Google Pixel 6 Pro review: A proper flagship phone
e Pixel 6
Pro is similar in size and weight to the Samsung
Galaxy S21 Ultra and carries with it many of the hallmarks of
premium smartphone design.
It steps
up over the Pixel 6 with a "waterfall" display, curving over the
edges, matched with the curving of the glass of the rear panel. An alloy
unibody runs through the centre of the phone, emerging with a polished finish
around the edges, while also framing that camera array on the rear.
It's the
back of the phone that people have been talking about - and rightly so. When
Google launched the
Pixel 4 with its camera square on the rear it was designed to
stand out. On the Pixel 6, the camera is the design.
There's a retro feel to it - especially with some of
the colours being offered - and long gone are the days where we
saw the likes of Huawei CEO, Richard Yu, exclaiming "no bump!" from
the stage; the Pixel 6 Pro is manifestly bump.
The quality of the finish is great, save for one minor detail:
the camera array, sitting between the metal bands of the frame, is actually
three sections comprised of the centre and the curved parts on either end. That
means there are two seams in this section that we wish weren't there.
Moving on
there's IP68
protection, which is flagship-grade waterproofing, while the glass
front and back are Gorilla
Glass Victus, the best that Corning offers and that should at least
protect against scratches - it doesn't resist against fingerprints though.
Within the design there are stereo speakers, with a long slit
across the top of the display where it meets the frame and an orifice on the
bottom of the phone. There's no 3.5mm headphone socket though, so it's wireless
only. The speaker quality is pretty good, with plenty of volume to create a
great experience when watching ad hoc videos or when gaming
Display
- 6.7-inch
LTPO OLED panel
- 3120 x 1440
resolution (512ppi)
- 120Hz
(adaptive) refresh rate
- 19.5:9
aspect ratio
- HDR
That
panel is the same size as you'll find in the iPhone 13
Pro Max, but a little higher in resolution, meaning the Google phone
has the ability to display nice and crisp details. Unlike its rivals, such as
Samsung's Galaxy S21 lineup, there's no option to reduce this resolution. You
can choose the colour, though, with natural, boosted and adaptive offered - the
last being the default and likely most popular option.
This is
an LTPO OLED display, meaning it can offer adaptive
refresh rates. That will see the display actively switching to suit
the content it's displaying, with a range from 10-120Hz. The idea is that
static content, like an ebook, would be at 10Hz so you're not wasting battery
refreshing the page, while fast scrolling can happen at 120Hz to reduce tearing
and make it appear smoother. You can, if you wish, turn it off and stick to
60Hz refresh instead.
The
Pixel 6 Pro has a great display, full of quality, offering great colouration to
your content. There's ample brightness too, so it will deal with brighter
sunshine.
There's a
punch hole to the top of the display for the front-facing camera, while Google
has also moved over to offering an under-display fingerprint scanner on the
Pixel 6 models. That keeps the rest of the design clean - and while we never
had a problem with fingerprint scanners on the rear, certainly, many will
welcome its new position on the front. We've had no problems with the scanner
overall, finding it swift to unlock the phone with a little haptic
acknowledgement.
Hardware
- Google
Tensor 5G processor
- 12GB RAM,
128/256GB storage
- 5003mAh
battery, 30W wired / 23W wireless charging
Where the Pixel 6 Pro makes a departure from many other devices
on the market is in its hardware. Sitting at the core of the phone is Google
Tensor, Google's own design of system on chip (SoC).
Google claims that that the phone is up to 80 per cent faster
than the Pixel 5, although that was on mid-range Snapdragon 765G hardware - and
we really don't know what Google bases these comparisons on. Having used both
phones, yes, the Pixel 6 Pro does feel smoother and faster - and every inch the
flagship experience.
Google
says its hardware has been four years in the making and a large part of what
Tensor wants to do is boost the artificial intelligence and machine learning of
devices - and allow that to run on the phone rather than in the cloud, making
it faster and more secure.
The performance from Tensor is excellent - and while it's likely
to be a focal point for discussion around this phone, having used plenty of
Snapdragon 888 devices this year, it's hard to notice any particular
differences. Synthetic benchmarks will likely fuel the argument back and forth
about which is best, but in real day-to-day use, it's a flagship experience.
If there's one area that might raise an eyebrow that's when the
phone is under heavy load. During longer gaming sessions you'll find that the
Pixel 6 Pro will start warming up - which goes hand-in-hand with
faster-than-average battery drain, so not unusual - but here it makes a
noticable difference to overall endurance.
Fire up Call of Duty Mobile for a couple of hours and you'll
feel the warmth and that faster battery drain - in some cases faster than other
flagship devices. If long hardcore gaming is your key focus, you might want to
consider a gaming phone instead.
Google Tensor supports 5G connectivity and there will be a
number of different versions of this phone - a Sub 6 model, and versions that
include mmWave too. There's also Wi-Fi 6E support and Bluetooth 5.2 - as well
as ultra-wideband (UWB).
We've found the 5G connectivity and speeds to be great
On
connectivity we have one minor gripe which is really about Android 12: the
Quick Settings now offers "Internet", with both cellular and Wi-Fi in
the same area. That means it takes two taps to turn off Wi-Fi rather than just
the one of older Android versions. Why does this matter? When you walk out of
home and want to stream music, the phone will hang onto that Wi-Fi network far
too long, so the music stops. We'd much rather just have the old Wi-Fi Quick
Setting button to avoid that situation.
Google details that the UWB functionality isn't enabled at
launch. Without anything to test it with, that probably doesn't matter - but
we're expecting the likes of Tile
Ultra in 2022 and compatibility with cars like the BMW iX in
the future too.
