wondershare HiPDF: In use
(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)
Working with this service ranges from the supremely easy and useful, to downright convoluted and needlessly annoying, depending on the tool you’re working with. So there’s definitely room for improvement.
Having a good interface is one thing, but a service lives or dies by how its tools are implemented. So I started exploring, looking at some on the popular functions, such as ‘Annotate’, where you have a series of tools to highlight or otherwise make notes on the PDF you’re working on. You’re able to add images and text boxes for instance, along with the odd shape, but I must confess to feel the lack of any kind of freehand option (but that’s likely because I like to doodle on my notes).
Perhaps the most useful tool is the one that allows you to edit the PDF’s existing content. Editing a PDF is always tricky - that format was never really meant to be edited - but it’s ideal when you spot a typo, or find the wrong date, or just need to succinctly clarify something. The PDF is broken down into boxes which you can move around and edit, and it works very well.
(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)
Sadly, I got quite frustrated when trying to make other alterations to a file, like rearranging pages, and deleting others. Take Apple’s Preview for example: you can do both straight from its sidebar - it’s so easy, it’s effortless. Here however, you need to select the ‘Rearrange PDF Pages’ to reorder pages, save it, and then load up your document in the ‘Delete Pages’ tool to delete them… I couldn’t find a way to do both in the same action. HiPDF’s way felt needlessly time consuming.
The same could be said with the conversion tools. Don’t get me wrong, they’re a great addition - when they work (if your PDF has a complex layout the conversion could end up being incredibly messy) - but why do I have to choose ahead of time which format I wish my file to be converted into? Why can’t I select the convert tool, and once I’ve opened a file, choose which format to use? That way, I could save it in multiple formats should I so wish, rather than select the ‘convert to Word’ tool, open the file, convert it, then go to the ‘convert to PPT’ tool, open the same file, convert it, etc? It seems needlessly time consuming - again.
And speaking of time consuming, the free version sets a limit on how many files you can work on each day. To be fair, this might affect me more as a reviewer who needs to explore as many facets of the service as possible, than a user who just wants to fix the odd PDF or two, but still, when other similar services don’t cripple their wares like that, it does make you wonder if HiPDF is the right tool for one’s needs.
In use: 3/5
Wondershare HiPDF: AI tools
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AI is all the rage, so we must have AI in everything. And here, we have a couple of useful tools, one which duplicates the functions of another, and two that, frankly, don’t seem to do much. Your mileage may vary, but I was underwhelmed.
It wouldn’t be a modern service if it didn’t come with AI, and despite my disappointment at some pretty strict restrictions when using HiPDF, they do offer you a few credits to kick their AI’s tires and check what it’s made of.
‘Chat with PDF’ gets AI to analyse a document for you, bringing you a quick summary of its content, and allowing you to ask it questions based on said content, which it will answer. I guess it’s great for those who don’t want to read a document themselves.
‘AI Detector’ will try and analyse your document to see if it was created by an AI - like a robot snitching on other robots (I was quite pleased the articles I wrote myself were deemed to have a probability of 97% to be human generated!)
Contrary to what I thought, ‘AI Read’ doesn’t read a document back to you; it just summarises it and there’s even a text field for you to ask it some questions, which feels totally redundant as that’s exactly what ‘Chat with PDF’ does.
(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)
An AI tool I couldn’t get to work was ‘AI Translator’. Sounds useful, right (as long as you don’t know Google Translate exists), but I couldn’t find any icons, buttons or menus that would allow me to choose the language I’d like HiPDF to translate my article into.
And then there’s ‘AI Proofreader’ which analyses a document, once you’ve told what language it’s in, and then it proceeds to copy the text from it… and that’s it? Now it’s possible the articles I used to test this out were so perfect they didn’t need any fixes (possible, but let’s be frank, somewhat unlikely), but I got zero information out of the process.
Aside from being able to export the text, the AI didn’t tell me anything about it, nor gave me any hint as to what this tool’s purpose genuinely is.
AI tools: 2.5/5
Should I buy Wondershare HiPDF?
(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)
Buy it if...
You’re on the lookout for a simple PDF service which mostly works fine, you don’t need to use it too often, and don’t really care about its clunky AI.
Don't buy it if...
You don’t like the extreme restrictions when it comes to the free account, and don’t want to get yet another subscription, no matter how cheap the first year happens to be, just to edit some PDFs.
The Sony Xperia 1 VI is Sony’s top Android phone, and it will seem pretty familiar to existing Sony fans. Even with a significant change to the screen aspect ratio versus the Sony Xperia 1 V, using the Xperia 1 VI feels like meeting an old friend.
A lot of the typical Sony strengths and weaknesses are here too. The Sony Xperia 1 VI’s key charm is in the way it rejects several contemporary smartphone trends. It has a headphone jack. It has expandable memory. It doesn’t have a camera cutout in the screen, and Sony hasn’t cut down battery capacity just to make the Xperia 1 VI marginally thinner.
These will all seem smart moves to a good chunk of the phone-buying audience out for something a little different. And you still get high-end camera hardware, a top-tier chip, good speakers, and an eye-catching screen — just about all the usual elements expected of a pricey Android phone.
(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
The Sony Xperia 1 VI does cost a packet, though, and arguably isn’t hugely competitive considering some of the slightly less advanced parts.
These include slower-than-ideal fast charging, camera processing that still lags a little behind the best for dynamic range optimization and night-time image processing. I also found the rear disappointingly prone to visible scratches, despite the use of high-end toughened glass.
A big part of the appeal here is the handful of features that Sony’s Xperia 1 VI shares with much lower-end phones. There’s still a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD slot built into the SIM tray. These are not expensive features to implement, but are vanishingly rare in phones of this level.
The Sony Xperia 1 VI is a lovely phone, but you had better buy into its specific style for the outlay to be worthwhile.
Sony Xperia 1 VI review: price and availability
Costs £1,299 / AU$1,899
No US availability
512GB storage version available in some territories
The Sony Xperia 1 VI is priced just like its predecessor. But unlike the Sony Xperia 1 V, this phone is not slated for release in the US.
In the UK you’ll pay £1,299, and AU$1,899 in Australia. That gets you a 12GB RAM and 256GB storage configuration. There’s also a 512GB storage version available in some territories. But with a microSD slot onboard, seeking one of these out or paying more for the additional storage may not be all that appealing.
The phone was announced in mid-May 2024, with general availability in June 2024.
Sony Xperia 1 VI review: specs
Here's the Sony Xperia 1 VI spec sheet in full:
Sony Xperia 1 VI review: design
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(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
Classic boxy Sony design
Excellent water resistance rating
Scratch-prone rear panel
Samey or confident? The Sony Xperia 1 VI has a design much like the phone before it. This look — a no-nonsense block — has been Sony’s house style since 2012.
Changes therefore come in some of the finer points. The Sony Xperia 1 VI has an embossed, textured glass back, and it comes in red, silver and black, as well as the subdued green seen here. It's more of an ordinary shape too, as Sony’s ultra-long 21:9 screen has been traded for a more standard 19.5:9 aspect ratio.
As usual, Sony makes use of high-grade materials on the Xperia 1 VI. The front and rear glass is Gorilla Glass Victus (Vitus 2 for the front). Unfortunately, the treatment on the rear panel doesn’t seem to be nearly as resilient as the glass itself.
