I never thought I'd carry a pink phone, but the Pixel 9 Pro changed my mind

I don’t like black phones. That has always been and will always be my personal hill to die on. So, if you see me with a black phone in my hands, you should know I had no other choice.

That’s why the early Android days were very disappointing to me. I was coming from the world of colorful Nokia Lumias and I found nothing but drab grey and black Android phones. After my dark grey HTC Desire Z, I went for a white Samsung Galaxy S3, then a white LG G3, a nice reprieve from the darkness of the tech world. And over the years, I slowly started embracing the awesome new colors that were coming to Android phones. But there’s one color where I unconsciously drew the line: pink.

Growing up, I was never a pink-wearing girl. I ran with the boys, I played basketball, I hated wearing dresses, and I tinkered with tech. Pink was an often maligned color in my mind — too girlie, too Barbie, too soft, or too flashy. Not me, basically.

But over the years, I’ve been reconciling myself with the color. It’s just a color, after all, and a nice one at that. It can be soft and subdued like on the new Google Pixel 9 Pro phones, or in your face like on the fuschia t-shirt below that I wear once a year and look ridiculously flashy in. Even before the 2023 Barbie movie phenomenon, I had slowly made my peace with pink. Except on phones. Tech, after all, is supposed to be serious business, right?

Well, when the Google Pixel 9 leaks started coming our way, my eyes immediately fell on that pink Pixel 9 Pro color. Would I dare? Over several months, I agonized, going back and forth with myself: “It’s a cool color.” “It’s pink!” “So what?” “A pink phone, really, Rita?”

Eventually, the choice was made for me by Google because there were only four color options for the Pixel 9 Pro and three of them weren’t for me. (My personal favorite color is green, so I would’ve jumped on that green shade if Google made it available for the Pro and not just the base Pixel 9 model.)

• Black was out of the question — see the first sentence in this article.
• Porcelain looked nice, but I’d carried a Pixel 7 Pro in white for 12 months in 2022-2023, and I have had many white phones already, so I wasn’t ready to go back to that kind of color just yet.
• Hazel looks nice, too, but my husband carries a Pixel 7 Pro in hazel and we already have too many phones around to add more confusion to the mix. Plus, if I’m being honest, the shade that Google went for on the Pixel 9 Pro is more grey than green.
• Rose Quartz, aka pink.

So pink it would be. And pink it was. And pink it is.

And it looks gorgeous. Smooth and desaturated enough (though I would’ve been fine with a more saturated shade as well), elegant and refined — just absolute perfection. I loved my blue Pixel 8 Pro, but this? This is better. The polished materials and design help, too, for sure.

It also bounces the light off in the most perfect way. At times, when there’s a dim warm light around me, it feels more rose gold. At others, outdoors and in bright sunlight, it looks more silver-like.

And when my Philips Hue smart lights turn into some funky pink and purple shades, well, this is the result. Judge for yourself.

TL;DR: The “Rose Quartz” Pixel 9 Pro is absolutely gorgeous, no matter the lighting and situation it’s in. And even though I never thought I’d be carrying a pink phone, I find myself with this particular pink phone in my hand and in a transparent case, no less, to show it off and enjoy its design and color. If you’re still wondering which color to pick, this is the one.