The Pixel 9 series has more RAM, but it's not all available to you

After launching the first three generations of Pixel phones with 4GB of RAM, Google upgraded to 6GB RAM on the Pixel 4 series. The Pixel 5 series received another 2GB upgrade, bumping the memory up to 8GB, but the company hasn’t offered another RAM upgrade since. That changes with the all-new Pixel 9 series, which packs 12GB of RAM on the base model and 16GB on the Pro models. However, it’s not all available to users.

Google has taken a novel approach to enhance the Gemini experience on the Pixel 9 series. The company has optimized the Tensor G4 chip on the devices to run Gemini Nano with multi-modality, which is Google’s most efficient AI model for on-device processing.

Along with the chipset enhancements, Google has dedicated a portion of the additional RAM on the Pixel 9 series to run Gemini Nano with multi-modality. The company claims that this approach will ensure a faster and smoother AI experience.

Google has not revealed exactly how much RAM it has reserved for the AI model, but it has clarified that the dedicated RAM “carve out” will be used for all AI-based applications, and users won’t get it back if they choose to switch to the Google Assistant.

We can’t wait to see whether this new approach results in significant performance improvements while performing AI-related tasks. It will also be interesting to see if dedicating a chunk of the RAM to Gemini adversely affects multitasking on the base model. Stay tuned to our coverage for a detailed review of the Pixel 9 series for more relevant details.