On the first day of use, I managed to put a series of scratches on the back. These stand out because, it would appear, they make the matt finish more shiny. And since then more have appeared.
I didn’t go to the beach or throw the phone around. The Sony Xperia 1 VI just seems unusually susceptible to damage, at least in this particular finish. And I’ve not had many complaints to level at matt glass phones before, even ones whose ruggedization sounds a lot worse on paper.
Other ruggedisation cred here is good, though. The Xperia 1 VI is rated at the IP68 and IP65 standards, meaning it can be submerged in water at a depth of up to 1.5 meters, and can withstand low-pressure water jets; you just need to make sure the SIM tray and its rubber gasket are properly in place.
This is a mid-size phone, but it feels a little larger than its screen size might suggest thanks to its blocky shape, and the way the lack of a camera punch-hole extends the upper-screen border a bit. There’s a combi fingerprint reader/power button on the side rather than an in-screen one and, just like the last generation, it’s not the fastest around to unlock the Xperia 1 VI, being a touch more leisurely than some.
Design score: 3 / 5
Sony Xperia 1 VI review: display
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(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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High maximum brightness
Lower resolution than the last generation
More ordinary shape than before
We tech reviewers like it when a product gets you more, for less money. But less for more money? You might be in trouble.
Sony once became famous for putting 4K screens in its high-end phones. The Sony Xperia 1 VI takes the opposite road. It has an elongated 1080p screen, one with a much lower pixel density than its predecessor.
The key question: does it matter? At this size, pixelation isn’t obvious even in small fonts. And thanks to what appears to be careful anti-aliasing, you notice it more as a slight softness when looking close up. I’ll level with you: I didn’t notice until a week into testing when I started looking at this phone’s vital statistics.
However, it’s one reason to drop the Sony Xperia 1 VI down a tier if you’re considering a bunch of these super-expensive phones.
It's otherwise strong, though. The Sony Xperia 1 VI is super-bright, and seems to reach its high brightness mode when outdoors more swiftly than some.
With launch software, it reached 720 nits in ordinary conditions, which increased to around 800 nits after an update. The screen can go brighter when it’s particularly light outside. I could only get my tester tool to register 920 nits (full field white), but others have measured as high as 1,300 nits. Either way, clarity outdoors is great.
This is also a screen made to save power. It’s a 120Hz refresh display, but in its default mode, it drops right down to 15Hz when displaying static content. Sony says it can actually go down to 1Hz, but I’ve only seen it cycle between 15Hz and 120Hz. You can also set it to cycle between 60Hz and 15Hz instead. But after switching, the loss of motion clarity is quite striking.
Display score: 4 / 5
Sony Xperia 1 VI review: cameras
(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
Excels at shooting subjects very near and very far
Excellent shot-to-shot shooting speed
Night image quality and dynamic range optimization could be improved
The Sony Xperia 1 VI has three rear cameras, with an array not dissimilar to that of the last generation. There’s a standard camera, a dedicated zoom and an ultra-wide.
It’s not all business as usual, though. Previous iterations had multiple camera apps. It was intended to provide both a standard phone experience and one closer to the feeling of using Sony’s Alpha-series mirrorless cameras.
This approach had as much a cluttering effect as anything else. There’s now one key camera app, and it has a Pro mode inside that provides the manual control of the older models. But the one useful “pro” videographer app is apparently making a return at some point in the Xperia 1 VI, according to Sony. To accompany that style, the phone also has a physical shutter button that, just like a “real” camera’s, can be depressed halfway to focus without capturing an image.
The range of the optical zoom camera has changed too, from 3.5x-5.2x to 3.5x-7.1x. This camera even has “telephoto macro” shooting, which simply means the zoom camera’s lens is capable of focusing incredibly close-up for a camera of this type.
It is unnervingly effective, capable of “seeing” the subpixels on a MacBook Air’s display — the red, white and blue components of an LCD’s pixel that make white when shining out concurrently. Those are some serious macro photography chops.
This zoom camera is a blast to use all-round. It’s great for gigs, particularly if there’s a good amount of light or you’re shooting at a festival during the day. There’s a real pro feel to the way the Xperia 1 VI just lets you shoot away at full speed, because it lets the images sit in a queue for processing when there's a spare moment rather than slowing shooting down.
You can tell there’s a drop in lens sharpness at the max zoom. And low-light shooting isn’t amazing. But the sheer shooting flexibility it puts at your fingers is creatively freeing. The Sony Xperia 1 VI is some of the most fun I’ve had with a camera all year. That the zoom also works so well super-close too, only adds to the charm of this little lens and sensor combo.
The main camera’s primary strengths are its charming color reproduction and general decent-looking processing of detail up close. While there’s some evidence of a sharpening technique at work, the overall impression is of a camera happy to appear a little softer and more natural than over-processed and painterly.
The ultra-wide camera isn’t quite as strong. But like all the best ultra-wides in expensive phones, you can switch to it and expect roughly the same character and comparable image quality you’d see from the primary camera. Aside from at night, where the drop in native sensitivity is more obvious.
There are some weaker elements, though. The Sony Xperia 1 VI is more susceptible to overexposure than rivals from Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei, for example. This won’t usually be giant parts of the image, just smaller areas a more advanced HDR engine could pick up on.
The Sony Xperia 1 VI is also far from the best in low light. It’s probably the worst contender at the price for simple auto-mode shooting. Sure, the processing brightens images up dramatically and there’s a respectable level of detail. But photos don’t have the level of detail in shadows as seen elsewhere.
Video quality is good but, again, you lose some of the spotlight-pulling features of rivals. You can’t shoot at 8K, which isn’t hugely useful for most folks anyway.
You can, however, shoot at up to 4K, 120 frames per second with all three rear cameras. The telephoto macro mode supports video too, again at up to 4K at 120 frames per second.
The front camera has a 12MP sensor too, and it can produce detailed-looking selfies in reasonable lighting. This selfie camera is nothing revolutionary, but it’s solid.
Camera score: 4 / 5
Sony Xperia 1 VI camera samples
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A zoom camera is ideal for taking photos of cats and dogs, without needing to get too close (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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While the depth of field is very shallow, making shooting tricky, the telephoto macro mode can produce great results (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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The flattening of perspective you can get at the longer zoom ranges can be quite useful for some scenes (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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Here’s a view of London using the ultra-wide camera… (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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… and a photo taken from the same spot at 7.5x zoom to show the range you have to work with (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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The Sony Xperia 1 VI’s primary camera is a dab hand at capturing landscapes (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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The Sony Xperia 1 VI’s primary camera is a dab hand at capturing landscapes (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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Sony is good at avoiding the temptation of amping up nature’s green tones too much, which is quite a common issue (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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The 7.5x zoom mode is super-handy for gigs (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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The 7.5x zoom mode is super-handy for gigs (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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The ultra-wide camera struggles at night, and ends up capturing soft-looking images (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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Fast shot-to-shot capture is highly welcome when you end up with a fast-moving subject (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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The phone doesn’t always deal well with strong contrasts in light levels: rivals would make these lit road signs appear less blown-out (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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Strong light sources at night can cause some not-unappealing lens flare (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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While night images have a pleasantly enhanced appearance, the Xperia does not bring out as much shadow detail as some (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
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Here’s another example of the Sony Xperia 1 VI’s HDR mode failing to avoid overexposing significant parts of the picture (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
Sony Xperia 1 VI: software
Avoids the current AI obsession
Potentially useful creativity apps
Fairly normal interface
The Sony Xperia 1 VI runs Android 14 and has a largely inoffensive, not too invasive, custom interface layer grafted on top.
