Pixel 9 Pro Photos Force You to Pick Sides

Late last week, photos of the Pixel 9 Pro began circulating on the web. Now that they have had time to percolate, we have gone back to see how people are reacting to the change in hardware design.

Initial reactions to leaked hardware are important. If people are excited by what they see, chances are potential buyers will still be interested enough to spend money on it by the time the actual launch happens. In the case of the Pixel 9 Pro, we may not see availability happen until October of this year, so the fact that many seem genuinely impressed by these photos is a good sign for Google. It ultimately means they designed a good looking phone.

However, as the case always seems to be with Google hardware, the reactions aren’t all positive. While we would argue that the majority of people seem pleased by what they see, everyone is entitled to their opinion and there are plenty of people who aren’t happy at all.

Let’s check out some of these reactions, both negative and positive.

cheesybreadlover – I like the camera bar. It looks like a Google search bar which might be what they’re going for.

YourNeighborLuis – Yeah not a fan of that camera bar. The previous design looked so much better.

Bojan Tomic – Looks much better than in the renders. My favorite is still Pixel 6/6 Pro.

Deertopus – Looks like an Among Us character. Absolutely ugly.

InspectionLong5000 – The proportions of the camera bar are just terrible.  That super thin strip all the way around, except the flash area on the right, makes it look like one of those shitty fake “leak” renders people use as clickbait thumbnails on YouTube.  Swing and a miss, with this one.

MacNificent – It’s beautiful. But it’s still too big and it will be my next phone!

red_32 – I think someone mentioned this in the previous thread – yep, it’s the Bender 9.

Brian Smith – No, it doesn’t look amazing. The round corners, the camera bar isn’t integrated into the back in any way. The camera bar should have been made even more streamlined into the back and the corners more squared off. IMO of course.

We want to shoutout the person who thinks that the camera bar looks like a Google Search bar. That’s a really nice catch.

One thing I noticed very quickly from people’s comments — people who like the design don’t have much to say, but those who don’t care for it definitely feel obligated to share why they feel that way, which I very much appreciate. As someone who really likes the look of the Pixel 9 Pro, it’s good to know why people feel differently than myself.

If you have yet to share your take on the Pixel 9 Pro design, feel free to use the comments section below as your battleground. We need to know how you feel about it.