Google - Pixel 6 Pro 128GB (Unlocked) - Stormy Black

~TL;DR version~ Pros: • Extremely fast processor and ample RAM • Latest security updates and Android versions • Camera opens fast and shoots quickly, taking great shots in most conditions • Camera features like Magic Eraser, Motion Modes, and Face Unblur, and Speech Enhancement are useful and market-leading • AI voice typing and language translation features make this phone the most interesting piece of computing hardware on the market Cons: • Camera processing software needs to be tweaked to take better portrait shots and improve low-light performance • Telephoto lens is hard to switch to; subjects must be at least 4 feet away; no macro mode • Under-screen fingerprint reader can be difficult to work with and projects a bright light under the sensor that can be blinding • Lack of face unlock and Active Edge is disappointing, particularly considering how good Pixel 4 XL's face unlock was • Curved screen is pretty annoying to use and can warp images on the edge • User experience problems were introduced with Android 12 as Google removed or changed the UI for the worse ~Long version~ Let me begin by saying I'm an Android aficionado and a Pixel lover. It's because of that love that I might sometimes overlook the amazing, wonderful, awesome things about the phone that I take for granted, and spend too much attention to the little bugs and nitpicks that affect my experience as someone who's basically going to stick with a Pixel, no matter what. If you have never owned a Pixel phone before, there have always been several extremely great things about them that you should know, in order of importance: • The best camera processing software of any phone, period • Always get the latest security updates before any other phone • Google's vision for Android as the default, with lots of options available for tweaks and settings changes • Features like call screening, spam call and text message detection, "hold for me," which can help you avoid listening to annoying hold music • With the exception of Pixel 4 XL, have always used mid-range hardware and been sold at mid-range pricing, but generally perform well above the level of other phones in their price range. Some of the best things about the Pixels of the past are also true about the Pixel 6 Pro. It gets the latest security updates and uses Google's vision for Android. Some things are new. The Pixel 6 Pro is using new camera hardware for the first time since 2016, and it can take some really amazing shots. It has a new design, a totally new, Google-designed SoC (system on a chip; the main processor of the phone) called "Tensor" that can match and in some cases exceed the absolute best SoCs on the market at raw processing power. The Pixel 6 Pro uses this chip to do a ton of very complicated AI processing directly on the phone, without breaking a sweat. The AI processing is impressive, allowing the Pixel 6 to translate live speech on the fly, take dictation as well as enterprise-level software solutions that cost thousands of dollars, and process live video through HDR algorithms while the camera is recording. In almost all cases, the Pixel 6 Pro is the fastest phone I've ever used. In addition to the expected good things about Pixel phones, the Pixel 6 in particular does an incredible job of processing important software features on the phone. The new motion photo modes, 4k HDR video, and things like Face Unblur and Magic Eraser are great benefits, and the Pixel 6 Pro handles them effortlessly. I've also been very impressed with how the Pixel handles open apps. My Pixel 4 XL is starting to show its age and shutting open background apps down after I take a picture, or switch to just a couple more active apps. The Pixel 6 Pro with its 12 gigs of RAM completely eliminates this problem, keeping power-hungry apps like Pokemon Go open in the background for hours, even after taking pictures and using many other apps. The final thing I'll mention as a big positive is battery life. It took over a week for Android's Adaptive Battery to work well for me, but now that it is, I regularly get 5+ hours of screen-on time with more than 25% battery left at the end of the day. I anticipate this phone will be a battery champ for many years to come, and I appreciate that. ~Complaint department~ Unfortunately, there are also some drawbacks to the changes. The new camera hardware is impressive, but it seems like the software team needs some more time to make the processing work better. Particularly in portrait mode, the camera has trouble with edge detection, sometimes leaving chunks of the background adjacent to the subject un-blurred and looking janky. This usually occurs with flyaway hairs and fuzzy sweaters, and can lead to what should be a very nice shot looking very cheaply processed. Also, the phone's performance in low light doesn't match up to previous Pixels. Shots I took on Halloween as the sunlight was fading ended up looking either too blurry or too artificially sharpened, with only a very few looking great like Night Sight photos on other Pixels. The new under-screen fingerprint reader hasn't been much of a trouble, but other reviewers have said it doesn't work well for them, especially with a screen protector. I've had some issues where the reader requires me to re-apply my finger or run it a few times, but for the most part it works great. One thing I'll say is that the under-screen sensor creates a little hollow area, and the phone has a different sound to it because of that. Kind of a hollow "thunk" as compared to phones without the under-screen reader. My biggest complaint about it is that it shines a very bright light onto the reader, making it difficult to use in a darkened room without blasting yourself in the face with bright light. Make sure your finger is covering the sensor or look away! I'm hopeful that Google will find a way to add face unlock to this phone through software updates. It's a feature I wasn't in love with when I first used my Pixel 4 XL, and certainly isn't perfect in today's world