My first reaction to the phone was its app menu wasn't that good-looking; I thought the text looked a little too bolded and inelegant. The Sony Xperia 1 VI provides a decent amount of customization as to how these elements appear, though. You can alter object scaling and font size independently, and some may prefer the Dark mode, which uses lighter text upon a dark background.
Sony’s approach to apps hasn’t changed much this generation either. At a time when Google and Samsung are obsessed with AI, Sony’s angle is still to reference the other parts of Sony as a whole.
Music Pro is a nod to Sony Music. This is a multi-track recorder app, a tiny DAW (digital audio workstation) where other phones might just have the equivalent of a dictaphone.
External Monitor lets the Sony Xperia 1 VI act as a monitor for one of Sony’s Alpha-series mirrorless cameras.
Video Creator is a mini editing suite that lets you edit and put together clips into a larger video project.
All of these are neat ideas, a cut above the low-effort bloat some phones are criticized for including. But they aren’t quite ingenious or developed enough to be considered serious reasons to buy an Xperia 1 VI over a competitor. You’ll find better, more complete-feeling alternatives on Google Play.
Software score: 3 / 5
Sony Xperia 1 VI review: performance
(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
Significant throttling, which kicks in fast
Great peak performance
Loud and chunky-sounding speakers
The Sony Xperia 1 VI has one of the most powerful chipsets around in 2024, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It beats Apple’s A17 Pro, used in the iPhone 15 Pro, in a lot of tests, and has notably excellent graphics performance.
As you’d expect, then, the Sony Xperia 1 VI feels excellent in use. It’s responsive and fast, and games run great. Titles like Fortnite sing on the phone, as it only can with a true high-end chip.
The Sony Xperia 1 VI also avoids the overheating issues earlier models in this family were subject to. However, a little stress test reveals why.
This phone throttles its performance almost immediately when under strain. 3DMark’s test bench shows a drop in benchmark scores from the first run (which takes a minute), where other rivals will often wait for significant heat to build up before dropping power, if they do so at all.
The Sony Xperia 1 VI settles at 58% of its peak performance, which isn’t great. It’s not as bad as some of the sub-50% results I saw in some of the earliest Snapdragon 8-series phones, mind.
It’s good for gaming, then, but for a phone that’s been partially labeled as a “gaming phone”, you’d hope for high performance that can be sustained for longer.
The Sony Xperia 1 VI’s speakers are an unmitigated hit. They are a stereo pair that get loud and have real meat to their mid-range. I listen to podcasts all the time on my phone, and the robustness of speakers’ voices compared to the last phone I used, the Infinix Note 40 Pro, was truly eye-opening.
Performance score: 3 / 5
Sony Xperia 1 VI review: battery life
(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)
Good battery life, but only light users will see “two-day” use
Slow “fast” charging
Supports relatively slow wireless charging
The Sony Xperia 1 VI has a 5,000mAh battery. It’s an ordinary size for bigger phones in general, but larger than that of plenty of thinness-obsessed flagships.
There’s bad news too, though. As usual for Sony, the Xperia 1 VI does not include a charger. Its charging rate is also pretty poor for 2024, at just 30W. According to my power meter, tested with several different high-power adapters, it only reaches a power draw of 27.5W too.
Even Samsung, which has been slow to adopt higher-power fast charging, offers a 45W standard. As such, Sony only claims the Xperia 1 VI meets the old fast-charging standard of 50% in 30 minutes. And it meets that, sort of, reaching 49% at the 30-minute mark.
It takes 86 minutes to reach 100% and continues receiving power at a lower rate for a while after that. 50% in 30 minutes doesn’t feel like rapid charging anymore — not for this money, anyway.
Real-world stamina is good, and getting a full day of use is no issue. I don’t find this a two-day phone, though; not unless you barely use your Android. A phone with a screen this bright, with a powerful chip, is just capable of too much not to be able to hammer the battery at times. I find the Sony Xperia 10 phones last longer in real use, even if they are markedly worse phones otherwise.
Some will find the Xperia 1 VI lasts longer, though, and real-world stamina is clearly a highlight next to some of the direct competition.
The Sony Xperia 1 VI also supports wireless charging, but again the charging speed isn’t great, coming in at 15W.
Battery score: 3 / 5
Sony Xperia 1 VI review: value
Sony pitches the Xperia 1 VI at the same price as its predecessor, £1,299. It’s among the most expensive phones out there, and its slight deficiencies stand out markedly at the price.
The merely acceptable low-light performance, slow charging and moderate screen resolution are not the most comfortable match for a phone selling at this high a price.
Meanwhile, features like a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD slot, which are somewhat defunct from many flagship phones, help claw back some value for the Xperia 1 VI but can’t make up for the high price.
Value score: 3 / 5
Should you buy the Sony Xperia 1 VI?
Buy it if...
You want expandable memory Sony goes against the grain by keeping expandable memory as an option even in its flagship phones. That’s always welcome, particularly if you want to avoid relying on Google’s cloud backup to keep your photos safe.
You want a headphone jack Like its predecessors, the Sony Xperia 1 VI has a physical headphone jack, which has been a rarity in higher-end Android phones for almost half a decade at this point.
You want a long-lasting flagship phone Some clever efficiency savings and a respectable-size battery deliver good battery life among flagships. The two-day use Sony claims will be a stretch for most, but it's not out of the realms of possibility for some.
Don't buy it if...
You want the best value flagship The Xperia 1 VI costs a lot, and arguably doesn’t push the envelope in quite enough areas to be considered an entirely sound deal. You have to loosen your grip on the concept of value a little when spending this much regardless, but Sony asks for more faith than most.
You care about fast charging While this phone gets to around 50% charge in 30 minutes as Sony claims, its charging rate feels interminably slow next to that of the flagships from Xiaomi, OnePlus, Honor and so on. Sub-30W charging at this price is not ideal.
You are particular about a hard-wearing finish In theory, the Xperia 1 VI should be one of the toughest mainstream phones around. In practice, its finish is a little too easy to scratch causing irritating surface-level imperfections.
How I tested the Sony Xperia 1 VI
Review test period = 3 weeks
Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
I used the Sony Xperia 1 VI as my day-to-day phone for several weeks. During the review period, I took it to a couple of music day festivals, on a hike across the UK’s north downs, and out and about in London.
This real-world normal usage testing was accompanied by more technical benchmark testing, which included seeing how bright the screen could go in multiple environments, testing how powerful the chip is, and how its performance was affected by heat build-up.
The LG B4 is the company’s entry-level OLED TV series and follows in a long line of B-series models that provide a high-value option to fans of the best OLED TVs. At $1,699 / £2,099 / AU$2,999 for the 65-inch model I reviewed, the B4 is a sensible TV option for those who don’t want to spend big bucks on flagship models like the LG G4 and Samsung S95D, and also don’t want to deal with the shortcomings of mid-range mini-LED TVs – poor off-axis picture quality and limited gaming features to name just two.
