C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Google unveiled the Pixel 9 series with much fanfare on Tuesday, and we can’t wait to find out if the performance lives up to the hype. In the meantime, we’ve been getting a sneak peek at the four phones in the range for weeks now, thanks to leaks and informants. This gave us a first look at the colors and designs of the devices, but we were more interested in your initial thoughts. Was it love at first sight? Or was a shrug all you could muster? We conducted some Pixel 9 polls among our readers to get their views on the handsets’ designs and colors.
We asked four questions on this topic, and we’ll start by looking at the color options. We asked which of the Pixel 9 Pro colors you liked best. The choices were Hazelnut (gray-green), Obsidian (dark gray/black), Porcelain (white/cream), and Rose Quartz (light pink). You could also say you didn’t like any of the colors. We were interested in this because not all of the colors are the same as the Pixel 8 series, and not even every Pixel 9 model has the same four choices. Hazelnut and Rose Quartz are new to the Pixel 9 Pro this year, and the Bay (blue) colorway is no longer available. Let’s see what you told us.
Which Google Pixel 9 Pro color is your favorite?
Somewhere, a Google chief designer is probably feeling very smug, because the clear winner of this poll was the new Hazelnut color. The light gray shade stood out to a whopping 42% of survey respondents, including the people who didn’t like any of the colors. It makes sense that a fresh look would be the most likely to win, since everyone is more willing to voice their opinion on something new, and that works both ways. The other newcomer was Rose Quartz, and it performed the worst in the poll, receiving less than 10% of the vote. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this result either—a pink phone is likely to target a select few audiences rather than trying to appeal to the masses.
The Pixel 8 Pro’s carryover colors are Obsidian and Porcelain, both of which received around a fifth of the votes in the poll. Just over 10% of readers weren’t impressed with either colorway, so perhaps a case for the Pixel 9 Pro is in order if you still want the device.
Next, we turn our attention to design. Google has made some significant changes to the latest generation of Pixels. The iconic camera bar is gone, the screens are flatter, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a completely new shape compared to its predecessor, and we even have a brand new handset in the lineup. What do you think? We asked what you think of the look of the Pixel 9 series.
How do you like the new look of the Pixel 9 series?
This poll also had a clear winner: the Pixel 9 Pro received over 31% of the votes. This is interesting because despite all the changes compared to the Pixel 8 series, there aren’t many visual differences between the Pixel 9, 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL. The latter is obviously larger, and the poll results suggest that this doesn’t necessarily mean visually better. However, upon visual inspection, the only difference between the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro is the new oval camera module.
It may be that our savvy readers already know which handset they want, and the Pixel 9 Pro received extra votes on that basis. About a third of respondents judged the series overall, with 18.5% saying they’re fans of all four devices and about 14% saying all the phones are ugly.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold performed the worst in this survey, with just 6% of the vote. That could mean that only 6% of buyers are even interested in it, or that most people preferred the look of the original Fold before the big size change. Neither of these sounds like great news for the latest foldable Android device, but we dug a little deeper into this point. We asked you what you thought about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s new form factor, and those results are coming up next.
What do you think of the new form factor of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold?
The short and wide approach of the original Fold has been scrapped, with the new device offering a larger screen on a taller and thinner body that’s more similar to other foldables on the market. Google must have done its market research to conclude that this change would be well received, and our survey on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold seems to prove the tech giant right. 56% of respondents in this survey said the new form factor was better, while only 30% protested that it was worse.
14% of people thought the form factor looked about the same, which is fine. It takes more than a few dimensional changes to excite some people in any way.
In any case, the real battle of the Pixel generations will probably be fought by the classic models. We were also interested in your opinion on this development and we asked you whether you prefer the design of the Pixel 8 Pro or the Pixel 9 Pro XL. Intuitively, you would think that the Pixel 9 Pro is the successor to the Pixel 8 Pro, but in fact it is the 9 Pro XL that is closest to it in terms of dimensions. The question is, did you consider it an improvement?
Do you like the design of the Pixel 8 Pro or the Pixel 9 Pro XL better?
And there it is: the Pixel 9 Pro XL wins the poll with over 60% of the vote. Everyone will have their own reasons for choosing the new design over the old one. For many, it may be a referendum on the camera bar, which is the most obvious difference when just comparing the shots of the two devices. We got some hints from the audience in the comments section as to why they voted that way. As reader Neil put it: “Great to have a phone that looks like Bender’s tin can head from Futurama.”
