Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have been almost revealed in full except for some key details that would have allowed us to analyse better how well these pit against the competition.
While the company was smart enough to put a release timeline for this fall, it didn’t disappoint its team pixel by showing why we should be excited about the upcoming Pixel 6 series.
Departuring from the traditional Pixel design to a new chipset packing all artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) prowess, Google has made sure that it drops so many hints for the world to be excited.
But that’s the point. Google seems to have thrown in everything with the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, right from an all-new aggressive design to a custom-made chip by Google for Pixels. After years of similar-looking Pixels, the Pixel 6 series feels like a new avatar and introduces a phone with a bar that fits the camera setup.
This wasn’t just a desperate thing needed, but one that could put Google back on the top with other manufacturers like Apple, OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, and others.
There’s no doubt that the design looks aggressive, but there’s proper reasoning behind it. If Rick Osterloh, Google’s Senior Vice President, Devices and Services, is to be believed, then there was no way the company could have fitted the new large camera sensors in a traditional square camera setup.
The Pixel 6 series is likely to sport a 50-megapixel primary sensor based on the leaks so far. We will have to wait until this fall to know the exact specs of the new Pixel 6 series.
Why Google Tensor could be the game-changer for the company
Osterloh suggests that the Tensor is Google’s “biggest smartphone innovation” since the first Pixel launched in 2016. This means users can expect the best of Google’s AI and ML features on the new Pixels because the company now has a silicone design based on its requirements.
Well, Google isn’t the first company to switch to its chipset. The industry is full of such examples, right from Apple, Huawei, and Samsung. However, the difference between other chipsets and Google’s Tensor could be in terms of what it can offer.
Apart from the new industrial design and sporting Android 12 with Material You, the Pixel 6 will be a special device as it may showcase what Google is really capable of. Osterloh, in an interview with Gizmodo, said that Google was doing tweaks to features like call screen, Night Sight and HDR+ camera features and a few other things, but it wasn’t able to do anything more because of the limitations of the chipset.
The company already dropped major hints about what Tensor could be capable of on Monday. In a series of tweets, Google highlighted various aspects where the company will take advantage of the new custom-made chipset.
“The highlight of Tensor is that it can process Google’s most powerful AI and ML models directly on Pixel 6,” Google said in a tweet on Monday. This means the true capability of the Tensor could be in camera and speech recognition, among others.
It was interesting how Google highlighted the speech recognition feature on the upcoming Pixel 6. “Speech recognition is another foundational technology where you will see a huge improvement in Pixel 6,” the company tweeted. Further, it added that Google Tensor would allow the company to take advantage of things like voice commands, translation, captioning, and dictation.
The teaser gives a good enough sneak peek as to why Tensor could be the biggest differentiator compared to the rest of the flagship crowd.
We can expect features like the real-time translation that could even work offline. Then we could see real-time captioning for videos on YouTube, and maybe dictation on the go available on the Pixel 6 series. There are plenty of possibilities, and we know for a fact that Google will be showcasing its new Pixels and Tensor chipset.
Why we are excited about the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro
If you’ve been following Google’s Pixel line-up journey, then, much like us, you may also feel excited because this doesn’t seem to be just another Pixel phone (for the sake of it).
The first Pixel phone launched in 2016 set the benchmark for other smartphones for cameras. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 series raised the bar slightly in camera performance but were never considered the best flagship-grade phones. The Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 felt like downgraded phones with excellent cameras.
The situation was even worse for India because the company didn’t launch the Pixel 4 or Pixel 5 and instead focused on the mid-range price segment with Pixel 3a and Pixel 4a launched in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
We are very hopeful that the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will make it to India, and this means that there’s a reason to worry for Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, and Xiaomi, the brands which have been doing well in the Rs 50,000 and above price bracket.
What is so different about the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro is they don’t feel like phones built to cater to a spec-obsessed crowd that most Android OEMs cater to in India. Instead, it promises features that should enhance the overall experience and feel like a true Google phone, representing what this company can truly achieve.
