Save $350 on Android iPhones this Black Friday

Black Friday Deals Alert: the Google Pixel 9 Pro Currently $350 early bird discount Black Friday salesWhich makes for an impressive price tag of $649.

CNET’s key takeaways

While Android users swear by it, plenty of other people are taking it into consideration Android phones To feel overly complicated. The user interface isn’t quite as easy to adjust as Apple’s offerings. Although it may seem unreasonable, Samsung Galaxy S25 The Band, for example, has deep menu settings that let you tweak almost every aspect of the phone. It can be exhausting – and even a little annoying.

For many Android users, the operating system’s deep customizability has always been a selling point at the expense of more simplicity iOS found on iPhone phones from Apple. But just because you want an Android phone, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a die-hard tech geek who wants to fiddle with menus all day.

Although it is not the latest model – it is The Pixel 10 Pro is priced at $899 right now — The Pixel 9 Pro is the easiest Android phone I’ve ever used, and there are a number of reasons why.

My experience with the Pixel 9 Pro phone

First, it’s Google’s own phone, which means there’s no secondary manufacturer’s software skin on top of the operating system. It’s pure, uncut Android. Google’s interface is clean, easy to read, and uncluttered. Naturally, it uses Google’s own apps by default. Meanwhile, Samsung loads its phones with its own browser, email client and photo gallery, all of which sit alongside Google’s Chrome, Gmail and Photos apps, meaning you already have duplicate versions of each tool.

Samsung isn’t the only phone maker doing this. Almost all Android phone companies load their phones with at least their own browser and gallery app, while some companies, like Samsung and Honor, go so far as to create their own email and calendar clients.

I recently did a review Honor 400 ProOne big issue I found with this phone was the amount of junk that comes preloaded as standard. Third-party apps from TikTok, LinkedIn, WPS office, Temu, and a variety of others are available as soon as you launch them for the first time, making the phone look cluttered, bloated, and complicated before you even get a chance to install a single app of your own. The Pixel has none of this.

It’s the same with AI tools. Samsung has its own Bixby assistant, as well as a wide variety of its own AI functions. The Honor 400 Pro has a range of AI features for real-time translation and transcription, as does… OnePlus 13 And many other modern Android phones. But they all come with Google’s Gemini Advanced software as well, as well as the search circuit. The Pixel doesn’t need to double down in vain. If you want to use AI with your phone, its tools will be integrated into the heart of the phone experience without you also having to activate and log into a third-party service.

This simple approach extends to the camera as well. Open the default camera app and you’ll be faced with a sleek interface, consisting mostly of a shutter button and zoom levels, with other shooting modes found alongside. This app isn’t trying to overcomplicate things here, but rather allows you to take photos quickly without messing around with settings.

It’s an approach that works here, and as a result, the Pixel 9 Pro takes some of my favorite spontaneous photos from Phone cameradoes a great job of balancing exposure and colors. I love Xiaomi 15 Ultra phone camerabut to get the best results, you need to shoot in Pro mode, with manual control of the settings, making it more suitable for advanced photographers who want to fine-tune their images.

The Pixel offers deeper control if you want it, and it’s conveniently hidden behind a small settings icon, rather than requiring you to switch entirely to ‘Pro’ mode. For those who want to manually control your white balance to warm up beautiful sunsets, the Pixel 9 Pro offers an easy way to do so.

Specifications

• 6.3-inch LTPO OLED display, 2856 x 1280 resolution, 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate
• Google Tensor G4 processor
• RAM 16 GB
• 4700 mAh battery
• 50-megapixel main camera, 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera, 48-megapixel telephoto zoom

CNET’s key takeaways

CNET Buying Advice

Google has clearly taken notes on Apple’s approach in making the Pixel range. Apple phones may be ridiculed by Android fans for their lack of customization and “locked” nature, but iPhones are known to be much easier to operate. They have integrated hardware, software, and services that make it easy to understand whether you’re new to smartphones or a gadget geek.

Apple’s “you do things our way” approach is a big part of the phone’s success, and the Pixel 9 Pro seems to be the closest approximation of the Apple experience you can find on Android. If you’re looking for a clean experience with a smartphone that doesn’t try to get in your way with unnecessary extras, the Pixel 9 Pro is definitely worth a look.