Google Pixel 6 Pro - Taking On Samsung

 

The News Cover: When the original Pixel was unveiled by Google in October 2016, many questioned why the Mountain View company was entering the business of designing, building, and selling phones. Five years on, that sentiment still lingers. 

And Critics of Google’s strategy are correct to say it looks contradictory: the company has invested time and treasure into building devices, but it hasn’t accompanied them with the necessary distribution and marketing to truly challenge for a big slice of the market. But it seems that will finally change with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. According to Max Winebach, Google claims to be serious about its hardware business this time, and they are actually taking on Samsung and want to steal some of the market share from them. 

Max says that Google has kept the same marketing budget for the Pixel 6 as Samsung keeps for their Galaxy S series of phones. This is huge because like I've mentioned over and over, the key to success in the smartphone industry is to make a good phone and market it properly. In the tech world, people tend to think competition is all about the product. But that's not entirely true. 

Samsung did not change the game with just technology or product. Instead, they did it by focusing on distribution and advertising! So Google keeping a big marketing budget for the Pixel phones is an indication that they are finally confident on their phones that it can go head to head with the best out there in every aspect and not just photography. But then again you may ask, Google sells only a few million Pixel phones per year, how could they have a budget like Samsung. 

Well, Google as a whole company makes billions in profits each quarter and their market capitalization is actually more than Samsung's. If Google wants they can double the marketing budget of the Pixel 6 than what Samsung has kept for the Galaxy S21 because Google has other extremely profitable ventures that makes a ridiculous amount of money for them. So it's about time, Google is finally upping their marketing game. With that said, Max also revealed some of the specifications of the Pixel 6 lineup on a podcast he did recently. 

He says Pixel 6 Pro will have a 5000mAh battery to power the 120Hz QHD+ display. The regular Pixel 6 will also have a 120Hz refresh rate but the resolution will be FHD+ and the battery capacity is 4500mAh. He said the reason Google opted for this robocop camera design is that it's a future-proof design thanks to all the room it gives to allow new camera tech and it helps Google to keep a consistent camera design in the future Pixel phones as well. Speaking about Google's own custom silicon he says the reason Google chose to design their own chipset is because of Artificial intelligence. We all know AI is the future, Google already makes AI chipsets. 

Things work better if a company controls the whole stack than solving the puzzle by putting the pieces together. And that's what Google is doing. This will help them better optimize the whole chipset. Max says you shouldn't be too much optimistic about the performance, the Whitechapel will perform in between the Snapdragon 865 and 888, close to the Exynos 2100. Since it's Google's first try at making a custom chipset for phones, I think it's unreasonable anyway to expect them to outperform Qualcomm on their first try. 

But it will be interesting to see, how well they optimize the chipset. He also mentions that the Pixel watch will have a 5nm Samsung processor and will launch alongside the Pixel 6 in October. 

Google Pixel 6 Pro - Google Is Going All Out

 The News Cover: The Pixel cameras have been in a weird spot for a couple of years; the Pixel 2 in 2017 was an incredible leap forward for smartphone photography, but features like Night Sight aside, the Pixel 3, 4, and even the Pixel 5 were mostly evolutions on the same hardware and software formula, making what sometimes felt like subjective tweaks more than clear improvements to image quality. 

Google Pixel 6 Pro specification

It’s to Google’s credit that they’ve still remained among the very best phone cameras you can buy. If Samsung or even OnePlus stuck with the exact same sensor for three iterations of its flagship device, they would be laughed out of existence. But for Google, that's not the case. But it's 2021, the competition not only caught up but is getting better in the camera department. The old sensor in the Pixel camera is now starting to show its age. 

And thankfully it seems Google has finally realized that they are in due for a new camera sensor and has finally decided to upgrade the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro's camera with a new and bigger sensor. That's according to Max Winebach who has a great track record. But he didn't mention what kind of sensor Google is going for the Pixel 6 but another tipster is shedding more light on this. According to his source, the Pixel 6 Pro will utilize a Sony sensor for its camera, “perhaps a 50MP” one. 

He also mentioned that an 8-megapixel periscope camera will be included, with 5x optical zoom. On top of that, the phone is said to include an ultra-wide-angle lens and a color correction sensor. Apparently, Google has finalized the camera setup and will go into mass production by late august. Now keep in mind that this source has a pretty mixed track record so you know what you need to do but if this is true then Google has finally created a Pixel phone that can offer powerful and versatile camera hardware that can go head-to-head against the likes of the Galaxy S21 Ultra. 

Don't get me wrong, when it comes to computational photography Pixel phones are right at the top. But they lack versatility. I mean the Pixel 5 didn't have a telephoto camera nor a periscope zoom camera but it seems that's finally changing, Google is betting big on the Pixel 6 and that's a breath of fresh air in an Android world which certainly is in need of a big mainstream competitor to the likes of Samsung. 

With that said, in their annual IO event, Google said they are making changes to its algorithms to understand when it is taking photos of darker skin tones and algorithmically reduce stray light to bring out brown skin tones and prevent over-brightening darker skin tones. On top of that, the camera’s algorithms will also be smarter at understanding different hair types, including, curly or wavy hair. This means the Pixel 6’s portrait mode should be better at identifying different hair types and produce a natural bokeh around traditionally African hairstyles. 

Not only that Google is collaborating with Samsung to unify the Tizen and wearOS to make the Android smartwatches great again. Google promises you'll see a faster performance, with apps starting 30% faster on the latest chipsets, with smooth UI animations and motion. The lower layers of the OS have also been optimized to improve battery life. Honestly, this is a win-win situation for all, Samsung will get to use millions of wearOS apps, Google's wearOS is getting revived by Samsung who controls the smartwatch market on the Android side and we consumers also win because we're getting a better and an improved smartwatch.