Google Pixel 9 Launch Highlights RAM as the Next Major Smartphone Differentiator

Like the Samsung Galaxy S24 event before it, the Google Pixel 9 launch was a presentation of new software and new hardware. Google unveiled at least seven new devices (including four new phones) at its Mountain View, California headquarters, but infinitely more stage time was spent on the Google Gemini features that run on these devices than on the cameras, displays, or batteries under the hood of each.

It’s also safe to say that Apple will put Apple Intelligence front and center in its upcoming iPhone 16 launch, with the rumored button and battery upgrades likely taking a back seat to a smarter Siri and other generative AI tools. So software now takes the lead, at least when it comes to how the best phones are marketed (how many of Samsung’s AI-focused ads have interrupted your football game?). But that doesn’t mean hardware no longer plays a role.

AI-heavy smartphones require huge amounts of processing power (i.e. powerful chipsets) and enough RAM capacity to handle multiple power-hungry software features simultaneously. Google has never been able to equip its best Pixel smartphones with chips that outperform the iPhone, but at least the Google Pixel 9 Pro and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL are future-proofed with an astounding 16GB of RAM.

Such a large amount of RAM will ensure that both phones can handle the inevitably demanding AI features that Google will impose on them later, setting a new benchmark for other phone makers.

TechRadar’s US head of phones, Philip Berne, said this in a hands-on test of the Google Pixel 9 Pro: Samsung’s most powerful phone, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, only has 12GB of RAM, and you’ll need to buy a gaming phone like the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro to have 16GB or more before the Pixel 9 Pro hits the market.

“My guess is that [such a large amount of] RAM isn’t for today – it’s for what’s to come. I’ve been very skeptical that today’s Pixel phones, like the Pixel 8, will really last through the seven years of updates that Google is promising […] but adding more RAM than is needed at launch is a way to make sure that the Pixel 9 Pro has spare headroom for whatever AI vehicles get parked in the Pixel garage.”

So, right now, We would say that the most important spec to consider when looking at a new phone is RAM. While a powerful chipset is certainly a bonus, it’s no longer everything.

Finally, there’s a reason why Apple limits its Apple Intelligence features to iPhones with 8GB of RAM. That’s only the iPhone 15 at the time. Writing about the Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max makes me wonder if even 8GB isn’t enough to take full advantage of Apple’s Large Language Models (LLMs).

Google has made no such concessions, and as we wait with bated breath for the inevitable AI-equipped iPhone 16 Pro, Apple has its hands full trying to scupper Google’s dominance in our best AI phones guide.