This time final yr I wrote a column titled, “If you got a Pixel 4 for Christmas, you should probably return it.” I didn’t need to write it. Ever for the reason that Pixel launched in 2016, I’ve rooted for Google’s telephone to succeed. No different firm is in such a place to carry an iPhone-like stage of {hardware}/software program integration and an expertise unsurpassed on every other Android telephone.
Unfortunately Google by no means fairly nailed it. The items had been all there—flagship processor, unbelievable digital camera, common Android updates—however the design at all times left a lot to be desired, the options had been gimmicky, and the battery was merely good-enough. On the Pixel 4, the compromises turned an excessive amount of to bear.
Previous Pixel telephones by no means had the fitting method.
But issues is perhaps wanting up. In 2020 Google switched up its technique with the Pixel 4a and 5, and the outcomes had been shockingly good. For one, the design was unbelievable, with a light-weight body, slim bezels, and a textured non-glass again. But the extra attention-grabbing strikes had been contained in the telephone: Google opted for the midrange Snapdragon 765G fairly than the 865, and the Pixel didn’t lose a step. It nonetheless feels speedy, nonetheless delivers the purest Android expertise, and nonetheless takes higher pictures than telephones costing a whole lot of {dollars} extra. It additionally opens up the Pixel to a brand new world of prospects.
Lower-end, higher-class
The Pixel may need been only a gleam in Google’s eye when Android One launched back in 2014, however the two initiatives are reduce from the identical fabric. The imaginative and prescient of Android One was to carry a pure Android expertise to decrease finish telephones that had been usually full of bloatware. The Pixel telephones are principally high-end Android One telephones. Even with higher elements and shows, the main target—and promoting level—is on software program.
The Pixel 5 misplaced its glass again however stored wi-fi charging.
That software program emphasis, nonetheless, is essentially why the early Pixel telephones didn’t make a lot of an affect. The designs didn’t match the excessive value, particularly when in comparison with equally priced handsets from Apple and Samsung. That’s why the Pixel 3a and 4a have fared better in terms of sales: The decrease costs simply make extra sense.
With the Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, and 5, Google is creating a greater steadiness between the {hardware} folks need and the software program they want. With Android One, Google was “working closely with phone and silicon chip makers… to build phones that are not just great to use, but also affordable,” a mantra that has discovered its manner into the 2020 Pixel lineup. It’s greater than only a lower cost level or slower chip. For what looks as if the primary time in a Google telephone, the Pixel 5 is telephone constructed solely to leverage the ability of Android with out worrying about high-end elements and high-priced rivals.
The Pixel 6 may take it even additional. The lineup this yr was a bit of complicated with the $499 Pixel 4a 5G and $699 Pixel 5, particularly as a result of the 4a 5G had an even bigger display than the 5. Google has much more room to develop now that it has established the Pixel as a mid-range machine.
It begins with the processor. While Qualcomm has but to announce the successor to the 765G that powers the Pixel 4a and 5, there have been rumors that Google is working by itself processor. Axios reported earlier this yr that “Google received its first working versions of the chip” and might be prepared by subsequent yr. Axios stories that the chip will “include hardware optimized for Google’s machine-learning technology,” with a part of the chip targeted on “improving the performance and always-on capabilities of Google Assistant.”
We’re already fairly certain that the Pixel 6 will not be powered by the Snapdragon 888—but it surely may not have a Qualcomm chip in any respect.
If Google had been making an attempt to compete with Qualcomm’s speedy Snapdragon 888 I’d be skeptical. But with the Android optimizations Google already brings to its telephones, a customized chip designed solely for the Pixel 6 may carry an expertise akin to what Apple delivers with the iPhone. This might be simply what the Pixel 6 wants to face out in 2021.
A digital camera that may’t be topped
If there’s one space the place the Pixel has at all times excelled, it’s the digital camera. While different telephone makers have added three and 4 lenses to boost the photo-taking expertise, Google has executed most of its work on the processing facet. Things like Night Sight, Super Res Zoom, and Live HDR+ compensate for an absence of cutting-edge {hardware}.
The digital camera has at all times been the Pixel’s greatest characteristic.
The final two Pixel telephones have hit one thing of an innovation wall. While the Pixel 5 nonetheless takes among the greatest pictures for a smartphone at any value, there isn’t a lot it could do this the Pixel 4a can’t additionally do for a whole lot much less. Granted, the Pixel 5 has an ultrawide lens, however the total Pixel digital camera expertise appears primed for a breakthrough in 2021.
Google has already confirmed that it doesn’t want high-end specs to ship a premium digital camera expertise, and the Pixel 6 can be the right approach to drive that house. Simple adjustments just like the addition of a telephoto lens or a greater sensor on the primary digital camera would go a good distance towards cementing the Pixel because the premier smartphone digital camera. As Google has rested on its laurels a bit, different telephones have closed the hole with evening mode and portrait mode enhancements. A leap in digital camera efficiency in 2021, particularly at a lower cost level, would assist it reclaim the crown.
Leveraging the Android benefit
Finally, there’s Android itself. With well timed updates, quarterly characteristic drops, and unique and “Pixel-first” options, Google has positioned the Pixel because the utmost Android expertise at each value level. The relationship is barely going to get tighter with Android 12.
The Pixel 5 (left) may carry the identical high-end expertise that you simply get on an iPhone.
Aside from options and optimizations, I’m anticipating Google to push the Pixel’s assured Android updates from three to 4 and even 5 years. After Samsung upped its promise to a few years in 2020, and Qualcomm introduced that it is going to be supporting 4 years of updates with the 888 processor, the Pixel must set itself other than the pack. Years of well timed updates is among the Pixel’s strongest factors. An iPhone-like stage of assured updates would make it the unprecedented champ.
Google’s 2020 Pixel strikes had been undoubtedly shocking, however I don’t assume it means Google is giving up on its handset as an influencer within the Android universe. Quite the other: With just a few adjustments in 2021, the Pixel may lastly turn into the telephone it was at all times meant to be.