The smaller model fits better in my hand. The extra 3/10th of an inch of screen isn’t that much of an improvement, and it makes the phone slightly bigger and heavier. Google reportedly changed the fingerprint reader to make the rear of the phone look more uncluttered, but I’d rather have the clutter and the much better experience of the previous design.īoth models are excellent, but for most users, the $599 Pixel 6 may be a better choice than the $899 Pixel 6 Pro.
I have found that it takes longer to recognize my fingerprint, often takes two or three attempts and sometimes doesn’t work at all, requiring me to enter my PIN. It usually works, but not nearly as well as the one used on previous models. When it’s time to authenticate yourself, a round button appears on the screen for you to touch. But on previous models, Google used a physical reader on the back of the case that I found easier to use and much more responsive than the current models with a fingerprint reader embedded under the screen. Like earlier Pixels, the new models can be unlocked via a fingerprint. My one gripe about the new models is the way Google changed the fingerprint reader. If you use this feature, I recommend you check it before you send any texts or emails, but it is surprisingly accurate. It got it mostly right, with just a few mistakes on words that might be a bit ambiguous. I read aloud a 115-word excerpt from a news story into an email message. On most devices, voice recognition is hit or miss, and although it’s still not perfect on the new Pixels, it’s quite good. It isn’t often that I need to use a long zoom with a smart phone camera, so even though I like that feature, I’m not sure it’s worth $300 more for most people.Īlthough some people have mastered the art of typing on smartphones, I still find it difficult, so I love the ability use my voice for searching the web and even dictating texts and emails. While modern cameras do a pretty good job with digital zoom, optical is more accurate. digital zoom, which is done with software. Optical zoom means that it’s using a real lens to zoom in vs.
The only significant difference in the two new phones’ cameras is the 4x optical zoom on the Pro vs.
The Journal concluded that “most people surveyed agreed that the Pixel-shot photo most accurately represented their skin tones,” but noted that most of the people preferred how they looked in pictures taken from the Samsung phone. A lack of diverse testing means that today’s cameras can carry that same bias, delivering unflattering photos for people of color.” The Wall Street Journal put Google’s claims to the test by taking pictures of African American subjects with the Pixel 6, the Samsung’s Galaxy S21 and the Apple iPhone 13 Mini. Google is billing the camera in its new Pixel 6 phones as “The world’s most inclusive camera.” It has “vastly improved” the camera’s tuning models and algorithms “to more accurately highlight the nuances of diverse skin tones.” On a website, Google said that “Historically, camera technology has excluded people of color, especially those with darker skin tones. Original picture with two bins (photo by Larry Magid)īlack trash can has been erased but you can still see the sidewalk and the parts of the rock garden it was blocking (photo by Larry Magid) It would be just as easy to erase a person photo-bombing a picture or maybe even a divorced spouse in a wedding photo. It would have been possible to achieve this effect with a photo editing program but not in the few seconds it took me to use the magic eraser. What’s remarkable about the picture is that you can still see the parts of the sidewalk and the rock garden behind it that were blocked by the can. To test this feature, I took a picture of a blue recycling bin and a black trash can in front of a house and erased the black trash can. 4614 mAh), but the Pro’s larger and higher resolution screen eat up more power, so they both last for roughly the same amount of time, which, for me, means that the phone is still awake when it’s time for me to sleep.īoth models have a 50-megapixel rear-facing camera with a large sensor that has a big impact on photo quality, but what makes the camera even better is the software, including a new feature called “magic eraser” that lets you easily delete a portion of a photo by either circling it with your finger or rubbing your finger over that part of the image, much like using a pencil eraser. The Pro’s battery is larger (5003 mAh vs.
To me, battery life is the most important feature of a smartphone, and both models have batteries that can keep them powered for a full day. Larry Magid: With or without cable, streaming costs can add-up