Google Pixel 6 will show the first live photo — and it will look better on people as well

Google Pixel 6 will show the first live photo — and it will look better on people as well

Now that Apple's iPhone 13 has been released, I'm looking at the next exciting phone, and it is indeed the Google Pixel 6 Pro. Google has already revealed the phone's design, that it will have a custom Tensor chip, and how it will look in your hand, but we still need some official specs.

The search giant plans to reveal that information this fall, probably in October, but I already have a feeling it's hype. And our colleagues at TechRadar aren't making things any easier, snapping photos of the Google Pixel 6 Pro on display in New York.

Sadly, I'm based in London, so unlike TechRadar's Matt Swider, I wasn't able to visit the Google store in New York to get a peek at the Pixel 6 Pro. However, Swider's snaps gave me a pretty good impression of what the Pixel 6 Pro looks like in the flesh, or more accurately, what the metal and glass look like.

I was a bit put off by the design of the iPhone 13 Pro, which looks like a smaller notch and larger camera than the iPhone 12 Pro, so I decided to wait until the iPhone 14. So Google's fresh approach to the design of the Pixel 6 Pro really caught my eye.

The Google Pixel 5 is a compact and beautiful Android phone. In fact, the Pixel 5 was my favorite phone of 2020. But it has a very utilitarian aesthetic that got a bit boring after a while; the Pixel 6 Pro is certainly not boring; and the Pixel 6 Pro is a great phone for the price.

As you can see in the Pixel 6 live photos, the large black back bar holding the rear camera array looks dramatic, yet somehow clean and functional. It also seems to conceal three cameras, which may consist of a 50MP main lens, a 48MP telephoto camera, and a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera, giving it a 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith feel.

The top coloring, available in gray, cream, and orange, is a modern take on the two-tone design that Pixel phones have used since the original Pixel for the year 2021. And I think it looks great. I especially like the orange model, which conveys a retro 1960s neo-futuristic aesthetic. You can get a taste of that in the newly released PS5 game Deathloop.

The Pixel 6 Pro's rounded edges and powdery finish-looking back give the impression that it will be an easy-to-hold phone like the Pixel 5. That would be refreshing compared to the glossy backs seen on some Android phones.

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and can only be seen on the skin. Unfortunately, these photos don't tell us much about the Pixel 6 Pro's specs and features.

However, we already know that the main attraction of the Pixel 6 Pro is the Tensor chip, which is expected to power the AI pipeline between the silicon and the smart features of the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. As such, we can expect smarter, more responsive Google Assistant and impressive computational upgrades. For example, the Pixel 6 will be able to take sharper pictures of moving subjects and more accurately depict sunsets on video.

The purported leaked information about the Tensor chip's performance is quite positive, but early benchmarks suggest that it will fall behind the iPhone 13's A15 Bionic chip. I rather hope that the Tensor chip will offer a nice mix of fast processor and graphics performance, as well as a set of smart features that no other phone can match.

Hopefully, it won't be long until we can get our hands on the Pixel 6 Pro and see if it can compete with Android heavyweights like Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra and OnePlus 9 Pro.

Categories