Pixel 6 is so great that I don't understand the point of buying another smartphone | Gizmodo Japan facebook Twitter Youtube RSS Facebook Twitter YouTube GIZMODO FUZE

Sorry to those who recently bought another smartphone...!

The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are finally here. With Google's Tensor chip installed, the AI ​​system function is further enhanced, the camera is further enhanced, and the price is set at a low level. Check out Gizmodo's Sam Rutherford's review below!

Up until now, Google Pixel has been called a flagship, but in fact, I felt that software covered the lack of hardware such as the number of cameras, battery capacity, and old processors. .

But with the Pixel 6, the unique chip Tensor, updated components, a new design, and smarter software come together to finally unlock the full potential of the Pixel.

And with a starting price of $599 (74,800 yen in Japan), if you're looking to upgrade your phone this year (especially if you're already an Android user), is there any point in buying another? It's a smartphone that makes you want to ask yourself.

Google Pixel 6/Pixel 6 Pro

What is this? : Google's latest flagship smartphone with its own Tensor chip

Price: Pixel 6 is $ 599 (Japan domestic price 74,800 yen), Pixel 6 Pro is $ 899 (116,600 yen)

What I Like: Great price, unique design, Tensor chip, tons of high-end features, great camera and shooting modes, clever software, great battery life.

What I don't like: The base model doesn't support mmWave 5G, doesn't have a headphone jack, and the in-screen fingerprint reader could be a bit faster.

More than just a camera bar

Google has been eager to introduce new designs to its phones, and with the Pixel 6, it's done it again. Instead of the square camera module you'll find on most phones these days, the Pixel 6's camera is housed in a camera bar, which makes sense both visually and functionally. The camera bar accentuates the three-color coloring on the back, but it also helps keep it flat and stable when placed on a table. This camera bar has solved a problem that has been bothering me for the past few years when smartphone camera modules have become huge.

But the biggest change is that it feels much more premium than the Pixel 5. Gorilla Glass Victus on the front, Gorilla Glass 6 on the back, and IP68 waterproof and dustproof performance, so you don't have to worry about daily shocks, drops, or even submersion in water. Both Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have their own identities. The unbranded Pixel 6 has an unpretentious matte finish on the edges (which I personally prefer), while the Pixel 6 Pro has a glossy side that gives it a touch of luxury.

Both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are large. The Pixel 6 has a 6.4-inch display at 2400 x 1080 and a refresh rate of 90Hz, while the Pixel 6 Pro has a 6.7-inch display at 3120 x 1440 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. Those who like small devices may be disappointed.

However, if you look at the beauty of the Pixel 6's screen, won't your dissatisfaction with the size of the screen subside? Both models have a brightness of 750 nits or more, and the OLED display has deep colors and a high refresh rate for smooth movement.

My only gripe with the Pixel 6's design is that it's so big and tall that it's hard to reach the power button. I like that it's under the volume buttons. I guess it depends on the person, but I lock and unlock my smartphone more often than adjusting the volume. Also, depending on the content, the Pixel 6's stereo speakers sound a little flimsy, but that's not a big deal.

The in-screen fingerprint reader is useful (especially when masks are still required in many places, like now), but the unlock time is about the same as the long-ago Samsung Galaxy S10, and the recent Galaxy S21. is longer. It's not a big problem, I just need to get used to it, but I think it would have been better if it was faster.

A new approach to flagship performance

Tensor chips play a super important role in the Pixel 6. Tensor is both a symbol of Google's commitment to smartphone chips and the driving force behind the Pixel 6's performance.

Google says benchmark numbers aren't everything, and the Pixel 6 shows why. In a synthetic test that looks at the performance of the entire system like Geekbench 5, the Galaxy S21 with Snapdragon 888 is around 3,600 in multi-core, while the Pixel 6 is around 2,700, which looks slow. But in the 3DMark Slingshot Extreme Unlimited graphics test, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro beat the Galaxy S21 Ultra's 8,594 at around 8,600.

More importantly, Tensor chips make neural processing more powerful, making Google's specialty AI and machine learning processing even faster and more efficient. According to Rick Osterloh, head of hardware at Google, with the Pixel 6 equipped with Tensor, it is possible to do things that were not possible with off-the-shelf mobile chips. It is now possible. Not having to rely on the cloud makes it even more power efficient (more on that later), and you don't have to worry about Google or third parties seeing sensitive information.