where I'm wearing a mask half the time, but I miss it greatly. Face unlock on the 4 XL is fast, secure, and incredibly intuitive. As a final complaint about the hardware, I'll say that I really don't like the curved screen. The curve causes some content to bend and become distorted. In my case, that means memes and webcomics on Facebook and Patreon, which present images across the full width of the viewport. Oftentimes small text at the edges of the screen is hard to read because of the curved edge. If the Pixel 6 would've come with 12 gigs of RAM, I would have gotten it instead, to get the flat screen. Another big list of drawbacks is the many changes that were made to the user interface in Android 12. For the most part, the changes have to do with design—and they're fine. System icons are bigger and can be customized to automatically match your phone's background, typefaces are generally larger and more spaced out, and new widgets bring these design touches to your homescreen in interesting ways. But frustrating changes have occurred in the User Interface that have negative effects on the usability of the phone. For example, the quick settings button that turns wi-fi on and off has now been moved to a new "Internet" quick setting button. Where once you could swipe down from the top of the screen and turn wi-fi off with a tap, you now have to swipe, tap, tap, and then tap again to exit a popup menu. Another annoying UX blunder is the removal of home controls and Google Pay from the long-press power menu. This was an incredible feature of Android 11, and allowed users to activate important functions without looking at the phone first. Physical buttons are ALWAYS better than on-screen buttons to do simple routine tasks, and Google took it away. My final complaint about Android 12 has to do with how it handles links and saved passwords. In the past, it was a trivial thing to tell Google that you wanted to open certain links in certain apps. Now, some links open in the browser no matter how many times you tell Android to open them in an app instead. In my case, links to Reddit now open in the browser. I've gone into app settings to tell Android to open all Reddit links in the app, but after several hours, they revert. Saved passwords for apps are also a problem. In Android 12, users must enter and save their password in the app. Any saved passwords from the web version of the app do not automatically transfer, and the Autofill functionality that helps users to easily search for saved passwords is broken. Instead, the user has to exit the app, navigate to passwords.google.com, find the saved password, provide their device unlock (PIN, password or biometrics), copy the password, then go back to the app and enter it. Once the password is entered and saved, it works, but the process to set this up is unnecessarily cumbersome. ~The final word on Pixel 6 Pro~ Google Pixel phones have often had initial periods of hiccups and bugs right after launch, and though Google aficionados hoped this time would be different, it's clear that isn't the case. Many of the problems I mentioned above can be fixed with changes to software, and I hope the passion and time many of us are putting into telling Google how we feel will result in changes that benefit all users as time goes by. The indisputable thing is that, despite some minor quibbles about the fingerprint sensor and the curved screen, this phone is an incredible piece of hardware. I anticipate using this phone for years to come, and I am really looking forward to seeing how the Pixel and Android teams can adjust things to make the phone's user experience match the incredible hardware package they're working with.

The Google Pixel 6 Pro has a myriad of features that I explored for a week. I think this phone is outstanding and close to perfect. It’s fun to use and I’m looking forward to continuing learning about Google features that can enhance my day-to-day smartphone experience. There are so many features that I didn't even get to cover it all in this lengthy review. I’ve always been an Android user and I’ve just upgraded from a Galaxy S9 which I had for over 3 years. GOOGLE TENSOR PROCESSOR The new Google Tensor custom-built processor lends to a powerful performance and I can attest to that. I’ve experienced no issues navigating between apps or having multiple apps open at one time. From a user standpoint I can confirm that what makes Pixel 6 the flagship line is the processor and the camera. CAMERA I have been super excited to try out the camera because I’m new to Pixel phones and the camera is their claim to fame. I am a camera enthusiast and take many photos. I’ve heard so much about the Pixel camera so I was eager to see if it lives up to the hype. So far, it does. I feel like phone cameras are getting closer and closer to DSLR quality. - MAGIC ERASER The first thing that caught my attention was the Magic Eraser tool. Very cool to use and when it works, it’s wonderful to have that editing feature handy! I like that it will occasionally make erasing suggestions. The tool itself can be hit and miss though, depending on what you’re trying to erase. If there’s a [mostly] solid color around your editing selection, it will perform fine. But if you’re selecting a piece that’s by something with a lot of variance (like a fence) or a selection on top of an edge between contrasting surfaces, the Magic Eraser has trouble making a true content-aware fill and will sometimes make jagged fills, hard edge/corners around the edited selection. I’ll attach some photos that show this. The Magic Eraser does not replace PhotoShop’s healing brush or stamp tool but it’ll work in a pinch, especially if you can forgive any mistakes. It’s a really cool feature that can be a little finicky at times but overall I’ve already taken advantage of the Magic Eraser with positive results. - ZOOM FOR STILL AND VIDEOS The zoom on the CAMERA is quite impressive as the shots look clear at 20x. Outdoor natural lighting made the quality pop but I was impressed at how much (or how little) grain was