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00:00There's always been three reasons to buy a Pixel.
00:12It's stock vanilla Android, which means it's fast and also the first to get updates.
00:16The cameras are among the best on the market and usually they're pretty good value for
00:20money.
00:22And so here we are with the Pixel 6 Pro, the first flagship phone from Google since the
00:274XL two years ago.
00:30And despite a very frustrating review embargo that maybe gave the impression Google wants
00:34to hide something, the good news is you don't have anything to worry about.
00:38This is an exceptional phone and still hits those three main reasons to buy a Pixel.
00:43And aside from a couple of little bugs here and there, I've not had any problems with
00:47this.
00:48And considering the price, this is $849 in the UK and $899 in the US, which puts it in
00:53the same ballpark as the S21 Plus and the OnePlus 9 Pro and about halfway between the
00:58iPhone 13 and 13 Pro.
01:01So well clear of the ultras and pro maxes of this world that cost over a grand, but
01:06I would argue this is still a genuine competitor.
01:09And actually its little brother, the Pixel 6, which costs just $599, is the same price
01:14as the Pixel 5 was at launch, which was a much smaller and more budget oriented phone.
01:19In fact, while this is my review for the 6 Pro, while we're here, I would say that
01:23the Pixel 6 is probably the best phone you can get for 600 quid right now.
01:28So it's a good start.
01:29But what's that new Tensor Core been like to use?
01:31Do these cameras live up to the hype?
01:33And is this actually worth buying?
01:35Well, the very first thing you'll notice is this is a big phone with a 6.7 inch 120
01:41hertz quad HD plus screen.
01:43It is Gorilla Glass Victus front and back and also IP68.
01:46So it checks all the durability boxes, but you'll absolutely want to put a case on this
01:50as it is very slippery.
01:52And every time I pull out of my pocket, I feel like I'm snagging the camera bump on
01:55something.
01:56The standard Pixel 6 is a much more manageable size.
02:00I know not everyone's a fan, but I do really like the look of this thing.
02:03And as I mentioned in my unboxing, the first time you pick it up because of these curved
02:07edges to the screen, which I know is also quite divisive.
02:10It's got a kind of Huawei-esque vibe about it with that premium feel.
02:15I have the 6 Pro in cloudy white, and it kind of looks like a dual tone panda style
02:20of the Pixel 2 XL, but with Geordie LaForge's visor stuck on it.
02:24Or maybe that's just me.
02:26I would avoid the black, though.
02:27It's a bit dull and it picks up fingerprints really easily.
02:30However, very frustratingly, the different colors have different storage options.
02:35So only the black gets the 256 gig version here in the UK and a 512 option in the US.
02:41So if you want cloudy white in 256, then you're out of luck.
02:45And also the fact that in the UK, this tops out at 256, which is a bit annoying because
02:49there's no micro SD card support.
02:51And well, for a flagship phone, I just want an option for more storage.
02:55Also, why is this antenna band at the top here a different shade of white to this?
03:01It kind of looks like someone's just tippexed the top of it.
03:04One of my bigger issues is the fact that we don't get any kind of face unlock with the
03:08Pixel 6 or 6 Pro.
03:10We have an optical fingerprint reader, which is fine.
03:13But where's the face unlocking?
03:15Most Android phones offer both.
03:16And of course, on the iPhone, we have that fantastic TrueDepth face ID, although no fingerprint.
03:22But come on, where did all that fancy Project Soli radar motion tracking stuff go?
03:28Do they just throw it in the bin?
03:29Because it's not the end of the world, but it just feels a bit basic.
03:33So now I've got that off my chest, let's talk about some good stuff.
03:36And as I was showing my lovely wife, Sarah, the new 6 Pro, because she's very excited
03:40to upgrade to this, and telling her about, oh, look, it's adaptive 120 hertz now.
03:45And look how fast it is with Android 12.
03:47And also how the color of the UI changes with the tone of your wallpaper, which I must admit
03:51is quite cool.
03:52And of course, also trying to explain the Tensor Core chip, but then I think she zoned
03:55out.
03:56However, when we went to my local cathedral the other day, which had a giant moon exhibit,
04:01as you do, we took a whole bunch of photos, but there were people in the background, which
04:05is where the new Magic Eraser tool comes in.
04:08And right there and then, it convinced her she needed this phone.
04:11Snap a photo, open it in the photo editor, tap Magic Eraser, and it'll scan the photo
04:16for people you want to, back to the future style, fade out of existence, including yourself
04:20if you want to.
04:22If you zoom right in, then you'll be able to tell.
04:24But this was a particularly tricky shot with those straight lines on the pillar behind
04:27them.
04:28And while you could also do this in Photoshop, this is instant, doesn't require any skills,
04:33which is great for me, and it's on your phone.
04:35Although, only photos taken on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro actually work with this.
04:40I sent one over from my Pixel 4 XL to test it, and you just don't get that Magic Eraser
04:45option.