Even if the benchmark numbers aren't the best, the Pixel 6 (8GB RAM, 128GB base storage) and Pixel 6 Pro (12GB RAM, 128GB base storage) perform just as well as other Android phones. You can run apps and multitask (with the exception of super-large-screen phones like Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3). Only hardcore mobile gamers are likely to complain about this performance, and there are phones for them like the Asus ROG Phone 5.

By the way, the unlocked version of Pixel 6 sold on the Google Store does not support 5G in the millimeter wave band, but models handled by US carriers AT&T and Verizon do. All three carriers, including T-Mobile, are selling Pixel 6 virtually free of charge on the condition that they trade in existing devices, so more people can use mmWave 5G in the United States, making it less premium. It seems to continue.

Overwhelming smartness of software

With the introduction of the Tensor chip, the performance of AI and machine learning is already fully open, and the clever new features of the software are almost astonishing. Android 12's Material You, for example, lets you match your entire interface to your wallpaper with a single tap of a button. You can use minimalistic app icons by enabling the theme icon setting in the wallpaper menu. And this is just the beginning.

First of all, the Calling Assistant feature, which is useful for people who don't like the automatic response of various companies' customer support. Calling Assistant is a customer support service for 5,000 companies in the United States. It tells you when the waiting time is short, displays a menu that can be accessed with the numeric keys on the screen, and waits for the user when there is a waiting time. It will notify you when a human comes out.

There's also Voice Typing with Google Assistant, which you can activate on Gboard by saying "Hey Google, type" and even type an emoji. If Google Assistant makes a mistake, you can type it in real time to correct it, use commands like "Clear" or "Stop," and even "Send" when you're done.

The Google Nest Hub and other smart displays have made their way to the Pixel 6, allowing you to answer and unanswer calls and alarms with commands without having to say "Hey Google." You can stop or snooze. Tensor makes it possible to use more accurate voice models in various apps, making the Pixel app and the Recorder app (now available in Japanese and German) more useful. The Pixel 6's voice recognition isn't perfect, but these features work as well or better than you'd expect, almost like magic.

But one thing that really struck me was the Live Translate feature, which can be used in several ways.

You can turn on Live Captions to translate audio and video in real time, or use Interpreter Mode or Google Lens in the camera app to aid conversations while traveling. My favorite is the Live Translate feature for messaging, which works across messaging apps (Google Chat, Android Messages, Snapchat, LINE, Signal, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, etc.) in 11 languages ​​(English, French, Japanese). Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Hindi, Polish, Russian).

Since my mother is of Taiwanese descent, I have felt that I am not a good person because I cannot speak Chinese fluently (I studied Chinese in Taiwan for a year and a half, but I have mastered it completely.) I returned to the United States without it). So it was difficult to keep in touch with my relatives in Taiwan, but thanks to this AI, the language barrier is much thinner than before.

Although Google itself isn't fluent in Chinese (for example, 'Yuzu' in Chinese means 'Buntan' in Japan, which translates to 'Grapefruit'). ), but sometimes even a little help is appreciated. For me, it's a pity that the Pixel 6 currently supports only Simplified Chinese, and not Traditional Chinese, which is the official language of Taiwan. There are many Google offices in Taiwan too.

The camera and shooting functions are amazing

The power of hardware and software is alive in the Pixel 6 camera. Both Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are equipped with the same 50-megapixel main camera and 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, and the Pixel 6 Pro is equipped with a telephoto camera with a 4x optical zoom. It has both.

Compared to the fact that Apple and Samsung smartphones have been carrying both telephoto and ultra-wide angles for a long time, why? That may seem like it. But really, the Pixel 6 feels like the first time the Pixel has focused on hardware. There was kai that I expected so far.

From bright light to night shots with Night Sight, the Pixel 6's photos were crisp, clear, and consistently captured finer details than other phone cameras. In the second photo of the red tree below, the iPhone 13 Pro captures the color and veins of the leaves better than the iPhone 13 Pro, and the surrounding grass has more depth and color. Even in the first alley shot, the Pixel 6 Pro captures the dynamic range just fine, while the iPhone 13 Pro makes the upper leaves and parts of the sky almost fluorescent. In the third photo of the flower bed, the Galaxy S21 has the problem of oversaturation, which is common with Samsung cameras, but the Pixel 6 Pro has natural colors.

Google Night Sight is still the best. I don't know why the iPhone still doesn't have a dedicated low light mode, but the image above clearly shows the need for it. The Pixel 6 Pro captures sharper, more colorful nightscapes than the iPhone 13 Pro, with less lens flare.