in the photos zoomed into the maximum 20x. 1x zoom on VIDEO looks crisp; it’s when you get to 4x or max 7x that you start noticing decreased video quality, though it still renders an acceptable video. - NIGHT SIGHT Night Sight is good and captures vivid colors, but as with any low-lighting situation, the camera must remain still for a few seconds. This mode is best used with poses and doesn’t lend well to movement. - PORTRAIT MODE Portrait Mode can offer great photos in the right conditions. I suggest posing to avoid gaps (i.e. between arms) as sometimes the blur effect doesn’t notice them and will leave the background in the gaps in focus. I’ve already taken some beautiful photos of my dog that I can’t wait to print. I tried Portrait mode on myself and it has a little trouble handling my frizzy hair which is a little disappointing. Understandable though because the background blur is simulated, whereas a DSLR will capture true depth of field. I took some with a hat on and it worked much better for me because it was able to better decipher the outline of my head. The Photos app also allows editing of the background blurriness in Portrait Mode which I absolutely love to tinker with. - PHOTO COLOR QUALITY The colors in the photos are very saturated and make for colorful and vivid images. I would like a little less saturation but that’s a personal preference. Using Photos with the Pixel 6 Pro is a treat because there are so many editing tools available to tweak settings like saturation, contrast, brightness, etc. as well as adding sky enhancing filters, general filters, and much more. - GENERAL VIDEO & VIDEO STABILIZATION The video is generally good quality. The Pixel 6 Pro has a “Get photos from this video” feature that suggests frames to be exported as a single shot in view mode. As for the Stabilization features, unfortunately I was only able to test this out in my backyard. I didn’t get a good sense of the difference in quality between Standard and Active. They both had a distinct blur during rapid movements, but I was capturing my dog running at close to moderate distances. I’m hoping I can take more advantage of this feature in the future in other conditions. - EDITING & MORE There are so many editing features to work with! The camera itself has many modes to shoot with and I haven’t actually been able to get into everything, but I did take advantage of the main shooting modes and editing tools and I’m very happy so far. There were a couple of instances where the phone took a long time to process an image that I edited a lot. It hasn’t happened but once or twice; I’m not too worried about it. BATTERY LIFE The battery life has been great, though new phones tend to do well in the early months of ownership. As expected, video streaming will eat up more battery than social/other apps. - WORK DAY DIARY My day starts at 6am. I’ve been running YouTube on the phone periodically throughout the day. It’s 3:45pm and I’m at 45% battery. I just plugged it in, and it shows it will take 1hr 45min till Fully Charged. I charged it until it got to 50% then unplugged it to move about. It’s 7:30pm now and battery life is at 42% (about 12 hr 43 min left). Not bad! Next day update: I left it off the charger all night, it’s now 9am and the battery is at 26%. - EVENT DAY DIARY I unplugged the phone around 7:30am with 100% battery. I went to an outdoor festival and used the camera frequently throughout the day. I didn’t use many other apps, maybe a messaging app or social media check once but mainly used the camera. Back home at 5:15pm the battery is at 50%. I continued to use my phone throughout the evening, going through photos and editing. The phone hit 12% around midnight when I was finally ready to charge it for the night. - OVERALL Safe to say, I’m very impressed with the battery life as it lasted all day with constant use. Charging time is on the normal side, not super quick or slow. The Pixel 6 Pro does not come with a charging cable/box but since my last phone has a USB-C connection, I already have chargers ready to go. SETUP I’m glad I started up the Pixel 6 Pro in the middle of a free day because it takes a couple of hours to fully set up. I was able to activate cell service with my old T-Mobile SIM card and used the included USB-C to USB-C cable to transfer data from my S9. The startup made the phone very hot to the touch, but that seems like a one-time issue so far. After setup was complete, I took some more time to start learning the navigation/UI. USER INTERFACE The Pixel 6 Pro offers a “Pixel Tips” section (found in Settings) that really helped me get used to the interface. As I mentioned, I owned a Galaxy S9 for about 3 years so I’d been used to that navigation and the gestures became muscle memory. After a week with the Pixel 6 Pro, I’m already getting acclimated to the gestures, and I am so grateful for the Tips section that has little tutorials on how to “go back”, navigate from app to app, or how to take full advantage of the camera settings and tools. The entire front of the phone is a screen meaning there are no physical buttons, so the tutorials are essential to learn a UI I’ve never used before. FINGERPRINT SCANNER I installed a film screen protector and have had no excessive issues with the fingerprint scanner. My issue with the scanner is the light that emits from under my finger. It’s really bright in low-light situations which is the norm for me. I hope there is an update that either lowers the brightness or at least allows users to adjust it in the settings. As for the scanner quality, I have found no outstanding issue. It reads reasonably quickly for me. GOOGLE ASSISTANT In the past week, I’ve been able to utilize Google Assistant for a few things like Routine (found in Alarms), Call Screening, Wait Times, Hold for Me, and more, making for a well rounded smartphone experience. It’s these extra features that makes me think “I didn’t know what I was missing”. OVERALL THOUGHTS The Google Pixel 6 Pro is a great phone. Highly recommend it! I’m happy to have this phone for years to come.

