Pixel 9’s new Dual Exposure video is a simple game-changer

So, yesterday was the day that all the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL videos hit the web; and I was a tad nervous. Having penned my initial post-embargo article fawning over how much I’m loving the Pixel 9 Pro XL, I was a bit concerned that I’d have a bit of egg on my face with other, more phone-centric reviewers saying they hate it for some reason.

To my relief, that didn’t happen and it genuinely feels like this year’s Pixels – while obviously not perfect – get a lot right that Google’s gotten wrong in the past. You don’t have to look far to see those reviews and over the coming weeks, I’ll be writing about this lovely phone quite a bit. But I did notice something missing from the reviews I watched so far, and it is really one of my favorite things about these new phones from Google.

Dual Exposure video capture

I mentioned it in my previous post, but I’m so impressed by the basic video camera improvements this year. Sure, there are fancier additions in the camera app and Google Photos that leverage AI and ML to reframe your photos, enhance your photos, add yourself to a photo, and generally change a photo into all manner of creations.

But without all those additional features, added settings, and upload requirements, how is the camera this year out of the box? For me, the stills I’m getting are as good as expected from a Pixel phones with small improvements here and there; but the biggest leap forward this year is the quality of the video thanks to the new Dual Exposure feature that is in play every time you record anything.

With Google’s AI/ML magic, the Pixel 9 Pro XL I’ve been using automatically snags a high exposure and low exposure video at the same time and uses the two together in real time to create videos that require no skill from the person holding the camera to look flat-out fantastic. Take a look at this video from a very dimly lit room with only accent lighting that simply turned on the video camera and snagged. Side note: the video looks even better in person without YouTube’s compression on it.

Point and shoot video

Let’s face it, without Joe around, our YouTube channel would be horrendous. I don’t know a ton about video, exposure, F-stops, bokeh or any of the rest of it. I can hold a conversation and I get the general premise of all of it, but I’ve never invested the time required to get good at leveraging any of that knowledge to set up a shot, capture a scene perfectly, or get the lighting just right. Simply put, I appreciate the end result, but I don’t have the passion to get good using that knowledge to make my videos look great.

Instead, like I do with photography, I just want the camera to figure out the best general settings and get the image on the screen as good as possible. That’s why I’ve loved Pixel photography over the years: I see something, I point the camera at it, hit the button, and generally get a great looking photo.

And with this year’s Pixel phones, I feel like the same is true with video. I mean look at the video up there! That’s a dark room with harsh lights from a projector and lots of dim, poorly lit areas and the shot looks great. I can throw on HDR and make it even better, but I love the fact that I can simply use the Pixel 9 Pro XL camera with no settings, hit the button and capture the scene in a very pleasing way.

Talk about using AI the right way! And sure, I know we can do Night Site video, Cinematic Pan, Video Boost, up-scaling, super steady cam, Speech Enhancement and more, but most of the time I need to grab my phone and get a video of something happening in real time. Now, when I go to do that with the Pixel 9 Pro XL, I feel so much more confident that the end result is going to look amazing.