There is a whole lot of hype across the Google Pixel 6, which has new cameras, Google’s Tensor chip and extra premium ambitions. Some of that hype is from Google asserting the cellphone months earlier than it was launched and a few of it comes from the cellphone’s daring two-tone design, which washes away the dangerous style left by the understated Pixel 5. The Pixel 6 is essentially the most important cellphone improve Google has made because it launched the Pixel line in 2016.Previous Pixel telephones have lived within the protected, quiet and crowded midtier area the place telephones price between $600 and $800. For most individuals, they had been good and generally nice telephones however lacked the luster, specs and attraction of extra premium telephones from Samsung and Huawei.
LikeTwo-tone designValue for the worthThe fundamental digicam is Google’s finest
Don’t LikeUnder-display fingerprint reader may be irritatingBattery life is sweet, however exhausting to get greater than a dayThe ultrawide digicam is respectable however not on the identical degree as the primary digicam
So what’s the issue? Well, in brief, Pixel telephones have not bought properly. It jogs my memory of the early days when Michael Jordan joined the Chicago Bulls however they weren’t successful championships but. The Pixel 6 is an try to construct the cellphone as much as be extra profitable and interesting. It’s like when the Bulls determined to construct a group round Jordan to assist them win championships.Instead of powering the cellphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, Google made its personal chip, known as Tensor. This permits the Pixel 6 to do computations and AI extra securely and shortly on the cellphone than always utilizing the cloud. Tensor opens up a slew of latest software program options Google would not have been in a position so as to add utilizing a special processor.Google prolonged its three years of OS and safety updates to 5. In the US, the Pixel 6 is offered each by way of Google and all main carriers. And Google even created a subscription program a la Apple’s iPhone Upgrade program. It’s known as Pixel Pass and prices $45 a month for 2 years.Even the Pixel’s crown jewel — its cameras — bought upgraded lenses and {hardware} that is extra premium. Now that Google has improved every thing in, on and across the Pixel, is it prepared for its championship? (I promise that is the final Bulls reference.) In quick, sure.This is the Pixel cellphone I all the time wished from Google. I spent over every week with the brand new cellphone and it lives as much as a whole lot of the hype. The Pixel 6 begins at $599 (£599, AU$999) and comes with 128GB of storage. For that worth, I am unable to consider a greater cellphone to advocate proper now.If you are searching for an in-depth have a look at the Google Pixel 6 Pro, try the evaluation my UK colleague Andy Hoyle wrote.At $599, the Google Pixel 6 is likely one of the finest telephones you should buy.
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The Pixel 6’s daring two-tone design makes me swoonThe Pixel 6 has a 6.4-inch, 1080p display. It may be set to robotically change from 60Hz to 90Hz relying on the content material onscreen. There’s an hole-punch cutout for the selfie digicam and the display is flat with thick sharpielike bezels that bleed into the matte-finish aluminum sides. For comparability’s sake, it jogs my memory a little bit of the iPhone XR and iPhone 11, which additionally had related bezels and rounded sides, and that is not essentially a foul factor.In use the display is nice. The decision is sweet, however the Pixel 6 Pro’s is best. The entrance is roofed in Gorilla Glass Victus. Under the display is a fingerprint reader, which at first labored for me half of the time. It was irritating and never an excellent expertise. After a maddening few days, I double-registered my thumbprints and it labored almost each time. Now I do not even have to smash my finger into the display.My evaluation unit’s coloration known as Sorta Seafoam. The again under the digicam bar is gentle grey however relying on the sunshine it could actually look gentle blue.
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The again is the place the cellphone’s design actually makes me swoon. It’s fabricated from Gorilla Glass 6 and has a two-tone coloration scheme. My evaluation unit is Sorta Seafoam, which implies the underside of the again is kind of gentle grey or kind of gentle blue relying on the lighting. The high again strip is a light-weight lime inexperienced, which contrasts properly towards the deep black of the digicam bar. The general look of the Pixel 6 jogs my memory a tad of the Pixel 2 XL and its panda coloration. The horizontal digicam bar runs throughout the width of the again and appears daring and completely different. The digicam bar is not simply designed to be a Google branding factor; you possibly can put the Pixel 6 and not using a case on a desk and it would not wobble.Overall, the match and end are good. If you seize a Pixel 6 Pro, which prices $300 extra, you possibly can see a number of small methods it feels extra premium than the Pixel 6.The digicam bar homes a fundamental wide-angle digicam and an ultrawide-angle digicam.
