We’ve made so many jokes through the years concerning the in-display fingerprint reader utilized in Google’s most up-to-date Pixel telephones, as a result of the sensor has been so unhealthy that with each replace, of us take to remark sections and reddit to proclaim that the replace has one way or the other magically improved them. The updates by no means do as a result of the sensor is simply unhealthy and will solely ever be so quick.
We’ve additionally taken loads of photographs on the mobile connectivity of the Pixel line over its swap to Tensor chips and Samsung modems due to their incapability to carry a steady connection to mobile networks, the overheating that usually accompanies non-WiFi exercise, and the battery drain that follows. Previous Google telephones have had some main points, when you can’t inform.
For the Pixel 9 Professional, we had been curious if the brand new Samsung modem and new ultrasonic fingerprint reader may deliver us pleasure after a lot ache. Because it seems, they actually can.
NEW PIXEL 9 FINGERPRINT READER IS FAST: In a write-up shortly after Google’s Pixel occasion final week, we talked concerning the new fingerprint reader, which Qualcomm confirmed is their 3D Sonic Gen 2 ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.
This factor simply reads to unlock and does it rapidly each single time you scan your thumb. The misinterpret or error price on this Pixel 9 Professional fingerprint reader has obtained to be extremely low. I can in all probability depend on a single hand the variety of occasions this factor has failed over the previous week.
With each display screen off or display screen awake, you simply want to softly contact your fingertip to the fingerprint spot, you’ll get a refined vibration to acknowledge the scan, after which you’re in. That’s it. There’s no wiggling of your finger or misreads that frustrate you into swiping your sample or pin as an alternative.
I hate to spend an excessive amount of time on one thing as minor as a fingerprint reader, however man, these earlier sensors had been terrible. Google supplied a large enchancment in an space we weren’t positive they’d ever determine.
NEW SAMSUNG MODEM IMPRESSES: The Pixel 9 sequence has a brand new Samsung modem, which wouldn’t usually get us excited. Samsung’s modems in earlier Pixel telephones have been disasters at occasions. Just some months in the past, we had been speaking a few botched replace for the Pixel 7 sequence that left folks with out steady texting or calling skills. The dropped mobile connections and airplane toggling actions to revive them have grow to be on a regular basis duties for a lot of Pixel homeowners. Even with final yr’s Pixel 8 Professional, Tim bumped into so many mobile points that he examined out a number of networks as a result of he discovered it exhausting to consider {that a} telephone (a telephone) may very well be the issue (it was).
Over the previous 8 days of testing, I’ve spent loads of day trip of my home on mobile connections with each the Pixel 9 Professional and Pixel 9 Professional XL and haven’t had any mobile drops. None. Zero. I’ve additionally skilled no overheating, a telephone that is still at what I’d name “regular working temperatures,” and no battery drain when off of WiFi and placing in work on both T-Cellular or Verizon’s networks.
this when you examine how spectacular battery life has been, however I took each telephones out for a 2 hour Pokemon Go session this previous weekend in 80-degree warmth with screens on the whole time and data-only connections and had no points. The telephones labored, they lasted, and the connections remained steady all through.
We’ll proceed testing to see if Google has lastly solved one of many Pixel line’s worst ongoing points, however up to now issues are trying good within the modem and fingerprint departments.