Black Friday deals alert: The Google Pixel 9 Pro is currently $350 off during early Black Friday sales, making it an impressive $649.

CNET’s key takeaways

• After months of using Google’s Pixel 9 Pro, I like its solid overall performance and quirky new AI skills.
• The element that stands out most is how easy it is to use.
• It is currently $350 off at Google.

While Android users swear by them, a lot of other people consider Android phones to feel overly complex. The user interface isn’t quite as easy to adjust as Apple’s offering. While it may sound unreasonable, Samsung’s Galaxy S25 range, for example, has deep menu settings that let you tweak nearly every aspect of the phone. It can feel overwhelming — and even a bit off-putting.

For many Android users, the deep customizability of the OS has always been a selling point over the more simplistic iOS found on Apple’s iPhones. But just because you want an Android phone, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a fanatical tech nerd who wants to tinker with menus all day. 

While it’s not the latest model — the Pixel 10 Pro is $899 right now — the Pixel 9 Pro is the easiest Android phone I’ve ever used, and there are a number of reasons why. 

My experience with the Pixel 9 Pro

First, it’s Google’s own phone, meaning there’s no secondary manufacturer software skin over the top of the operating system. It’s pure, uncut Android. Google’s interface is clean, easy to read and uncluttered. Naturally, it uses Google’s own apps by default. Samsung, meanwhile, loads its phones up with its own browser, email client and photo gallery, all of which sit beside Google’s Chrome, Gmail and Photos apps, meaning you already have duplicates of each tool. 

Samsung is not the only phonemaker to do this. Almost all Android phone companies load their phones up with at least their own browser and gallery app, while some companies, like Samsung and Honor, go as far as making their own email clients and calendars. 

I recently reviewed the Honor 400 Pro, and one of the big issues I found with that phone was how much unsolicited stuff comes pre-loaded as standard. Third-party apps from TikTok, LinkedIn, WPS office, Temu and a variety of others are all there as soon as you turn it on for the first time, making the phone feel cluttered, bloated and complicated before you’ve even had a chance to install one app of your own. The Pixel has none of this.

It’s the same with AI tools. Samsung has its Bixby assistant, plus a huge variety of its own AI functions. The Honor 400 Pro packs a bunch of AI features for real-time translation and transcription, as do the OnePlus 13 and various other recent Android phones. But they all come with Google’s Gemini Advanced, too, along with Circle to Search. The Pixel doesn’t need to pointlessly double up. If you want to use AI with your phone, its tools are baked into the heart of the phone experience without you needing to also activate and sign into a third-party service.

This simple approach extends to the camera, too. Open the default camera app and you’re met with a neat interface, comprised mostly of the shutter button and zoom levels, with other shooting modes found alongside. It doesn’t try to overcomplicate things here, instead letting you quickly shoot images without messing about with settings. 

It’s an approach that works here, and as a result, the Pixel 9 Pro takes some of my favorite automatic images from a phone camera, doing a great job of balancing exposure and colors. I love the Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s camera, but to get the best from it, you need to shoot in Pro mode, taking manual control of the settings, which makes it more suited to advanced photographers who want to fine-tune their images. 

The Pixel does offer deeper control if you want it, conveniently hidden behind a small settings icon, rather than requiring you to switch completely into a «Pro» mode. For those of you wanting to take manual control of your white balance to warm up a beautiful sunset, the Pixel 9 Pro offers an easy way in.

The specs

• 6.3-inch LTPO OLED display, 2,856×1,280 pixel resolution, 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate
• Google Tensor G4 processor
• 16GB RAM
• 4,700-mAh battery
• 50 megapixel main camera, 48 megapixel ultrawide, 48 megapixel telephoto zoom

CNET’s key takeaways

CNET’s buying advice

Google has clearly taken notes from Apple’s approach in making the Pixel range. Apple’s phones may be derided by Android fans for their lack of customization and «locked down» nature, but iPhones are famously more simple to operate. They have integrated hardware, software and services that make them easy to understand whether you’re new to smartphones or a veteran gadget obsessive. 

