6 Google Pixel 6 predictions that are sure to come true

Google surprised just about everyone earlier this week with its pre-announcement of the Google Pixel 6 series. is pretty much unprecedented among major smartphone brands. With official renderings and details posted about two months before the phones themselves were supposed to break coverage, Google has given enthusiasts and industry watchers a lot to say while maintaining tight control. on the messaging.

These could be two of the best Android phones of 2021. Likewise, however, Google has an undeniably uneven track record with Pixel phones of late, moving away from the traditional flagship space with its 2020 handsets.

We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see if the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will live up to the hype, but until then we can come up with (reasonably) educated guesses. These are the six Pixel 6 predictions that I’m confident I will make at this early stage.

1. Expect a leap forward for Pixel cameras

OK, this one is obvious. Maybe a little bit too much obvious. The Pixel Camera has always been a key part of what makes Google phones special, and the Pixel 6 series brings the biggest hardware upgrades ever to a Google phone. The bar was pretty low, given that the base hardware has remained largely unchanged from the Pixel 2. Nonetheless, with rumors (and our own sources here at THAT) pointing to a new 50-megapixel camera for both Pixels, this is a leap forward for the Pixel camera hardware.

A likely candidate for the Pixel 6 is Samsung’s GN2 sensor, which features the same 1.4 micron pixel size as the Pixel 5’s Sony IMX363, only four times the resolution. And even if a smaller 50-megapixel shooter is used, it’s still going to be a major upgrade over last year’s Google phones.

The Pixel 6’s main sensor could pick up four times as many photons.

There’s also the promise of a 4X telephoto lens in the Pixel 6 Pro, the first time we’ve seen a superzoom lens in a Pixel. And while the rumor mill doesn’t agree that it will ship a 48-megapixel sensor or a less innovative 8-megapixel part, either one would be a big deal. Google’s “super-res zoom” feature, first seen in the Pixel 3, could easily extend this camera’s usable zoom level beyond 10X.

The new Google Tensor processor is also set to play a huge role in photography, supercharging Google’s HDR + with its enhanced machine learning capabilities. That’s all thanks to its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU). In essence, the Google Tensor chip is expected to have a 2021 supercharged flagship level of the old Pixel Neural core from a few years ago.

According to The Rod interview with Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh, HDR + on the Pixel 6 will also be video enabled, with some impressive advancements to come. This should allow the same expanse of computer photography techniques in every 4K sequence image that you currently get in stills from current pixels.

Would that be enough to help Google reclaim the smartphone’s hardware crown? Who knows. But either way, the Pixel 6’s camera seems like a huge, huge, gigantic deal.

2. Synthetic benchmarks will disappoint some

If you’re an average person, you probably shouldn’t bother with smartphone credentials. Nonetheless, expect to see numbers appear as soon as the first Pixel 6 reviews emerge, showing that in general, for compute tasks, the new Tensor chip may fall short of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888.

The tensor could be less powerful on paper than a Snapdragon 888, but most benchmarks won’t tell the whole story.

That’s because, according to the leaked specs for the chip, it will be missing the high-powered ARM Cortex-X1 cores used in high-end Snapdragon processors. It might sound like a bad thing, but it’s unlikely to be an oversight or a cost-cutting measure. In his interview with The edgeRick Osterloh says more specialized processing units are the future of mobile chipsets instead of raw computing power. For the kinds of features that make a Pixel special, brute-force processing power might not be the best approach.

Osterloh has signaled for years that the end of Moore’s Law would mean computers – and phones – will have to be built differently. “There will be a lot more specialized sub-elements in the design to be able to do things in specific ways. But, again, this is a consequence of raw computing power running out of headroom or growing more slowly than the types of processing we want to do with AI, ”he said.

Switching to the Cortex-X1 can also be a good decision for reasons of power consumption. While the X1 is powerful, it’s also power hungry, as evidenced by OnePlus’ recent core limitation in some apps.

What * kind of * suggests that …

3. Pixel 5’s epic battery life will continue

THATAccording to our own sources, the Pixel 6 Pro will come with a 5,000mAh battery, one of the biggest you’ll find in a flagship smartphone today. that of Jon Prosser FrontPageTech points to a 4,614mAh cell in the smaller Pixel 6. Since the Google Tensor chip will likely lack that power-hungry Cortex-X1 core, phones stand a good chance of having better battery life than an equivalent phone with a Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100 processor.

The specialized TPU, which should reduce the load on the Tensor’s processor cores, will likely help to reduce battery drain to some extent in heavy ML activities like recording photos and videos.

Google, it seems, has learned lessons from previous generations of Pixels and looks set to continue the trend of flagship Pixels with strong longevity.

4. This is not a one-off – high-end Pixels are back for good.

This year’s Pixel release cycle feels like Google is hitting the reset button on its smartphone efforts with a new focus on super high-end phones. The first four generations of Pixels were almost competitive with the more expensive handsets of their time, and the 2020 Pixel 5 has instead been positioned as a more affordable flagship.

The Pixel 6 series represents a big reset for Google’s phone efforts.

But with the arrival of the Google Tensor chipset, Google clearly has business savvy. Building your own processor and redesigning major apps and services to use your new TPU isn’t something you do if you’re going to immediately go back to affordable flagships or standard silicon next year.

Even though the Pixel 6 is a 4-tier Pixel flop, the Pixel 7’s silicon and feature set are likely about to be locked down, and it will surely be built on the foundation of what Google just announced. . So machine learning, big cameras, and (relatively) high price tags seem like a safe bet for Google’s future fall announcements.

Despite this, Google still faces challenges in moving pixels in significant amounts …

5. They will always sell in small numbers

Google will sell the Pixel 6 series in just eight countries, which means that even five years after the first Google-branded phones went on sale, the Pixels remain geographically limited and exclude many major markets like India.

Whether the reason is the current global chip shortage, the aforementioned Pixel series soft reset, or something else, don’t expect Pixel 6 sales to approach the tens of millions of units than a flagship product. from Samsung or Xiaomi can boast.

Does the world need ‘another $ 1,000 phone’ in 2021?

Add to that the unfinished business of Covid-19 and the related economic challenges in many countries. Last September, when announcing the Pixel 5, Rick Osterloh told reporters that “what the world doesn’t seem to need right now is another $ 1,000 phone.” However, recent challenges facing Samsung’s Galaxy S21 series this year suggest things might not be different 12 months later.

But if you’ve got the cash to spend, there’s always that Pixel Fold rumor going around, right?

6. Don’t expect the Pixel Fold anytime soon

Google isn’t talking about its foldable phone just yet, and the lack of recent leaks around the so-called “Passport” device suggests we’re still a long way from seeing the long-standing foldable Pixel. Sources tell THAT that the device exists, but won’t go on sale alongside the Pixel 6 in October. And if the Pixel Fold is demonstrated at the Pixel 6 launch event, expect only fleeting previews to be shown in a tightly controlled fashion.

Like most foldables, the Pixel Fold should be positioned as a halo device for Google’s hardware line. Most people won’t buy it. It is unlikely that many carriers will pick it up. Instead, he’ll use it to draw attention to the two cheaper but still quite expensive flagship phones that will, at this point, already be on sale.

Whatever shape Google’s new Pixels look like, it’s clear that this generation represents the biggest change in the history of the series. The first real premium Pixels could be in a few weeks.

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