Google’s Tuesday Pixel 6 keynote was interesting especially as the device finally debut after so many rumors, leaks, and intentional overviews by Google.
The device runs the latest Android 12 OS out of the box which is one of the most fascinating things about the device aside from the fact that it looks very cool in every aspect possible.
First, we have Google finally taking a good stand in the premium smartphone market with a unique design of the Pixel 6 series. Also, it looked like a Google-ish smartphone from the Nexus era.
Another fascinating thing is the entry price for the device which is just US$599 for the base model with 128GB of storage.
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Also, Google adopted the “Pro” branding this time around for its premium-tier Pixel 6 rather than its usual “XL” joining the likes of Apple in that regard.
A number of things have changed about the device which includes the display capacity. c
For the base model, the Pixel 6 comes with a 6.4-inch OLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate and dual rear cameras.
While the device looks pretty decent from my point of view, when compared to the design of the Pixel 6 Pro, there is obviously some difference.
I also think the US$300 price difference between the two devices might not be justified as there isn’t so much difference between the device in terms of specs.
The Pixel 6 Pro has a bigger 6.7-inch LTPO display with an adaptive refresh rate that can go from 10Hz all the way up to a 120Hz refresh rate.
The Pixel 6 Pro also packs a bigger battery and triple rear cameras with a 4x optical zoom capability. Both phones have an in-display fingerprint sensor for security, unlike the previous models which had their fingerprint scanners right behind the device.
The base Pixel 6 with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM will be going for US$599 as we’ve speculated much earlier while the Pixel 6 Pro comes with a higher US$899 with 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of internal storage that can be bumped up to 512GB.
Another noticeable thing about the new Pixel 6 series is the camera bump which is definitely a bar. Google went its own way with the rear bump design compared to other companies who have adopted the ring and rectangular design camera designs.
Also, the dual-tone design is refreshing making me want to dump my Huawei Mate 20X 5G for the Pixel 6 Pro.
Both phones are available in stormy black, while the Pixel 6 has kinda coral (pink) and sorta seafoam (green) color options and the Pixel 6 Pro has sorta sunny (yellow) and cloudy white options. Further differentiating the two phones is a more polished finish on the Pro and a matte finish on the 6.
Powering both devices is the new Tensor chip which is a Google-designed chipset in place of other chipsets such as the Snapdragon or Helio or even Exynos.
The fact that other companies now seem to be designing their own chipset gives them the ability to design their chips in such a way that it can integrate natively with their smartphone hardware rather than using third-party chips.
We’ve seen it in Apple, Samsung, Huawei so why not Google.
The company has reportedly spent the last four years developing the Tensor chip which uses its AI and machine learning technologies to enhance photos, live caption videos, and other automated tasks within the system to make the Pixel 6 super faster and more efficient even though Google equipped the Pixel 6 series with bigger batteries.
Computational photography and live transcription of recordings have been featured in Pixel phones before, but Tensor is a Google chip built specifically with that in mind, exclusively for Pixel. Some new camera features include “Face Unblur,” which makes people’s faces less blurry, as you might have guessed from the name. There’s also a “Magic Eraser” tool to smite unwanted distractions from your otherwise immaculate photos.
I’ve not put my hands on the device to really test its capabilities but I’m definitely sure it will perform. I just love the design of the Pixel 6 Pro with its slightly curved front display giving it that thin bezels and smaller chins.
Unlike the base Pixel 6, the bezel is slightly bigger because it has no curved display but it’s still a great smartphone.