- Google unveiled the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro today but
we already knew everything about it
because they let everything leak months
before they even announced the date for the launch event.
But Google's desperate attempts to drum up hype
for the Pixel 6 make more sense
when you realize that after five years
of trying to make Google phones a thing,
11, if you count the Nexi.
Google phones still account for only around 2 to 4%
of the smartphone market,
but the Pixel 6 is going to change everything.
It's got Tensor, Google's first mobile chip
designed in house.
Apple made their own chips and look at them,
everybody loves them.
So let's look at what Google announced today
and see whether the Pixel 6 is worth being excited about.
But you shall be excited by our sponsor, GlassWire.
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The Pixel 2, 3 and 4 were all more or less the same phone
as their XL counterparts with a few minor differences
like battery and display size.
But at 899, the Pixel 6 Pro has a number of notable upgrades
over the 599 Pixel 6, including a slightly bigger
and higher resolution curved edge display, smaller bezels,
and an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz instead of 90.
Both phones have a 50 megapixel wide
and 12 megaPixel ultra wide in the back.
But the Pro has an additional 48 megapixel telephoto lens
using what they call folded optics,
but I'm going to continue calling it a periscope lens
until they learn we want an actual little periscope
to come out of the camera.
Can we make the-
I'm tired of waiting Google, make it happen.
The Pro also has a better front camera,
11.1 megapixels instead of 8 and inside it's got more ram
and higher capacity storage options,
which are baffling-ly limited by color?
What's that?
You'd like to order a 512 gig Pixel 6 Pro in Sorta Sunny?
You idiot, that amount of storage is obviously incompatible
with that color.
And with Cloudy White, but Cloudy White can do 256.
It unlocked that storage tier
when it gained enough experience points.
And you can unlock this water bottle
and experience the taste of lttstore.com. (chuckles)
But it's what the two Pixel 6's share that's more important.
Google Tensor, the brand new chip designed by Google
and custom made for Pixel by Samsung.
Who may have also designed it,
because Tensor might actually be that Samsung Exynos 9855
that was spotted in leaks.
And maybe that's not true,
but the chip diagram Google showed off today
had the same number of high performance,
mid tier and high efficiency cores
as an XDA developer's leak.
The same one that claimed Google was confusingly
using 2x ARM Cortex A-76 cores from 2018,
instead of the more recent A-77 or A-78.
Look, regardless of whether Google bore most of the load
in making this chip or not,
it's clear that they're standing behind it.
Claiming it packs 80% faster CPU performance
and 370% faster graphics than the Pixel 5,
thanks to a new 20 core GPU.
Those are some Apple Silicon numbers,
especially when it was compared to its own predecessor
and not its current competition.
For that you'd have to ask Gamers Nexus.
Steve?
The only other indicators we saw today
of Tensor's performance were the new
camera software features available in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro
that take advantage of Tensor's machine learning chops.
And I gotta say, they look pretty cool.
Magic Eraser is like Photoshop's content aware fill,
but baked right into the Android camera app.
It's not something that was impossible to do on phones,
but being able to quickly squiggle a guy out of existence
for having the audacity to obscure your photograph,
seems satisfying.
I'm an artist.
There are also a couple of features for both blurring
and unblurring photos, face unblur combines images
from the wide and ultra wide rear cameras,
so you can save a smudgy photo you otherwise would've
immediately deleted in frustration and shame,
while motion mode lets you add motion blur
to elements of a photo on purpose.
The results apparently end up looking like a
long exposure photo,
except you didn't have to tell your friends
to remain perfectly still in front of a Ferris wheel
or a train for a long time.
Which is great news
because my friends are tired of me doing this to them.
Again, artist, it's a struggle, it's my burden.
Another thing Tensor's machine learning abilities help with
is analyzing a scene to make sure that photo subjects
of all skin colors and complexions
are accurately represented.
It's an issue that has been highlighted
in the media production industry for a long time.
So it's cool to see Google trying to make sure
photos capture what people actually look like,
which I think is the whole idea of a photo?
So there was one thing in today's keynote
that I hadn't seen referenced in any leaks
and which I was actually quite happy about.
Developers will be able to incorporate
Google's camera features into non Google apps.
So you won't have to switch to your camera app,
take a photo and then attach it to a WhatsApp message
to avoid using the built-in WhatsApp camera,
which looks like ass, on my phone anyway.
But Tensor isn't all about photos.
The chip will also be using its power
to make voice dictation a lot faster and contextual.
Doing things like remembering how to spell difficult names
like Catherine, is it a C, a K, question mark?
Just kidding,
you don't even have to say question mark anymore.
And Android's live caption feature is being expanded
with live translate.
Google's been showing off some form of real-time translation
or another for years now,
but this time they got Marie Kondo, remember her?
The spark joy lady from 2019?
The year that ended up sparking anything but joy?
Anyways, they got her to come on and try out the feature.
And she said it was really good.
So I mean, she would've thrown it out if it was bad, right?
But no, it's here inside your chat app.
Most importantly though,
we're getting a kind of successor to Screen Call,
the coolest Pixel feature in my recent memory.
Direct My Call will listen to automated phone menu systems
and give you an onscreen UI to navigate instead,
while Hold For Me, will, stay on hold for you.
So should you stay on hold
while Google restocks the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro on their store,
which crashed repeatedly during the live stream?
That remains to be seen,
since even though we have the Google Pixel 6 here
and we're allowed to tell you that we have it,
we can't directly show you anything
that it can actually do yet.
So nice job on these Google,
but unless our tests show some real promise,
I might just wait for the Pixel 6A.
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Thanks for watching guys.
Hey, if you're looking for something else to watch,
go watch a Anthony's summary of the Apple event yesterday,
get caught up.
There was a lot of news this week.
Stay on your toes.
(electronic music)