A huge gaming upgrade the LG B4 gets over last year’s LG B3 is four sets of HDMI 2.1 ports compared to the B3’s two HDMI 2.1 connections. Otherwise, it uses a similar W-OLED display panel that doesn’t provide a picture brightness upgrade. That’s not to say the B4 doesn’t have an impressive picture – a new Alpha 8 AI processor with Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro and AI Super Upscaling features helps bring out the best in 4K and lower-resolution movies and TV shows, and it also provides sound quality benefits such as 9.1.2 virtual surround processing.
Sound quality isn’t a B4 strong point, so if you’re a movie fan or just like to crank the volume up loud, you’ll benefit from pairing it with one of the best soundbars. It also has a basic design, with support feet instead of the premium aluminum pedestal stand found on the step-up LG C4, and HDMI inputs split between side and back panel sections – an arrangement that makes a flush wall-mount installation more challenging. It does come with LG’s Magic Remote control, however, and it’s one of the best in the business for navigating smart TV menus.
Speaking of that, LG’s webOS 24 has a more streamlined layout than last year’s webOS 23 and features the same Quick Cards for conveniently browsing apps by category among other functions. A big portion of the home screen is devoted to ads, however, which seems to be the norm for smart TV homescreen layouts these days.
The B4’s four HDMI 2.1 ports support 120Hz pass-through, VRR (with Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync), and 4K Dolby Vision gaming. Combine that with the TV’s extensive cloud gaming options, which include GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, Utomik, Blacknut, and Boosteroid, and low 9.1ms input lag, the B4 comes off as a relatively budget powerhouse among the best gaming TVs.
Which brings us to the topic of value. If you’re looking for a great gaming TV at a reasonable price, the LG B4 easily qualifies. Otherwise, its value is undercut somewhat by the LG C4, which might be a clear step up in price, but is available in a wider range of sizes, provides even more gaming features, and has a significantly brighter picture.
LG B4 review: Price and release date
The LG B4 OLED TV showing artwork in standby mode. (Image credit: Future)
Release date: March 2024
48-inch: $800 / NA / NA
55-inch: $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,199
65-inch: $1,699 / £2,099 / AU$2,999
77-inch: $2,699 / £3,099 / NA
The LG B4 series is the company’s entry-level OLED line, slotting just beneath the mid-range LG C4 series. B4 series OLED TVs were released in March 2024 in 48, 55, 65, and 77-inch screen sizes, though the availability of the 48-inch model appears to be limited to the US and a single retailer (Best Buy) at the time of writing. The 77-inch model also doesn’t appear to be available in Australia.
There’s a notable gap between LG’s entry-level and mid-range OLED TVs, with the 65-inch B4 I tested priced at $1,599 / £2,099 / AU$2,999 and the 65-inch C4 selling for $1,999 / £2,099 / AU$3,499.
Strangely, prices for both models in a 65-inch size were equivalent in the UK, though will probably change over time since TVs are discount so quickly these days. The current prices LG has listed are discounted from the original suggested prices, and you can expect to see them drop further as we near the end of 2024.
LG B4 review: Specs
LG B4 review: Benchmark results
LG B4 review: Features
The LG C4's four HDMI 2.1 ports are split between side and back panel sections. (Image credit: Future)
Standard W-OLED panel and Alpha 8 AI processor
New Dolby Vision Filmmaker mode
Four HDMI 2.1 inputs with 4K 120Hz support
The LG B4 uses a standard W-OLED panel and has the new Alpha 8 AI processor also found in the company’s top-tier mini-LED TVs for 2024. This features Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro and AI Super Upscaling with face detection for pictures, and AI Sound Pro for 9.1.2-channel virtual surround processing over the TV’s 2.0-channel speakers. B4 series TVs also have an anti-reflection screen that effectively reduces glare from bright room lights.
HDR support for the B4 series includes Dolby Vision (with Dolby Vision IQ), HDR10, and HLG formats. A new Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode makes its debut on 2024 LG OLED TVs, and this helps by disabling the motion smoothing that’s typically applied by default in Dolby Vision modes on other TVs.
A new and welcome addition to LG’s B-series OLED TVs is four HDMI 2.1 inputs, which lets you connect both Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles to the TV along with one of the best soundbars via HDMI eARC. These all support 4K 120Hz, VRR, ALLM, and Quick Media Switching (QMS), a feature that enables seamless frame rate matching when connected to a compatible source such as an Apple TV 4K (2022).
LG’s webOS 24 smart TV platform is used for streaming on the B4 and it includes a wide range of apps including, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Max, and more (but sadly not The Criterion Channel in the US). Cloud gaming is also supported, with apps including GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, Utomik, and Blacknut. LG’s Quick Cards, which give you easy access to app categories like Home Office, Games, Music, Home Hub, and Sports, get a refreshed layout in webOS 24 with the cards now cutting horizontally across the home screen’s center. Both AirPlay and Chromecast built-in are onboard for wireless streaming, and there’s your choice of Alexa or Google Assistant for voice commands.
Features Score: 4.5/5
LG B4 review: Picture quality
The B4's picture has rich colors but limited brightness compared to premium OLED TVs. (Image credit: Future)
Average brightness for an OLED TV
Very good overall picture quality
Anti-reflection screen
With a standard W-OLED panel rather than the OLED Evo (with Brightness Booster) one found in the LG C4, I didn’t expect the LG B4 to beat last year’s B3 when it came to brightness, and my measurements confirmed that. With the B4 in Filmmaker mode, peak HDR brightness measured on a white window test pattern covering 10% of the screen area was 656 nits, and a full-screen pattern measured 128 nits. Those are expected results for an entry-level OLED TV, although OLED TVs are generally getting brighter, with the C4 yielding results of 1,065 nits and 202 nits, respectively on the same brightness tests, so there's a massive leap in contrast and fullscreen brightness if you step up to the pricier model.
Otherwise, the B4’s lab performance was excellent. UHDA-P3 color space coverage in Filmmaker mode was 98.9% and BT.2020 coverage was 74%, results that basically match the performance of the C4. The B4’s averaged Delta-E values, which are used to determine grayscale and color accuracy, were 2.9 and 1.6, respectively. Once again, those numbers match our results for the C4 and are within the threshold we look for TVs to hit (we're happy with anything under 3.0)
The LG B4’s anti-reflection screen proved effective when watching with overhead lights on, with little to no glare visible even with TV shows with mostly dark, shadowy images like House of the Dragon on Max. I’ve recently tested several mini-LED TVs with stunningly high brightness such as the Hisense U8N and TCL QM815G. Compared to these, the B4 with its limited peak brightness lacked the same dynamic picture those sets delivered for daytime viewing, though the picture looked crisp and had rich color and great detail even when viewing upconverted non-4K TV shows.
I generally watch with my room lights dimmed and in those conditions, the B4’s picture revealed a high contrast range, along with exceptional shadow detail. This could easily be seen in the interior scenes from House of the Dragon, and it also helped to bring out the dynamic quality of the black-and-white images from Ripley on Netflix. And when I streamed Godzilla Minus One in 4K with Dolby Vision on Netflix, the subtle color range of this kaiju movie set in post-World War II came through perfectly thanks to the TV’s Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode, which provides an accurate, director-approved presentation without having to muck with picture adjustments.