Google pixel 6 pro, is an impressive phone . You get so many features at a reasonable price. All my other things that I have backed up on my other Android phone, were transferred over although being a different brand. You can even transfer your iphone files and other data/ settings to the pixel with the included dongle . Connect the iphone to the pixel and it will begin the transfer. Super easy to setup follow the directions given and you get a nice tutorial when you first start using the phone that helps explain in detail and shows you video clips on how it's done . I appreciate all that Google did to make my experience a favorable one. I definitely love that they (Google) send out updates pretty fast. The fingerprint scanner is much faster now after the update . The camera is amazing plus the advertised features like magic tool that help erase things in your photos that you don't want and it looks like it was done professionally. Super easy to do. The live translation is pretty good as well having signs or notes written in another language translated on the go and works fast . You have live captions while you’re talking on the phone it’s a hit or miss depends on the accent or the way certain words are pronounced but it’s very helpful especially for those who have trouble hearing . The sound is good from the 2 bottom speakers it's loud . Phone calls were clear and the signal was better than expected. I barely get signal in the basement, with this phone I at least get 4g LTE. Battery life is nice with this phone I still have over 50% after 8 hours and using it to text and browse the web and see a video or 2 . unplugged my phone at 6am it's now 5pm I'm at 56%. The night time charge mode is nice while you’re asleep it will slowly charge it and have it at 100% when I wake up. You don't get a charger plug with the phone but I used other ones I had and it works fine. The phone is a dual simm card slot. No SD card slot . I also use bedtime mode which reminds me that I should be in bed and I play some relaxing ocean waves to help me sleep and drown out any outside noise. Trust me living in the city you get tons of outside and bothersome noise so this feature is one of my favorites. I can adjust how long the sound will play and it will turn off . I use my Samsung gear watch and it works 99% for my notifications I'm still working on getting my alarm to work properly on the watch . Bluetooth was good I had no issues . I do save some passwords on Google and were saved and installed when I started installing my streaming apps later on after my phone was setup , it was like I had the Google pixel from the beginning of the year so even if during the beginning of using your phone you forget to install an app this will still help you once you install those other apps . Wifi settings were already setup as well like the ones in my friends house and relatives . Banking app , and other frequent apps I used were mostly setup once installed I did forget to mention this in the beginning of this review . I have the adaptive battery mode on, helps extend battery lif. Now if you want the phone to run at 100% you can turn this off . So far very little issues with my notifications. It is definitely worth taking a look at this phone there is no retina scanner but the thumbprint is fine . Watching movies is nice automatically goes from 60hz to 120hz . The colors are good . You can always change the colors to what you like. Definitely take a look in settings and search for PIXEL TIPS, if the tips widget goes away. This is where you learn how to use all the phones features . Which is pretty good if you forget how to do something you can always go back there and learn it again. All the buttons are on the right side and they have this feature to screen shot by double tapping the back of the phone which I love cuz now I can keep using just one hand. So if you’re looking for a good affordable and dependable phone with tons of features don’t hesitate to give the Google pixel 6 pro a chance.

Things I want to get out of the way immediately and will expand upon later on; - Yes, the finger print sensor is a little troublesome at first. You can improve it *very easily*. Chances are it is the save file for your finger, not the tech/sensor itself. - Yes, the Pro flavor is *massive* relative to previous Pixel offerings. - It may be massive, but it feels premium relative to those same aforementioned devices. - Camera ridge on the back, while awkward/weird at first, *will* become a non-issue once accustomed to it. Or you put a case on it. Straight out of the box you will certainly notice this is not your usual Google Pixel phone (aside from the fact you don't get a charger, only a type-c to type-c cable and a USB to type-c adapter). It's huge and it feels premium. As in, actually premium, not just your brain reminding you how you've heard and read for months leading up to this moment about how the device you are currently holding is supposed to be the flagship Google offering. This time it finally feels like that namesake is justified. There is a heft, a fit and finish, and an overall look to the 6 pro that screams "I'm not like other (Google) phones..." Side note; awesome job on Google's behalf for not including a single piece of plastic in the packaging for this device. I'm sure they do a lot of other things (bad) that more than make up for it, but at least it's a start and a practice I hope to see other products (regardless of manufacturer) follow. As stated above I am coming over to the 6 Pro from a Pixel 5. Before that I used a 3 XL while my daughter currently uses a 4a. The Nexus 6P was my first Google-branded/marketed phone in the summer of 2015 and tested the Google Fi (Project Fi at that time) network before it all went public in early 2016. We have been on Fi with all of our devices ever since. I mention all of this because my devices all have given me little to no fuss whatsoever during the setup process, but seen as how I am on Fi and only ever used a Google phone on Fi, I can not speak for how well/smooth this process can/will be if you are on Verizon/T-Mobile/Sprint etc etc etc The interface itself is beautiful and extremely intuitive. Some of the features trickled into my daily routine in the last couple of updates (11 and 12) which I had done on my Pixel 5, so I will also point out that swipe gestures and a few other things were already part of my muscle memory by time the 6 Pro landed on my doorstep. Defaut fonts and layouts are less edgy, with a more rounded-corners and a flow aesthetic that is much more on the softer side of things, something my eyes didn't know they were longing for. And that's just