Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro Review”.
This time last year we reviewed the google pixel 5 and it was a fine smartphone. It had a nice aluminum build a fast enough processor and a good camera. However, when it comes to a flagship, smartphone, fine isn’t good enough, especially from the company that develops android. Fortunately, that all changes with the google pixel 6 and 6 pro, but has google really learned from its last iteration? Well, i think it’s safe to say yes, it has. The design of google’s latest flagships is a big departure. From last year, the aluminum resin wrapped design of the pixel 5 is now replaced with a thick metal alloy frame sandwiched with glass. The design choice certainly looks premium, although the glass back feels quite slippery in the hand and if you’re thinking about buying the pixel, 6 or 6 pro you’ll definitely want a case to go with it.
This year google went big with the pixel 6 and 6 pro. The pixel 6 comes with a 6.4 inch screen which isn’t that far behind the pixel 6 pro’s 6.7 inch display both feature an in-screen fingerprint reader, which isn’t the most responsive out there. According to google.
This is due to the phone’s security algorithms, which seems like quite an odd justification, and on top of that there have been reports that draining the phone’s battery can actually disable the fingerprint sensor. Google is apparently aware of the issue, although until an update comes around the only way to fix this is by performing a factory reset back to the good stuff. The front panel of both the pixel 6 and 6 pro is gorilla glass victus, which corning claims has 4 times the scratch resistance. As gorilla glass, 6., the back of the pixel features a nearly flat design and actually uses gorilla glass. 6.. The pro has curve size. All around with the back glass using the more premium invictus glass, both pixels, carry an ip68 rating for protection against dust and water. Looking at the back of the devices, you’ll notice, the biggest design change google has made this year. That’S right.
The google logo seems a bit smaller this year. No, i’m just kidding looking at the back of the device. You’Ll find the new camera bar, which kind of reminds me of daft punk, and it’s not a bad design. Choice by any means it’s just unique. The bar is protected by a layer of black glass and high metal ridges on either side. So don’t worry about damaging it.
When you place the phones down the google pixel 6 and 6 pro used usb-c for connectivity and borrowed some of apple’s courage by leaving out the headphone jack, it’s official, the pixel, 6 and 6 pro have the best and biggest screens we’ve ever seen on a google Smartphone, the pixel 6 comes with a 6.4 inch 2400 by 1080p oled display, which has a 90 hertz refresh rate and looks fantastic, and this screen can get very bright. The pixel 6 display has a 500 normal max brightness or 800 in its peak for hdr content, and this makes it easy to see outdoors in direct sunlight, which is an issue we had with last year’s pixel 5.. We did notice some ribbons of red and blue when the pixel 6 was tilted, though it’s nothing that will ruin the experience when viewing the device straight on. If you want to go all out, the pixel 6 pro features a larger 6.7 inch, 3120x1440p oled display with solid viewing and bright sunlight, and, unlike the standard version, the pro comes with an adaptive refresh rate between 10 and 120 hertz, which is the same as many Competing flagships, however, during our testing we noticed some stuttering when scrolling in apps like twitter and instagram. This is probably a software issue, though we’ll have to wait on google to provide more details. Overall, the display on both phones is a significant improvement over last year’s pixel lineup google went big this year, aiming to put its displays right up there with flagships from samsung, and it did just that. Let’S talk performance now. This is a big one for the pixel, 6 and 6 pro, not just because they are faster, but because google decided to design its own system on a chip called tensor.
The company claims that tensor can enable new speech, translation text to speech, computational, photography, videography and security features that you can’t find on other mobile devices. These phones work as expected, very well in fact, and regular tasks like downloading and installing apps swiping through the interface and opening closing apps work. Fine gaming on both phones was pretty smooth and 3d games, like call of duty mobile ran with very little to no stuttering. If you’ve seen the benchmarks for google tensor you’ll know that it is far from being the fastest chip on the market.
However, fast isn’t what tensor was designed for ai and machine learning experiences matter most to google and its new system on a chip was built. Just for that, according to google, tensor has allowed for 18, better text-to-speech translation compared to the pixel 5., and the new image signal processor also helps with google’s computational photography, though we’ll get into that later. Bigger is always better when it comes to battery life and fortunately the pixel 6 and 6 pro delivers. The pixel 6 is equipped with a 4 614 milliamp hour battery, while the pixel 6 pro comes with a whopping, 5 000 milliamp hour battery. These batteries should be enough to provide you with power for all-day use with the pixel 6 and more than a full day of use with the pixel 6 pro. A lot of this has to do with the new google tensor processor, coupled with the company’s adaptive battery feature, which helps maximize your phone’s power consumption.