OLED TVs typically excel at motion handling and the LG B4 is no exception. When I watched a scene from the James Bond film No Time to Die where the camera pans to follow Bond crossing a cemetery on a rocky landscape, the picture looked solid and was impressively judder-free. The same held for a subsequent sequence where Bond is chased through city streets on a motorcycle in an action-packed high-speed chase.
Picture quality score: 4/5
LG C4 review: Sound quality
The LG B4's Magic Remote control allows for both point-and-click and scrolling navigation. (Image credit: Future)
2-channel speaker system
9.1.2-channel virtual Dolby Atmos
Decent sound but limited bass
The LG B4 has a basic 2.0-channel built-in audio system that uses down-firing speakers. Audio features are limited compared to other LG OLED TVs, but the B4 can output audio wirelessly to a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, and it also supports both Wowcast for lossless wireless Dolby Digital output to LG soundbars and wireless speakers, and WiSA, which does the same for WiSA-enabled speakers.
Otherwise, the B4 has an automatic volume adjustment feature to maintain a constant volume level when switching TV channels. It also has an equalizer adjustment and an AI Sound Pro mode that converts sound to virtual 9.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos.
Sound from the B4’s built-in speakers has decent balance and dialogue comes across as clear. It becomes a bit thin and edgy when you raise the volume, however, and there’s not much of a directional effect with Atmos soundtracks, even in the TV’s Theater sound mode. Selecting the AI Sound Pro mode, which provides virtual 9.1.2-channel upmixing of soundtracks, gave the sound a better sense of spaciousness, but it also thinned out the set’s already challenged bass and made dialogue overly crisp.
Sound quality score: 3.5/5
LG B4 review: Design
The LG B4's aluminum support feet. (Image credit: Future)
Aluminum support feet
Side and back panel input sections
Magic Remote control
The LG B4 uses a set of aluminum feet for support, and although they aren’t height- or width-adjustable, they are a design step up from the plastic pedestal stand used for last year’s B3. The feet provide sturdy support for the TV, which is otherwise a thin display panel with an input section protruding two inches out from the back.
A thin bezel surrounds the B4’s screen, giving it the same “all-picture” look as the C4. Connections on the back are split between two sections: one side-mounted with two HDMI 2.1 ports, a USB type-A port, and an antenna input; and the second back-mounted with with two HDMI 2.1 ports, a USB type-A port, an optical digital output, and RS-232 and Ethernet ports for control.
The Magic Remote that comes with the B4 gives you the choice to either point-and-click on apps and menu sections or traditionally scroll through them using navigation buttons. It has direct access buttons for the Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Sling, and LG Channels apps, and there’s one to activate Alexa. A centrally located button activates the built-in mic for voice commands when pressed.
Design score: 4/5
LG B4 review: Smart TV and menus
The LG B4's webOS 24 smart interface has a streamlined appearance, with Quick Cards for storing apps by category – but also big banner ads. (Image credit: Future)
Streamlned Quick Card layout
App selection can be customized
Quick Menu for easy setup
LG’s webOS 24 smart interface is one of the best ones going, and it features a few modifications over webOS 23. The main one is a new streamlined look for Quick Cards section, with the categories – Games, Music, Home Hub, Sports, Accessibility, and Home Office – running horizontally across the middle of the screen. These let you easily access related apps or each category, and the Home Hub one lets you set up Matter-compatible devices such as smart lights and cameras for control via the TV.
Other elements of the main webOS screen include a horizontal row of apps running beneath the screen, with most major ones such Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, and Max represented. The selection and arrangement of these can be customized, making it easy to access the ones you want. Unfortunately, there’s a large banner at the top third with a rotating array of ads, but to be fair, most smart TV interfaces feature some degree of promoted content.
I really like LG’s Quick Menu, which appears as a vertical panel with various settings such as picture mode, pixel brightness, sound mode, sound output, and more when you press the gear icon on the remote control. Clicking on another gear icon in the Quick Menu calls up another settings menu, with advanced settings that let you perfectly dial in the TV’s picture. Another new feature in webOS 24 is an onscreen chatbot that covers a wide range of topics related to setup and use of the TV and even speaks to you.
Smart TV & menus score: 4.5/5
LG B4 review: Gaming
The LG B4's pop-up game menu provides quick access to gaming-related settings. (Image credit: Future)
Four HDMI 2.1 ports
Cloud-based gaming apps
Low 9.1ms input lag (Boost mode)
While last year’s LG B3 topped out at two HDMI 2.1 ports, the LG B4 ups that number to four with support for 4K at 120Hz, VRR (with Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync), and 4K Dolby Vision gaming present on all of them. The inclusion of four HDMI 2.1 ports is a major upgrade when it comes to flexibility and future-proofing, and it makes the B4 an excellent gaming TV for the price.
Cloud-gaming apps located in the Games Quick Card include GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, Utomik, Blacknut, and Boosteroid. Any connected game console will also show up here, where it can be easily selected.
The B4 will automatically switch to Game Optimizer mode when an active console is detected. You can also press the gear icon on the remote to call up the Game Menu, a transparent bar overlay at the bottom of the screen that shows frame rate, VRR status and other information, and provides quick access to game genre picture and sound presets, dark area adjustment and more. With Game Optimizer on, the B4’s input lag measured an excellent 11.9ms, and 9.1ms with Boost mode enabled.
Gaming score: 5/5
LG B4 review: Value
The LG B4's LG Channels free TV grid guide. (Image credit: Future)
Least expensive LG OLED TV series
LG C4 not much more money
Better value for gamers
The 65-inch LG B4 I tested costs $1,699 / £2,099 / AU$2,999. That’s a fair price for an OLED TV with average brightness but overall excellent picture quality and a fantastic suite of gaming features. And the 48-inch version is an even better value at $800 – if you can find one.
The value of the B4 is made a bit problematic by LG’s own C4 series OLED. That model offers significantly higher peak brightness than the B4. It also has a more elegant design with a pedestal stand as opposed to the B4’s support feet and features Nvidia 144Hz certification – an important feature for PC gaming.
Any one of those factors could impact your decision to buy the C4 instead, which for the 65-inch model is priced not all that much higher at $1,999 / £2,099 / AU$3,499 (oddly, 65-inch B4 and C4 prices are equivalent in the UK). Even so, the B4 remains a very good value for what it offers, and most people – gamers especially – will be pleased with its features, picture, and basic sound quality.
Value score: 4/5
Should I buy the LG B4 OLED TV?
(Image credit: Future)
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if…
LG B4 review: Also consider...
How I tested the LG B4 OLED TV
(Image credit: Future)
Tested over the course of two weeks
Measurements were made using Calman color calibration software
A full calibration was made before proceeding with subjective tests
When I test TVs, I first first spend a few days or even weeks using it for casual viewing to assess the out-of-box picture presets and get familiar with its smart TV menu and picture adjustments. I next select the most accurate preset (usually Filmmaker Mode, Movie or Cinema) and measure grayscale and color accuracy using Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration software. The resulting measurements provide Delta-E values (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s shown on-screen) for each category, and allow for an assessment of the TV’s overall accuracy.
Along with those tests, I make measurements of peak light output (recorded in nits) for both standard high definition and 4K high dynamic range using 10% and 100% white window patterns. Coverage of DCI-P3 and BT.2020 color space is also measured, with the results providing a sense of how faithfully the TV can render the extended color range in ultra high-definition sources.
