The Google Pixel 6 Pro in 915 Words

My first Android phone ever was the first Google Pixel, all the way back in October 2016. I like to get my hands on the newest tech, so when it came time to replace my Huawei P20, I was almost certain that I was going to get my hands on the Pixel 6 or its Pro counterpart when they released.

Despite looking at other options such as the Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra and Huawei’s gorgeous Mi 11 Ultra, when it came to Pixel 6 launch day, I pre-ordered my Pixel 6 Pro almost immediately. Not only was it significantly cheaper than its competitors at £849, but it also packed a fantastic-looking camera system and came with feature-enriched Android 12 straight out of the box.

Design

When I look at my new phone, the first word that comes to mind is ‘divisive’. Personally, I’m a fan of the camera visor that Google opted for. It’s a far cry from the norm, but it does away with the bland little black circles that you see on almost every other phone nowadays.

However, I can see why some people aren’t fans. The visor does take up a far larger area on the back of the phone than the more traditional camera bump, and it’s not necessarily as sleek.

Maybe I’m weird — I did opt for the ‘Sorta Sunny’ colour variant after all — but I do love how the phone looks. The polished aluminium accents gleam in the light, and the phone is so smooth all the way around that it almost feels like it’s melting into your hands when you hold it.

Display

All you need to know is that it is very much a flagship-quality display. It has all the features we’ve come to expect of top-of-the-range phones, and it looks vibrant and crisp while doing so. It’s stunning.

The 6 Pro sports a 6.7-inch ‘Smooth Display’ made from Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. Naturally, it’s an OLED screen that is capable of a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, but that can drop as low as 10Hz when it’s not needed to save on battery.

Camera

Despite how much I’ve praised every other aspect of the Google Pixel 6 Pro so far, the camera is where this phone shines the most. Pixel phones have always been at the top of the smartphone camera leaderboards, but the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro really do take that to a new level.

The phone comes equipped with a 50MP main shooter, a 40MP telephoto lens and a 12MP ultrawide camera with a 114° field of view. The lenses and sensors themselves are, of course, very capable pieces of hardware, but where the camera really shines is in Google’s Tensor-powered post-processing.

If you take a photo, then immediately look at it in the gallery, after about a second you’ll notice it suddenly increase vastly in quality, and that’s all down to the funky algorithms residing in the Android 12 camera app.

Low light performance is also very good, and the app has all the usual photo modes. I haven’t had much opportunity to try the new motion modes, so maybe follow me on Twitter or Instagram to see those when they pop up 😉

Performance and Battery Life

One of the most talked-about features of the Pixel 6 line-up was that Google has developed their own in-house processor dubbed ‘Tensor’. I don’t have any flagship Snapdragon processors to compare it to, but it certainly feels fast enough and I’ve never noticed any performance issues. Google’s on-device AI/ML powered by the dedicated chip in the processor also works fantastically, allowing for accurate captioning and translation even when offline.

The battery lasts all day, and I don’t charge my phone overnight, instead opting to juice it up to about 70–80% when I wake up in the morning. I can do that in about 20 minutes with Google’s 30W fast charger (though the phone only uses 23W at any given time).

Software

Android 12 is great. I really do love it. The customisation options are awesome and it’s the first operating system I’ve ever used that actually feels… fun! The design style makes it feel as if you live in a bouncy castle and I can’t get enough of it.

As I mentioned earlier, the phone feels fast, and I haven’t noticed any considerable slow-downs. However, I do have one major gripe with this phone — the way it handles firmware updates. From time to time, my Pixel 6 Pro will just… restart. In fairness, it does it when I’m not actively using the phone, and it restarts quickly, but it does get annoying when I miss notifications because network services are disabled after a reboot. This doesn’t happen often, but still just enough to get on my nerves.

Sound

The speakers on the phone are fine. They’re nothing special, but they sound better the higher the volume and most people will be using Bluetooth headphones to consume video or audio content anyway.

In Conclusion…

I’m very happy with the choice I made with the Pixel 6 Pro. I saved a butt tonne of money on the handset itself compared to my other options, it’s great to use, and it’s perfect for anyone who spends a lot of time consuming content of all forms, from reading the news to gaming at 120fps.

I highly recommend the phone, and if you’ve been convinced by this article, you can purchase your own from here:

https://store.google.com/product/pixel_6_pro?hl=en-GB

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