Apple’s «you do things our way» approach is a big part of the phone’s success, and the Pixel 9 Pro feels like the closest approximation of the Apple experience you can find on Android. If you’re looking for a clean experience with a smartphone that doesn’t try and get in your way with needless extras, the Pixel 9 Pro is certainly worth a look.

A friend of mine recently asked me what the best AirPods were, and I told him the AirPods Pro 3. I said they had the best sound quality and noise canceling. When I spoke to him a few days later, I was surprised to hear that he’d bought the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. In fact, he’d bought one pair for himself and another for his son. I asked him why.

It mostly came down to price, he said. The AirPods 4 with ANC are available at a deeper discount, currently listed on Amazon for $100, which is $79 less than their original list price of $179. While the AirPods Pro 3 have also been available at discounted prices, dropping to as low as $200 ahead of Black Friday, that’s still $100 more than what the AirPods 4 with ANC cost. He wasn’t willing to pay that much and didn’t mind that the AirPods 4 have an open design. In fact, he liked that they did. «I basically got two pairs of AirPods for the price of one,» he said.

I understood where he was coming from, so I didn’t make him second-guess his decision. But I thought it’d be a good idea to offer some detailed comparisons of the 2025 AirPods Pro 3 versus the 2024 AirPods 4 (including that earlier model’s entry-level standard version (currently $80), which leaves off noise-canceling and wireless charging. That way, you can make the right decision if you’re considering buying any of them when they get marked down for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.       

Read more: Are the AirPods Pro 3 Steve Jobs’ Ultimate Audio Legacy?

AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods 4: What’s similar

• The AirPods Pro 3 and both AirPods 4 models (with and without ANC) are powered by Apple’s H2 chip. 
• The AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 models are equipped with Bluetooth 5.3, just like the AirPods Pro 2 (though some true-wireless earbuds have already jumped to Bluetooth 6.0).
• The AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 with ANC both have a MagSafe charging case with USB-C and wireless charging. Note that the entry-level AirPods 4 do not support wireless charging. None of the three models come with a USB-C charging cable.
• The AirPods Pro 3 and both versions of the AirPods 4 (with and without ANC) support Apple’s new Live Translation feature. They also all feature Apple Personalized spatial audio with head-tracking.
• The AirPods Pro 3 and both versions of the AirPods 4 (with and without ANC) have always-on Siri and automatic switching between Apple devices on your iCloud account.
• The AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 with ANC share very similar sets of features, even beyond active noise canceling. Adaptive Audio, which adjusts the level of noise canceling on the fly, and Conversation Awareness mode, which lowers the volume of your music and engages transparency mode, are available on both the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 with ANC. Note that the entry-level AirPods 4 don’t include those features because they lack noise canceling and a transparency mode.    

AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods 4: What’s different

• While they look similar from the outside, the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 fit differently. The AirPods Pro 3 feature a foam-infused noise-isolating design with silicon eartips in five sizes — extra-extra small, extra small, small, medium and large. The silicon eartips are designed to seal off your ear canal, while the AirPods 4 have an open design with no eartips. 
• The AirPods Pro 3 weigh more per bud (5.55 grams) compared to the AirPods 4 (4.3 grams).
• The AirPods Pro 4 with ANC’s case is smaller and lighter than the AirPods Pro 3’s case (34.7 grams vs. 43.99 grams).
• The AirPods Pro 3 have 3 microphones per earbud, while the AirPods 4 have two per bud. However, both offer very good voice-calling performance.
• The AirPods Pro 3 are equipped with heart-rate sensors, similar to those found in the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2. The AirPods 4 do not have heart-rate sensors.
• The AirPods Pro 3 have significantly better noise cancellation than the AirPods 4 with ANC (up to 4x better, according to Apple).
• The AirPods Pro 3 support Apple’s Hearing Aid feature, while the AirPods 4 don’t.
• While both models are dust-resistant, the AirPods Pro 3 and their charging case have an IP57 rating, which means they can be submerged in water up to 1 meter deep for 30 minutes. The AirPods 4 are IP54 splash-proof.
• The AirPods Pro 3’s battery life is better (up to 8 hours with noise-canceling on, compared to up to 5 hours for the AirPods 4 with ANC). 
• The AirPods Pro 3’s case features a U2 chip, which boosts the Precision Finding range in the Find My app by 1.5x (requires an iPhone 17). The AirPods 4 with ANC’s case is equipped with the U1 chip, which supports Precision Finding. In contrast, the standard AirPods 4’s case lacks the U1 chip and supports a less advanced version of Find My.
• The cases for both the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 no longer have a button for Bluetooth pairing. You simply double-tap on the front of the case to put the buds into Bluetooth pairing mode. 
• You can see a full feature comparison of the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 with ANC here.

AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 fit differently

While the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 look similar at first glance, they do feel different in your ears. Some people simply don’t like having eartips jammed in their ears and prefer the open design of the AirPods 4, which allows them to nestle in more comfortably. However, more people seem to have issues getting a secure fit with Apple’s standard AirPods compared to the Pro models.

The original AirPods and AirPods 2 had a smaller design that fit certain ears very well, though they weren’t a great match for my ears (they would slip out a little too easily). Apple moved to a slightly bigger bud for the AirPods 3, improving their sound, but the new design didn’t quite work as well as for some AirPods 2 users.

Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds of 2025

The AirPods 4 are slightly smaller than the AirPods 3 and have a slightly different shape. They fit my ears pretty well, but I still get a more secure fit from the AirPods Pro 3, with redesigned eartips that seem to offer a snugger, more secure fit for more people (the good thing about eartips is they come in different sizes, so if one doesn’t get you a tight seal, you can try another).

Ultimately, if you prefer the way the AirPods 4 fit your ears compared to the AirPods Pro 3, it makes your decision easier. The same is true if the AirPods Pro 3 fit better. Things get more complicated if you like the way both fit. Then you’ll have to weigh the importance of sound quality and noise-canceling performance.           

AirPods 4 open earbuds have very good sound, but AirPods Pro 3 are significantly better

The sound quality of open earbuds has improved substantially over the last several years, and the leap in sound quality from the original AirPods and AirPods 2 to the AirPods 4 is quite significant. Apple has managed to really step up the bass performance, which often suffers with an open design, and the AirPods 4 offer quite respectable sound (and that sound has a nice openness to it, given that these are open earbuds, after all).

However, thanks to their noise-isolating design, the AirPods Pro 3 sound fuller and more dynamic, with more powerful bass. Also, because the AirPods 4’s open design allows ambient sound to leak into your ears, if you’re listening to them in noisy environments, the sound quality is impacted, particularly for the entry-level AirPods 4, which have no ANC. It’s also worth noting that while Apple has done a remarkable job creating open earbuds with effective noise canceling, it’s not entirely effective and can only muffle so much ambient noise.     

Noise-canceling comparison: AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods 4 with ANC

Apple says the AirPods 4 with ANC offer similar noise canceling to the original AirPods Pro. According to Apple, the AirPods Pro 2 offer twice the noise canceling of the original AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Pro 3 provide twice the noise canceling of the AirPods Pro 2. That would mean the AirPods Pro 3 have 4x better noise-canceling performance than the AirPods 4 with ANC.  

I should note that some of that superior noise-canceling performance is related to the passive noise isolation you get from the AirPods Pro 3’s eartips sealing off your ear canal. Any way you look at it, the AirPods Pro 3 have some of the best noise cancellation available right now. In my review, I pitted them against Bose’s $299 QuietComfort Earbuds (2nd gen), which were released a few weeks before the AirPods Pro 3 in the US. Many reviewers said they had the best noise cancelling, and I felt that way, too, until I tried the AirPods Pro 3. Then, I wasn’t so sure. 

I didn’t feel I could declare one better than the other without running my own lab tests on a rather expensive rig that CNET doesn’t own, but I was quite impressed with the AirPods Pro 3. Compared to the noise-canceling capacity on the AirPods Pro 2, I could definitely hear the difference when I used the buds on a plane, in the noisy streets of New York and underground in the subway.  

Read more: AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2 — should you upgrade?

Do you really need the AirPods Pro 3’s heart-rate monitoring?

I personally don’t feel that heart-rate monitoring is a must-have feature, particularly if you already own a smartwatch with the feature. But for some folks, it will be a welcome addition. 

