This
is my initial review of the new Google Pixel 6 Pro.
I know I am late.
Long story.
But hopefully it will be worth it!
I’ve had a couple of Android phones in the last 6-7 years and more recently actually
changed from the iPhone 12 Pro Max to my S21 Ultra here.
But when Google announced the PIxel 6 and 6 Pro I was really intrigued by it.
I’ve always wanted to try a Google Pixel and see for myself what the fuss was all about.
This is not a sponsored review by the way.
Well it is sponsored by all the people who support this channel.
Your support is what enables me to go and buy these devices to try out.
So in a way this video is brought to you by you.
And me.
I won’t go over the hassle that it was to actually buy the phone, I will leave that
for another review but I am glad I FINALLY got my hands on it.
I always enjoy trying different products anyway.
As much as I love having the convenience of the Apple... “ecosystem”...,
There are certain things that I think this phone is actually better at.
We will cover a few of these in the video, but I wanted to talk about this one feature
that I think can be a game changer for a lot of people.
Like you’ve seen in the intro, that is just one of the things that not only does it do
better than Apple and Samsung.
IT COMPLETELY BLEW ME AWAY!!
Is it perfect?
No, but I have a strange accent and whenever I tried to use this feature on the iPhone
I just end up getting frustrated and typing instead.
One of my viewers, I won’t mention his name but actually has a condition which makes it
really hard to type.
So he really relies on speech to text.
And we are talking about how much this feature sucks on the iPhone.
It makes some horrible mistakes all the time and doesn't even try to fix them once the
sentence has finished.
With the Pixel, you can see it live where it thinks it heard a word but when it hears
the rest of the sentence....
It contextualises it!
It’s absolutely brilliant.
My man Rjey from Rjey Tech has reviewed the Pixel recently and that was one feature that
he mentioned as being incredible.
Well...
I had to try it for myself as this is something I really value.
For me it’s all about time saving.
I run another business as well as this channel so any time that I can shave off it’s a
major bonus for me.
It can be when I am driving and trying to send messages, when I am out and about and
an idea pops up...
I love all of that!
And interacting with the phone like a true assistant is something that has been lacking
from other phones.
Hey Siri.
Open Notes (I can’t find any TVs to open apps nearby)
Hey Bixby...
Oh never mind.
I am not even gonna try that.
OK so it’s got a brilliant speech-to-text functionality.
Is that it?
**DESIGN**
No!
Let’s talk about design.
I’ve only had it for a few days but I was immediately in love with how ergonomic it
is.
The weight is great and it looks fantastic.
I love my iPhone 13 Pro Max and have used the larger display iPhones since the iPhone
7 or whatever.
But I gotta say...
And Apple fans out there, I am sorry I gotta give it to Google here.
It is SO NICE to have this screen real estate BUT STILL feel comfortable to hold, especially
for longer periods.
The Haptics are awesome, which is only a small thing I know...
But all of those little touches add up to a really nice experience.
**Performance - Tensor CHIP**
When it comes to performance...
It’s not Snapdragon but it’s meant to be optimised by Google for Machine learning
and AI
I only just barely experienced some of it with the speech-to-text recognition AND the
photo editing which we will talk about in a minute...
But I can see how it feels really....
Snappy - BA DUM TSSS
**Pictures - Camera**
What about the camera.
Do you know that is the one thing on this phone that I have been really looking forward
to.
One of the best Pixel content creators out there Mike from Team VRY is always sharing
some incredible shots with the Pixel and I always thought...
I gotta give this phone a go.
In good lighting so far, this HAS been incredible!
I am not gonna get all ... Oh my God its the best camera I’ve ever used.
That would be irresponsible.
But having used the S21 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro Max and 13 Pro Max .... The Pixel does
hold its own!
It’s early days still for me but it has not disappointed!
There are a couple of situations especially when indoors, and there’s no natural light
involved...
yeah those shots are nothing special.
But if you look at this shot which is quite tricky for any camera without an ND filter,
let alone a smartphone....you know, I am shooting at the sun light coming from the window, I
am asking for trouble in exposure.
But it did a fantastic job!
I am taking this shot quite close to the keyboard here, and you can see it did an awesome job
at blurring the background in a very natural way.
