Google IO surprised us last month with some hardware announcements and teases!
A question one of you asked me on twitter had me thinkin...
Should you still buy a pixel 6?
If you enjoy android reviews, and like learning how to not get hacked, this is the channel
for you.
I’m Shannon Morse, let’s talk hardware.
The Pixel 6a was announced at Google IO, with a price of $449.
It’ll incorporate Google’s Tensor chipset and two rear facing cameras which will be
12MP for the main camera and an ultrawide.
The 6a will be smaller than the Pixel 6 and will not feature a headphone jack.
Preorders will start July 21, and it’ll deliver on July 28.
It feels like that’s kinda far away.
But might be worth a couple months wait since it’ll also include 3 years of OS updates
and 5 years of security updates.
Google also announced the new upcoming Pixel 7 and 7 Pro which were just teased.
No price point or specs yet, but we do know these phones will also use Tensor and Android
13.
And if history tells us anything, we should expect these in fall of 2022.
I always get my teampixel box around October or November, so I’m expecting the same this
year.
So: should you buy a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro?
Well I will argue that the A series phones are not a direct competitor to the 6 or 6
pro.
The 6a will not have all the same specs as it’s bigger brothers, but it will have the
tensor chipset so it’ll come with upgraded security and privacy, but also the great AI
engine built into the newer phones.
BUT: you can buy a Pixel 6 for about $150 more...
or for the same price as a 6a if it’s second hand.
Sub $500, most phones will have limitations... especially like those security patches or
OS updates - you might be buying a phone that only gets updates for a year or two, and that
leaves you open to hacks or security vulnerabilities.
While I end up with new phones all the time due to my job reviewing them, I personally
don’t recommend upgrading every year.
Keep those things until they stop working or you stop getting updates, whichever comes
first, that’s my rule of thumb.
$449 is a good price point, and is definitely competitive compared to other phones at this
price point, but I do think seeing another A series in the $300’s would have been incredibly
great.
I’ll delve into the new 6a a lot more to really study it in a real life scenario whenever
it’s available.
I think grabbing one of these phones, which will be the second line of phones for the
new Tensor processing unit, will be a big make or break moment for Google.
The reason why, is because the 6 and 6 Pro had a lot of bugs and problems that folks
experienced, not myself necessarily, but a lot of people did, so IF Google has made some
quality upgrades to this phone in terms of stability, then I think that’ll really show
their customers how strong the tensor chipset can really be.
So I am VERY curious about how well this new phone operates.
You
can probably tell, I’m VERY excited about the new phones, but also some other news:
like the Pixel Buds Pro.
I find the current Buds to be some of the most comfortable earbuds I’ve worn and I
love their feature set.
Google really listened to their users when they made the second generation, and the Pros
will bring new features that I can’t wait to see.
We’ll get active noise cancellation, transparency mode, a better battery life at 7 hours with
ANC or 11 hours without, sweat and water resistance, and multipoint Bluetooth connectivity to switch
between devices, plus an update later on this year will include Spatial Audio.
The Buds Pro will have a custom audio processor, at 6 cores and include a neural processing
engine.
These will be available July 21 for $199, shipped July 28, same as the 6a.
The Google Pixel Watch is finally official!!!
It’ll run on Wear OS with Fitbit integrations like sleep monitoring and heart rate - no
surprise given Google bought Fitbit.
Apparently you’ll be able to control your smart home via the watch as well.
I’m a recent convert to the world of smartwatches, and there’s a lot of things I don’t like
about my Galaxy Watch, so I want to find something better and I hope this is it.
Google also teased a Pixel Tablet coming in 2023... but we don’t have much info on that
yet.
Even so...
some of my first hacks were on old Nexus tablets back in the early 2010’s, I would put Linux
operating systems on them and use them to track airplanes, weird but super fun stuff...
and I miss that!
So I hope I can do some fun stuff with this new pixel tablet and I hope it’s priced
competitively.
We also saw a little teaser of some AR glasses that could use Google Assistant to live translate
someone’s speech in real time on the lenses which is very, very cool.
Does this mean Google Glass is gonna make a comeback as something new and incredibly
smart?
Because I loved Glass, it was so innovative, I really want that to be a thing again.
I would LOVE to take these AR glasses with me to Japan and live translate on the go.
How freaking cool?!
So I am curious if you’re looking to upgrade any of your tech and if you plan to hold out
until these products are released?
Comment, let me know how ya feel, and I’ll see ya next time.