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The Pixel 6 takes superb photosOut of all of the enhancements, I used to be most hyped to strive the Pixel 6’s cameras, and Google positively delivered. The Pixel 6, with its higher-specced lenses and sensors, takes incredible images. Let me instantly undercut that to remind you that that is nonetheless a cellphone. A mirrorless digicam or DSLR can constantly take higher images in a wider vary of lighting and circumstances. But individuals do not all the time have a mirrorless digicam with them.The Pixel 6 has two rear cameras: a fundamental digicam with a wide-angle lens and a second digicam with an ultrawide-angle lens. These are the very same vast and ultrawide cameras discovered on the Pixel 6 Pro. The ultrawide digicam affords 0.7x magnification as an alternative of the 0.6x magnification on the Pixel 5. Overall the ultrawide is sweet however not nice. Details in images are OK however usually gentle.Under brilliant gentle lighting, the ultrawide can seize some respectable images.
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Check out the highlights within the flames.
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The dynamic vary is respectable however restricted.
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In brilliant lighting, the ultrawide is able to good pores and skin tones.
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In medium to low-light conditions like right here, the ultrawide reveals its limits.
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There is a noticeable step down in high quality going from the primary digicam to the ultrawide. Take a have a look at the images under that I took of the Transamerica constructing in San Francisco.I want the ultrawide digicam had been wider. I want the angle from the ultrawide cameras on the Galaxy S21 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro extra. Check out a comparability under.The fundamental digicam has a 50-megapixel sensor, which makes use of pixel binning to create 12.5-megapixel photos. Photos from the Pixel 6 are superb. Details are nice.The colours and readability on this photograph are wonderful and correct.
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For a cellphone, the Pixel 6 has a wonderful dynamic vary.
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Look on the colours and element of this matcha ice cream cone.
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Another instance of the Pixel dealing with a large dynamic vary properly.
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Notice the distinction of the small print in direct daylight and people within the shadows.
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Textures look excellent. Check out the paint brush marks on the outdated fireplace hydrant.
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I like how the Pixel captured the feel of the fur on every canine.
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In medium and low gentle, I observed some ghosting and flaring when a light-weight supply is within the body, just like the cafe string lights right here. This wasn’t problematic and never almost as dangerous as another telephones bought right now.
Patrick Holland/CNET
There are so many Pixel 6 digicam modes and instrumentsGoogle’s Tensor chip permits for much more digicam modes and instruments. There is Night Sight, Google’s model of mixing a number of photographs collectively when it is too darkish. It’s wonderful on the Pixel 6.I just like the dramatic means Night Sight renders images.
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This Night Sight photograph was taken with the ultrawide digicam.
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In actual life, this was just about all in shadow except for the sunshine and home windows.
Patrick Holland/CNET
There’s the brand new Motion mode, which has two choices: Action Pan and Long Exposure. Action Pan provides the background of a photograph a dramatic movement blur. It’s enjoyable. It’s not going to reinvent images however it’s fairly enjoyable to make use of.Action Pan can take what could be an in any other case bizarre photograph and add pizzazz.
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The second Motion mode is Long Exposure, which mimics a long-exposure photograph. There are apps that do one thing related however I bought some respectable gentle trails from visitors and a few silklike water from a fountain. Again, it is enjoyable. It would not exchange doing long-exposure images on a devoted digicam.Google’s Motion mode for Long Exposure works properly sufficient. It’s just like changing a Live Photo in iOS to Long Exposure.
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But that is not all. Google provides you a neat instrument known as Magic Eraser. It helps you to choose an object, an individual or part of a photograph to take away. You can get to this instrument in one in every of two methods. In Photos, you may see a suggestion about eradicating individuals within the background. Or if you go to edit, faucet on Tools to disclose the function.
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Magic Eraser finds and determine the silhouettes of individuals within the background. You may use your finger to color out the half you need gone. Overall it really works properly, however it’s removed from good. Sometimes I bought completely superb outcomes like eradicating individuals from the photograph under of a pedestrian walkway — although on nearer inspection, you possibly can see the blurry patches the place components of the photograph had been eliminated.Other instances, like within the photograph under, there have been transition artifacts. It eliminated two individuals within the background right here, but in addition disfigured the hand of the woman to the proper.There are so many extra digicam options that I wasn’t in a position to spotlight on this evaluation, like Face UnBlur. But CNET may have an much more in-depth have a look at the Pixel 6 cameras quickly.The Pixel 6 digicam treats complexions extra equitablyOne enchancment Google talked about was Real Tone, which was a serious rethink and exploration about how images, particularly Google’s algorithms and engineers, deal with individuals with completely different complexions. I nonetheless wish to discover this function extra, however the images I took of associates, co-workers and different individuals with darker complexions look good, even when they don’t seem to be beneath essentially the most flattering gentle. Often after I confirmed somebody a photograph I took with the Pixel 6, even when it is them doing a secular factor, they requested for a duplicate.This is one in every of my favourite images I took with the Pixel 6.
