Nobody needs to buy a flagship smartphone. The mid-range is so competitive at this point, with great software, design, cameras, and support, that the average person doesn’t need to dish out top dollar to get a great phone. If you want something small with incredible cameras, buy the Pixel 8a; or if you want something more premium and larger, buy a Nothing Phone (2). Each of these is for under $500; and if you pump up to $650 or so, you can buy the last-generation Google Pixel 8 Pro, which was — until today with the launch of the new Pixel 9 Pro — probably the best smartphone on the market. My review was a rave, as its few flaws were made up for by its excellent quality and now steeply reduced price.

But just because you don’t need to spend top dollar on a phone, that doesn’t mean you get nothing for it. And with the new Pixel 9 Pro, Google has shown how relatively small improvements over a prior generation add up to a big impression.

To start: the looks. Whereas the Pixel 8 Pro had a soft curved design with a subtly curved back and side rails, the 9 Pro has gone for a boxier aesthetic in line with the new iPhone style, with flat gloss rails and a flat, soft-touch matte back. The 8 Pro was a far more distinct design language, and I think its style will age better, whereas the 9 Pro feels like Google’s take on iPhone, but that’s hardly a negative. It feels effortlessly premium, particularly in its new, smaller size.

If you want the larger 6.8-inch screen, you can still get that in the new $1,100 Pixel 9 Pro XL, but the suffix-less Pixel 9 Pro is down to 6.3 inches. Though I will have a follow-up review of the XL, my time with the standard Pro has reminded me of just how great a smaller high-end phone can be. The combination of these flat, marginally taller rails, its smaller size, and lighter weight just makes for such a confident, comfortable phone to hold in hand; be that typing one-handed or while making a phone call.

Beyond the design, there are a ton of technical improvements too, and though they’re minor upgrades on paper, they add up in the total performance of the phone. The new screen is brighter, has more vibrant color tuning and HDR, and has even bezels and doesn’t have the inconsistent peak brightness adjustment I experienced on the 8 Pro. The charging is also slightly faster, particularly on wireless; the haptics are a little more pleasant when typing; and though I never was bothered by the previous optical under-screen fingerprint scanner, the new ultrasonic unit is definitely faster and more reliable.

For the Pixel 10 series, I would like Google to introduce genuine fast charging — 50 or 60 watts should be a standard by now — and secure face unlock rather than the ordinary optical kind, but both are totally fine. The only downgrade from the 8 Pro has been that double-tapping on the back of the phone to take a screenshot is a lot less consistent and requires more effort, but this hopefully can be sorted with a software update.

Battery life on the Pixel 8 Pro is solid but unremarkable, and despite its smaller size, the Pixel 9 Pro has been as good as it or marginally better. The Pixel 9 line is powered by their fourth generation of in-house Tensor chip and though it’s theoretically more powerful, you won’t notice this at all. The only performance difference I noticed between the 8 Pro and 9 Pro is that whereas the 8 Pro will get warm when used heavily, the 9 Pro gets less hot less often.

The cameras have improved tuning — but the same hardware — with faster shutter reactions, better HDR, and tuning toward detail. Whereas some phones are leaning toward a more natural, subtle photo style, the Pixel’s photos still have that bold, processed look, but that’s what you want for social media and capturing the world around you as you live. The lenses have a more consistent color tuning too, which is particularly noticeable when swapping between them while you record a video. At this point, Pixels clearly have the best cameras you can get on a phone for photos and are closer than ever to matching the iPhone for video quality, albeit with a very different style.

The Add-Me camera feature — which I explained further in my Pixel 9 preview piece — is relatively reliable when used by people who are good at taking photos on phones, but your random friend shouldn’t be the person to use it. I am curious whether this will be widely used or just an occasional gimmick — like the Thermometer app — but it’s nice to have.

The other AI tools are a bit more hit and miss. The Pixel Studio app lets you generate cartoonish AI images extremely quickly, but I don’t see what you’d use them for; just as I don’t see why you’d use their AI photo editing features to add unicorns, volcanoes, etc., to your photos. The dedicated smart screenshots app is pretty great in concept, but the search needs further improvement, and this ultimately should just be rolled into the Google Photos rather than be a separate app; and the Weather app is utterly fantastic, clearly and pleasantly displaying all the information that you want, but AI has almost nothing to do with that. The only AI thing about it is the short weather forecast summary at the top, which isn’t very new.

Pixel 9 Pro is not a major upgrade over the 8 Pro, and if you are happy with a slightly less premium feel and losing out on some of these small upgrades, I would save the $350 and find a discounted 8 Pro. With a category as mature as smartphones, generational and price upgrades have diminishing returns, and you’ll get 95% of the experience for 65% of the price.

But that doesn’t mean the 9 Pro is disappointing, or that the final 5% is nothing. It’s chic, feels great in hand, has the best screen I’ve tried on a phone, and in a sea of large phones, a smaller top-range model is a refreshing change. If you’re looking to spend $1,000 on a new premium phone — particularly if you’re an iPhone user considering swapping to Android — the 9 Pro is impossible to beat.