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05:35So let's properly jump into this camera.
05:38And it's a familiar GCam UI, and as you can see, we have a 0.7x ultra-wide lens, the main
05:44lens, then a 2x digital-slash-hybrid zoom, and a 4x optical zoom, thanks to that telephoto
05:50lens.
05:51And you can also punch right in up to a 20x super-res zoom, which is a kind of hybrid-y
05:56AI smart-zoom thingy-ma-jig.
05:58However they do it, it works incredibly well, and it's probably the best zoom outside of
06:02the S21 and, well, maybe the Huawei P50 Pro or something, but, you know.
06:07We do also have these new motion camera modes, with Action Pan, which focuses on a moving
06:11subject and then blowing out the background, and Long Exposure, which, well, it's a long
06:16exposure, good for light trails and things.
06:19Action Pan is kind of fun, at least I had some fun getting my friend Dan to run around
06:22as I tested it, but the edge detection is a bit dodgy and with multiple subjects it
06:27just doesn't seem to work very well.
06:30Considering it's proud of place next to the main photo tab, for me at least, it feels
06:34a bit gimmicky.
06:37Although I do still appreciate the shadows, brightness and now temperature controls that
06:41we get when you tap on the screen in photo mode, but aside from occasionally yapping
06:45the shadows a bit, I don't really find myself using this too much.
06:49Personally I just want to rely on the Pixel's own processing, because while we are getting
06:53a smart HDR Plus live preview on the camera, we still have that familiar take a photo,
06:58wait a couple of seconds for it to fully process, then go, oh, that turned out pretty good.
07:02But I guess, like the motion stuff, it's there if you want it.
07:06So I actually counted them up and I've taken over a thousand photos with the 6 Pro over
07:10the last week or so and I'm going to show you every single one right now.
07:15Okay, not really, but I have come away very impressed with the Pixel 6 Pro.
07:19There's a couple of hiccups, like the white balance can sometimes be a bit off in low
07:23light shots, this moon should be white, not blue for example.
07:27But most of the time, I'm pretty blown away by the detail, the dynamic range and the realistic
07:32colour and skin tones.
07:33I really just want to make this video an hour long to show you every photo, and while of
07:37course photography is incredibly subjective and does lack that brighter vibrancy of an
07:42iPhone that a lot of people prefer, I think this nicely balances a more contrasty, realistic
07:47look with an exceptional level of detail.
07:53And we do still get that awesome astrophotography mode.
07:56It does need to be perfectly still on a tripod and it takes a few minutes, but if you have
08:00a clear night sky, then there's no other phone that can take a night sky photo like this.
08:06The selfies are top notch with good light, but pretty hit and miss in darker conditions,
08:10even using the selfie night sight and the screen illumination flash.
08:17Now if we switch over to video, I don't think this quite lives up to the same standard as
08:22the photography side of things.
08:24It's still good, but it can't match the ridiculously smooth stabilisation you get on an iPhone,
08:29and while detail and dynamic range is impressive with good light, in darker conditions we still
08:33have that auto white balance issues, again this moon in the cathedral appears to be blue
08:38right up until I get close and then it switches to its natural white colour, and in some shots
08:43I'm getting a crazy amount of noise, which doesn't feel like a flagship phone at all.
08:48But then in other low light video clips, the noise isn't as bad, but we do also see lots
08:52of lens flares, so pixels have never had the best video and while I think this is a good
08:57step up from before, there is still room for improvement here.
09:00But the flexibility of having that ultra wide, the telephoto and surprisingly impressive
09:05long range super res zoom, with that overall quality and the finer control you get in the
09:10app, for me at least, puts a nice big tick next to that second tenet of what makes a
09:14good pixel, the camera.
09:17But what about this new Tensor Core chip powering everything, because like Apple, it's Google's
09:22own chip powering their own phone, so you'd hope there'd be some efficiency savings there,
09:27and I am keen to see what developers can do with its machine learning AI chops.
09:31It's kind of hard to say what the chip actually unlocks or enables right now, perhaps that
09:36magic eraser tool wouldn't be possible without it, and of course the ISP on the chip handles
09:40all the camera processing, but still, it's great to see Google trying something different
09:45and it actually holds its own against the Snapdragon 888.
09:48It falls down a little bit in multi-core performance, but then actually beats the Snapdragon in
09:52the 3DMark graphics test.
09:54The iPhone still comes out on top, but it's an impressive showing from the new kid.
09:58And if we jump into a bit of Call of Duty mobile, it's actually a dead tie between
10:02them in terms of load times.
10:04So Google's Tensor Core does a surprisingly good job, and together with stock Android
10:0912, that 120Hz screen and a very healthy 12GB of RAM on the 6 Pro, this thing is incredibly
10:15fast and responsive.
10:17As I say, I did experience a couple of bugs where the screen wouldn't respond or there
10:20was a slight pause, but that seems to be getting better and better with each update.