I heard from other YouTubers that the photo feels over processed.
Come on...
Let’s be honest and give credit where it’s due!
I love the iPhone but take a look at this..
When you see the iPhone shot of the same thing, it looks awful.
And I tried a couple of different lenses with the iPhone just to make sure it wasn’t...
like a macro lens issue.
Like I said, credit where it’s due, in THIS scenario the Pixel just did a much better
job.
A lot more on this to come, if you know the channel you know I will be putting this thing
through its paces so if you like sort of stuff, make to subscribe, I am here every week with
something like this.
**CAMERA FUNCTIONALITY**
When it comes to functionality as well, it’s great at doing useful things like removing
stuff from pictures, I absolutely love this Magic Eraser feature.
It was a bit of a pain initially because I didn’t see the Magic Eraser option.
But updating the Photos app solved that.
It’s just really cool!
When I reviewed the S21 Ultra, that was one aspect that I thought it also did really well.
With the built-in camera app.
Android does make it more FUN TO USE.
Apple take excellent point and shoot, no fuss... and it gets you excellent pictures off the
bat.
But we need a bit of fun don’t we?
Of course we could do this in PhotoShop but come on, this is in our hands now and it gets
done in seconds.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, it’s only been a few days but I am looking
forward to using the Pixel for a bit longer and seeing how they compare.
**What about the battery life?**
I know a hot subject has been the battery usage...
And I am not gonna sit here after a few days and say it’s amazing, it’s way too soon
for me.
And I am not using this as my main device right now so I can’t honestly comment yet.
But first impressions... is not that good.
It will probably last all day if I was really using the phone but I will have to test that
properly.
I do get thorugh an entire day and into lunch time of the following day on a single charge
with the iPhone and early indications show me that I am not convinced I will be able
to do the same with the Pixel.
But like I said, too early to tell for me.
There was an occasion when I was really watching it...
I noticed it went from 85% to 70% within about 10 minutes!
And I was just messing around with photos, not playing games or running the screen in
full brightness or anything.
So it would appear it needs some optimising, maybe some of the background processes are
caning the battery.
Who knows...
I am aware that some people on YouTube and social media have been going crazy about how
bad the battery is but...
I think a lot of it comes down to brand loyalism and people wanting it to have problems...
which is why I always take some of these reviews with a pinch of salt and is always best to
see it for yourself.
I just need more time to be able to give you a proper opinion on that, so stay tuned!
**UI - Android 12**
When it comes to using Android...
Android 12 is really impressive, I love how much Android is changing to make the user
experience more friendly.
When I jumped from the 12 Pro Max last year to the S21 Ultra after about 7 years of only
using iPhones...
I was PLEASANTLY surprised at how friendly Android has become.
These little animations and the fact the wallpaper sort of dictates how the rest of the phone
feels, there’s some really nice touches now.
It’s tricky to fit Android into an Apple ecosystem but as far as a smartphone experience
goes, this is top notch!
**ISSUES**
So there’s no issues?
Well...
Even though it’s only been a few days there are a couple of things that I think Google...
could have done better.
Some of it I think...
can be fixed with software and some that I don’t think they can.
For instance this Optical Sensor fingerprint.
It’s way too slow, not good enough.
It is a cheaper phone in comparison with the S21 Ultra when it was released but come on,
this worked better on my old S6 Edge!
Remember that?
I know I am probably spoiled having used the S21 Ultra for most of last year.
I know it’s a different implementation, it has this light...
I dont know...
I think they could have done better here.
It’s really poor, I’d rather they kept the one at the back which I HEAR... was really
good!
**Colour shift**
I am aware some people have complained about a color shift when using the phone at an angle..
.but I haven’t really noticed any color shift on the screen
(Whatever that means) I mean who is out there using the phone like this.
It’s hard not to draw any comparisons with the iPhone or the Samsung S21 Ultra for example
(and soon the S22 Ultra)
But that's probably because it has a similar price range and because we are used to considering
these devices...
“flagship devices”.
My very first impression of using this phone was one of pressure and lightness and simplicity.
And that’s pretty cool to me.
See you and your smiling faces (hopefully) on the next one.