Google Pixel is a brand of consumer electronic devices developed by Google that runs Chrome OS or the Android operating system. The Pixel brand was launched in Feb 2013 with the first-generation Chromebook Pixel. The Pixel range includes laptops, tablets and smartphones, as well as various accessories. A smartphone is a cell phone that cannot only be used to make calls and send text messages. Smartphones can surf the Internet and run software programs like a computer. Smartphones have a touch screen that allows users to communicate.
There are thousands of smartphone apps, including games, personal and business programs, all running on the phone. If you are looking for the best Android has to offer, whether you’re switching from an iPhone or upgrading, you can’t go wrong with the Google Pixel 6. It offers the best Android experience with excellent quality cameras, super-fast 5G speeds, and a sophisticated user interface that matches the OS colors to your wallpaper. It is the first phone on the market powered by Google’s in-house Google Tensor processors.
The tech giant claims it can do more machine learning with its own chips and improve its computational photography and live translation capabilities without sacrificing battery life. The Pixel 6 showcases the best that Google services and Android 12 have to offer. So much so, in fact, that I’d argue the Pixel 6 is the most significant phone upgrade Google has made since launching the Pixel lineup in 2016. The phone’s new cameras, Google’s Tensor chip, and premium appeal follow months of hype that stemmed in part from Google’s announcement of the phone months before its release and its bold two-tone design.
Design
The Google Pixel 6 has a new look that was officially revealed months before launch. Perhaps this was to prepare the public for the radical redesign compared to the rather generic-looking Google Pixel 5, which featured a single-color back marked only by a discreet fingerprint sensor and a square camera block. The back of the new Pixel 6, on the other hand, is two-tone and divided by a horizontal camera block that spans the entire width of the phone. It’s a bold design, to be sure, and the joking comparisons to Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge abound.
It’s certainly unique, and could be a deal-breaker for those who want a more modest camera setup on their phone. The Pixel 6 will therefore certainly require a unique case, and it feels borderline necessary. Google includes a silicone case for the Pixel 6 that includes extra bumpers above and below the camera cutout to ensure the glass doesn’t scratch the surface you place the phone on. However, we’re not particularly confident that it would survive a drop if dropped directly on the back of the phone. We’re also not sure if the glass on the back is the Gorilla Glass Victus that protects the front.
Display
Think of the Pixel 6 as the Goldilocks of cell phones – at 6.4 inches, it is neither too big nor too small, but probably just right for most users. The 2400 x 1080p resolution is very sharp, and thanks to the minimal bezels, apps fill the available screen space. If you want the phone with a screen that can achieve a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, you’ll have to opt for the Pixel 6 Pro, but Google hasn’t disappointed owners of the cheaper option.
The Pixel 6 offers an adaptive 90 Hz refresh rate that scales up when your on-screen activities would benefit from smoother scrolling and gameplay, and drops back to 60 Hz at other times to conserve battery life. Colors on the Pixel 6’s display are fairly consistent compared to similarly priced phones that use AMOLED panels. When the display is set to Natural, the Pixel 6 displays 100.9% of sRGB color spectrum, which is slightly less than the iPhone 13 (110.2%), Galaxy S21 (109.2%), and OnePlus 9 ( 104.1%). Based on the Delta-E values, the Pixel 6 is slightly less accurate in terms of color reproduction than the iPhone 13 (0.26) and OnePlus 9 (0.27) with 0.28.
Software
Not only the hardware has been fundamentally revised. The Pixel 6 also comes with Android 12, which brings a radically updated look thanks to Google’s new “Material You” design language. This includes new pastel-colored themes and revised pull-down menu icons as well as a host of other new features. The most noticeable visual change is that when you change the wallpaper, certain icons pick up and reflect the overall color tone.
Other improvements in Android 12 include changes to the widget settings, a one-handed mode, and a new AppSearch feature. This lets you search the phone’s settings menu for content within an app instead of launching the app itself. Not only do you get all of these changes, but Google is promising five years of security updates to anyone who buys a new Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro. That’s a huge improvement over Google’s previous phones, which promised “only” three years of updates.
