Google Reveals Its AI Smartphone Early at Made for Google Launch Event — And Beats Apple to the Starting Line

Google beat Apple to the punch by releasing new smartphones packed with AI.

At the Made By Google event on Tuesday, Google interspersed the Pixel 9 release with celebrity appearances and jabs at Apple. Keke Palmer and NBA all-star Jimmy Butler were on stage and Google executives demonstrated what the Pixel camera could do.

At the event, Google revealed four new Pixel phones embedded with Google's own Gemini AI assistant: the $799 Pixel 9, the $999 Pixel 9 Pro, the $1,099 Pixel 9 Pro XL, and the $1,799 Pixel 9 Pro Fold, which unfolds into an 8-inch tablet.

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The Pixel 9 is Google's first line to fully ship with Gemini Nano multimodality , meaning that users can access the AI assistant through voice, text, code, image, and video. Users don't have to have a network connection to access Gemini Nano and the Pixel 8 Pro , released last year, uses the same system.

The Made By Google event usually occurs in October , and moving it up to August, one month ahead of Apple's expected iPhone release , could be Google's attempt to outshine Apple, Bloomberg mused.

Apple is reportedly launching Apple Intelligence and bringing AI to iPhones this fall for the 15 Pro, Pro Max, and any new iPhones. The new, upcoming phones could prompt Apple's existing user base to upgrade their old iPhones for AI features.

Apple currently dominates the $61.5 billion U.S. smartphone market, with the iPhone capturing 58.81% of the market share compared to the Google Pixel's 4.6% .

What can Google's AI really do?

Google took the tasks that users turn to their phones for, like checking the weather, and gave them an AI boost. For example, the new Pixel Weather app features an AI weather report, while Call Notes gives phone calls AI-generated transcriptions that are saved on the phone, not the cloud, for security.

Pixel Screenshots saves phone screenshots in a separate app so users can search through them with AI, and not lose them on their camera roll. The Pixel Studio image generator creates new images on the spot, and Google demoed how to use the app to make invites to a party.

^{Google Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL. Credit: Google}

Google's pre-event advertising asked Gemini to write a breakup letter and start it "Dear Old iPhone."

But the first Gemini demo took three tries to work. Still, Google used that as an opportunity to take another swing at Apple by emphasizing that it was a live demo — alluding to Apple's prerecorded ones.

Google also claimed that the Pixel 9 had the "world's first AI-powered camera" and compared a photo taken by the new Pixel 9 Pro XL to the iPhone 15 Pro Max without naming Apple.

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