Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional evaluation: the flagships we’ve been ready for

It’s uncommon {that a} new smartphone feels all that new. The frequent chorus is that smartphones are all a “mature” know-how and right now’s new telephone is just incrementally completely different from the prior one. There’s lots of reality in that — Apple’s made 15 generations of iPhones! — and the novelty you achieve from plunking down a whole bunch of {dollars} each couple of years to improve hardly ever modifications your day after day.

Google’s new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional, nevertheless, are a bit extra new than the everyday telephone, though they don’t fold in half or have particularly distinctive designs. They arrive with new cameras, new supplies, new {hardware}, new software program, and new ideas on what a smartphone ought to have the ability to do for you.

However lots of that is new for Google and never essentially completely different from what you will get from a litany of different smartphone makers proper now. The $599 Pixel 6 and $899 6 Professional are a reset for Google’s smartphone ambitions, a contemporary begin for the corporate that has slogged by way of 5 generations of Pixel telephones with out a lot as a dent within the smartphone world.

Consequently, the Pixel 6 and 6 Professional will not be completely refined gadgets, nor do they do the whole lot Google claims in addition to you would possibly anticipate. However that doesn’t cease them from being among the many greatest telephones out there and maybe one of the best Android telephones to purchase proper now.

The design of the brand new Pixel telephones is a change of tempo for Google and follows the conventions of different common Android telephone makers for the previous few years. As an alternative of quirky textured finishes with enjoyable pops of shade, they’re the everyday glass and steel sandwich slabs with aluminum frames and slippery backs. There’s much less whimsy and character to their particulars than prior Pixel telephones, one thing I miss. And in case you look intently, they aren’t fairly as polished as one of the best from Apple and Samsung at this level — it’s simple to discover a tough edge or two alongside the seams.

The entrance of each telephones is tough to differentiate from a lot of different huge Android telephones available on the market; they largely resemble a Samsung Galaxy Notice 10 or Notice 20 to my eye. And whereas the again has a particular bar towards the highest that homes the cameras, the entire thing jogs my memory of a TCL telephone.

The Pixel 6 is out there in three two-tone colours — black, crimson, or inexperienced — whereas the Pixel 6 Professional is just out there in additional staid variations of black, white, or gold. The aluminum sides of the common 6 are chunky and matte black, whereas the 6 Professional’s sides are thinner and polished to a shine. Between the 2, the 6 is actually extra enjoyable, whereas the 6 Professional doesn’t fairly match as much as different telephones inside its worth tier when it comes to design or match and end.

Essentially the most outstanding design aspect is the digital camera bar that spans the again of every telephone. It’s massive, stands out far, and doesn’t fairly mix seamlessly into the remainder of the telephone. On the plus aspect, it doesn’t trigger the telephone to rock on a desk or desk once you put it down, in contrast to the digital camera bumps on different telephones.

A whole lot of these design critiques are purely educational, although, as a result of in actuality you’re going to place a case on both telephone and canopy up any of the tough edges or boring colours. That’s a particularly good thought, too, as a result of each telephones are capital-L Massive and their easy glass backs are extraordinarily slippery. I’ve had them slide off my desk, wi-fi chargers, couch arms, tables, my lap, you title it, and one in all our pattern models truly fell exhausting sufficient to crack the Gorilla Glass Victus glass panel overlaying its display. (Facet be aware: I’ve been testing Google’s translucent recycled plastic circumstances alongside the Pixel 6 and they’re horrible — I like to recommend testing third-party choices.)

Actually, my principal downside with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional’s design is that they’re simply too huge for my style. They’re difficult to make use of in a single hand, they don’t match comfortably in lots of my pants pockets, and they’re simple to drop. In prior years, Google supplied each small and huge variations of its telephones, however for this sixth era it’s huge or greater; the scale distinction between the 2 is negligible. These are iPhone Professional Max-size telephones, which is ok if you would like an enormous telephone however leaves out these of us who aren’t followers of outsized slabs.

The flip aspect of that’s each telephones have huge, spacious shows. The Pixel 6’s is a 6.4-inch OLED panel with 1080p-wide decision; the 6 Professional steps as much as a 6.7-inch OLED display with 1440p broad decision. The Pixel 6’s display is absolutely flat, whereas the 6 Professional has curved sides that taper into the body. I desire the flat display of the 6, however the 6 Professional’s curves didn’t trigger any errant contact points in my testing, one thing that may make a curved display troublesome to make use of.

Each are sharp, vibrant, and colourful, with the 6 Professional being barely brighter when open air in daylight. Neither have any obtrusive issues that plagued older Pixel telephones, like bizarre shade copy or flickering at low brightness ranges.

