Apple is about to launch the brand new iPhone 16 at its “Glowtime” event on September 9, and it’s made me wonder what it could do to win me back. When the Google Pixel 9 range came out I switched to a Google Pixel 9 Pro. Having been an iPhone user all my life I was nervous about dipping my toes in the Android waters, but I can report that the temperature is lovely, come on in! Full disclaimer: my previous iPhone was pretty old, so it was long overdue an upgrade, meaning that the bar was set very low, but thankfully the Pixel 9 Pro easily cleared it, and then some.
To be honest, after reading our Pixel 9 Pro review, I was just curious to find out what a Google Pixel phone would be like, and it became readily apparent that for everyday use, there’s very little that separates a Google Pixel 9 from a new iPhone. Sure, they use different hardware, the haptic feedback is slightly different, and have different camera specs, but for everyday use, it’s the experience of using the phone that matters most. Once you understand that you’re using the Play Store to download apps, not the App Store, life kind of carries on as normal for an ex-iPhone user. Pixel phones have face recognition for unlocking the phone, so there's no change there for an iPhone user, but they also fingerprint recognition when it needs more security for payments.
