Pixel 9 Pro wins ‘Smartphone of the Year’ award, Google’s second in a row

Andrew Romero | Mar 5 2025 - 9:55 am PT

Google’s presence at MWC 2025 in Barcelona has not gone unnoticed. The company made a few announcements on future projects and while there, Google has collected two MWC awards from GLOMO, including one for the Pixel 9 Pro.

There isn’t anything new to show in terms of hardware from Google’s attendance at MWC unless you count the many Android figurines sprawled across the company’s event space. Still, there is no new phone, new tablet, or smart home devices to report on, because all of that would come during Made by Google. Instead, Google got some recognition for a couple of mile markers this year.

Google was presented with two GLOMO (Global Mobile) awards at MWC 2025. The awards program has been going on for 30 years, and it comes with some pedigree. First, Google won the “Smartphone of the Year” award for the Pixel 9 Pro. This comes as the Pixel 8 series won the “Best Smartphone” category from GLOMO. The year before that, Apple took the podium but has since not been awarded.

The Pixel 9 Pro has been one of the best Android devices to come out of last year. It packs a ton of needed features with new AI tools baked throughout a good software experience. On the hardware side, it lacks little and just feels good to use. Comparing it to devices from Samsung and OnePlus, the Pixel 9 Pro is a really good choice, especially with the presence of Gemini.

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Google Gemini also gets a GLOMO award at MWC with the “Breakthrough Device Innovation” award. This category is awarded all over the place between software and hardware, though AI requires a powerful blend of the two. In 2024, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 won the innovation award, with Apple’s Satellite SOS winning the year before. The achievement is awarded based on a few criteria, like “contribution to overall device performance and appeal,” as well as “product usefulness in terms of functionality and features.” Gemini has proven to be those things, and Google has done a good job of expanding it way past the mobile space.

Ideally, this will push Google to develop a strong contender for the next set of awards with the Pixel 10 series and further develop Gemini to be even more useful through the ecosystem.