There are some points in case you look intently, like a slight shade shift at indirect angles or a noticeable shadow below the curved sides of the 6 Professional when utilizing a light-weight background, issues we don’t see on one of the best telephones from Apple or Samsung at this level. If there’s one place the place the cheaper price ticket of those telephones comes by way of, it’s these shows. They’re good, however less than the extent set by different flagship opponents.

In addition they have quick refresh charges — 90Hz on the Pixel 6, as much as 120Hz on the 6 Professional — that make scrolling and interactions very easy. Quick refresh screens have turn into desk stakes on premium telephones and it’s good to see Google observe go well with right here. I didn’t discover a distinction between the 90Hz and 120Hz, both, until I in contrast the telephones aspect by aspect— each are easy in use.

Much less easy is the fingerprint scanner below the display. It’s positioned in a cushty spot — a few quarter of the best way up from the underside — however it’s a lot slower than different fingerprint scanners, together with those on the again of older Pixel telephones. As a result of it’s optical, the display lights up once you scan a finger, which might be actually disruptive in darkish rooms. The scanner additionally misinterpret my finger every now and then, requiring a number of makes an attempt to unlock the telephone.

Compounding this error is the truth that the Pixel 6 and 6 Professional don’t have any type of facial recognition unlock — the fingerprint scanner is the one biometric authentication out there, and it’s simply not superb.

One of the essential issues concerning the Pixel 6 pair is the processor within them, Google’s new Tensor chip. It’s the primary customized processor from Google, which is following in Apple’s footsteps and forsaking off-the-shelf processors from Qualcomm or MediaTek.

Along with powering the telephone, the Tensor processor additionally has lots of AI-based customization to reinforce options within the digital camera, speech recognition, and gaming.

Google says the brand new processor is aggressive with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 for efficiency, and in my expertise, that’s true. Apps open shortly, it’s simple to change between them easily, and the interface is freed from stutters and hang-ups. Twitter was the one app that stuttered on each telephones, however it was an outlier. The Tensor chip is not going to benchmark as extremely as Apple’s newest processors, however it’s far forward of the processor that was within the Pixel 5 final yr and proper up there with different premium Android telephones.

The Pixel 6 has 8GB of RAM, whereas the 6 Professional is supplied with 12GB. In sensible use, the 6’s lesser quantity of RAM didn’t current points — streaming apps don’t aggressively shut within the background like they did on older Pixel telephones.

There additionally wasn’t an considerable distinction in battery life between the 2 telephones. Each are simply capable of cruise by way of a full day of use with loads of juice left within the tank — most nights I went to mattress with 35-40 % battery remaining, even whereas utilizing the digital camera lots and enabling the always-on show function. Gentle customers can in all probability stretch this to 2 days with out a lot effort. A giant purpose for this stamina is the truth that the batteries are simply huge — huge telephones convey huge batteries and large battery life.

Each fashions assist wi-fi charging and quick wired charging, however neither include a charger within the field. Google sells a $25 30-watt brick individually and will probably be releasing a $79 quick wi-fi charger within the close to future, however I haven’t been capable of check that but.

Even in case you do use a robust sufficient charger, neither telephone costs notably shortly. Google aggressively slows down charging as soon as it’s previous 80 % to protect the battery cells’ longevity, and since these batteries are so massive, attending to a full cost can take a very long time. Happily, because of the lengthy battery life, you’ll possible solely need to cost once you’re sleeping anyway.

One other space that the Pixels excel is of their haptic suggestions. Unhealthy, buzzy haptics can break a telephone expertise for me, however the Pixel 6 and 6 Professional have refined, clicky responses that present simply the correct amount of suggestions. It makes typing on the keyboard or interacting with the UI very satisfying.

Each the Pixel 6 and 6 Professional have correct, twin stereo audio system that pump out a passable quantity of quantity and sound clear for each streaming music or video and taking speakerphone or video calls. Good riddance to the vibrating display pseudo-speaker Google used within the Pixel 5 final yr.

Google is promoting 5G connectivity for each the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional, however the particulars round it aren’t fairly that simple. The unlocked and T-Cell variations of the Pixel 6 are restricted to sub-6 5G, whereas the Verizon and AT&T fashions are costlier and assist the sooner however very restricted millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G.

None of that confusion applies to the Pixel 6 Professional — irrespective of how you purchase it, it’ll assist each sub-6 and mmWave 5G. AT&T’s additional price for its mannequin relative to the unlocked, T-Cell, or Verizon variations simply buys you the privilege of being an AT&T buyer, nothing extra.

