Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Earlier this year, when Google first teased the Pixel 9 seriesa collective groan was heard around the world. While the phones look great (at least, in my opinion) it’s immediately clear that the Pixel 9 looks a lot like an iPhone. While the Android vs iPhone The rivalry has waned in recent years, Android fans still don’t appreciate seeing their favorite brands copy Apple. After all, one of the biggest reasons why we choose Android en masse is that we have the choice not to have a phone that looks like everyone else’s. I mean, just look at the image above… it’s an uncanny resemblance!
The easy way to explain Google’s design strategy for the Pixel 9 series is laziness. You might look at the Pixel 9 and say, “Google didn’t want to go to the trouble of figuring out a unique design for itself, so it just copied the United States market leader.” However, I recently spoke with Kyle Wiens, the CEO of iFixit, and Shahram Mokhtari, a “Teardown Tech” at iFixit, and we came to the conclusion that laziness is probably not the reason why Google leaned on the iPhone for the latest Pixel look . Yes, Google is most likely copying the iPhone’s design, but “laziness” isn’t the whole story.
To properly explain our theory, I want to start by discussing something you might not expect: the European Union.
iPhones, the EU and repairability
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
On June 14, 2024, the EU adopted a new regulation that aims to create standard rules for the repairability of devices. Such regulations start with the European Commission approving them and then setting a date by which Member States – all countries in the EU – must incorporate the rules into their respective laws. For those relating to the repairability of devices, that date is July 31, 2026.
The ordinance is very specific about what is expected, and Wiens – a passionate advocate for reparability – is quite enthusiastic about it. “We’re currently trapped in this world where we have two sheets of glass with a consumable adhesive between them, and we have to find a way to make them last longer,” Wiens explains. This is most noticeable when discussing smartphone batteries. “What the EU battery directive says is that from 2026 onwards, manufacturers must make batteries replaceable by users without crazy tools,” says Wiens. “That requires substantial design changes for each smartphone.”
Smartphone manufacturers have until August 2026 to bring their designs into line with the new EU repairability standards.
To replace a battery in a recent flagship from Apple, Samsung or Google currently requires specialized tools and varying levels of repair skills. Apple famously offers a £79 repair kit including a custom jig to open an iPhone. The mold – which only works on one specific iPhone model – applies a certain amount of heat and pressure evenly across the phone to melt the adhesive and pull it apart. This jig rents for $49, and you have seven days from receipt to repair your phone and then return it or you will be charged a penalty. It’s ridiculously complicated to the point where very, very few general consumers could ever successfully complete the repair. Even professional repair shops find the process too complicated.
“(Apple’s mold) is a way to adapt the manufacturing process to accommodate repairs,” Wiens says. “What the European director says is that you cannot do that, because that is not realistic. Every repair shop I know has a cupboard in the back with about 50 molds of phones that they don’t even repair anymore. It’s an insane amount of waste.”
To make a phone accessible without specialized tools, OEMs will have to fundamentally redesign their devices – and Apple is the furthest along.
However, Apple has made progress in this area, likely due to upcoming EU regulations. For example, iPhone designs in recent years allow you to access the inside of the phone from both the front and the back. This allows repairers to open only the front when performing a screen repair and only the back when performing a battery repair, something that was not possible with previous designs. In addition, Apple has introduced a new battery the iPhone 16 series which is both covered in metal and bonded to the phone’s body using a stress-releasing adhesive. To remove the battery, you simply apply 12V electricity to two tabs on it, and it pops right out, saving technicians from having to apply heat directly to the cell to melt any adhesive – a dangerous process to for obvious reasons. These are just two examples of how Apple has been working slowly but steadily to meet the 2026 guidelines looming on the horizon.
Of course, we have no idea whether the iPhone 18 – which will likely launch in September 2026, after these new regulations come into effect – will have a fundamentally different design than what we see today. But we do know that Apple, as it stands now, is closer to meeting EU regulations than any other major smartphone OEM, and it’s doing so in a way that still maintains the overall design elegance that people expect from premium smartphones. This, of course, brings us to the Pixel 9.
