Poll results: Your favorite Pixel 9 designs and colors revealed

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

Google unveiled the Pixel 9 series to some fanfare on Tuesday, and we can’t wait to find out if the performance lives up to the hype. Meanwhile, we’ve been getting sneak peeks of the four phones in the lineup for weeks, thanks to leaks and tipsters. That let us form some first impressions about the colors and designs of the devices, but we were more interested in your early thoughts. Was it love at first sight? Or was a shrug all that you could muster? We’ve been running some Pixel 9 polls of our readers to get their views on the designs and colors of the handsets.

We’ve been asking four questions about this theme, and we’ll start by looking at the color options. We asked which of the Pixel 9 Pro colors you liked most, with the possibilities being Hazel (grayish green), Obsidian (dark gray/black), Porcelain (white/cream), and Rose Quartz (light pink). We also gave you the option to say that you weren’t a fan of any of them. We were interested to know because not all the colors are the same as the Pixel 8 series, and not even every Pixel 9 model has the same four choices. Hazel and Rose Quartz are new to the Pixel 9 Pro this year, with the Bay (blue) colorway no longer featured. Let’s see what you told us.

A chief Google designer somewhere probably feels very smug, as the definitive winner of this poll was the new Hazel color. The light grayish hue stood out for a massive 42% of those responding to the survey, including the people who weren’t keen on any of the colors. It makes sense that a fresh look was most likely to win as everyone is more keen to voice an opinion on something new, and it works both ways. The other newcomer was Rose Quartz, and it faired the worst in the survey, garnering less than 10% of the vote. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by that result either — a pink phone is likely aimed at a few choice demographics rather than attempting to gain mass appeal.

The carryover colors from the Pixel 8 Pro are Obsidian and Porcelain, both of which drew around a fifth of the vote in the poll. Just over 10% of readers weren’t impressed with any of the colorways, so perhaps a Pixel 9 Pro case is in order if they still want the device.

We’ll turn to design next, and Google has made some significant changes in the latest generation of Pixels. The iconic camera bar is gone, screens are flatter, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a whole new shape compared to its predecessor, and we’ve even got a brand new handset in the range. What did you make of it all? We asked how you like the look of the Pixel 9 series.

It might be that our savvy readers already know which handset they want, and the Pixel 9 Pro has drawn extra votes on that basis. Around a third of the respondents judged the series at large, with 18.5% saying that they’re fans of all four devices and around 14% stating that all the phones are ugly.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold came out worst in this poll, with only 6% of the vote. That could mean only 6% of buyers are interested in it at all or that most people preferred the look of the original Fold prior to the big switch in dimensions. Neither sounds like great news for the latest Android foldable, but we dug a bit deeper on that point. We asked you what you think about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s new form factor, and those results are up next.

The short-and-wide approach on the original Fold has been scrapped, with the new device offering a larger screen on a taller and thinner body that’s more akin to other foldables on the market. Google must have done its market research to conclude this would be a popular change, and our Pixel 9 Pro Fold poll appears to vindicate the tech giant. 56% of respondents suggested that the new form factor was better in this poll, with only 30% protesting that it was worse.

There were 14% of people for whom the form factor looked about the same, which is fair enough. It’ll take more than a few dimension changes to excite some people either way.

In any event, the real battle of the Pixel generations should be fought by the classic models. We were also keen to hear your take on that evolution, so we asked if you prefer the design of the Pixel 8 Pro or the Pixel 9 Pro XL. You would intuitively think that the Pixel 9 Pro was the successor to the Pixel 8 Pro, but it’s actually the 9 Pro XL that matches up most closely in terms of dimensions. The question is, did you think it was an improvement?

And there it is, the Pixel 9 Pro XL takes the poll win with over 60% of the vote. Everyone will have their own reasons for choosing the new design over the old. For many, it might be a referendum on the camera bar, which is the most obvious difference when you just compare shots of the two devices. We got some clues from the audience in the comments section as to why they voted the way they did. As reader Neil put it, “Great to have a phone that looks like the tin can head of Bender from Futurama.”