I examined unlocked variations of the Pixel 6 and 6 Professional on Google Fi, which makes use of T-Cell’s 5G community. Efficiency was commensurate with different premium telephones I’ve used on T-Cell — I used to be capable of attain speeds of 300 to 400Mbps in sure areas of New York Metropolis, which is lots sooner than I get on LTE in the identical areas.

The Pixel 6 and 6 Professional’s digital camera techniques are additionally wholly new, with new sensors, new lenses, and new capabilities. Google has lastly upgraded the digital camera {hardware} within the Pixel line for the primary time since 2017, and it’s gone huge — actually. The brand new principal digital camera sensor is far bigger than the one used within the Pixel 5 and earlier, and the Pixel 6 Professional is the primary within the line to have ultrawide, broad, and telephoto cameras.

Each telephones have the identical principal broad digital camera and ultrawide. The primary digital camera is a 50-megapixel sensor that’s hard-coded to supply 12.5-megapixel photographs behind an optically stabilized f/1.85 lens. Which means you may’t truly seize the total 50-megapixel decision and the photographs produced aren’t particularly sharper or extra detailed than different 12-megapixel cameras, together with the Pixel 5’s.

Nonetheless, the photographs are superb in each regular and low mild, and really aggressive with one of the best from Apple. I received’t say there’s a transparent winner right here; some photographs from the Pixel 6 look higher, some photographs from the iPhone 13 Professional look higher, and which you like actually comes right down to your individual private preferences, one thing we’ve been saying about smartphone cameras for a couple of years now.

The Pixel 6 photographs have the traditional Pixel look: excessive distinction, slight overexposure, excessive sharpness, and cooler white stability. You’ll be able to alter the white stability simply sufficient utilizing on-screen sliders within the digital camera app, however tweaking the sharpness requires a bit extra put up processing work. Google’s synthetic portrait mode can also be largely unchanged — it aggressively blurs the background to the purpose the place it virtually seems to be like the topic is a cardboard cutout positioned in a diorama.

One space I would love Google to enhance is how lengthy its vaunted night time mode takes to seize a shot. It’s unbelievable how a lot element the night time mode is ready to seize in darkish scenes, however it takes fairly a couple of seconds to take action, and oftentimes both the topic or the individual taking the photograph loses endurance and issues get blurry. The iPhone’s night time mode steadily took half as lengthy to seize night time scenes because the Pixel.

General, although, the developments in picture high quality from the principle digital camera will not be as huge as you would possibly anticipate from new, considerably higher {hardware}. Oftentimes, it’s exhausting to inform the distinction between it and what you may get with older Pixel telephones, particularly in good lighting.

The Pixel 6’s ultrawide digital camera is its weakest hyperlink — photographs are mushy, it’s not as broad as others, and there’s a noticeable distinction in shade and processing between it and the principle digital camera. It additionally lacks the macro focusing skills out there on the iPhone 13 Professional’s ultrawide digital camera.

Alternatively, the Pixel 6 Professional’s telephoto digital camera is great. It’s the primary telephoto on a telephone that I’ve truly loved utilizing and is perhaps purpose sufficient to spring for the 6 Professional over the common 6. The 4x attain is noticeably longer than the 3x telephoto on the iPhone 13 Professional, however it’s rather more usable day after day than the 10x zoom on Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Extremely.

On high of that, the telephoto produces sharp, detailed photographs, with nice topic separation that requires a lot much less use of software-based portrait modes. It’s lots of enjoyable to shoot with and the form of factor that modifications what you are able to do together with your telephone.

Google says it has upgraded the Pixel 6’s video recording skills, however it’s nonetheless behind the iPhone, which stays the usual. You’ll be able to shoot 4K 60fps so long as you need with out the telephone overheating, however there’s nonetheless noticeable artifacting and wonkiness with picture stabilization, and the video picture processing is weirdly completely different from how the Pixel processes nonetheless photographs. Extremely saturated colours, like reds and oranges, are amped as much as the acute in video, virtually like how Samsung used to course of colours years in the past.

On the entrance of the telephones, the cameras differ — the Pixel 6 has an 8-megapixel digital camera with an 84-degree subject of view, whereas the 6 Professional has an 11-megapixel digital camera with a 94-degree subject of view. Not solely will you match extra folks within the 6 Professional’s body, the picture high quality is noticeably higher, too.