For the LG B4, I used the Calman ISF workflow, along with the TV’s advanced picture menu settings, to calibrate the image for best accuracy. I also watched a range of reference scenes on 4K Blu-ray discs to assess the TV’s performance, and 4K HDR shows streamed from Max, Netflix, and other services.
The Pixel 9 Pro line in Rose Quartz and Porcelain (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
If you feel like new Pixel phones arrived sooner this year, you're right. Google's AugustPixel hardware event gave us not a duo, but a quartet of new phones; starting at one end with the new baseline Pixel 9, and freshly topped with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Into larger phones? Then the 'XL' nomenclature should tip you off as to where you might want to spend your money. This is the direct successor to last year's 6.7-inch Pixel 8 Pro.
It's the biggest (flat) Pixel yet and it sports a new design that marks a relatively significant shift in the series' aesthetic; the camera bar introduced with the Pixel 6 series is gone and instead we have the camera 'pill.'
The fit and finish have unquestionably been elevated, with the phone's polished frame adopting a much flatter form that's decidedly iPhone-like in its execution, and Google says new construction methods and material choices make it twice as durable as its predecessor.
In reality, the Pixel 9 Pro XL feels great, with the best build quality I've seen from Google to date; not to mention it looks superb, thanks to an updated Super Actua Display that boasts higher peak brightness than anything Apple or Samsung has to offer. The move to an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is welcome too, delivering on Google's promised speed improvement.
The same seven-year commitment to OS and security updates helps the Pixel 9 series stand apart from rivals from Apple and Motorola. The phones' earlier-than-usual arrival in the calendar year means that this is the first generation of Pixel in a long time that doesn't debut with a new build of Android. It will benefit from the same future releases of Android as the Pixel 8 line, and likely no more.
Beyond the usual fare of a clean Pixel experience, AI is all Google is talking about. With an updated Gemini Nano model that is multi-modal and three times more capable running on-device, you'll find AI-generated features throughout the user experience.
Most notably, there are three new apps to play with: a new Weather app that's richer and more customizable, with AI-generated weather reports; a new Screenshots app that – as well as helping organize your captures – allows for semantic search; and Pixel Studio, which allows for on-device text-to-image generative AI that Google pitches as a new creative tool. Feel free to reconcile your feelings about using AI-generated imagery in your own time.
The cost of the Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL also includes a year's access to Google One AI Premium with Gemini Advanced and its new Gemini Live feature. Gemini Live is a decidedly ChatGPT 4o-like conversational experience with Google's off-device AI. It works well for things like how-to guidance and recipe help, but still comes with limitations surrounding how it can actually action on-device tasks for you.
All the on-device AI experiences are powered by Google's new Tensor G4 SoC, paired with a new higher RAM ceiling of 16GB. Previous Pixels already felt fast in day-to-day use, but existing users will notice speed improvements for things like image processing and app load times; even if these gains are seemingly slight. Benchmarks only put the Tensor G4 about 10% ahead of the G3, in terms of CPU performance, with more noticeable graphical gains and, of course, NPU gains for AI tasks.
The other big aspect of any modern, AI-enhanced Pixel phone is the camera experience. The hardware looks, for the most part, similar to the Pixel 8 Pro, albeit with a much higher resolution selfie snapper and a tweaked ultrawide on the back. However, Google claims to have reworked its HDR+ pipeline end-to-end, meaning more true-to-life imagery.
In daylight, I had few complaints, and the Pixel 9 Pro delivers great detail and accurate colors and with dynamic range. Night Sight ensures low-light shooting is almost always rescued from unusable to usable, even if it can still be a little heavy-handed in its post-processing.
The expansion of that HDR+ pipeline to panoramas (paired with a new capture UI), means much better results, especially as Night Sight is now supported here too, although I do wonder whether this upgrade will simply manifest as a Feature Drop update for previous Pixel models in the near future.
Another Pixel 9 Pro exclusive is Video Boost, which can now scale 4K footage up to 8K and proves particularly useful when zooming up to the phone's 20x limit.
Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
There's another side to the imaging experience on recent Pixels: Magic Editor. Beyond moving elements around in a shot or turning a blue sky to golden hour, the new Reimagine button lets you enter text to generate completely new elements in a shot. It's unquestionably fun and creative, but it also throws out any semblance of authenticity to shots you've captured yourself. Unlike Samsung, there's no AI watermarking going on with edited images, either.
Although that Tensor G4 chipset doesn't mark a huge leap forward in raw horsepower, it certainly has helped with power efficiency, with the Pixel 9 Pro XL serving up almost 70% more screen-on time compared to the Pixel 8 Pro.
The jump from 30W to 37W wired fast charging speeds is a small but welcome bump too, although it looks like you'll have to grab Google's 45W charger for the absolute quickest recharge times, based on my testing with similar chargers.
Perhaps the biggest benefit the Pixel 9 Pro line offers is that – beyond the XL's larger screen and physically bigger battery – there's no compromise across both sizes. If you're happy with the premium, the Pixel 9 Pro XL is the most unapologetic, bombastic Pixel experience you can have right now, outside of foldable land.
Even if the jump from the Pixel 8 Pro isn't as significant as I would have liked, and it feels like this is more a means for Google to cultivate new Gemini Advanced subscribers, I can't help but appreciate the Pixel 9 Pro XL for being greater than the sum of its parts. It may only be just enough of an upgrade, but it is enough.
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Priced from $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849
On sale from August 22, 2024
Pro Pixels now start above $/£1,000
While Google announced four phones at its August 2024 event, the standard Pixel 9 and the Pixel 9 Pro XL are the two that hit the market first, on August 22. Meanwhile, the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro Fold arrive on the scene September 4.
In the UK, you can pick up the Pixel 9 Pro XL directly from Google, with double the storage at no extra charge on purchases made before September 5. US buyers can nab $200 in-store credit if ordering before August 28, and Australian buyers can pick up a limited edition poster with purchases made before August 25 (tough break, Australia).
The addition of the new smaller Pro model this year (which starts at a similar launch price to the larger Pixel 8 Pro), helps Google justify its decision to render the Pixel 9 Pro XL the most expensive candy bar Pixel to date: it starts at $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849. It's practically like for like, when compared to equivalent storage options of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, truly putting an end to the notion that the Pixels are the 'affordable' flagship option.
For the asking price, you also get a year's access to a Google One AI Premium (2TB) plan which, as well as granting access to Gemini Advanced (which leverages the Gemini Pro 1.5 model) and Gemini Live, includes more general Google benefits like Fitbit Premium access, Nest Aware, 10% back on Google Store purchases, and unlimited Magic Editor saves in Google Photos.
Value score: 4 / 5
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Specs
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Design
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
New Pixel aesthetic: the camera bar is dead
100% recycled aluminum frame
Improved build quality
A Pixel in iPhone font – that's the shorthand I keep coming back to with the new Pixel 9 series' design language. The size and feel of the XL's new squared aluminum frame immediately reminds me of Apple's current iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro Max in the hand. Does that polished metal attract fingerprints? Absolutely, but not anywhere near as badly as expected.
