In case you are on the lookout for a brand new smartphone in 2023, you may need to think about the Pixel 6, which was launched in 2021. Why? As a result of opposite to what’s social media portrays, most individuals don’t really change their telephones yearly, however relatively each 3 to 4 years or much more.
And the Pixel 6 has quite a bit to supply, even after two years since its launch. It has a robust in-house Tensor chip, a shocking 6.4inch HDR OLED show, a long-lasting 4614mAh battery and 5 years of safety updates. The icing on the cake is that it’s now cheaper than ever, making it nice worth for cash. We’ll present you why the Pixel 6 remains to be a related and dependable selection in 2023.
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Design & Construct
Google’s Pixel 6 flaunts its daring new two-tone design, which is a breath of recent air in comparison with the straightforward, playful designs of older Pixel telephones. The present design language will redefine the look their gadgets for the foreseeable future.
Whereas I often go for the all-black choice, the Pixel 6 has some wonderful colour choices that. I selected the Kinda Coral, which is a beautiful shade of pinkish-orange. The opposite colours are Stormy Black (name it black) and Sorta Seafoam (inexperienced).
The Pixel 6 feels strong and well-built, however it is usually fairly thick and slippery to carry. The glass again is shiny and easy, which makes it onerous to carry with out a case. I want it had a matte end or some texture to enhance the grip.
One of the placing options of the Pixel 6 is the digital camera visor, which runs throughout the again of the telephone. It homes the spectacular cameras and sensors that make the Pixel 6 an incredible pictures machine. I like the way it appears to be like and the way it makes the telephone distinctive. It additionally serves as a handy place to relaxation your fingers once you maintain the telephone. I’ve to say that the Pixel 6 shouldn’t be a cosy match except you have got very giant arms however the visor really helps. The digital camera visor additionally provides to the premium really feel of the Pixel 6, which is one thing that was lacking within the earlier fashions.
One of many options of the pixel 6 which may catch your consideration is the sound of its bodily buttons. The facility and quantity buttons situated on the highest proper aspect have a noticeable clicky noise once you press them, which could be useful if you wish to verify that you just’re getting traction. Nevertheless, some folks may discover them too loud, particularly in the event that they dwell in a quiet surroundings. It is a matter of non-public choice, after all, however I feel the buttons may very well be quieter and nonetheless be efficient.
Show
The Pixel 6 boasts a 6.4-inch HDR OLED show that may alter its refresh charge from 60 to 90Hz, relying on the content material. The display screen decision is 1080p, which is sharp sufficient for many customers. One of many new options of the Pixel 6 is the in-display fingerprint sensor, which replaces the rear-mounted one from earlier fashions. Nevertheless, this sensor shouldn’t be very dependable, because it usually fails to acknowledge the fingerprint on the primary strive. Google claims that that is as a result of safety and accuracy of their sensor, but it surely doesn’t make it any much less annoying. A trick I realized from Reddit was to register the identical fingerprint twice, which can enhance the popularity charge.
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The Pixel 6 provides three colour modes for the show: Pure, Boosted, and Adaptive. The Pure mode is probably the most correct, whereas the Boosted mode enhances the colours barely. The Adaptive mode is probably the most customizable, because it permits you to alter the colour temperature and depth in keeping with your choice. I personally selected the Adaptive mode, as a result of I prefer to tweak the settings a bit, however any mode would work positive. I actually don’t have a powerful choice for colour accuracy.
In keeping with the specs, the show has a peak brightness of 770 nits, which is respectable for outside visibility. Nevertheless, I observed that typically the auto-brightness characteristic doesn’t work correctly, and I’ve to manually alter the brightness degree. And one other minor situation I’ve skilled is that sometimes, the display screen freezes for a cut up second. I’ve to return to the house display screen to repair it. This doesn’t occur fairly often, however I wished to place it on the market.
Software program & Efficiency (Tensor chip)
The Pixel 6 is Google’s first smartphone to characteristic its personal custom-made chip. Tensor is designed to allow the Pixel 6 to carry out superior AI duties, reminiscent of language translation, speech transcription, picture processing, and dwell captioning, one thing Google is aware of a factor or two about.
Tensor is totally different from different smartphone chips, that are primarily targeted on delivering excessive efficiency for common duties. The Pixel 6 could not prime the benchmarks, however its real-world efficiency is true at par. Apart from the few hiccups I discussed earlier (uncommon freezing on my machine), the Pixel is greater than as much as the duty when gaming, looking, chatting and pictures.
The Pixel 6 will not be the quickest telephone on paper, but it surely is likely one of the smartest telephones in observe. Due to Tensor, the Pixel 6 can deal with complicated duties that may usually require an web connection or a cloud server. For instance, you need to use the Google Translate app to translate textual content or speech from any language to some other language, even if you end up offline. You can too use the Recorder app to transcribe audio recordings into textual content, and edit them as you’d any doc. You can too use the Dwell Caption characteristic to generate subtitles for any video or audio content material in your telephone, even when they don’t have captions already.
