The Google Pixel 9 Pro has several key upgrades over the outgoing Pixel 8 that both earn it its “pro” moniker and justify its price premium over the Pixel 9. One of those is an upgraded LTPO display panel — or at least it was supposed to be. Turns out, you’ll have to read the fine print.
The Pixel 9 Pro and even the Pixel 9 Pro XL may not have LTPO displays in USA, Malaysia, and Singapore. In those regions, they have Actua Displays instead of the Super Actua Displays used on devices sold in the rest of the world. Note that Actua and Super Actua technology are more about screen brightness than refresh rate, but it still shows that different panels are used. That’s odd considering the Pixel 8 Pro (the large phone that’s the predecessor to the 9 Pro XL) already had an LTPO panel.
This might not be 100% accurate, as the specs list “1280 x 2856 LTPO OLED at 495 PPI” and “1344 x 2992 LTPO OLED at 486 PPI” for the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL respectively. The online stores even say “Super Actua Displays”. Still, Google needs to clarify things and give a definite yes or no.
Anyway, there’s more – Pixel 9 phones sold in USA don’t support Wi-Fi 7, but phones sold elsewhere (including Malaysia and Singapore) do. This includes the two Pro models and the vanilla Pixel9.
What about the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold? That has an LTPO inner screen and a regular Actua cover screen everywhere else. But the Wi-Fi situation is unclear. The Indian model is listed as supporting “Wi-Fi 7 (802.11ax)”. Wi-Fi 7 is 802.11beax is Wi-Fi 6, so that’s a typo. This error is in both the online store’s specs and on the Google support page. But is the “7” a typo, or is it the “ax”? Given that its siblings don’t have Wi-Fi 7, we’d guess the Fold doesn’t either.
It should be noted that USA’s wireless agency still hasn’t approved the use of the 6GHz band. That said, Wi-Fi 7 has improvements that also work in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, so there’s no reason to drop support regardless of whether the phones ever use the 6GHz band.
We also noticed that Google VPN, which is free for Pixel 9 users, is not available in the following countries: Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, USA, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
There are a few other differences, but those are the usual regional differences. For example, different regions use different 5G bands (sub-6GHz and mmWave), Pixels in Japan support FeliCa, and so on. The other differences are harder to explain, though.