Zoom Enhance has been a long time coming (it's a feature Google first announced almost a year ago at the launch of the Pixel 8), but now it's finally here.
The feature will be available on Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold on day one, and is now rolling out to Pixel 8 Pro as well; unfortunately, the standard Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 aren't available.
While it remains to be seen how well Zoom Enhance will work, it could be a huge benefit to long-range photography fans. The feature uses AI to interpolate information between existing pixels in an image to create detail, so you can zoom in more extensively on photos after you've taken them, without losing quality.
Big zoom abilities
As a reminder, the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 8 Pro already feature 5x optical zoom, along with 30x Super Res Zoom (a digital zoom that uses AI to enhance details when taking a photo).
So there was already a lot of zoom potential here, and Zoom Enhance simply adds to that, allowing you to zoom in even further after you've taken a photo, or zoom in on shots you forgot to zoom in on when you took them.
And this is just one of the many AI camera features you’ll find on the Pixel 9 line. There are also features like Super Res Zoom Video (for AI-enhanced video zoom), Video Boost to improve video quality, Add Me, which lets the person who took a group photo add themselves to it, and a new Reimagine feature in Magic Editor, which lets you completely transform the photos you take.
These are just a few examples, so if you're looking for AI-powered photography (and, in particular, AI-powered zoom), the Pixel 9 Pro series might be the phone to buy. You might want to wait for us to publish our full reviews before purchasing, though.