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Even beneath harsh fluorescent lighting, Laban’s pores and skin seems to be good.
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This was taken in a really dim restaurant. The Pixel raised the general brightness however protected the colour, tone and particulars of the pores and skin.
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Below is a photograph taken with harsh backlight. Admittedly, this is not a good way to take a photograph, however I wished to see what would occur. Google mentioned the Pixel 6 handles stray gentle higher. See the way it did towards a photograph taken with the iPhone 13 under.The variations between the 2 images aren’t drastic, however Eric, who’s the topic, most well-liked the photograph from the Pixel 6. He preferred the way it dealt with the colour and highlights in his pores and skin. You can actually discover this in his arms.Videos from the Pixel 6 are higher and selfies are simply OKThe Pixel 6 information one of the best video from any Pixel cellphone. Details and coloration accuracy are higher. In phrases of evaluating the picture high quality between images and movies, there’s a smaller distinction than there was on prior Pixels. Don’t get me unsuitable, images are nonetheless the power of the Pixel.When recording video in medium and low gentle, picture noise is fairly obvious. Also, the enhancements Real Tone brings to images are unmatched with how movies deal with completely different complexions.On the entrance, the Pixel 6 has an 8-megapixel digicam that shoots 1,080p video. The Pro has a wider selfie digicam that may file 4K. Selfies images from the Pixel 6 are good however in medium and low gentle begin to look noisy.Here is a Portrait mode selfie from the Pixel 6.
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My colleague Lexy took this low-light selfie. The high quality is OK, however general there’s a contact of movement blur.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
The Pixel 6 is outlined by Google’s Tensor chipThe Pixel 6 would not run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip present in almost each different flagship Android cellphone just like the Galaxy S21 and OnePlus 9 Pro. Instead, it runs on Google’s Tensor processor. It’s the primary chip Google has made and was particularly designed by Google for the Pixel. I discovered the Tensor chip and the 8GB of RAM made the cellphone peppy to make use of. Opening the digicam app is quick, app animations look easy and it handles video games properly.In phrases of efficiency benchmark assessments, the Tensor chip would not set any new information. In reality it is largely on par with the Snapdragon 888 and that is OK. The benefits Tensor brings are its safety and on-device machine studying and AI.GEEKBENCH V.5.0 SINGLE-CORE
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency
GEEKBENCH V.5.0 MULTICORE
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency
3DMARK SLINGSHOT UNLIMITED
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency
Google quotes a day on a totally charged battery and in common use I’d say that’s correct. But in heavy use, like taking pictures plenty of images and movies, it had a battery lifetime of extra like a three-quarters of a day. During the 10 days I examined the cellphone, the Pixel 6 averaged a screen-on time of 6 hours, which is sweet, however not nice.Android 12 is strong on the Pixel 6The Pixel 6 runs Android 12 and it is most likely essentially the most underrated side of the cellphone. Android 12 is a delight to make use of. I like the massive apparent buttons and sliders. The general look of Android 12 is welcoming and prioritizes readability over animations. I like being that system colours can match and complement my cellphone’s wallpaper.The Pixel 6 runs Android 12 and even has a handful of particular options.
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Android 12 mixed with the Tensor processor gives numerous welcomed privateness and safety upgrades. The Pixel 6 comes with a number of of its personal Android 12 particular options, a few of that are powered by Tensor. A standout for me is voice recognition. I discovered there to be a whole lot of enchancment with translation, particularly after I had a dialog with a Portuguese speaker. Translations had been quick and correct. For voice typing particularly, it appears to grasp context higher and punctuate extra precisely and it is simpler to command it and clear errors.I examined the Pixel 6 on Google Fi, T-Mobile and Verizon right here in San Francisco. The Pixel 6 helps sub-6 5G. There are particular provider variations of the Pixel 6 that additionally help mmWave 5G and begin at $699 as an alternative of $599.The Pixel 6 has 30W fast-charging over USB-C and helps wi-fi charging, as pictured above.