The Pixel 6 additionally has a shocking digital camera system that makes use of the Tensor chip to boost your images and movies. The Pixel digital camera can mechanically detect faces and alter the main target and publicity accordingly, though it sometimes suffers from over-processing. It could possibly additionally take away undesirable objects or folks out of your images with the Magic Eraser device. It could possibly additionally create reasonable movement blur results on your movies with the Cinematic Pan mode. And it will possibly produce wonderful portraits with the Portrait Gentle characteristic, which helps you to alter the lighting and shadows of your topic.
Should you’re not huge on early adoption, you may think about the Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 sequence with newer Tensor chips. These gadgets have much more spectacular options and efficiency, however they can even include the next price ticket.
Digicam
With the launch of the Pixel 6, Google revamped their cameras and at last made some lengthy overdue enhancements to the digital camera {hardware} and software program in comparison with earlier generations.
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The Pixel 6 has two rear cameras: a 50-megapixel foremost sensor (binning to 12Mp) with OIS, EIS, LDAF, and an ƒ/1.85 aperture, and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide with a 114-degree subject of view. The principle digital camera captures beautiful images with glorious element, spectacular depth of subject, and colour accuracy. The ultra-wide digital camera shouldn’t be as spectacular as the primary one, but it surely nonetheless provides a good efficiency and a wider perspective.
The Pixel 6 is understood for being a degree and shoot digital camera that doesn’t disappoint for probably the most half. Google has up to date the Google digital camera app (now named Pixel digital camera) in Android 14 to extra clearly separate picture options from video. The app is straightforward to make use of and has some helpful options that improve the pictures expertise.
One of many strengths of Google’s digital camera is the software program chops. The Pixel 6 makes use of synthetic intelligence and machine studying to course of and optimize the images. You should utilize the magic eraser to crop out picture bombs, undesirable objects, or folks out of your pictures. The digital camera additionally does post-processing for colour correction, though this typically leads to over-sharpening the pictures. You can too use the digital camera to straight scan QR codes with out having to go to Google Lens, which I discovered fairly nifty.
The Pixel 6 additionally has some fascinating modes and options that you would be able to experiment with. For instance, you need to use the portrait mode to blur the background and create a bokeh impact. You can too use the profile characteristic and go to 2x zoom to get as shut as doable to your topic, which may work as a workaround for not having a devoted macro digital camera. You can too use the evening sight mode to take wonderful images in low-light situations and face unblur will kick in for these blurry images. activate speech enhancement for movies.
The Pixel 6 digital camera is arguably probably the greatest cameras I’ve ever owned. It delivers high-quality images which might be comparable and even higher than a number of the flagship telephones from different manufacturers.
Battery & Charging
The Pixel 6 has a beneficiant 4614mAh battery that may final a full day of average to heavy use. It additionally helps quick charging, each wired and wi-fi, in addition to reverse charging for different gadgets.
Nevertheless, you will want to purchase your individual charger, because the Pixel 6 doesn’t embody one within the field, Thanks, Apple. You should utilize any outdated USB-C charger, however you’ll get the most effective outcomes with a 30W PD charger for wired charging or a 21W Qi charger for wi-fi charging.
From what I’ve seen, the Pixel 6 can cost from 0 to 80% in about an hour, which is respectable however not spectacular in comparison with another flagships, however I don’t really thoughts. I’m relatively skittish with super-fast chargers just like the 120W Xiaomi bricks. The charging velocity slows right down to a trickle after 80% to protect the battery well being and keep away from overheating.
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Talking of overheating, some Pixel 6 customers have usually report that their telephones get heat or scorching throughout charging or heavy utilization. Now, it appears that evidently Google has quietly addressed this situation with the Android 14 replace, which improves the thermal administration and efficiency optimization of the Pixel 6. I’ve personally observed that my Pixel 6 runs cool as a cucumber after updating to Android 14 though I can’t say I had an issue with it earlier than. However a surefire option to drain the battery is to shoot movies or take a number of footage in direct daylight.
Android 14
Being a Google telephone, the Pixel 6 already obtained the Android 14 replace. This replace fastened a whole lot of points that customers have been dealing with, such because the overheating situation. Additionally they boosted the battery lifetime of the Pixel 6, making it last more on a single cost. Now you can additionally customise your lockscreen with totally different clock types, wallpapers, and widgets. Google additionally introduced plans to roll out extra options within the subsequent characteristic drop, which is predicted to reach quickly.
One of the anticipated options is the flexibility to make use of your Pixel 6 as a webcam on your PC, which may turn out to be useful for video calls and on-line conferences.
Is the Google Pixel 6 value shopping for?
The Pixel 6 was a game-changer for Google’s smartphone lineup when it dropped. It launched a recent look, improved cameras, and the custom-made Tensor chip. The next fashions have solely added minor tweaks that I can frankly do with out if I’ve to pay full value.
The Pixel 6 nonetheless provides 3 years of OS updates and 5 years of safety patches, which is greater than sufficient to maintain me happy. The trustworthy fact is that on the proper value, and the Pixel 6 is getting some respectable reductions as we converse, I can forego upgrading to the Pixel 7 or Pixel 8 for a pair extra years.