The Tensor chip within the Pixel allows a few particular software program methods within the digital camera and photographs app. The brand new Magic Eraser device helps you to take away undesirable folks or gadgets from a captured photograph with a single faucet, or you may spotlight issues to take away. It’s very cool, but in addition hit and miss — it received’t be taking the place of any expert Photoshop editors anytime quickly. You too can accomplish related issues with third-party apps, so it’s not totally crucial to purchase a Pixel for this.

What’s extra fascinating to me are the brand new movement seize modes, which allow you to mimic a panning movement shot or an extended publicity with only a single faucet of the shutter button. You can also make a shifting object, like a automotive, freeze in entrance of a blurred background, or you may seize site visitors mild streaks with out the necessity for a tripod.

These sorts of photographs sometimes take years of follow and plenty of gear to do with a conventional digital camera, however the Pixel 6 makes it as simple as snapping a selfie.

Google has additionally made an enormous deal about tweaks it made to its picture processing algorithm this yr to raised deal with darker pores and skin tones, which it’s calling Actual Tone. Bias in picture processing is an issue that’s beset the photograph trade for many years, courting all the best way again to movie, so it’s encouraging to see Google handle it. Google says the Actual Tone processing is baked into the Pixel’s picture processing pipeline and it’s not attainable to show it on or off at will.

Each Nicole Nguyen on the WSJ and Julian Chokkattu at Wired had been capable of check the digital camera with a variety of darker pores and skin tones and their conclusions are fascinating; I encourage you to learn their respective articles. Taking a look at all of the photographs, it’s clear the Pixel remains to be doing Pixel issues: excessive distinction, with a dose of overexposure to compensate for that, and really sharp particulars. Some people would possibly like that look however not everybody will, even if in case you have darker pores and skin.

As you’d anticipate with a brand new Pixel, the Pixel 6 and 6 Professional run the newest model of Google’s Android, the utterly redesigned Android 12. We’ve already performed a full evaluation of Android 12 — I’ll simply add that it feels just like the enjoyable and whimsy that’s lacking from the {hardware} design of the brand new Pixels was reserved for the software program. It’s colourful and straightforward to learn, with lots of personalization choices.

Additionally unsurprising, there are a variety of Pixel-specific software program options, together with issues which are improved by Google’s new Tensor chip. The Pixel 6 has higher voice dictation transcription, since it could possibly do all of it domestically now, and it could possibly translate international languages in messages and media sooner than earlier than.

However essentially the most spectacular software program options to me are discovered within the telephone app. Along with the spam routing options Google has had for a couple of years, the Pixel 6 can now assist you with automated telephone tree techniques and let you know how lengthy the wait time is perhaps once you name a enterprise. It could possibly even wait on maintain for you after which notify you when somebody picks up.

The automated telephone tree function will pay attention to the decision and transcribe the choices introduced, then offer you huge tappable buttons to make selections. It’s far simpler than attempting to pay attention to each phrase the system is saying solely to overlook one thing important and have to attend for it to restart.

However in testing, it’s clear this nonetheless wants work — it could possibly’t acknowledge languages aside from English (equivalent to once you’re introduced to “press two for Spanish”) and it usually misses phrases and context that forestall it from providing you with the suitable buttons on the display to press. Nonetheless, it’s a novel thought and I hope Google continues to iterate and enhance on it.

Different additions are the power to point out boarding passes and different helpful data proper on the lock display and assist for choose voice instructions to the Assistant with out having to say “Hey Google” first. It’s notably handy to only mumble “snooze” when an alarm goes off and have the telephone obey.

One of many largest questions surrounding the Pixel 6 announcement has been, did Google do it? Has it truly been capable of produce a reliable, flagship-level smartphone that doesn’t have any show-stopping bugs or huge gotchas?

And the reply is a powerful sure, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional are wonderful telephones. They will not be one of the best in each class, however as a complete, they carry out properly, have nice screens, wonderful cameras, and reliably nice battery life. The one actual hang-up right here is the scale — in case you don’t like massive telephones, they in all probability aren’t for you.

Including to their enchantment is how a lot worth is packed in. The Pixel 6 specifically is simply lots of telephone for $600 — it’s exhausting to think about something available on the market that may compete with it at that worth. Google is providing a greater expertise than mainly another Android telephone maker within the markets the place the Pixel is out there, and sometimes doing so for a lower cost. It’s even undercutting OnePlus, which constructed its total model on promoting premium telephones for decrease costs.

Does that imply a lot of folks will truly purchase the Pixel 6 or 6 Professional, when Google has lengthy struggled to achieve any market share? Frankly, I don’t actually care, as a result of those that do purchase it’ll have a terrific telephone at a terrific worth. It’s exhausting to argue towards that.