10:25So Google's promising 5 years of security updates with the 6 series, and also of course
10:29with this you'll be the very first to get the brand new versions of Android when they
10:33come out, rather than waiting 6, 9, 12 months like most Android phones.
10:38And I do also really like the style of Android 12, with this fully redesigned drop-down shortcuts
10:43bar, lots more customisation, including the UI matching the wallpaper colours.
10:48This new extra dim mode is handy if you're in bed scrolling through Reddit as you do
10:51and want an even darker screen so you're not disturbing your partner.
10:55Plus we get some nice extras like Live Translate, so you can actually download languages and
10:59use it offline with the camera app, and it works.
11:03So I reckon for me, this is the best way to experience Android.
11:07I used to say that was the OnePlus 9 series with OxygenOS, but more recently it's turning
11:13into more ColorOS from OPPO, which is fine, but if you want that pure vanilla Android,
11:18the good stuff, then this is the best way of experiencing it.
11:21It's lovely to use.
11:24A couple of other things to note, the haptic feedback feels very good, we also get stereo
11:35speakers which are decent and has a good amount of bass, but the bottom firing speaker is
11:39definitely louder and richer than the top, so it can sound a little bit uneven sometimes.
11:45Another minor complaint is the screen doesn't get as bright as some of its competitors.
11:49We're looking at about 675 nits in normal use and it peaks at just over 1,000 for HDR
11:54content, which is still good, but not the 1,100 and almost 1,300 respectively on the
12:00iPhone 13 Pro.
12:02But on the whole, the screen is top-notch, well, top hole-punch, and because it's an
12:07LTPO panel, it can dynamically adjust between 10 and 120Hz, which should save battery.
12:14So what about battery?
12:15Well, I've left this till last because, well, I just wanted to talk about other stuff first.
12:19There is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
12:21Unlike a lot of the older Pixels, which really did suffer with battery life, perhaps until
12:25you used it for a few months and the AI started recognizing your patterns and it got a bit
12:29better, out of the box, battery life with this is very good.
12:33Thanks to a very healthy 5,000 mAh battery, by about 11pm at night I still have 25% of
12:38my battery left on the 6 Pro, which is almost as good as my S21 Ultra, which tends to have
12:44about 30%, but unfortunately nowhere near the 40% or so I still have left on my 13 Pro
12:50Max.
12:51But for an Android phone and a Pixel at that, the battery life is very good.
12:55Plus, it does support fast 30W charging, although you will have to pay 25 quid extra for the
13:01privilege of being able to do that because you don't get a charger in the box.
13:04It also supports up to 23W wireless charging if you have the new Pixel Stand, otherwise
13:09it's 12W on normal Qi chargers.
13:12And also we do have reverse wireless charging if you want to top up other devices, albeit
13:16slowly.
13:18So let's wrap up.
13:19And my biggest issues with the Pixel 6 Pro include the lack of face unlocking, also the
13:24storage is a bit stingy, particularly outside the US, and especially if you want it in the
13:28good colors.
13:29Also, in some ways, the Tensor Core doesn't quite keep up with the competition and we
13:33are expecting a brand new Snapdragon in a couple of months, so this might fall behind
13:37even further.
13:38But if none of those are deal breakers for you, and they're certainly not for me, then
13:41absolutely get yourself a 6 Pro.
13:44It's a massive update over previous Pixels, the camera is very impressive, if not flawless,
13:49battery is solid, and they undercut the big dogs in price.
13:53And so for me, as Google kind of always intended, this is the go-to Android phone.
13:57And it kind of makes you wonder why you should then splurge on something like the S21 Ultra
14:02or an iPhone for over a grand when this does pretty much everything you need.
14:07And it certainly makes you consider why anyone would want to buy a OnePlus 9 anymore.
14:12As much as I love these phones, I would just go for the Pixel 6 Pro, or even the Pixel
14:166 for $599, which possibly is the better buy.
14:20I mean, you get the same cameras, minus that telephoto lens, and also a slightly lower
14:25resolution selfie.
14:2690Hz full HD screen instead, but it's also a bit smaller, so that difference in PPI isn't
14:31a big deal.
14:32The battery actually, in my testing, is pretty much neck and neck between the two, and it's
14:36also a lot more comfortable to hold, plus £250 cheaper.
14:40So actually, I think the 6 is going to be the best bet for most people, but if you do
14:45want a bigger size, the nicer design, arguably, and that telephoto lens, and, well, the better
14:50screen, then, yeah, the 6 Pro is an easy recommendation.
14:53But what do you reckon?
14:54Will you be getting one of these or not?
14:56And if not, why not?
14:57Let me know in the comments below.
14:59Thank you so much for watching, guys.
15:00If you did enjoy the video, which, well, presumably you did because you watched the whole thing,
15:04then a cheeky like and subscribe would be very much appreciated, and I will see you
15:07next time right here on the Tech Chap.
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