By far the biggest launch this week was the arrival of the Google Pixel 9 series. The search giant unveiled two new flagships, a new near-flagship phone and a new foldable, all of which are currently on pre-order.
Google and Amazon are offering store credit with the purchase of a Pixel 9 phone and some accessories like the new buds.
The Google Pixel 9 starts at $1,100 for the base 128GB model and fetches $150 in store credit. Additionally, you can trade-in an old phone – a Pixel 8 in good condition is valued at $380, a Pixel 7 at $300, a Galaxy S23 at $365. Old Apple phones get the best trade-in value with an iPhone 15 listed at $520 and a 14 at $450.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL come with a free 1-year subscription to Google’s premium AI plan, Gemini Advanced (this is normally worth $27 a month). Note that the Pixel 9 Pro is all out of stock at the time of writing.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL comes with $275 in store credit. And if you send in an iPhone 15 Pro Max, the price will be reduced by $735. A 14 Pro Max is valued at $590.
You might want to get a case to protect your new phone – the official cases from Google are made with recycled materials (at least 42% of the total, 85% of the polycarbonate shell). The Pixel 9 and 9 Pro are the same size, so they use the same cases, the larger Pixel 9 Pro XL has a separate case – both cost the same $50.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold gets the most store credit yet, $475, and it needs it too. A trade-in won’t hurt either, e.g. you can get $500 for a Pixel 8 Pro or $600 for a Galaxy Z Fold5. The Fold also gets a year of free Gemini Advanced.
Google launched a new 45W charger, which you will need to get the maximum charge speed with the Pixel 9 Pro – the old 35W charger won’t cut it. That said, if you have a USB-PD charger you are happy with, you can skip this one.
The new Google Pixel Watch 3 is available in two sizes, 41mm and 45mm, not just 41mm like the first two models. You can have it in Wi-Fi or LTE, the latter is a $120 upgrade.
The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 get a small $40 store credit to help soften the blow of the $300 price tag. These feature the first of its kind Tensor A1 chipset, which doubles the ANC performance in the 400Hz-2kHz range.
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