The Pixel 6 Pro's 4x optical zoom is roughly on par with Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra at 4x zoom, which is nice for users like me who want to shoot farther with their phone camera. However, this zoom can be extended to 20x in combination with Google's Super Res Zoom technology, but the Galaxy S21 Ultra can optically zoom up to 10x, so Samsung's zoom power is still one step ahead.

But the Pixel 6 is also packed with fun camera features like Magic Eraser, Face Unblur, Action Pan, and Long Exposure. Magic Eraser may not be as powerful as Adobe's Content-Aware Fill or Stamp tools, but it's easier to use and more than enough for social media posts. The same goes for Face Unblur, which will be a godsend for parents who take pictures of their kids. So, I have a 2 month old baby, and although I don't have pictures here, it was much easier to take pictures of a child who wouldn't sit still.

But I think the most fun camera features are Action Pan and Long Exposure. Both are functions that enable one-tap techniques that would otherwise require hours of practice or proper equipment. With Action Pan, a normal car photo looks like a capture from a racing game. I used the Action Pan to take a photo of a ferry in New York, and it turned an ordinary photo into a much more interesting one.

Long Exposure, on the other hand, completely changes the tone of the landscape. A picture of a simple waterfront becomes a picture of a smooth, glass-like river. These photos can be refined with an expensive mirrorless camera, tripod and editing software, but it's not easy. Smartphone photography needs to be snappy and easy, and the Pixel 6 does just that. Pixel 6 can also shoot videos in HDR, so the colors of the video are also shining.

Long battery life and charging system

In terms of battery life, both daily performance and video playback test results are excellent. Both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro always had 30-40% battery left at the end of the day. Even on days when I tried the same feature multiple times for testing, I always had that much left over. The Tensor chip definitely contributes to the Pixel 6's energy efficiency. Since everyone will be using AI and machine learning functions more and more from now on, this high energy efficiency will become very important.

In the battery test, the unmarked Pixel 6 lasted 18 hours and 56 minutes, the second longest smartphone I've seen this year, behind the iPhone 13 Pro Max's 19 hours and 30 minutes. The Pixel 6 Pro is relatively short at 16 hours and 45 minutes, but it's on par with the Galaxy S21 Ultra and far longer than the OnePlus 9 Pro's 13 hours and 54 minutes.

The Pixel 6's battery upgrades aren't just about longevity. Charging speed has also increased to 30 watts wired (30 watts, USB-PD 3.0 charging adapter required), and 21 or 23 watts wirelessly with the upcoming 2nd generation Pixel Stand. 12 watts wirelessly, not bad, even if it's not a genuine wireless charger. In addition, reverse wireless charging from Pixel 6 is also possible when the battery of other devices is about to run out while on the go.

Tighter Security

Managing digital security can feel like a no-brainer these days, but one of the great things about the Pixel 6 is the new Titan M2 coprocessor and Security Hub. This makes security holes more visible, both on-device and online. Security Hub notifies you when your password may have been compromised, gives you tips on how to improve your security, and gives you your overall security score.

Google guarantees the Pixel 6 security updates for five years, the longest of any Android phone. The OS upgrade is also guaranteed for 3 years, so you don't have to worry about it becoming unusable soon. For those unfamiliar with scam or phishing messages, it even warns you when someone asks for your password.

As a general rule, don't give out your password to anyone under any circumstances. Reputable companies usually have more than one way to verify their identity without sending unencrypted passwords in emails or messages, and they should.

Best smartphone for this price

When I had a sneak peek at the Pixel 6 in August this year, what impressed me most was that Google has It was the Pixel that I had the most confidence in. And when you actually use it, you will immediately understand the basis for that confidence. More than any Google device to date, the Pixel 6 exemplifies the power and potential of machine learning and ambient computing. Performance isn't just about numbers, it takes both clever software and sophisticated hardware to take advantage of that software and its capabilities. And the Pixel 6 has done both well.

If you want the best phone for your money, the Pixel 6 is just that. A flagship in every corner. The fresh look will not be mistaken for other smartphones, and it is attractive even with a case. A new way of thinking about performance, improved security, and the best camera in a smartphone.

And the price of Pixel 6 is $599 (Japan domestic price 74,800 yen), which is $200 less than iPhone 13 and Galaxy S21 (the price difference in Japan is around 24,000 yen). As for the Pixel 6 Pro, it's the Galaxy S21 Ultra that's more affordable and loses the stylus in exchange for better software.

Honestly, there's nothing I don't like. If you want the best phone worth spending money on, there's no reason to buy anything other than the Pixel 6.