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Google improved the Pixel 6 in some waysWith all the upgrades to software program and {hardware}, you need to surprise if that can be sufficient to make the Pixel 6 profitable. And that is actually the one factor I am unable to reply. I can say that is one of the best cellphone Google has ever constructed. As tempting because the Pixel 6 is, for $300 extra you possibly can improve to the marginally extra premium Pixel 6 Pro, which provides a telephoto digicam; a 6.7-inch show with curved edges, the next decision and excessive refresh fee; extra RAM; an ultrawideband chip and Gorilla Glass Victus on the again. But you probably have $600 and are searching for a brand new cellphone, the Pixel 6 is my suggestion.Google Pixel 6 specs vs. Google Pixel 6 Pro, Google Pixel 5, Apple iPhone 13
Google Pixel 6
Google Pixel 6 Pro
Google Pixel 5
Apple iPhone 13
Display measurement, decision
6.4-inch OLED; 2,400×1,080 pixels; 60Hz or 90Hz
6.7-inch LTPO OLED; 3,120×1,440 pixels; 10-120Hz
6-inch FHD+ OLED; 2,340×1,080 pixels
6.1-inch OLED; 2,532×1,170 pixels
Pixel density
411 ppi
512 ppi
432 ppi
460 ppi
Dimensions (inches)
6.2×2.9×0.4 in
6.5x3x0.4 in
5.7×2.8×0.3 in
5.78×2.82×0.3 in
Dimensions (millimeters)
158.6×74.8×8.9mm
163.9×75.9×8.9mm
144.7×70.4x8mm
147x72x7.65mm
Weight (ounces, grams)
7.3 oz; 207g
7.41 oz; 210g
5.33 oz; 151g
6.14 oz; 174g
Mobile software program
Android 12
Android 12
Android 11
iOS 15
Camera
50-megapixel (vast), 12-megapixel ultrawide
50-megapixel (vast), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 48-megapixel (telephoto)
12.2-megapixel (customary), 16-megapixel (ultrawide)
12-megapixel (vast), 12-megapixel (ultrawide)
Front-facing digicam
8-megapixel
11-megapixel
8-megapixel
12-megapixel
Video seize
4K 30, 60fps (rear), 1,080p 30fps (entrance)
4K 30, 60fps (rear), 4K 30fps (entrance)
4K
HDR video recording with Dolby Vision as much as 4K at 60fps
Processor
Google Tensor
Google Tensor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G
Apple A15 Bionic
Storage
128GB, 256GB
128GB, 256GB, 512GB
128GB
128GB, 256GB, 512GB
RAM
8GB
12GB
8GB
Undisclosed
Expandable storage
No
No
No
No
Battery
4,614 mAh
5,003 mAh
4,000 mAh
Undisclosed; Apple lists 19 hours of video playback
Fingerprint sensor
Under show
Under show
Rear
No (Face ID)
Connector
USB-C
USB-C
USB-C
Lightning
Headphone jack
No
No
No
No
Special options
5G sub-6 (some provider fashions even have 5G mmWave) help, Wi-Fi 6E, 30W fast-charging, wi-fi charging, Magic Eraser, Motion mode, Real Tone, Face Unblur, Cinematic Pan, 5 years OS safety updates, IP68 score for mud and water resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus (entrance), Gorilla Glass 6 (again), dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM)
5G sub-6 and mmWave help, Wi-Fi 6E, Ultra-wideband, 30W fast-charging, wi-fi charging, Magic Eraser, Motion mode, Real Tone, Face Unblur, Cinematic Pan, 5 years OS safety updates, IP68 score for dust- and water-resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus (back and front), dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM)
5G enabled; water resistant (IP68); 90Hz-refresh-rate show; dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM); reverse wi-fi charging; fast-charging
5G enabled; MagSafe; water resistant (IP68); wi-fi charging; dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM)
Price off-contract (USD)
$599 (128GB)
$899 (128GB)
$699
$799 (128GB), $899 (256GB), $1,099 (512GB)
Price (GBP)
£599 (128GB)
£849 (128GB)
£599
£779 (128GB), £879 (256GB), £1,079 (512GB)
Price (AUD)
AU$999 (128GB)
AU$1,299 (128GB)
AU$999
AU$1,349 (128GB), AU$1,519 (256GB), AU$1,869 (512GB)