The Samsung Galaxy S25 officially went on sale this Friday, even though Samsung started shipping pre-orders early. But let’s shift our focus away from the S25 series for a bit and see what else is out there.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is ready to take on the S25 Ultra – especially now that Samsung is deprioritizing the S Pen. The Pixel already has a high resolution ultra-wide (48MP), in addition to a 48MP 113mm periscope and a 50MP main (1/1.31” sensor). The selfie camera got a big upgrade to a 42MP sensor and a 17mm ultra-wide lens too.
The Pixel 9 Pro takes on the vanilla S25. It’s a bit larger and quite a bit heavier (199g vs. 162g), but small Android flagships are hard to come by. The good news is that the Pixel 9 Pro has the same cameras as the Pro XL – that can’t be said of the S25 and S25 Ultra. This gives the Google phone a massive advantage in telephoto (48MP 113mm vs. 10MP 67mm), ultra-wide (48MP vs. 12MP) and even main cameras (both 50MP, but 1/1.31” vs. 1.56” sensors).
The Pixels have UWB, yes, even the small Pro, and official satellite SOS support (something the S25 series might have but isn’t active). And while it is heavier, the Pixel 9 Pro has a larger 4,700mAh battery (vs. 4,000mAh), which gives it a slightly better Active use score (13:11h vs. 12:21h). There’s no excuse for the Tensor G4, though, it’s much slower than the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
The Google Pixel 9 is the same size (and weight, unfortunately) as the Pixel 9 Pro. It has the same chipset, same main and ultra-wide cameras, same battery. It lacks a telephoto lens, however, and the 6.3” is a non-LTPO 1080p+ panel (so, a lower resolution than the Pro). And the UWB is gone, if you care about that sort of thing. Still, it’s £150 cheaper than the Pro, making it a good option for those that don’t use the zoom function much.
You can go even cheaper with the Pixel 8a. Despite having a slightly smaller 6.1” display, the thicker bezels make the 8a the same size as the Pixel 9. And almost the same weight at 188g too. This model uses the older Tensor G3, which drops its Active use score to 11:25h (the smaller 4,492mAh battery also has an effect here). The 8a is almost half the price of a Pixel 9, though, so the value-for-money proposition is still quite strong.
You might want to look at the Pixel 8 too – it’s similar hardware for a similar price. Check out our Pixel 8 vs. 8a article for more on why you might want to consider the older flagship.
Google is also competing in the horizontal foldable space with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It’s larger and heavier than the Z Fold6 and the Tensor G4 is no match for even the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The cameras are pretty good with a 48MP main, 10.8MP 112mm (5x) periscope and 10.5MP ultra-wide.
For £100 less than a Pixel 9, you can have the Xiaomi 14T Pro with an older but still high end Dimensity 9300+ chipset. The 6.67” 1220p+ OLED display is not an LTPO panel, but it does have 12-bit colors and a 144Hz refresh rate. In terms of cameras, we’re looking at a 50MP main (1/1.31”), 50MP 60mm (2.6x) telephoto and a 12MP ultra-wide. The 5,000mAh battery excels with 120W wired and 50W wireless charging, though the 12:32h Active use score is good but not impressive.
The Poco X7 and X7 Pro both have 6.67” 12-bit OLED panels (120Hz, non-LTPO) and use practically the same cameras – 50MP main (1/1.95”) and 8MP ultra-wide (never mind the 2MP macro on the X7). The Pro model stands out with a better chipset (Dimensity 8400 Ultra vs. 7300 Ultra), faster storage (UFS 4.0 vs. UFS 2.2) and better water resistance (IP69 vs. IP68). It has a bigger battery too (6,000mAh vs. 5,110mAh) with faster charging (90W, 100% in 42 min vs. 45W, 100% in 52 min).
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