There's no microSD - something that Google shuns perennially -
while 128GB and 256GB options provide ample storage.
There's a single USB-C on the bottom of the phone, allowing
charging of the battery at speeds up to 30W, although there's no charger in the
box, just a cable. That means you'll have to provide your own charger.
It's not
the fastest charging around - designed for a USB PD 3.0 PPS charger - but
that'll still be speedy enough to keep most users happy. On the wireless
charging front there is support up to 23W, but only using the Google Pixel
Stand (2nd gen). It will also support 12W wireless charging from a Qi wireless
charger.
Google is claiming that you'll get 24 hours of use from the
Pixel 6 Pro or 48 hours if you use the extreme power saving mode, although the
latter restricts what you can do with your phone, disabling a lot of the apps.
As the name suggests, it's an extreme choice.
The battery, as always, depends on the usage. As we said, those
long gaming sessions will drain the battery more rapidly - which is often the
case on larger phones - and may require a top-up during the day. But on lighter
days or during typical use - when messaging, taking the occasional call,
snapping a few photos and browsing social media - you'll find it lasts much
better. Typically, on such days, we'll reach the end of the day with 50 per
cent remaining
Cameras
- Triple rear
camera array:
- Main:
50-megapixel 1/1.31in sensor size, 1.2μm pixel size, f/1.85 aperture,
optical image stabilisation (OIS)
- Telephoto:
48MP, 1/2in, 0.8μm, f/3.5, OIS
- Ultrawide:
12MP, 1.25μm, f/2.2
- Front:
11.1MP, 1.22μm, f/2.2
There's a completely new camera
system in the Pixel 6 Pro, pairing up a higher resolution main, a
folded type (periscope) telephoto, and an ultrawide. This is one of the areas
that this phone differs from the smaller Pixel 6 - which misses out on the
telephoto.
While the composition of the cameras has changed over its
predecessor, much of the look and feel of the Pixel camera is much the same.
There are new features, but Google is still taking the approach of making this
an easy camera to use - you point and shoot and get the results regardless of the
conditions.
As such,
it leans on artificial intelligence (AI) and computational photography, an area
where Google has really made a name for itself with the Pixel family.
Although there's now a 50-megapixel sensor, Google is using
pixel binning to result in 12.5-megapixel images, combining four pixels on the
sensor into one in an image. Like others, Google is claiming a larger surface
area to absorb light using this method, something that can feed into supporting
low-light photography and the famed Night Sight and Astrophotography modes. But
unlike others, the Pixel doesn't let you take huge 50-megapixel photos - or
offer a complex overlap of features. It's all straightforward.
The main camera on the Pixel 6 Pro is excellent. It has diverse
skills, backed by Google's AI, delivering excellent results in many conditions.
It has an uncanny ability to make dull photos more interesting - and while some
phone cameras will deliver boring flat pictures in less than optimal
conditions, Google raises its game, boosting high dynamic range (HDR), lifting
shadows, making colours rich without being unrealistic, all resulting in better
images.
A glance
into a Raw image file can reveal how much Google is doing here to clean things
up, smoothing away image noise at higher ISO sensitivities, sharpening to bring
back details, correcting distortion from lenses. While all this is happening in
the background, you don't need to think about it - it just happens.
This applies as much in low-light conditions as it does in good
light. The regular camera will take low-light shots without needing Night Mode
and can automatically switch to Night Mode when a longer exposure is needed.
Again, the amount of AI work happening here can be seen if you open the preview
as soon as you take it - a dull picture is processed into something cleaner,
brighter, and better right before your eyes.
The gallery below shows an HDR photo from the ultrawide camera,
followed by the Raw unprocessed image file that gives you an idea of how much
is changing here. It's worth saying that the processed image looks much more
like the real location on that sunny autumnal walk.
There is a
downside to this AI processing of course. In some conditions the HDR effect can
look slightly artificial, noticable when you have small bright areas, like
through leaves of a tree in the images above. This is pretty common on
smartphones, but you can turn off HDR in the camera if you feel it's not the
result you want.
Equally, it has often been said that Night Sight can make night
scenes appear brighter than they actually are. This is true - while you'll get
night shots from this phone that other phones will not match, it can, at times,
make it lighter than what you're looking at.
Because AI is doing the work in this camera - there's no
pretense this is about a particular sensor or lens - you get these options on
all cameras. That means the front camera gets all the features that back
cameras do. Some smartphones don't even consider this.
Again,
it's about delivering the best results it can. As a result, the front camera -
which is 11.1-megapixels in the Pixel 6 Pro - is one of the best selfie cameras
out there. There are two angles offered - 1x or 0.7x - but Night Sight, Face
Unblur, Portrait, Motion mode all work here too. Without these features, it
still takes outstanding photos, now less contrasty than from older Pixels. It
doesn't feel like you're compromising using the front camera over the rear,
which is the case with many rivals.
Google talked up its AI cleaning of digital zoom images on
previous phones, but now it can offer 4x optical zoom from the folded lens
arrangement, and 20x digital zoom beyond that. That takes the Pixel camera
beyond anything that's been offered previously. While it's not the same as the
10x optical cameras you might find out there, it's now hugely versatile.
One of Google's technologies here is Super Res Zoom. This has
been around for a few years, using mulitple images to enhance digital zoom over
simple sensor cropping. It's really effective, meaning those 20x digital photos
are pretty good, certainly usable rather than just being a gimmick. Yes, fine
detail will still be mushy at long range, but on the whole you'll be happy with
the results
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