Pixel 6 review: Google Hardware finally lives up to its potential

Google did it. The corporate lastly made a cellphone that appears like a full-effort flagship gadget. It took six lengthy, irritating years, however with the Pixel 6 it lastly feels as if Google is not holding again out of concern for its Android licensees or another dedication subject. The Pixel 6 has a customized Google SoC, tons of AI software program options that actually work, and a brand new and thrilling model of Android. These mix into the very best Android smartphone on the market—the One True Flagship of the Android ecosystem. With an amazing worth, the Pixel 6 is a straightforward “purchase” advice.

That is if you should buy one. The one destructive factor you’ll be able to say concerning the Pixel 6 is that Google, whereas it has improved its phone-building abilities, hasn’t improved its phone-selling abilities. The Pixel 6 is simply offered in 12 nations as a substitute of the 100+ that Apple and Samsung promote in, and Google is already experiencing inventory points. Regardless of Google’s model recognition and several other mega billion-dollar companies, Google {Hardware} stays a tiny facet venture. So purchase a Pixel 6 in the event you can—simply do not do it from an eBay scalper.

Low costs and massive digicam bars

We anticipated the Pixel 6 to promote at comparable costs with different distributors, however the largest win for the road is that Google has priced these telephones aggressively. The Pixel 6 Professional is $900, and with a 120 Hz 1440p show, 12 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, and a 5000 mAh battery, spec for spec it is comparatively comparable with the Galaxy S21 Extremely. The S21 Extremely has an MSRP of $1200, although, so Google is coming in $300 cheaper.

For $600, the Pixel 6 has a 90 Hz, 6.4-inch show with 8 GB of RAM and a 4600 mAh battery. It would not have an ideal Samsung comparability, however I would say it falls someplace between the S21 and S21+, which signifies that it is also about $300 cheaper. Google has even undercut OnePlus, and each Pixel 6 fashions have a much bigger battery than the $970 OnePlus 9 Professional.

The Pixel 6 design is certainly one thing. We have seen digicam bumps get larger and larger over time, however the Pixel 6 introduces the digicam bar, a giant, black stripe of a digicam bump that stretches throughout the again of the cellphone. It actually stands out, and the Pixel 6 immediately turned some of the recognizable Android telephones the second the design leaked 5 months in the past.

I’m truly a fan of the digicam bar. Between the underside fringe of the cellphone and the sting of the digicam bar, the cellphone has two full edges of contact with no matter floor it rests on, so it is rock stable in the event you’re poking at a Pixel 6 on a desk.

The bar is kind of tall for a digicam bump. I measured it at 2.5 mm tall on the Pixel 6 Professional and three mm tall on the smaller Pixel 6. I do not actually have an issue with this, both. Thicker telephones will be good; they normally result in longer battery life. Each new telephones are about 12 mm thick in the event you embrace the digicam bump, and this has all the time been a tremendous, pocketable dimension.

Having the digicam bar stretch throughout the again of the cellphone makes it straightforward in your finger to succeed in whereas holding the cellphone usually. Typically I find yourself adopting a grip the place my index finger pushes in opposition to the underside fringe of the digicam bar. This further level of contact helps the cellphone vertically, giving me yet one more contact level within the warfare in opposition to gravity. Having the rear contact factors of the cellphone be one thing apart from a slick pane of glass is, for my part, good. You possibly can see the accent market attempt to do one thing related with all kinds of stick-on cellphone grips that add geometry to the again of the cellphone, however on the Pixel 6, that is form of built-in. I really feel like I am much less prone to drop a Pixel 6 due to the digicam bar.

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I spent most of my time with the white Pixel 6 Professional that I used to be despatched, and it appears nice. I am unable to actually say my cellphone’s coloration scheme appears correct to Google renders, although, which present a two-tone design with a grey again panel above the digicam bar and a white again panel under it. In case you take a photograph editor’s eyedropper device to certainly one of these photos, you would possibly measure a slight distinction, nevertheless it’s so refined I doubt it is one thing you’d discover in actual life. It is exhausting to think about {that a} coloration variation this minor was deliberate by a designer; it feels extra like a quirk of producing (coloration matching may be very exhausting) that Google determined to run with.