the aesthetics of the Google/Android software, which itself is (and always has been, imo) amazing. There's no bloatware, no unnecessary items, and anything you want to remove *can* be uninstalled or not even installed in the first place. Speaking of rounded; the screen itself trails/rounds off on the sides. Leading up to my own review I noticed many others not caring for this "feature". Knowing that the gesture/swipe controls on my Pixel 5 (non-rounded sides) were kind of infringed upon (especially with the case on, which elevate the sides even more for protection) when attempting to do them, I'm thankful for the smooth transition my finger is able to make (even with a case on) when telling the device I want to close something or go back. It's less jarring and my fingertip welcomes it. No, you don't have to start all the way off to the side to initiate the swipe in order for the movement to be recognized, but more often than not I do and it (the feeling on my finger) is something on the 5 I noted before ever having the 6 Pro in my hand. Sticking with the screen you get 4K and 120hz refresh capability. While not all apps/games are supporting 120hz, more and more are making the necessary improvements/changes to do so. The screen real estate itself is massive, with very little bezel or unused screen percentage tied up with notches or cutouts. Nearly the entire front is active, usable screen and it's beautiful. It's huge but not annoyingly so. The picture is beautiful and sound is a drastic improvement over the 5, with speakers on each end that provide plenty of oomph when needed. As it is part of the screen, I will quickly go into the finger print sensor. On previous offerings this sensor was on the back of the phone and worked quite well, if I do say so myself. Having it on the screen I was a little, not concerned, but maybe just a little worried about how well it would work in relation to the in-body design from older generations. After doing one finger and then another other (you can add additional fingers like in years past via the security settings menu) I noticed a little bit of a lag (or an outright refusal to unlock) with the #1 finger. I left it be and would either give it multiple tries or use my pin to unlock. A couple days went by doing this before I noticed that when I picked up the phone with my other hand and unlocked the screen (thus using my #2 finger) that the screen would unlock on the first attempt every. single. time. With that in mind I went back into the settings, deleted finger #1, and re-established it by doing the touch-release touch-release all over again. 30 seconds later and no more problems. I simply hadn't adjusted my finger enough and had a finicky save for my finger print. So it was user-error, not the tech itself. A few days later and the phone still unlocks with either finger first time every time. Onto the body which, as I quickly noted above, feels premium. Very very premium. I have the Stormy Black colorway and the backside of the phone at the very top above the camera/sensor (the "eyebrow" for lack of a better term) is a slightly lighter color than the body. At first I didn't even notice it, then I thought it was a mistake that I was rather found of, only to discover it was intentional and supposed to be that way all along. The camera/sensors do stick out quite a bit and will take some getting used to as far as feel in your hand and when setting the phone down. But, having said that, I really liked this design layout within 24 hours of using the phone as my daily driver. My index finger naturally hits right at the base of the "pod" which allows the phone to sit/balance perfectly. Once my case (a Moment photography case, which I've used on all my phones) arrived the size of the jut is much less pronounced, but still present enough so that you can continue to use your finger(s) if you want. Battery life, thanks to a whopping ~5000mAh capacity, has been a non-issue after a week of solid use. I kept the 6 Pro off a charger for an entire day putting it through my usual routine and by time I got back home (~11 hours later) it was sitting at 32%. This included two 30 minute Waze sessions along with YouTube Music going on at the same time, podcast listening for 5 hours, a dozen photographs, random/intermittent IG and texting, as well as a little bit of time killing via games. Most days I will cycle the battery down to at least single digits before putting it on a charger, so I knew after an entire day of typical use that the battery was going to be a non-issue with the 6 Pro. I'm sure throwing a bunch of movies at it on a flight or something more video-heavy back to back to back to back would certainly drain it quicker, but that isn't what I usually do on a daily basis, so I can't comment on it. Other reviewers have noted poor battery life, but that isn't something I've noticed given my usage habits. Considering the weather and quickness with which I need to get this review posted I only had a single weekend to go out and get photos. I did add some older photos to mess with the Magic Erasure Tool, which is absolutely awesome. Yes, other apps/software have something comparable, but the auto-mode for it does a great job with the click of a button. The fact you can also manually go in and do it to either support the auto-mode or take on yourself with no help is very welcome. Reviews are limited to 6 photos, so I can't show everything, but I loaded an older Pixel 5 photo and did auto-mode for the Magic Erasure. In 5 seconds the photo was cleaned up and ready to share. In years past I would have to share it to any number of apps, either pay for a subscription to utilize a similar feature, or manually go in and painstakingly select the areas to remove. 5. seconds. FIVE. And it was done. That right there is nearly worth the price of the phone itself if you take a lot of photos. Sometimes I don't want to get rid of EVERYTHING in the background, sometimes a photo just needs a little less clutter going on, and this is where the manual mode comes in handy. All in all, this sets a new standard for Google as far as them slapping the "flagship" moniker on something. For the money this is such a bang for the buck compared to the $1500+ alternatives out there from other brands (coming with an MSRP of $899 for the 128GB flavor). If you are on the fence and looking to go with a premium offering, you really can't go wrong with the 6 Pro or the 6 for that matter. The 6, while not having the materials for the body/chassis nor the same camera setup, offers just about everything else the Pro model does only with a much smaller body, something a lot of people prefer.

