Review: Google Pixel 6 Mobile Phone

Trying the new Google Pixel 6 might have converted me to their mobile phone range. My phone battery lasts all day with plenty to spare and the photos are super crisp.

The box contains a small manual, SIM card remover, charging cord, adapter and a safety, warranty and regulatory manual.

The Pixel 6 is powered by Google’s first-ever processor called Google Tensor. It has some new features including a personal safety app and a new Titan M2 chip to protect your data and privacy. The new chips provide faster gaming and app speeds.

The Pixel 6 phone comes in Sorta Seafoam, Kina Coral (peachy pink), and Stormy Black. The case has super-strong Gorilla Glass, which is needed as it slips off surfaces every second day. The case meets the IP68 standard offering protection from water and dust.

The fingerprint lock is easy to set up and works consistently well with no issues.

The Pixel 6 Pro steps everything up a notch with a triple-rear camera system including a pro-level telephoto lens and 4 times optical zoom. But the Pixel 6 produces stunning photos with accurate colours. You can even use the Magic Eraser features to remove other people or objects from your photos. You can create long exposure photos or action shots with a quick change in settings to motion mode.

The phone has advanced on-device AI to provide features like speech recognition and image processing. Live Translate lets you instantly translate messages and videos. The phone battery promises to last beyond 24 hours and has an extreme battery saver for those times when you need to save on power. You can change your phone back up super-fast with up to 50% charge in around 30 minutes.

There are many apps pre-loaded (but you might need to do some updating). But it’s an easy phone to set up and run with. It took me around a month to play with the settings and work out a format that I liked.

The back of the phone has an unusual design with a bar to encase the camera. It stops you from accidentally touching the lens and rests on the table at an angle. But I prefer to turn my phone over with the back facing upwards, so I’m not distracted.

I was concerned that I couldn’t find a phone case to fit it, but I ordered one from overseas.

Google Pixel 6 Pros

• New chip and adaptive battery with super-fast charging
• Easy to set up and run with
• Helpful tutorials
• Many apps pre-loaded (but needed updating)

Google Pixel 6 Cons

• The ridge on the back of the phone
• I have a habit of placing my mobile phone face down, so it is constantly slipping off surfaces and falling on the ground. It even slipped and dropped on tiles twice fortunately without damage.
• Unable to add a memory card

There was an annoying bedroom setting where your phone goes an ugly black and white, and that took me a while to figure out how to turn the default settings off.

I’m yet to try out the extra features, but the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro come with three months of YouTube Premium (think no ads and exclusive content) and 100GB of cloud storage from Google One for new users.

The Google Pixel 6 is a solid phone with a fantastic battery and an amazing camera that produces stunning photos. I’m looking forward to receiving my grippy phone case and exploring the features some more.

Pixel 6 is available in Stormy Black, Kinda Coral and Sorta Seafoam and starts at $999, while Pixel 6 Pro comes in Stormy Black, Cloudy White and Sorta Sunny and starts at $1,299. Pre-order from today, or pick one up from the Google Store, Telstra, JB Hi-Fi, Optus, Vodafone, Harvey Norman and Officeworks from 28 October 2021.

About Google

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Through projects and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Google Shopping, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.