Pixel 9 Pro Battery Life is Really, Really Good

Should you go back through several reviews of Pixel phones that I’ve written over the years, one thing you might have noticed is that I rarely rave about battery life on any of Google’s phones. My testing typically ends up showing either solid battery life (which could be read as middle-of-the-road) or pretty poor battery life. Not a single review did I call one of Google’s Pixel phones a battery champ.

What’s the deal with that? It could be inefficient Tensor chips, smallish batteries, or poor performing modems to blame for most of it. In fact, it’s probably some combination of the three. Pixel phones have typically left me somewhat-worried if I travel or spend a day off of WiFi, without a cable to charge if necessary.

With the launch of the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL, battery life was without a doubt one of the areas I wanted to really put to the test. Because I think these designs are absolutely incredible and almost everything about these phones checks the boxes I need to make one my phone of choice going forward, it was battery life that could make or break the situation.

Guys, the Pixel 9 Pro battery life has been phenomenal so far – on both versions of the phone.

TESTING BOTH PIXEL 9 PRO MODELS: Since leaving the Made by Google event a week ago, I was first able to test the Pixel 9 Pro XL for several days before then switching to the smaller Pixel 9 Pro. I have not held back on my usage. If anything, I’ve gone out of my way to push these devices harder than usual to see how these batteries hold up.

To recap, the Pixel 9 Pro has a 4700mAh battery and the Pixel 9 Pro XL has a 5060mAh battery. That gives us a battery in the Pixel 9 Pro XL that matches the Pixel 8 Pro, a device that had battery life I wasn’t too worried about, but I wouldn’t place it near the top of the smartphone battery king pile. And for the Pixel 9 Pro, we don’t have a phone to compare it to. However, a 4700mAh for a phone this size is quite large, at least in my opinion.

We also have a new Tensor G4 chip that Google says is their most efficient yet, a new Samsung modem (with truly promising results so far), those batteries we just talked about, and new LTPO displays. This combination sure seems to be bringing big improvements overall in terms of efficiency.

PIXEL 9 BATTERY RESULTS: For my testing, like I said earlier, I started with the Pixel 9 Pro XL. I (unfortunately) failed to take enough screenshots the first couple of days, but at least one shows 3 hours of screen on time and 63% charge remaining. This was only the middle of the day that included 40 minutes of Pokemon Go, some quality time with the camera, and all of the rest of the apps I typically run (Chrome, Instagram, Threads, Google News, Telegram, etc.). One of the days I fell asleep before I could snap the screenie, I’m pretty sure I was going to bed with 40% battery and 4 hours of screen on time. I just hammered on the Pixel 9 Pro XL for the first few days and it just wouldn’t drop fast enough.

And then a Pixel 9 Pro review unit showed up to let me truly get to work. On one of my first charges, I was at 3.5 hours of screen on time and going to bed with 21%. That’s not anything special, but it’s only gotten better with each day. On Saturday, Pokemon Go was having a community day, where my son and I go walk for a couple of hours in the sun with Pokemon Go running (and on a data connection only). We took both Pixel 9 Pro phones with us to absolutely crush their charges. As it turns out, even that situation couldn’t bring the Pixel 9 Pro down. The day finished with 5.5 hours of screen on time (most of which was on LTE or 5G), another 30 minutes of a Stealth Master session from my son, and then the rest of my daily grind. I had 10% battery in the evening, and that’s just incredible stuff.

I then followed that day up with another 4 hour screen on time day and 29% battery when I went to bed, plus another 4-hour day with 39% at bed time yesterday. I think the battery life on the Pixel 9 Pro is getting better and better.

PIXEL 9 PRO XL CHARGING SPEED: As far as charging goes, I have not fully tested Google’s claim of 27W charging for the Pixel 9 Pro and 37W charging on the Pixel 9 Pro XL because I do not have their new 45W charger. I do have a beast of an Anker charger, though, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL is topping out at 27.2W. That’s not super fast or that slow, but if you really want that extra juice, the 45W charger could be worth it, assuming it’ll actually hit those numbers. This charger I have is more than capable, yet this phone just can’t get there for some reason.

A recent charging session took this Pixel 9 Pro XL from 12% battery to 51% in 20 minutes at that 27W rate. That’s not bad at all.

Of course, both have wireless charging and Google’s charging is smart enough to fully trickle charge these devices overnight, until you wake up. They’ll leave you with a 100% charge by the morning while still taking care of your battery.

So yeah, battery life is without a doubt a highlight on the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL. For you super heavy users, I think you’ll find two devices that can hang with your daily lives. For small phone lovers (like me), we just found our new best friend.