This new squared form, paired with the heaviest build of any candy bar Pixel yet (221 grams, the same as an iPhone 15 Pro Max), leads to a more premium look and feel overall. This is helped further by the Pixel 9 Pro XL's slimmer profile compared to the Pixel 8 Pro, and side by side with my wife's old Pixel 6 Pro, the jump in build quality is truly impressive.
One update I'm not sure I love quite so much is the loss of the camera bar, which is replaced in this generation with a camera 'pill' that protrudes out of the phone's rear panel at 90 degrees. It makes for a more bold and confident aesthetic, but it's not as quickly identifiable as the bar.
As well as the cosmetic changes, Google also claims that the Pixel 9 Pro XL's new mid-frame design, not to mention its 100%-recycled aluminum outer frame, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front and rear panels, and IP68-certified protection against dust and water ingress, make the new phone twice as durable as its predecessor. In my time with the Pixel 9 Pro XL, by trying to keep it out of harm's way as much as possible, the finish has remained unscathed, but whether it'll age as gracefully as its titanium-clad competition from Apple and Samsung remains to be seen.
Both sizes of Pixel 9 Pro come in four colorways, with Obsidian pictured most prominently in this review. The Hazel finish most closely apes the iPhone 15 Pro's Natural Titanium look and the Galaxy S24 Ultra's Titanium Gray, while Porcelain and Rose Quartz offer decidedly more vivacious options.
Design score: 4.5 / 5
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Display
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
6.8-inch Super Actua LTPO OLED
Improved HBM and peak brightness
New ultrasonic fingerprint sensor
The Pixel 8 Pro's Super Actua Display felt like a noteworthy upgrade from the panel on its predecessor and while not as earth-shattering an improvement this generation, the Pixel 9 Pro XL's screen is a great refinement, yet again.
Although it sports the same resolution as the Pixel 8 Pro's panel (technically not as sharp as the Pixel 9 Pro), both high brightness and peak brightness levels have been cranked up to 2,000 and 3,000nits, respectively, meeting or beating key rivals in a spec-for-spec comparison.
Add to that the panel's flat design, its thin, equally-proportioned bezels on all sides, and its excellent viewing angles, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL's Super Actua display is a thing to behold.
As before, the use of an LTPO OLED panel facilitates a dynamic refresh rate from 1 to 120Hz, making it ideal for always-on display functionality, thanks to the implied power saving benefits, while also still serving up a snappy user experience when swiping around the UI.
One of the more prominent changes you might not immediately notice is the fingerprint sensor. Instead of the optical module used since the Pixel 6 series, Google has gone the way of Samsung and instead kitted the Pixel 9 Pro XL's display with an ultrasonic sensor. I didn't notice a huge difference when making the switch from my Pixel 7 Pro, but in side by side comparison is lives up to the promise of a 2x speed improvement. Perhaps more useful is the greater reliability, especially with damp fingers or when used in the rain.
Display score: 4.5 / 5
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Software
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Seven years of OS & security updates
Launches with Android 14
Gemini AI is woven throughout the user experience
One side effect of this latest-generation Pixel launch happening earlier than usual is that the whole series runs Android 14. Typically, Google times the arrival of its latest smartphones to coincide with the release of the next Android, but the Pixel 9 debuts on the same Android 14 foundation as the Pixel 8.
At least the company's ever-impressive commitment to seven years of updates persists, meaning the phone's price tag includes excellent long-term support for both future releases of Android and subsequent security patches, an area where many rivals still fall short.
As a long-time Pixel user, the look and feel of Android on the Pixel 9 Pro XL is characteristically clean, easily navigable, pleasantly customizable (without being overwhelming), and dressed with helpful everyday features that aren't guaranteed on other phones.
That said, the Pixel 9 Pro XL does get some Pixel-exclusive additions that up the ante, all of which lean on Gemini AI.
There's a new dedicated Weather app that generates dynamic weather reports to make insights into each day's weather more digestible than ever. The ability to drag and drop the various in-app widgets for things like UV index, ten-day forecast, and air quality is a nice perk too.
Next up is the new Pixel Screenshots app, which seems like an odd addition at first, but for list-makers, students, and journalists (like yours truly), it offers surprising depth. You can add notes to individual screenshots and group them into Collections, too. The app can index screenshot content across text and images, making it searchable. This allows for semantic search and object recognition, as well as recognizing WiFi passwords and QR-code information.
Pixel Studio uses an on-device variant of Imagen 3's diffusion-based text-to-image generative AI, allowing you to create imagery seemingly from scratch. You can remix results using pre-defined style prompts, or sculpt a completely original prompt if you prefer.
At launch, Pixel Studio won't render people, but it's fine with objects and animals. It also managed to render legible text without much artifacting, a challenging test that I've seen other image generators fail. Right now, the application proves novel enough but there's scope for everything from messaging to graphic design work, depending on your feeling towards the use of AI-generated imagery.
Google Gemini
The price of the Pixel 9 Pro XL also includes a year's access to Gemini Advanced, meaning you can interact with its latest off-device model in Gemini 1.5 Pro and gain access to Gemini Live: Google's conversational AI experience.
My family tested it's abilities on a bean salad recipe – including suggestions on preparation and accompaniments – all without any obvious breaks in conversation or AI hallucinations. I also had it explain how to change various Gemini and Android settings, although its inability to take actions on many features feels like a missed opportunity, or at least an area that Google should focus on as its expands the assistant's functionality.
A couple of other sprinkles of AI magic on the Pixel 9 Pro XL include text-based summaries of YouTube videos that I didn't have time to watch and Zoom Enhance image upscaling (although results were mixed). I'm also intrigued by the Call Notes feature shown off at launch, that'll summarize phone calls, however, this wasn't ready during review.
The most obvious criticism of Gemini on the Pixel 9 Pro is that it feels consistently slower when asked to carry out the same tasks I would have previously asked of Google Assistant. The trade-off is much richer results and more insight, provided you trust the source data Gemini's pulling from.
Software score: 5 / 5
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Camera
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
50MP-led triple rear camera setup
New 42MP front-facing camera
New AI-supported features like Add Me and Reimagine
Nowhere is AI more prevalent across the Pixel 9 Pro XL's user experience than the camera. While it might have gone by 'machine learning' in the early days of the Pixel camera experience, AI-powered post-processing has been the secret sauce that has helped elevate the reputation of the Pixel cameras over the past four years, to the point where they regularly sit among the best camera phones.
As Google has focused its efforts on AI more directly, the proposition of a Pixel camera has changed somewhat, with capture and editing becoming two distinct facets of the experience.
If you're looking for a great all-round camera phone, the Pixel 9 Pro XL is right up there. A revised HDR+ pipeline puts into practice the company's learnings from previous entries, paired with new training data to create images with a more true-to-life appearance, better exposure, dynamic range, detail, contrast and color.
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL camera samples
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Add Me final result
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High contrast comparison shot on Pixel 7 Pro
There's a little inconsistency when shooting between the updated ultra-wide's macro mode and macro shots taken on the main 50MP wide sensor, for example, but results remain consistent in how appealing and usable they are. I'd have also liked a lighter hand with the default simulated bokeh when shooting portrait mode shots (something the likes of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra nails), but these are minor grievances and fixable on-device.