I am the type of person who switches phones a few times a year cause I’m always on the search of the perfect phone for my needs. Coming from the Pixel 4 XL , I can say this phone is far superior in a lot of things and I will mention them below : Pixel 6 pro vs Pixel 4XL Pros: RAM (12gb vs 6gb) Storage starts at (128gb vs 64gb) Better and bigger display (6.71” vs 6.3” ) Higher refresh rate (120hz vs 90hz) Bigger battery (5,003 mah vs 3,700 mah) Now there are a few things that prevent me from giving it 5 stars. Cons: Fingerprint sensor is slow compared to other phones Curved display prevents you from installing a decent tempered glass screen protector No face id (why google ? ) Pixel 4xl had this and cheaper phone have this . (Hopefully they will add it with a software update) Gets hot ( I have noticed this phone gets very hot when charging and sometimes during normal use) Doesn’t come with a charger. (Really google?) No gesture swipe feature (pixel 4xl have this) I honestly feel that if google would have kept some of the features from the pixel 4xl like the face id and the gestures , leaving the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone instead of underneath the display and having a flat display instead of the curved waterfall display, I would definitely would have considered this phone the best android phone you could buy but the fact they missed out on these feature , I can say that there are some other alternatives that feel more premium for the money you pay for this . I would still recommend this phone to anyone who wants to be in the Android ecosystem but have some of the support like people who own apple devices cause this phone will continue getting updates just like the iphone does. If you are on the apple ecosystem already , it would be hard for me to recommend this phone for you but if you are an android user who wants the pure android experience with a few compromises , then yes this is the phone for you . If you don’t want to spend $900 on this phone , you can always get the pixel 6 for $599.00 or get the pixel 4 xl which goes around for $350 on ebay and amazon.

The Google Pixel 6 Pro has been a great upgrade for me and overall is a great phone with a lot of great upgrades, however, there are also some very weird and annoying decisions that were made. My previous phone was the Google Pixel 4a and the transfer process coming to the Pixel 6 Pro was simple and easy to complete, the phone has a great process of teaching you all of the new features by showing you simple and easy to understand examples and directions of the new features. The new Google Tensor processor is amazing and has made it possible to add many new features that work amazingly fast on-device, the ability to translate text and pictures, faster more responsive voice controls, and new camera features really show some of the capabilities of Google's new processor and they are great. I also really like the use of Google's Material UI and the ability to customize a color theme for the entire phone by simply choosing a primary color and the phone will take care of the rest of the process of picking accent colors, text colors, and more to give you a customizable and good looking interface for your phone. The adaptive and battery-saving features are great at ensuring that you have many hours of use with your phone by adjusting things such as screen refresh rate and killing off background processes that you aren't using, the phone learns your favorite apps and will keep them loaded while killing off processes that you aren't using frequently. The one decision that has been the most frustrating for me with the Google Pixel 6 Pro is Google's decision to round the screen at the edges, it makes the phone thinner and more difficult to hold around the edges and makes it so that your phone is constantly picking up touch signals from the edge of your phone which prevents you from being able to click apps, type, scan your finger, and a myriad of other issues caused by ghost touch signals when you are holding the phone too close to the curved edge. The combination of the slick back and the curved edges make it very difficult to hold the phone and I have had it slip out of my hand on several occasions. I also am not a fan of the camera bar on the back and do not like the way it looks and would have preferred for them to make the phone slightly thicker to accommodate the camera sensors and to make the phone easier to hold. I also am not a fan of the new under-screen fingerprint reader and I feel that the old design on the back of the phone worked better since it was in the perfect location to quickly and easily unlock with your index finger on the back of the phone and it also worked much faster, it is quite common that the new fingerprint reader is very slow to unlock or doesn't unlock at all due to the curved edges causing issues with touch signals at the edge of the screen while trying to unlock. While I think that Google did a great job with a lot of the new features on the Pixel 6 Pro, I also feel that they made some really bad decisions when it came to the actual physical construction of this phone, while some of these issues can be solved with a phone case to hide their design decisions, the curved edges of the phone have caused the most issues and frustrations for me and are issues caused by Google's bad choice to use something that hasn't worked for other phone manufacturers in the past. The curved screen has been done and failed before and Google didn't exactly do anything to make it better so I don't know why they bothered.