Google says both the pixel 6 and 6 pro support fast wired charging. However, our tests show that, even when using the company’s official 30 watt usbc adapter, the pixel 6 charging power tops out at 22 watts. Now we’ve got a full article covering this discovery on our website, but the gist of it is this. Even though google says the phones charge fast, it isn’t as much of a time saver as it makes itself out to be.
The phones also support 12 watt qi. Wireless charging or 23 watt wireless charging when using the yet to be released, pixel stand 2. battery share is also supported for charging other devices such as earbuds or even another smartphone. One of our biggest criticisms of last year’s pixel 5 was the fact that it relied way too much on artificial intelligence to process its photos all while holding on to the same 12 megapixel sensor, google used for years and sure, while some features like night sight and Portrait lighting were well implemented, the quality of the photos overall still lagged behind the likes of samsung and apple. Fortunately, we’re happy to report that google has finally seen the light literally because the new pixel, 6 and 6 pro now use a much larger sensor which results in greater light capture, lower noise, improved dynamic range and better performance in low light conditions. The new pixels now come with a 50 megapixel primary camera sensor, which uses pixel binning to produce photos that are 12 megapixels.
The primary sensor features optical image, stabilization and an f 1.85 aperture there’s also a secondary 12 megapixel ultra wide sensor with a 114 degree field of view and f 2.2 aperture with the pixel 6 pro you’ll also get a 48 megapixel telephoto camera with four times optical Zoom providing a 23 degree field of view, numbers aside, how do these cameras actually perform? Well, like i mentioned earlier, the photos taken with both phones are a stark improvement from last year’s pixel lineup most photos, especially those taken outdoors, look sharp across the board and provide consistent, accurate color. While this accurate color may look a little desaturated to some. This leaves a lot of room to adjust in post, at least in terms of color and contrast and honestly, i’d personally take the flatter color profile over the oversaturated processing of some other flagships samsung, as you can see from the photos on screen. The dynamic range of these cameras is excellent and night sight performs very well in low light conditions. However, we did notice that some photos include heavy-handed hdr trading, a smooth gradient for some more gray tones which looks slightly unnatural.
Google has also introduced a neat feature with its latest pixels called magic eraser, which lets you remove unwanted elements. From the background of your photos, for example, do you have an unwanted tourist photobombing? Your photo well just tap on the tool? Select the unwanted element then press the erase button. It’S definitely a cool feature to have, though it won’t work all the time.
The feature performs best when painting out objects against the flat sky versus someone standing in the middle of a crowd for a complete overview of the pixel, 6 and 6 pro camera systems be sure to check out our full reviews on android authority. The design language of android 12 is based on a concept called material. U, which allows you to quickly personalize the look of the entire operating system based on your wallpaper, for example, if you choose a wallpaper that has blue as the dominant color you’ll notice, a blue tint to the buttons, icons, graphics and the rest of the ui. Also, the design of widgets buttons search bars are overall, cleaner and really complement the design of the new pixels.
The software also includes some google flagship exclusives, for example, the new hold for me feature lets you set the phone to sit on hold while you tend to other tasks. Calling assistance can help you navigate through decision trees and even tell you when some numbers are at their busiest letting you plan your calls. Accordingly. Google says both phones will receive three years of major os updates and up to five years of security patches, and while this certainly makes google the front runner in update longevity for android devices, it’s certainly a far cry from apple’s support for older iphones, which still supports Phones as old as the iphone 6s released back in 2015., i have to give credit to google for trying to think outside of the box when compared to previous years, it’s certainly gone out of its way to try new materials and designs and push the boundaries of What ai can and cannot do, and the google pixel 6 and 6 pro are a result of that experimentation. The new design and quality of materials put the pixel 6 and 6 pro right up there with the likes of samsung’s galaxy or note phones.
The custom, google tensor processor unlocks features that really give the new pixels an attractive and unique selling point. And, of course, you can’t forget about the new camera system, which rivals other flagship phones like the iphone 13 and 13 pro. The pixel 6 is available with a starting price of 599 us dollars for the 128 gigabyte model, and this is about a hundred dollars cheaper than the iphone 13 mini and 200 dollars cheaper than the samsung galaxy s21 and standard iphone 13, making it a very, very Compelling option if you want the larger model, the pixel 6 pro starts at 899, us dollars, which is priced well below apple and samsung’s. Higher end flagship phones, google’s latest pixels are compelling, but they aren’t perfect. The company still has to address issues like the iffy fingerprint sensor: 120 hertz scrolling on the 6 pro and the heavy handed hdr photos. However, what the pixel 6 and 6 pro tell us is that google is here to stay and that apple and samsung shouldn’t get too comfortable. You .