Tested: Pixel 6 Pro | Google shows the fangs

The Pixel 6 Pro has its little flaws, including its unappealing design, but it’s the best phone Google has ever produced. Its photographic capabilities, fun built-in tools, a fast in-house processor, and competitive price are finally worthy of high-end phones.

Karim Benessaieh
Press

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With barely 2% of the market, we can’t say that Google’s foray into the world of smartphones over the past five years has been a big success. Usually highly rated by critics, its Pixels just don’t appeal to consumers. For the first time in 2021, the search engine giant is making a foray into high-end phones with its Pixel 6 Pro and in-house processor called Tensor. And for the graphics processing, the sharpness and the fluidity of films or video games, it is fast, our first impressions and the calibration of Geekbench 5 quickly demonstrate it to us.

If we exclude the unbeatable recent iPhones, the Pixel 6 Pro, for the graphics card, is very impressive. When it comes to the power of its eight-core processor, the Tensor is less dominant, doing little better than a Galaxy S20 FE released in fall 2020. It does, however, have a chip specifically intended for local processing by the artificial intelligence of some data, which makes it faster. The RAM is 12 GB and the storage space of our test unit is 128 GB. We offer up to 256 GB for purchase.

The 5003 mAh battery is one of the most generous on the market, capable of providing 24 hours of autonomy. It is compatible with wireless charging of up to 23 W and can charge other devices stuck to its backing.

The 6.7 ” AMOLED display on this phone is bright, and the colors, rich. It was given an adaptable refresh capability of up to 120Hz.

As it is the trademark of the Pixels, it comes with the most recent version Android 12 and it takes advantage of the updates concocted by Google first.

Let’s talk about photography now, since it is the preferred battleground for smartphones. There are three lenses at the rear: a 50 Mpx wide-angle, a 12 Mpx ultra-wide-angle and a 48 Mpx telephoto lens with x4 optical zoom.

And what does all this give concretely? An excellent ability to manage contrasts, very faithful colors even if they can be found bland compared to those of an iPhone 13 Pro Max or a Galaxy S21. Portrait mode is utterly delicious, with an unmatched ability to capture the main subject while blurring the background.

Note that Google boasts of having a “fairer” camera capable of expressing “the wide range of human skin”. Our testing didn’t really show a difference between the processing of the Pixel 6 Pro and that of our other devices.

A gadget that can be mind-boggling, but which doesn’t always work: Google Photos has a tool called “Magic Eraser”. The device tells you which elements of a photo – a passerby or a car that has entered your frame, for example – can be erased and does so with a single click. One in five times the result is perfect, but most photos do not lend themselves to this treatment.

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The phone is unlocked by the fingerprint reader hidden at the bottom of the screen, or by a PIN. No facial recognition is offered.

There is no space for a microSD card.

The strip behind the phone which contains the three main lenses is not very aesthetic. Overall, the Pixel 6 Pro looks a lot like many high-end models launched by OnePlus and Samsung in particular, and its “pure” Android interface, as Google wants it, doesn’t stand out.

One buys ?

It’s unclear if this is the click that will allow Google to actually squeeze into a market dominated by five manufacturers, but one thing is certain: the Pixel 6 Pro is a good buy. It compares favorably with high-end devices sold a few dozen or even a few hundred dollars more expensive. You won’t have the “oumph” of the best Samsung or Apple phones, but you inherit a quality Android device that benefits from the latest innovations in this ecosystem.