It’s hard to start any review of the Pixel 6 Pro without superlatives. Best cameras ever. Best version of Android ever. Best price for a flagship phone, ever. And while all of that IS true, one of the best things about the Pixel is that is truly the best Google phone experience ever. Because for the first time, Google has developed both the hardware and the operating system to work in concert with each other. That finally puts the Pixel line in the realm of Apple’s iPhone instead of just a “work for hire” hardware piece – and it shows. The onboarding experience was well thought out on Android 12, much better than previous versions and Google branded phones. My Google Fi eSIM activation was flawless and each step of onboarding is explained clearly with options to get more info. The included transfer cable brought over my apps and data and marked apps that needed to be updated or downloaded, so phone was ‘ready to go’ in minutes. Even my home screen layout with all my favorite widgets in place and working. Android 12/Material You gives rebirth to the original slogan of Android; “Be together, not the same.” It’s all about making the user experience more personal while enhancing privacy. While it is a fine line to tread the Pixel6Pro and Android 12 shows that it CAN be done. Centering the UI customizations around wallpaper was a stroke of genius on Google’s part. You look at this picture all day, so you obviously see yourself in it in some way. Material You bases its color palette on this throughout the UI. If it’s a personal picture, you may be the only person in the world with that photo – meaning you may also be the only person with that particular color palette. I do wish they would allow you to pick an accent color that ISN’T distinctly extracted from the image, but I can forgive that small omission. The thing about the Material You widgets though is that I think many folks are either going to love them or hate them. While I don’t actively dislike them, I do think that that they use way too much whitespace which limits your screen real estate (even on a display this large) so I find that I’ve gone back to using my third-party widgets. Hopefully this is something that Google will address in future software updates. The phone itself is sleek and distinctive. The camera ‘brow’ is a great new take on the “lens bulge” common on newer phones and ensures that if you put the phone on a flat surface, it isn’t wobbling around and it gives something to anchor your fingers against while holding it. It just feels better in my hands than my previous phones. The display is magnificent and sharp and the variable refresh on the Pro makes transitions and switching through screens smooth as silk when you need it but then steps down to save battery when you don’t. The Google developed Tensor chip makes this – and many other magic things – possible. This is a bigger deal than many people realize; having the ability to tune the software to the chip and vice versa makes it not only a brilliant phone, but a preview of what may be possible with the chip added to other Google devices. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Tensor show up in a future line of Google Home display speakers; in fact, this may be a primary reason that Google has been rolling out the Fuchsia OS to current devices. What it allows for with the cameras is nothing short of magic though. Things I’d previous have to do in post processing with Photoshop, like content aware erasing and slow exposure photography are now done simply, in camera and in the moment. I’ve been a photo buff for decades and the cameras in the Pixel 6 Pro take better photos than my DSLR or even my current digital camera. I can see this phone becoming my primary camera which is important because there are many times I wished I had my cameras with me and having cameras of this quality in my phone means I’ll be less likely to miss a great shot. I even purchased a selfie stick/tripod with a remote so that I’ll be able to take advantage of the Pixel’s low light and astrophotography settings. Great artistic photography is less about capturing the reality of a scene (that’s photojournalism) and more about a depiction of a feeling, a memory. The range and flexibility of photography (and videography) that the Pixel 6 Pro affords will allow me to be more creative – and most importantly, whenever the mood strikes, or the opportunity presents itself. As awesome as the hardware is, the software here competes to be the star of the show. Little things like the Calling Assistant make life so much better by taking advantage of Google’s reach and breadth. I had to call Ring yesterday to change one of my plans over to a new camera I’d purchased from Best Buy and before I even pressed call, above my dial pad was a chart showing the peak times for Ring’s customer service along with an estimated wait time if I called now. And once I put the call through, I was able to have the Calling Assistant take over, showing me the menu options and even stay on hold for me, signaling me when a CS rep picked up. As someone who spends a lot of time in call queues with vendors, this is amazingly helpful. The Tensor chip also makes live transcription and translations not only more effective than ever before, but it is almost magical. I have Taiwanese neighbors who were glad to help me test this out and they were amazed that not only were the translations accurate, but they also made sense grammatically. It’s incredible to watch; I accidentally activated a live transcription session while I was watching TV and marveled at how the Pixel was following along, at speed and incredibly accurate. This would be a neat little tool to use at meetings or college lectures! However, the Tensor chip’s most important features may be the ones that the average user won’t see or even think about much – privacy and security. While I won’t get into a boring discussion of chip architecture here, suffice to say that security and privacy have been built into the chip as much as into the OS. Things like the live transcribe feature I just mentioned are all done ON THE CHIP, without the data ever going to the cloud via an open source ‘sandbox’ called the Private Compute Core. This and other processor sections like the Tensor Security Core help make the Pixel 6 platform one of the most secure phones on the market at the time of this review. You can see some of this privacy forward thinking at the user level though via Android 12’s new Privacy Dashboard that allows you more control than any previous version of Android. Here you can adjust all those settings both on the phone and in your Google account. Things like on-device anti-phishing protection locally scan potentially malicious phone calls, SMS text messages, emails - even links sent through partner apps like WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, and Facebook Messenger Light – and will warn you if something seems off. You can be notified via icons on the screen when an app is accessing your camera or phone and easily turn them off if need be. Some of these features will make it to other phones that get upgraded to Android 12, but none of them will work as well as the Pixel 6/6 Pro with the Tensor chip. To say that this is a revolutionary phone may sound superlative, but it really isn’t. This phone is truly worthy of being called Google’s “flagship” and everyone else is going to have to play catch up now. I couldn’t recommend it more highly and at the price, it is the phone to beat.

