After having the XL versions of Pixels before this one, the size isn't so bad. Its usable in one hand and I've been really liking the flat edges/screen.
The battery is almost the same as my 6 Pro toward the end of its life.
The display resolution looks really good in person. I really appreciate the brighter screen so that more than makes up for the lack of sharpness compared to the 6 Pro.
Cameras are great as usual for these phones. I didn't realize how many features they added on to Pixels since the 6 line.
The AI features are gimmicky and I'll just leave it at that.
A solid 8/10 phone for me. Definitely feels like an upgrade even for a base model.
The AI stuff is gimmicky of course but for basically questions Gemini is doing ok (quickly getting torque specs for bolts) will out in the garage seems improved over "assistant".
Battery life has been good after finding a stupid app that was running in the background killing it!!
I thought really hard about it and decided against it. I'm currently not having any issues and am still getting security updates. It is hard to justify $1k for roughly the same experience.
I'm still using the 6 (regular) until it's truly end of life, then if I don't like what's on offer I might just keep using LineageOS or something. I'm trying to reduce my reliance on Play Services right now so this is a long-term goal for me lol. Right now the 9 just turns me off with the half-baked AI garbage. Plus I don't really want to drop a ton of money on a phone, now or in general.