With the Pixel 9 series going official, the Android Police news crew gets to hand the reins over to the review and how-to teams for the bulk of our coverage going forward. Here in the newsroom, our attention now turns to Android 15‘s imminent release and Galaxy S25 rumors in the lead-up to an announcement in early 2025. Forward, never backwards and all that.
But this week wasn’t just about hardware — Gemini AI had a busy last seven days, too. And the availability of older Google Phones went on a bit of a roller-coaster ride, so buckle in as we recap one of the busiest weeks of the year in Android news.
Last Week’s Roundup
Google sure is looking a little evil in this week’s top Android headlines
Illegal monopolies, backroom deals, and more ads
Pixel 9 hardware goes official
Google’s Pixel 9 flagships were shown off with an all-new design, selfie cam autofocus across the board, and a new entrant in the lineup (but no Android 15, sadly). There’s a new 45W power brick sold separately, but the phones themselves still only accept up to 27W of juice, meaning they’ll charge no faster with it than the Pixel 8 would. Except for the Pixel 9 Pro XL, that is — this is the only model that Google gave 37W charging capabilities, so it’s the only one to get the fastest charging speeds.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold was introduced as the successor to the Pixel Fold, and it brought a bigger screen and longer software support at the same price point. The Pixel Buds Pro 2 made their debut with even more AI smarts and the first-ever Google Tensor-branded audio chip. And the Pixel Watch 3 arrived with a new, larger model in tow, sporting an industry-first Loss of Pulse Detection feature that could genuinely be a lifesaver.
Main Story
Google’s Pixel 9 flagships go official with a new model that suffers from shrinkflation
Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and a more expensive 9 Pro XL are here
Galaxy S25 rumor season kicks off
If you’re more interested in what Samsung has to offer than you are in Google’s hardware, these next four or five months are for you. With the Pixel 9 launch in the rearview, Galaxy S25 rumor season is now officially upon us, and it’s here a little early, in part thanks to Google bumping its announcement date forward.
The first Galaxy S25 leak we saw this week dealt with the design of the Ultra model: the one and only Ice Universe shared a mockup of the phone’s screen and bezels, and the most noticeable difference is a set of rounded corners that don’t quite take things to iPhone levels, but still drastically change the look. And according to the latest rumor, that’s not the only thing set for a shakeup — Samsung is reportedly considering changing its model names for the larger Galaxy S variants, with the S25+ potentially called the S25 Pro, and the S25 Ultra possibly being renamed to the S25 Note.
Older Google products are on life support
Last week’s announcement of the Google TV Streamer marked the end of the Chromecast era, with Google shifting focus away from the popular smart TV dongle and towards its new set-top box. While the Streamer ships with Android 14, Chromecasts are still stuck on Android 13. But at least we learned Google hasn’t abandoned Chromecasts yet and appears poised to bring Android 14 to the device eventually.
Meanwhile, immediately after the Made By Google event, we noticed Pixel 7 models and the original Pixel Fold were no longer available on the Google Store. Since then, Google has come out and said it plans to continue selling Pixel Folds in the future once stock is available, but it was surprisingly silent about the Pixel 7.
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Google says it hasn’t given up on the original Pixel Fold just yet
The foldable will be back up for sale soon
Gemini takes a major step forward
Gemini AI capabilities were used as a framing device for Google’s Pixel 9 sales pitch — first, the company hyped up its AI platform and the recent growth it’s seen, then Google showed how the Pixel 9 fit into that platform. In doing so, the company announced some significant improvements to its AI chatbot, like the fact that it can now run some Google Assistant Routines or that Gemini-powered AI Overviews have gone global in Google Search.
And Google seems to be serious about these features, pushing them out the door while hype levels are still high. Case in point, Gemini Live was announced on Tuesday and included in a Project Astra tease during the keynote, and then by Thursday, it had already started hitting phones. But it isn’t all coming right away — at the end of its keynote, Google teased a feature called Research with Gemini, which it hopes will finally make the tool a “true AI assistant,” but this one isn’t expected until “the coming months.”
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Gemini Live has started landing on phones only days after reveal
A Google One AI Premium plan is required
Android 15 is still on the way
On late Tuesday after the event, Google quietly released Android 15 Beta 4.2. There wasn’t much to it — only bug fixes, really — but that in itself is newsworthy. As we had heard in a rumor during the lead-up to the Pixel 9 event, Google’s new phones did not launch with its new OS version per tradition. But that same rumor had pegged Android 15 for a September stable launch, and with only minor bug fixes showing up in the changelog, it appears that things are still holding to schedule.
Main Story
Google releases Android 15 Beta 4.2 with more bug fixes
The company is not yet done squashing bugs