Performance
The technical specs of the Google Pixel 6 were another big mystery: How good would the Google-developed Tensor chipset be? The phone doesn’t outperform the leading flagships in benchmarks, but it has enough power to run smoothly and take great photos. The Pixel 6’s other main features are respectable, with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. As mentioned earlier, only the 128GB model is available in Kind Coral color.
The combination of 8GB of RAM and the Tensor chip resulted in the Pixel 6 achieving an average Geekbench 5 score of 2837, which is just above the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 at 2801 and below Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus at 3034.
Note that the Pixel 6 Pro didn’t do particularly well at 2895, suggesting that the Tensor chipset isn’t capable of matching the performance levels of Snapdragon 888-powered devices. Whether that matters is another question: Like the Samsung phones listed above, the Pixel 6 easily handles browsing, media viewing, and other tasks. These scores are also significantly higher than those of the Google Pixel 5, which achieved a Geekbench 5 score of 1600 with its Snapdragon 765G chipset.
Camera
Photography is a big part of why Pixel fans love the phones, and Google has packed all of its latest advances into this phone. As for the actual camera, you get a typical combination of a 50-megapixel wide-angle and an ultra-wide-angle lens on the back and a decent 8-megapixel front camera. In testing, we found that the rear camera delivers excellent results regardless of the lighting conditions. The color gradation of the photos is a bit more saturated and warmer than the neutral treatment we’re used to from iPhones, but that also cuts down on processing time.
There are several computational improvements the Pixel can make to your snaps. Google says the camera is now better at detecting darker skin tones in portraits and making sure they don’t look washed out. It can also blur scenes with motion to add dynamics, and it has a “Face Unblur” feature that uses machine learning so you don’t end up with unusable photos when you take pictures of kids running around.
Battery Life
However, if you want mind-boggling performance, check out our battery results obtained from the Pixel 6 and its 4,614 mAh battery. Our test consists of setting a phone to continuously surf the web over a cellular connection, ideally 5G, and then measuring how long it takes for the fully charged device to run out of power. For consistency, we set each phone’s screen to 150 nits of brightness, which means the Pixel 6 needs to be set to a very demanding 77%.
That’s a long way of saying the Pixel’s numbers aren’t very impressive when tested over 5G. With the 90Hz refresh rate enabled, the Pixel 6 lasted 8 hours and 13 minutes on T-Mobile’s 5G network – almost two hours below the smartphone average. However, we ran the same test at our home with a Verizon SIM, where I can only receive an LTE signal. Without the power requirements of 5G, the Pixel 6 lasted an average of 10 hours and 52 minutes longer in several tests. Now it’s even longer.
Price and Availability
The Pixel 6 has arrived in stores and the price depends on where you buy your phone. Get the phone unlocked or from Google Fi, T-Mobile or Xfinity Mobile and you’ll pay $599 for the 128GB model. If you increase the storage capacity, another $100 is added. On Verizon and AT&T, you’ll pay more for the Pixel 6. $699 on Verizon and $739 on AT&T. The reason for the price difference is 5G. Verizon and AT&T are selling Pixel 6 models that work with the fast mmWave-based 5G networks. The cheaper Pixel 6 models only work with sub-6GHz 5G networks.
Another way to buy the Pixel 6 is Google’s new subscription-based Pixel Pass. You’ll pay $45 per month, but for that you’ll not only get a phone, but also a subscription to Google One storage, as well as streaming from YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium and Google Play Pass. Pixel Pass also gives you priority service for repairs and replacement devices. Here’s our look at whether Pixel Pass is a good deal or not.
Conclusion
We hope you like our article – Google Pixel 6 Review. The Pixel 6 is the phone that Google’s premium line has always deserved. It has everything you would expect from a device like this, and for $600, it’s the best value on the market. Google is finally moving in the right direction and going all out, instead of coming up with new experimental plans every year and offering a premium Android flagship experience.
The Pixel 6 is still a first-generation product, however, and at this point, especially with the Pixel 7 around the corner, we’d recommend waiting for it if you’re able. But if you need a phone today and get a good deal, the Pixel 6 won’t disappoint, and hopefully Google will iron out any remaining bugs and stutters in future updates.