How the EU likely changed the Pixel design
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
The designs of the Pixel 8 series weren’t great in terms of repairability. Unlike recent iPhones, to get into a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro you had to go exclusively through the front. The back was a more complex arrangement, with the camera bar cutting it in half and wrapping around the frame in a single metal piece. This meant that repairing the battery required disassembling the entire phone, a laborious and complicated process that made accidentally damaging the screen with any battery repair a real possibility.
However, the Pixel 9 offers access from both the front and the back. Now you can replace the battery on a Pixel 9 without taking the whole thing apart. Unfortunately, you still have to remove several components to get the battery out, including the camera, mmWave antenna, motherboard, and more. Additionally, the battery is still glued in place, forcing technicians to apply heat to remove it. Mokhtari had this to say: “It’s a little bit harder to access the battery in the Pixel 9 than in the Pixel 8. But overall, Google has this front or back opening architecture that we like.”
Google likely adopted an iPhone-like design for the Pixel 9, as the iPhone is closer to EU regulations than the Pixel 8.
It doesn’t take an engineer to connect the dots here. The iPhone’s design is the furthest along when it comes to meeting future EU regulations. The Pixel 9 looks a lot like an iPhone and is now a little closer to the same repairability as an iPhone. Could it be that Google is copying the iPhone’s style not out of laziness, but out of time? Clearly, if the company has two years to better fix its devices, it’s easier, cheaper and faster to adopt design ideas from Apple than to start from scratch.
In other words, it’s possible (and even likely) that the Pixel 9’s design is the result not of laziness, but of crunch. The clock is ticking and Google doesn’t have the luxury of figuring things out at its own pace.
It may not be laziness that makes the Pixel look like an iPhone; it can be crunchy.
Of course, even if we rely on Apple’s design strategies, Google is still far behind, as made clear by the previously described limitations in fixing a Pixel 9’s battery. The question now becomes whether or not Google will provide a solution will have for the expected problem Google Pixel 11 series before that August 2026 deadline. After all, it can’t wait for Apple to introduce its own designs, as the Pixel 11 will likely arrive before the iPhone 18. Perhaps Google can delay the launch of the Pixel 11 until the end of July 2026, bringing it just below the wire. and buy another year before it should be fully in line with the Pixel 12? Hey, with the recent news about Android 16 Moving the schedule up to several months is certainly possible.
Remember that Google and Apple are not the only players in this field. All other OEMs will also have to do their part.
Could this be the new normal?
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
For this article, I’m focusing mainly on the Pixel 9, as it currently looks the most like an iPhone when you look at the most recent crop of Android flagships. But every smartphone manufacturer should have July 31, 2026 written in big red pen on its metaphorical calendar. This begs the question: could other OEMs start releasing phones that look exactly like an iPhone? It’s very likely, I think.
Does the Pixel 9 look too much like an iPhone?
16 votes
Yes; the phones look too similar
31%
No; they are different enough
69%
Keep in mind that looking to Apple for the future in a changing industry isn’t all that new, as Wiens points out with a great example. “With the iPhone 4, Apple added antennas along the edge; Everyone does that now, right? And then everyone thought, ‘Oh, that’s the best way to do antenna management,’” Wiens says, laughing. In fact, the Pixel 9 still uses the core concept of Apple’s antenna designs from the iPhone 4 (note the four strips on the sides of the phone, two on each side).
This wouldn’t be the first time Android OEMs looked to Apple for what to do in a changing industry.
Of course, there’s no reason why OEMs can’t be bolder and forge their own path. Smaller players already do that, which Wiens is much more enthusiastic about. “My Framework laptop is easy to repair and customizable,” he says. “We just saw HMD do it with the Horizonte.” Mokhtari jumps in and points out that the Fairphone 5 is also incredibly repairable and still has decent features waterproofing (it has an IP55 rating). These are all design methods that manufacturers could use instead of Apple’s, but let’s be honest: most will probably chase Apple because it’s simply easier to do so.
Either way, the consumer wins in the end. Our phones are about to become a lot more repairable. However, if you were hoping that phones would become less like iPhones, that’s probably not going to be the case. In fact, the opposite is likely to happen. It’s a shame we’ll have to deal with a sea of iPhone clones to get our hands on it, but at least that’s something.
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