Google Pixel 9 vs Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.3-inch Google Pixel 9 (with Google Tensor G4) that was released on August 13, 2024, against the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 3 years before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Google Pixel 9
  • Delivers 112% higher peak brightness (2220 against 1049 nits)
  • Has 2x more RAM: 12GB versus 6GB
  • 35% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1561K versus 1153K)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • The phone is 3 years newer
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Shows 25% longer battery life (28:08 vs 22:26 hours)
  • Has a 0.4 inch larger screen size
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
  • 42% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2427 and 1707 points

Review

Evaluation of Google Pixel 9 and Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 0% Yes
No, we don't think this update is worth it.
Moving from Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max to Google Pixel 9 will likely not feel like a meaningful upgrade.
Main improvements: connectivity, camera, and display.
Be aware: the newer phone is weaker in gaming and battery life.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type OLED OLED
Size 6.3 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2424 pixels 1284 x 2778 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 422 ppi 458 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (60-120 Hz) Yes (10-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 2700 nits 1000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1800 nits 1200 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 -
Screen-to-body ratio 87.1% 87.7%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99% 99.9%
PWM 120 Hz 238 Hz
Response time 1 ms 8.5 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
iPhone 13 Pro Max
6.7″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
Pixel 9
6.3″ (20:9 ratio) = 14.9 in2
~14% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Pixel 9 +112%
2220 nits
1049 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 152.8 mm (6.02 inches) 160.8 mm (6.33 inches)
Width 72 mm (2.83 inches) 78.1 mm (3.07 inches)
Thickness 8.5 mm (0.33 inches) 7.65 mm (0.3 inches)
Weight 198 g (6.98 oz) 240 g (8.47 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Green, Pink Black, Silver, Gold, Blue, Green
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Repairability Good (3.5/5) -
Drop resistance Excellent (A) · 270 drops -
Screen-to-body ratio
87.1%
87.7%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Google Pixel 9 and Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
SoC
Chipset Google Tensor G4 Apple A15 Bionic
Max clock 3100 MHz 3230 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.92 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 3 cores at 2.6 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 3.1 GHz: Cortex-X4
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Blizzard
- 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Yes Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Mali-G715 MC7 Apple GPU (5 cores)
GPU shading units 896 640
GPU clock 940 MHz 1338 MHz
FLOPS ~1684.4 GFLOPS ~1712.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Google Pixel 9 and Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
1707
2427
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
4431
6142
Compute Score (GPU)
7536
21357
Compute Score (GPU) 7536 21357
Single-core score 1707 2427
Multi-core score 4431 6142
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Pixel 9 +35%
1561427
CPU 576617 276639
GPU 410060 369897
Memory 210177 116764
UX 364573 390373
Total score 1561427 1153673
Samples [4 tests] [3 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 74% -
Graphics test 8 FPS -
Graphics score 1047 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 75%
Graphics test - 14 FPS
Section 1 - 19 FPS
Section 2 - 14 FPS
Section 3 - 9 FPS
Graphics score - 3785
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 73%
Graphics test - 17 FPS
Graphics score - 2960
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 10043 -
Video editing 7463 -
Photo editing 21077 -
Data manipulation 13349 -
Writing score 15810 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Google Pixel 9
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-18 -> Oleg 16 cmAnTuTu 111423579
📘 2026-06-13 (Plotwa)CPU Throttle82%
📘 2026-04-14 (LymXT)AnTuTu 111577137
📘 2025-12-09 (enigma)AnTuTu 111519937
📘 2025-11-28 (W1TRAY)AnTuTu 111561427
Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-12 -> HotPowerGeekbench 7 CPU2155 / 5548
📘 2026-09-23 -> HotPowerAnTuTu 111184759
📘 2026-09-19 -> HotPowerGeekbench 6 GPU21284
📘 2026-09-19 -> HotPowerGeekbench 6 CPU2423 / 5985
📘 2026-09-12 (Simon)AnTuTu 111146332

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4X
Memory clock 4200 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 17) iOS 15 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM Stock Android -
OS size 19 GB 13 GB
OS updates 7 years -
Security updates 7 years -

Battery

Capacity 4700 mAh 4352 mAh
Max charge power 27 W 23 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (12 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Bypass charging No No
Fast charging Yes (55% in 30 min) Yes (42% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:25 hr 1:46 hr
Battery cycles 1000 cycles -
Battery life tests
Web browsing 10:01 hr 11:16 hr
Watching video 13:38 hr 17:03 hr
Gaming 05:41 hr 06:41 hr
Standby 98 hr 136 hr
General battery life
22:26 hr
28:08 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6144 4032 x 3024
Zoom Digital Optical, 3x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 48 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.7 f/1.5
Focal length 24 mm 26 mm
Sensor Samsung GNK Sony IMX703
Sensor size 1/1.31" (≈ 0.76 inch) 1/1.66" (≈ 0.6 inch)
Pixel size 1.2 micron 1.9 micron
Autofocus Laser autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution - 12 MP
Aperture - f/2.8
Focal length - 77 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX713
Sensor size - 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size - 1 micron
Stabilization - Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 48 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.7 f/1.8
Focal length - 13 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX772
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size - 1 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Pixel 9 +15%
161
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 75 75
Preview 83 81
Zoom 132 119
Samples Photo samples of Google Pixel 9 from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 10.5 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 3648 x 2736 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 20 mm 23 mm
Sensor CMOS Sony IMX514
Sensor size 1/3.1" (≈ 0.32 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes
DxOMark front camera
Photo - 128
Video - 143

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C -
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes -
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* - 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
Pixel 9 +9%
87.7 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced August 2024 September 2021
Release date August 2024 September 2021
Launch price (MSRP) $799 $1100
Successor - Google Pixel 10 - Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
SAR (head) 0.99 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.4 W/kg 0.98 W/kg
Sensors - Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Not included -
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the display, camera, and connectivity are more important to you, then choose the Google Pixel 9. But if the performance, gaming, battery life, software, and sound are more of a priority – go for the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
9 (81.8%)
2 (18.2%)
Total votes: 11

User opinions

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