The heart-rate sensors have been custom-designed for the AirPods Pro 3 (Apple’s smallest heart-rate sensors) and aren’t identical to the ones in the Powerbeats Pro 2. But the experience using the heart-rate monitoring feature remains the same.

There may be more to come, as Apple has a habit of leaving off a few tricks when it first launches products (remember that the AirPods Pro 2 didn’t have spatial audio when they launched). I tend to think we’re not done hearing about the heart-rate sensor and future health applications for the buds.

How about voice-calling performance?

One could argue that the AirPods Pro 3 have slightly better voice-calling performance, but the truth is, both the AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3 offer excellent voice-calling performance with good background noise reduction while picking up your voice clearly. That said, in noisy environments, the superior noise canceling of the AirPods Pro 3 does help, allowing you to hear callers more clearly.   

Should I get the AirPods 4 or AirPods 4 with ANC?

If you’re looking to spend as little money as possible for a set of AirPods, the entry-level AirPods 4 are selling for all-time low prices this holiday buying season and are very good open earbuds for Apple users with support for automatic switching between Apple devices and features like spatial audio with head-tracking and Live Translation. However, I try to steer folks toward the AirPods 4 with ANC because they’re clearly more special and don’t cost significantly more than the standard AirPods 4. 

Can’t decide between the AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3?

If you can’t decide, you can wait for the next-generation AirPods to be released. Reports suggest that Apple is working on both the AirPods 5, which feature an open design, and the next-gen AirPods Pro, with rumors suggesting they may get infrared cameras for gesture controls and an upgraded H3 chip. 

Based on past AirPods product cycles, the AirPods Pro 4 should be two years away (2027) while the standard AirPods (the AirPods 5) should be slated to come out next year. But word has it that the next AirPods Pro, whatever they’re called, may arrive as soon as next year (2026) and may be an even more impressive upgrade than what we got moving from the AirPods Pro 2 to the AirPods Pro 3. 

Disappointingly, I’m hearing that the AirPods Max over-ear headphones won’t get an upgrade next year, and we may not get a true next-gen version of the AirPods Max for a few years. Released in 2020, the pricey AirPods Max are only equipped with Apple’s H1 chip and are really due for an upgrade. But Apple seems more focused on the development of its AirPods earbuds rather than its full-size headphones.

Read more: Apple Reportedly May Add Infrared Cameras to Its Next AirPods Pro

AirPods Pro 2 vs. AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods 4 with ANC spec comparison

What’s the cost of showing up at airport security without a Real ID, besides annoying TSA and possibly missing your flight? Soon, it could be $18 per person, nonrefundable.

The Transportation Security Administration is proposing the fee for travelers who show up at airport security without a valid Real ID, which could include an enhanced driver’s license or a passport. States began issuing driver’s licenses with Real ID in 2016.

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In May, after several delays, Real IDs became mandatory at airports in the US, although the TSA does offer alternative ways to verify identity using extra security measures. The $18 fee would cover that additional work.

«This modernized, technology-enabled program will provide additional methods of alternative identity verification beyond what TSA currently provides and reduce the time required to verify identities using the existing method,» the TSA’s administration said in the proposal. «The current alternative identity verification process is time- and resource-intensive, limiting the number of individuals for whom TSA can provide the service.»

There’s no information on what would happen next with the proposal, or when it might move forward. It’s unclear when, if approved, the $18 fee would begin.

«TSA is working with stakeholders and partners to ensure both security and efficiency at our checkpoints,» a representative for TSA told CNET. «Additional guidance will be announced in the coming days.»

How the fee would work

According to the proposal, TSA would not refund the $18 fee if someone fails the security check and doesn’t make it through after paying.

However, if successful, the traveler would be able to continue traveling for 10 days without a Real ID using a biometric kiosk, without having to pay the fee repeatedly.

Tech companies, including Apple, have been working to offer solutions to make mobile IDs easier. The company has recently added a feature that allows people to add a passport to Apple Wallet. Some states are also offering options to use your phone as ya substitute for your driver’s license.

It’s unlikely that the TSA would implement the fee before the holiday travel season this year. Ensuring you have a Real ID-friendly form of identification is a good idea if you have air travel in your future, regardless of the associated fee.