Review: The $599 Google Pixel 6 is everything I wanted
Tech Industry
Speaker 1: Look at the camera, then talk, Patrick, This is the Google pixel six. It has new cameras. It costs $599. It has a new processor made by Google called tensor, and it has a camera bar on the back as opposed to a camera. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: You know, there's been a lot of hype about the Google [00:00:30] pixel six. Now some of that comes from Google announcing this phone months before it was released. Some of that comes from the phone design. Some of that comes from the fact that Google went and made its own processor as opposed to using Qualcomm. But after spending over a week with the Google pixel six, I think it lives up to the hype. Oh, by the way, if you're looking for an in-depth review of the Google pixel six pro take a look at a review video that my UK colleague, Andy Hoyle made, he goes in depth about [00:01:00] everything, but let's start with the basics on the pixel six, the pixel six has a 6.4 inch, 10 80 P display. It can switch between 60 Hertz and 90 Hertz, depending on what's on the screen. And there's a whole punch cutout for the selfie camera around the screen.
Speaker 1: The screen that's flat has no curved edges. There is a pretty thick bezel around the sides that bleed into the aluminum mat. Finish of the rails. Now [00:01:30] this aesthetic kind of reminds me of the iPhone 10 R or iPhone 11, and that's not necessarily a bad thing in use. The screen is pleasant and the resolution is good, but it is better on the, the pixel six pro the front of the phone is covered in grill glass Victus. And under the screen is a fingerprint reader, which yay. But, um, over the first couple days using it, it was like a 50% hit rate, which was not fun. I found myself having to maybe go two or even three times [00:02:00] to unlock the phone. But after a few day days of that experience, I decided to register my fingerprints a second time. And now the phone and the fingerprint reader opens up instantly on the first try.
Speaker 1: Then there's the back. And this is where I sorta SWO over the Google P EXL six it's made of gorilla glass six and has a two-one design. This review unit is called [00:02:30] sort of sea foam, which is sort of white, sorta gray, sorta blue, sorta, depending on the lighting. The top of the phone has a light lime green accent, which contrasts nicely with the dark black of the camera bar. And let's talk about the camera bar. And that's a nice way of describing what this thing is. It's a camera bump. It just goes across the whole back of the phone. Maybe it's better called a camera speed bump. I don't know. I'm not trying to make jokes. [00:03:00] I'm just saying it is chunky. It does stick up. Um, but you know what? I'm a big fan. I like the way this looks, it's bold. It's different. It's unique. And I'm not a case person. I do not like putting my phones in cases. So when I put the phone on the table, It doesn't wobble. You're not hearing anything cuz it's not doing anything. And that's amazing to me now it does stick out enough. So when I do put it in, like my jacket pocket, it sometimes gets hung [00:03:30] up on the edge of the pocket lip and the top sticks out, which I don't know, it looks kind of cool. Probably not safe though, in which case it probably just by a case,
Speaker 1: The look of the pixel six reminds me of the pixel two XL, the Panda version. You remember that? Ah, so great. The fit and finish overall is nice. But when you look at the pixel six pro it definitely feels and looks more premium. One of the features I was most hyped to try on this phone, what the [00:04:00] new cameras, the pixel six has the biggest camera hardware upgrade of any pixel in a long time, combine that with Google's already stellar, computational photo recipe and expectations were very high and the pixel six delivers and immediately let me undercut what I just said by acknowledging that this is still a phone, a mirrorless camera, a DSLR will likely take better photos of [00:04:30] most situations than this phone that said the pixel six takes fantastic photos.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the ultra wide camera, which offers a 0.7 times magnification versus the 0.6 times magnification on the pixel five overall. It's good but not great detail is okay, but soft. And the dynamic range is decent. There is definitely a step down in quality going in between the main camera and [00:05:00] the ultra wide. And also I wish the perspective was just a bit wider. Prefer the ultra wide cameras on the galaxy S 21 ultra and the iPhone 13 pro more. But then there's the 50 megapixel pixel bidding sensor on the main wide angle camera and photos from it are absolutely amazing. Details are great textures look outstanding. I mean, look at the paint brush marks in the paint on this old timey fire hydrant or the fur on this [00:05:30] trio of dogs. The dynamic range is good. And just to emphasize for a phone in medium and low light, I noticed some ghosting and flares that happened when a light source was in the frame like cafe string lights. I mean, this wasn't problematic and it's not nearly as bad as some other phones that are sold today.