Night Sight continues to impress in low light, while support has now been expanded to include the oft-overlooked panorama mode. Led by a new UI that ensures you hold the phone still enough for each shot it stitches together, the results generated are far more impressive than anything capable by previous entries; delivering much better detail and color capture than ever before.
Video Boost is another Pro Pixel-exclusive feature worth shouting about, thanks to the addition of 8K upscaling on 4K footage, the results of which can be quite staggering; especially when zooming in on the phone's 20x magnification. Even if you don't see the need for 4K or 8K footage natively, the extra wiggle room those added pixels afford you makes the experience of creating and editing content far more flexible.
Add Me is a great new addition this generation that solves the problem of getting a group shot, when there's no wall to rest your camera on or passer-by to accost and entrust with taking a photo with you and your friends in. If, like me, you're serially the photographer of your friendship group, this could prove to be a game-changer.
There was certainly trial and error involved, but once we and the phone both understood the goal, results improved until we had a usable shot seemingly taken by a fourth unseen photographer who was never there.
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A successful Add Me shot
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Part 1 of the successful Add Me shot
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Part 2 of the successful Add Me shot
Even more so than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra's/ Galaxy Z Fold 6's Sketch to Image feature, the generative image tools on the Pixel 9 series unashamedly barge passed the line of authentic photography. At least personally, I'm fine with automated HDR bracketing and tone mapping, in order to produce a photo that's better than I could muster, even if I had full manual control. However, I start to feel uncomfortable with the idea of sharing images shot on the Pixel that have used the full might of the newly-enhanced Magic Editor.
The ability to change a blue sky to that of golden hour and remove unwanted people from the background were novelties that challenged my comfort level, but the new Reimagine feature within Magic Editor doesn't hold back in letting you endlessly rework a shot until it's something entirely different.
In one shot (above), I surrounded my friends and I with sunflowers and then added a scarecrow for good measure. The results don't hold up to close scrutiny, but like most AI-manipulated images, if you don't have prior context, you're less likely to question its authenticity.
A more subtle edit that really impressed/unnerved me was Reimagine's ability to change the ground on a pebbled beach into more ocean (below); creating a rippled mirror surface with an accurate reflection of the clouds in the sky above.
Your mileage with Magic Editor will vary, depending on how scrupulous you feel about using its image-doctoring abilities and whether or not you feel the need to contextualize the results when you share them.
Camera score: 4.5 / 5
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Performance
Debut of Google Tensor G4 SoC
New 16GB RAM ceiling
128GB to 1TB storage (non-expandable)
While the Pixel 9 Pro XL feels more than equipped for everything you throw at in right now, including high-fidelity mobile games, there's no getting around the fact that Tensor chips continue to lag behind Apple's iPhone chips and Qualcomm's top-tier Snapdragons in terms of raw processing and graphical grunt.
Whether it's a matter of the shorter turnaround between generations of Pixel, or the fact that it's not Google's focus, the new Tensor G4 chipset powering all of the Pixel 9 series doesn't pack that much more horsepower, even compared to the Tensor G3.
It's built on a similar 4nm process as the Tensor G3, but with new core architecture and one fewer high efficiency cores than its predecessor. The switch from an Immortalis to a Mali GPU means no more ray tracing, a small but notable loss for mobile gamers.
In testing, the Tensor G4 processor produced a 10% bump to CPU performance, a 15% graphical performance improvement and a 16% uptick in NPU performance over the last generation, however, the biggest gains look to be in power efficiency (more on that later).
As with its predecessor, the Pixel 9 Pro XL can be had in four storage variants, however, the 1TB ceiling appears to be a US exclusive, while other markets, including the UK and Australia, top out at 512GB. Its 16GB of RAM is a range-wide upgrade, likely driven by the phone's newfound AI capabilities, but spec-heads will note that Google isn't using the latest available standards of either LPDDR memory or UFS storage, compared to Samsung's Galaxy S24.
Performance score: 3.5 / 5
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Battery
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
5,060mAh battery
Improved 37W wired charging
Impressive 9.5 hours of screen-on time per charge
Google has propelled the Pixel 9 Pro XL from a one to a two-day phone. While Pixel batteries have gotten larger over the years, battery life has never really been a positive talking point for the line. Through presumed optimization led by the new Tensor G4, however, the Pixel 9 Pro XL serves up superb longevity by comparison; significantly longer than any previous Pixel we've tested.
The Pixel 9 Pro XL got 9.5 hours of screen-on time, which clocks in at around 65% longer than the 5.75 hours the Pixel 8 Pro was able to muster, despite packing a battery that's around 10mAh smaller (5,050mAh).
Google hasn't stopped there, with faster 37W charging, promising up to 70% charge in just 30 minutes. The company has introduced a new 45W Pixel charger to facilitate the 9 Pro XL's new top charging speed (which is faster than the smaller 9 Pro's 27W charging), however, this was unavailable during review. Instead, I tried Google's previous 30W wired charger – which pushed the Pixel 9 Pro XL to 55% charge in 30 minutes, while a 65W PD PPS charger got closer to Google's quoted speeds, with 65% charge in 30 minutes, and a full charge in 1 hour 20 minutes.
Battery score: 4 / 5
Should you buy the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL?
Buy it if...
You want the richest mobile AI experience Samsung's Galaxy AI is great, but Google's execution with Gemini Advanced is easier, richer, and more fun to use.
You want an excellent camera phone The Pixel 9 Pro XL's camera system is a small but appreciated upgrade on its predecessors, highlighted by a new bag of AI-supported tricks you can't get outside of the Pixel family.
You plan on using this phone for a long time Still among the best there is, Google's commitment to seven years OS and security updates is, once again, hard to argue with.
Don't buy it if...
You want fast charging Battery life is greatly improved but despite a bump in speed, the Pixel 9 Pro XL's 37W wired charging is still well behind what rivals like OnePlus and Xiaomi offer.
You want the best RAM and memory While Samsung forges ahead, Google seems reluctant to move to the latest, fastest and most power efficient RAM and storage in its phones, which stings when they cost about the same.
You want to play a lot of games Google's mobile silicon isn't built for gaming, and while the Tensor G4 handles intense games well, you'll get a much better experience with a recent iPhone or any flagship rival running the latest Snapdragon chipset.
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: Also consider
The Pixel 9 Pro XL is a superb large-screened Android phone with a great camera and decent battery life (finally), but its AI-heavy blend won't suit everyone.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra A sharper screen, faster charger, faster storage and memory, more horsepower and stylus input for good measure; not to mention the same impressive software commitment as the Pixel 9 Pro XL.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max If you want much of what the Pixel 9 Pro XL has to offer but prefer a phone with more performance and gaming prowess, and less of a focus on AI, the latest and greatest iPhone is your best choice.
How I tested the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Review test period: one week
Testing included: everyday use including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
I received the Pixel 9 Pro XL sample directly from Google, the day after the August Pixel hardware event concluded and was testing it as my daily driver everyday since.
I kept track of battery usage each day and run several benchmarking apps for comparison to other devices, but otherwise used the phone as I would my own, in addition to taking time to test all of the key new features of the device.
As a reviewer with 13 years experience, and having reviewed numerous Pixels, not to mention mainlining a Pixel 7 Pro since its launch in late 2022, I felt confident assessing and scoring the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, both relative to other Pixels, and in the context of the wider smartphone market in which it competes.
