Every Pixel 9 Model, Regardless Of Which Storage Variant You Get, Supports The Slower UFS 3.1 Standard Instead Of UFS 4.0

Google left out most of the hardware specifications belonging to each Pixel 9 model during the official announcement, and for good reason, because we can imagine that customers wanting to pre-order one of these would be absolutely livid if they found out that the newest flagships ship with UFS 3.1 storage instead of UFS 4.0.

UFS 3.1 is typically used in ‘price to performance’ smartphones to lower their cost, while the high-end Android smartphones are equipped with faster standards, so it definitely comes as a surprise that Google would take this route. However, as much as we prefer seeing cutting-edge technology being used in flagship handsets, please do not consider it a dealbreaker for the reasons that you are about to read.

UFS 4.0 is twice as fast as UFS 3.1, but it will matter little if the Pixel 9 lineup delivers a top-tier and responsive experience to the user

There were rumors making the rounds, talking about this claim, so Android Authority decided to ask Google directly. Sadly, the advertising giant has confirmed that even if customers pre-order the top-end storage versions, they will not experience speeds higher than the UFS 3.1 standard. Based on the testing done by the publication, sequential read and write and random read and write speeds on the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL are much slower compared to the competition.

The base model tops out at 980MB/s, while the Pixel 9 Pro XL can reach 911MB/s speeds. Compared to the Zenfone 11 Ultra, which is equipped with UFS 4.0 storage, Android Authority found that this smartphone’s top speed reached 2,130MB/s, which is twice as fast as UFS 3.1. Now, this major difference should immediately discourage customers from picking up any Pixel 9 model when it is available for purchase, right?

Not at all, unless you are transferring gigabytes of data from your Pixel 9 to a laptop, then yes, UFS 4.0 would present a major advantage. How about 4K or 8K video recording? An 8K 60FPS video requires 750MB/s of sequential write