The premium Pixel you have been waiting for. The design itself is very unique and gives you that standout feel. It's not the typical boring design we have been seeing from phones over the years. Google really added a lot of thought into its appearance from inside and out, hardware to software. Which is where I will transition into software to go deep with this review. Material UI (AKA Material You) as Google likes to call it. Because it is just that, an extension of YOU. From the widgets, to theming the icons and dynamic colors you can choose, you almost spend the first 30 minutes on the phone just messing with all the different themes you can come up and colors you choose depending on the wallpaper you select. I really like how integrated the personalization is with Materia UI and Android 12 as a whole. It feels very immersive. One of my favorite minor updates I love is with the widgets. A lot of them were refreshed with a more simplistic cleaner look. The clock and weather widgets along with many others really add to the Material UI theming integration. What does everyone know Google best for? Search. We have grown spoiled with being able to go to Google.com and search for any and everything. They now have given you that spoiled feeling with ease of search on your phone now. With a swipe up from your home screen you can start typing in the search bar for things like Apps, People, Settings and it will start filtering to whatever it is you are searching for. If I type “Fantasy” it’ll show me all my fantasy football apps I have as well as search within other apps, like Reddit for the fantasy football sub reddit I am subscribed to. While having an in-display fingerprint unlock option is nice and matching tech of others flagships, I feel that google had a great spot with the fingerprint unlock being on the back in previous generations, your finger would just always rest naturally on the back where it was. This is still great to have however. My one recommendation for when setting it up is set up the same thumb multiple times. Having 2 to 3 profiles with the same thumb, in my use, allowed for much faster response and recognition. I love this screen. The colors pop, it’s bright and it is buttery smooth. The 120hz refresh rate on here just...feels different from other phones I use. When I say different, I mean better. This feels smoother than any other 120hz screen I’ve used so far.. And with the LTPO Technology allows it to adjust to lower the refresh rate as low as 10hz to save battery. Speaking of battery, it is also pretty good on this phone. You should be able to get a day to a day and half, depending on your usage. I am heavy user and I could get a full day out of this with typically 6-7 hours of screen on time. Google seems to have put a lot of focus in remembering that, even with all the bells and whistles this device has, that it is a Phone after all. Google has added a lot of really neat features here with their calling assistance software. From assisting with wait times when you call a business to avoid a wait, to directing your call where Google Assistant will transcribe automated menu options for you. But my favorite of the features is the hold for me. Nothing worse than when you call a place only to be put on hold for who knows how long.. Well, Google has added this option where if you are put on hold, Google will wait in line for you and give you a call back once the place you called takes you off hold. No more tying up your line or holding your phone for 30 minutes or more waiting for someone to assist, Google will handle the waiting for you! We all know that Google is king when it comes to voice typing and translating, but the new Tensor chip takes this to another level. It's faster, smarter. Live translate is really great for those who work in an environment where they deal with a lot of clients/customers who speak different languages or have language barrier. Fortunately, I don’t face this issue in my everyday life, however I did find myself using this for the first time thanks to my 6-year-old. She had told me that a girl in her class was speaking differently to her parents. I used Live translate to say things like “How was your day in school today? “And used it to translate to different languages to see if my daughter recognized one of them. I am sure it all sounded confusing for her, but seeing how it worked in real time and how useful this feature can be was really cool to experience. Now, I think it speaks for itself based on Googles history with the Pixel line, but once again the cameras continue to shine here. Google has given you a lot of flexibility here with the camera, from hardware with the 4X Optical zoom, Ultrawide selifies, the 20x SuperRes zoom to all the other software features. I’ll bring up my favorite here which is Magic Eraser. This tool will allow you magically erase whatever unwanted subject/object that might ruin a rather otherwise perfect shot. There are many other modes to mention but I won’t go into detail. Motion mode, Face Unblur, Real Tone. Google has given a lot to work with here. They have definitely stepped up their game in the video camera department as well. We have 4K recording on both front and rear cameras here, Live HDR+ Video and Speech enhancement. Speech enhancement is definitely noticeable. This really allows you to bring focus, regardless of the noise surrounding you, to the person you are recording or if you are recording yourself and what is being said. You have a lot of other added benefits here, with personal safety features, Anti Malware and Phishing protection, as well as more transparency with the privacy dashboard. There is just a lot of great benefits here that you wouldn’t expect in the software until you really play around. All in all, this is by far not only my favorite Pixel to date, but favorite Android phone to date. Google has hit it out of the park and I know it can only keep getting better with updates and feature drops.