Speaker 1: Night site Google's version of combining multiple images together when it's too dark is excellent. There's a sense of drama [00:06:00] to the way the pixel renders a night site photo. But if your Google, why stop there and you know what? They certainly didn't. There's a new motion mode, which has two options. Action pan and long exposure action pan takes the background of a photo where your moving and gives it a dramatic motion, blur and long exposure mimics a well long exposure photo. There are apps that do something similar, but you can get some decent light tails from traffic and make running water [00:06:30] look like silk. It's fun. It doesn't replace long exposure photography on a dedicated camera, but that's not all. Google gives you another cool photography tool called magic eraser. And this lets you take a person, an object or any part of a photo that you don't want and remove it.
Speaker 1: You can get to the magic eraser two ways in photos. Sometimes you'll see a suggestion about removing people from the background or when you're going into the edit mode. You just gotta tap on the tools button [00:07:00] to reveal magic eraser for people in the background, it'll find their silhouette or you can use your finger to paint out the part you want gone. It works pretty well, but it's far from perfect. Sometimes I get absolutely amazing results like, like removing people from this photo of a pedestrian walkway near some restaurants, magic eraser, even filled in the buildings painted design that was covered up by the people. Other times there were transition artifacts like it removed two people in the background of this photo, but also disfigured [00:07:30] the lady on the right's hand.
Speaker 1: One improvement, Google talked about its cameras is called real tone, which is a major rethink in exploration of how Google's photos, specifically its algorithm and engineers handle people with different complexions. I have more, I want to explore with this, but the photos have taken so far of people with darker complexions look good, even if they're not under the most flattering light. And when I showed a friend, I took of them [00:08:00] just doing a mundane thing. They immediately wanted a copy because of how good their skin looks when it comes to video. The pixel does not have a history of having the greatest video on a phone, but video on the pixel six is good. In fact, I would say, this is the best video off of a pixel phone I've ever tested details and color accuracy are better. Now the difference in terms of image quality between photos and videos is smaller than they have been on prior pixels, but do not get me [00:08:30] wrong.
Speaker 1: Photos are still the strength of the pixel on the front. The pixel six has an eight megapixel camera that shoots 10 80 P video. The a pro has a wider selfie camera that can record 4k video selfie photos from the pixel six are good, but in medium and low light, they start to look noisy. There are many more camera features on the pixel six that I don't have time to get into like face on blur. And I promise you we're gonna have more in depth camera videos on [00:09:00] the pixel six and six pro soon, the pixel six runs on Google's tensor processor. This is the first chip that Google ever designed. It's custom made for the pixel and in use it's peppy. The camera app opens fast. Animations looks smooth and did stutter and it handles gaming well in terms of battery life, Google quotes that a single charge will get you through a day.
Speaker 1: And in regular use, I found that to be accurate in heavy use days where [00:09:30] I'm shooting, lots of photos and videos are watching lots of movies or YouTube videos playing lots of games. I'd say battery life is more like three quarters of a day. Over the 10 days I had the phone and reviewed it the screen on time, average six hours, which is good, but not great. The pixel six runs Android 12, which is such a delight to use. I like the big obvious buttons and sliders. The overall look of Android is welcoming and clear. I like being [00:10:00] able to match and compliment colors from my phone's wallpaper. I mean, take a look at a settings menu page for a page that is mainly text. It looks good and it's easy to read. The pixel six comes with several of its own Android, 12 special features. Some of are powered by tensor and a standout for me is voice recognition. Whether it's translating a conversation between an English speaker and a Portuguese speaker or just voice typing, there are a lot of improvements. Voice typing [00:10:30] in particular seems to understand context better auto punctuate, more accurately, and is easier to command and clear mistakes. The pixel six supports sub six 5g and I tested it here in San Francisco. Now there are special carrier versions of the pixel six that also support millimeter wave 5g.
Speaker 1: I open this review by saying that the pixel six costs $599, by the way, that gets you a hundred, hundred and 28 gigabytes of storage. And for that price, [00:11:00] I can't think of a better phone to recommend. And that's not even mentioning the fact that this gets five years of security and software updates and major Android OS updates. This is the pixel phone that I've wanted from Google for a long time. And that that's all I've got. If you are interested in learning more about the pixel six or buying one, check out the link and the description. And look, there is so much more about the pixel six and the six pro that I was not able [00:11:30] to go into with this video. So please kick out my written review on cnet.com. But now I wanna hear from you guys, what do you you think of the pixel six? Does it live up to the hype? Are you considering getting a pixel six or a six pro throw your thoughts in the comments? This is the so close stick.
