The launch of Google Pixel 9 proves that RAM is the next big smartphone separator
Like the Samsung Galaxy S24 event before it, the Google Pixel 9 launch was a showcase of new software and new hardware. Sure, Google unveiled no fewer than seven new devices (including four new phones) at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, but infinitely more stage time was devoted to the Google Gemini features that will run on those devices than to the cameras, displays, or batteries under their respective hoods.
Apple will also no doubt put Apple Intelligence at the center of its iPhone 16 launch, with rumored improvements to buttons and batteries likely to take a back seat to a smarter Siri and other generative AI tools. So software is now calling the shots—at least when it comes to marketing the best phones (how many AI-focused Samsung ads have interrupted your soccer game?). But that doesn’t mean hardware no longer matters.
AI-heavy smartphones require immense processing power (read: powerful chipsets) and RAM capacity enough to juggle multiple power-hungry software features simultaneously. Google was never able to equip its best Pixel phones with iPhone-beating chipsets, but it at least future-proofed the Google Pixel 9 Pro and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL with a whopping 16GB of RAM.
Such a large amount of RAM should ensure that both phones can handle the inevitably demanding AI features that Google will bring to them later, and it also sets a new benchmark for other handset makers.
As TechRadar’s US phone chief Philip Berne noted in his hands-on review of the Google Pixel 9 Pro, “16GB of RAM is a huge amount of storage for a mobile device. Samsung’s most powerful phone, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, only has 12GB of RAM, and you’d have to buy a gaming phone like an Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro to get 16GB or more before the Pixel 9 Pro comes along.”
“I suspect (that much) RAM isn’t for today – it’s for the future. I was very skeptical that today’s Pixel phones, like the Pixel 8, would really survive the seven years of updates that Google promises (…), but adding more RAM than is needed at launch is one way to ensure the Pixel 9 Pro has enough headroom for all the AI vehicles that will be parked in the Pixel garage.”
RAM is arguably the most important spec to look for when buying a new phone these days. Powerful chipsets are certainly a bonus, but they’re no longer the be-all and end-all.
After all, there’s a reason Apple limits Apple Intelligence features to iPhones with 8GB of RAM—at the time of writing, that’s just the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max—and the thinking is that even 8GB may not be enough to get the most out of Apple’s large language model (LLM).
Google is making no such concessions, and while we wait with bated breath for the inevitable AI-packed iPhone 16 Pro, Apple has its hands full if it wants to break Google’s dominance in our guide to the best AI phones.
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