Too good to be true! Pixel 9 drops to $249 ahead of Prime Day

Tom's Guide

5 days ago

Usually I'm all for top-of-the-line models whenever phone makers announce their new lineup, but I've said previously that the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL are overrated. Instead, I mentioned how the Pixel 9 is the one with the most value — and it's down to as low as $249 for a limited time.
This is the best phone deal I've seen ahead of Prime Day, beating out Mint Mobile's exceptional deal on the Samsung Galaxy S25 I shared not long ago. The Pixel 9 normally sells for $799, but U.S. Mobile drops its price to $249. That's a discount of 68% off, which is insane for a phone of this caliber. In fact, that's half the cost of the already budget phone in the Pixel 9a.
The Pixel 9 is down to $249 for a limited time when you activate it on a qualifying U.S. Mobile cell phone plan. Not only does it have exception cameras on the back, but its value is supplemented by the amount of helpful AI features it offers and 7 years of software support.
I still can't believe how the wireless carrier is able to give it such a deep discount. From what I read on its site, you get the instant $550 discount when you commit to any of its cell phone plans — your choice of doing a monthly or annual plan. Its monthly plan starts at $25/month for the Unlimited Starter plan and provides the essentials like unlimited talk, text, and data. You can upgrade to its Unlimited Premium plan for $44/month and get premium data that never slows down, international service, and unlimited hotpot service.
Of course, there's more of a discount if you choose to pay for the service annually. For example, you'll pay $270 for its Unlimited Starter plan, which comes out to be $22.50/month. There's an extra promo code you can use at checkout, OVERDRIVE, that drops down the annual plan to essentially cost $19/month for 12 months.
Just as before, I still think the Pixel 9 has the best value in the entire lineup because it has all the same Google AI features as the more pricey phones. Over on the photo editing side, there's the new Add Me feature that uses augmented reality to Photoshop the photographer who's taking a snapshot with the phone and add them into the group shot. Additionally, I really love how realistic it generates images from scratch with Pixel Studio. And finally, there's the new Reimagine feature that lets me use a text description to edit photos — like changing the background to something else entirely.
On the productivity side of things, there's Pixel Screenshots that uses AI to grab details that could be recalled later. For example, I could use it to take a screenshot of a recipe and then I can go back months later to ask for those details that I might've forgotten — or use it to remember an upcoming event, so I can quickly recall the details later on.
Another reason why I think the Pixel 9 is underrated against its 'pro' siblings is because it has the same main and ultrawide cameras. This consists of 50MP main and 48MP ultrawide cameras, which are identical to the more expensive Pro models. The only thing that can't match is the dedicated telephoto cameras with 5x optical zoom. Although, its image processing algorithms do an excellent job of enhancing photos up to 3x zoom in my opinion.
And finally, the Pixel 9 is treated to the same IP68 construction and 7 years of software support as the other, more expensive pro models. What's also interesting about this U.S. Mobile deal is that the carrier will unlock the phone 90 days after activation, which means you can bring it to any other carrier. This isn't the only deal happening with the Pixel 9 right now because I've listed some of my favorite ones below.
Through Google Fi Wireless, you can get the Pixel 9 for $399 when you activate it on a plan and keep the service for 120 days. The best part about this deal is that you'll have four color options to choose from, instead of the single one offered by U.S. Mobile.
Similar to its Galaxy S25 deal, Mint Mobile's discounting the Pixel 9 down to $359. But the best part is that the unlimited cell phone plan that comes with it also gets a big discount. You're paying $360 for 2 years of unlimited service, which combined with the hardware cost, comes out to $719 at checkout. That's less than the cost of buying the phone outright.
It's not the deepest discount, but if you need something without having to commit to a new service plan, Best Buy gives you an extra $100 discount when you select the option to connect it to Verizon or AT&T at checkout.