Google Pixel 6 review: one of the best smartphones of the year

Tech giant Google continues its ascent in the world of smartphones. After a very correct Pixel 4, but which took little risk, the Google Pixel 6 already seems to want to stand out with its atypical design. Our opinion.

The essential while remaining affordable. This is what could describe the Google Pixel 6 after our various test days. Designed to appeal to a wide audience, Pixel phones have always sought to focus on the most essential features for a powerful smartphone, while remaining affordable. The Pixel 6 arrives this year with its share of new features, some of which are well thought out, but others still need to be improved. Discover our opinion on the latest smartphone from Google.

A design that leaves no one indifferent

Let's start with the novelty that is obvious on this new smartphone, and which is already fueling a lot of debate on the web: its design. For once, let's first address the back of the phone. The latter has a Gorilla Glass 6 glass of the most beautiful effect, but which leaves some fingerprints in use. There is also the famous logo of the brand for a rather sober design. At least until we look at the photo block. The latter will certainly not have escaped you during the publication of the first shots of the device, as it is quite imposing. The Pixel 6 photo sensors are arranged on a slice that is the width of the phone. The latter also has a deep black color that makes the separation between the top and the bottom of the Pixel 6.

If this photo module cannot leave anyone indifferent, it turns out to be very pleasant to use. When the smartphone is held horizontally, this block becomes a small gripping point for your fingers which is quite pleasant. Because it completely covers the width of the phone, it can also easily be placed on a ledge, or simply on a flat surface without the Pixel 6 leaning to one side or another, all without a case, which is quite rare these days.

The front of the phone has Gorilla Glass Victus. The latter notably equipped the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra by promising protection against falls from more than 2 m in height. The Google Pixel 6's display is flat, which sets it apart from its Pro counterpart which features curved edges. No camera under the screen planned for Google yet, the latter is quite apparent. It is located in the upper center of the smartphone, which distinguishes it from the previous Pixel 5 and its selfie camera located on the side.

Regarding the power and volume buttons, Google does nothing like the others. Like the previous Pixels, these are located on the right edge of the phone and are reversed from the standards we are used to. Understand that the ignition button is at the top, while those dedicated to the volume are below. This layout will certainly disturb some users, but you get used to it very quickly, especially since they remain very well positioned to easily fall under your thumb.

The Google Pixel 6 fingerprint sensor is now located on the front of the phone. This positioning may require some habits to review for fans of the brand who were used to unlocking their device with a sensor located on the back of the phone. In practice, we still prefer this layout. The Google Pixel 6 unlocks very easily. The sensor falls very well under the thumb and reacts effectively.

A screen with sublime colors

One of the first things that strikes you when you first turn on the Google Pixel 6 is its screen quality. The latter has sublime colors with well-transcribed contrasts, whether it is a wallpaper, a photo or a video game. The Google Pixel 6 has a 1080 x 2400 pixel FHD+ OLED panel (while the Pixel 6 Pro has a 1440 x 3120 pixel QHD+ OLED display). We will particularly appreciate the transcription of the colors, which do not fall into the trap of being too saturated to become almost artificial. The phone offers 3 different color modes: natural, enhanced and adaptive, but the differences are so small that you can easily forget about this option.

The Google Pixel 6's screen is also very bright, without completely dazzling you. The smartphone manages the brightness particularly well when used at night. You can easily take out the Pixel 6 and use it without worrying about your eyes. Its adaptive brightness is very pleasant on a daily basis, in particular thanks to almost zero light reflection, even in direct sunlight.

The Google Pixel 6 has an adaptive refresh rate of up to 90 Hz. If we regret the absence of a 120 Hz rate (reserved for the Pixel 6 Pro), the latter should not interfere the majority of the public. Adding a higher rate would certainly have a direct impact on the price of the phone, and the most demanding users (including gamers in particular), will only have to turn to the Google Pixel 6 Pro to benefit from an even smoother experience.

Mixed performance for Google's first chip

The Google Pixel 6 is the brand's first smartphone to benefit from a homemade processor: the Google Tensor chip. The latter promises very high performance in several areas, including artificial intelligence for photo and video processing. The firm also praises its merits on other points such as voice recognition, automatic text translation, and battery management.

In daily use, nothing to complain about. The phone holds the road perfectly and handles the biggest apps available on the Play Store very well. You will also be able to navigate quickly between them without noticing the slightest freeze or slowdown. The software processing of photos is also very correct, also thanks to some welcome options, but some of which still require some improvement (we will come back to this).

To see the limits of the Google chip, just launch a game a little greedy. During our tests, we subjected the Google Pixel 6 to three big games: Call of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 and Genshin Impact. These three applications are known to be particularly intensive in graphics resources and are good examples for testing the performance of a smartphone and its processor. For the first two games mentioned, no problem to note, CoD and Asphalt run perfectly at 60 FPS with the graphics at maximum, and no slowdown is to be deplored apart from certain loadings.

The problems arise on Genshin Impact, on the other hand. When launched, Mihoyo's game suggests only playing in "medium" quality. If this does not necessarily taint the gameplay, some visual effects quickly have the effect of a pixel mush. So pass the game in maximum quality as well as in 60 FPS to have an already more pleasant experience. Unfortunately, the title struggles to reach 60 frames per second, and rather stagnates around 50 with some slowdowns.

But the real concern of the Pixel 6 and its chip probably comes from its heating. During certain games, the Google Pixel 6 heats up, and not just a little. This obviously does not prevent you from holding the smartphone in your hand, and the chip still manages this heating so that it does not worsen over time. We do have some thoughts on how these temperatures impact battery life, though.

One, if not the best photophone of the moment

While the term "photophone" may seem quite enigmatic to you, it is usually attributed to smartphones whose best performance is centered on photography. Google has made this part its main selling point for its Pixel phones for several years now, and the latest is no exception. Let it be said: the Google Pixel 6 is probably among the best, see the best smartphone for taking very high quality photography and videos.

By day, the smartphone is very pleasant to use for taking photos. Whether it's portraits, an environment, a small character, the shots are sharp, clean and the colors of our various test subjects were perfectly transcribed. This includes especially small details that are difficult to manage (like hair or grass) or the deepest colors.

The renders you get are mainly due to the artificial intelligence technology of the Google Tensor chip. Understand that the shot you get will usually be much better than what you thought you were capturing. The software processing of the smartphone does not do things by halves and sublimates your shots for very clear results, without falling into the artificial (especially in terms of colors). Just take the Google Pixel 6 out of your pocket, take your shot without concentrating too much, and you'll still get great results where other smartphones would have asked you to pay attention to your settings beforehand.

Night shots can quickly disappoint even on some expensive smartphones. This is not at all the case for the Google Pixel 6 which once again demonstrates the high performance of its artificial intelligence. Night mode is automatically triggered when the brightness of your scene is low. The renderings are of excellent quality and the phone does not yellow excessively in the light as we generally observe with the competition. Again, your night shots will certainly be even more beautiful than your real scene, without distorting it. We may regret the hazardous management of light points by the artificial intelligence of the phone.

Among the very pleasant options of the Google Pixel 6, we find in particular the “motion capture” function. The latter allows you to focus on a moving subject to make it much sharper than with a classic photo that would be blurred. If this option still requires some tweaking to be fully operational on all of your shots, it is very pleasant on a daily basis.

The other big new feature of the Google Pixel 6 camera is its magic eraser. The latter allows you to take one of your shots and surround an element of the decor to remove it. While this option works quite well on subjects standing against a solid background (clouds against a blue sky, for example), it still produces very random results on the majority of our tests. The camera AI can't invent a hidden background behind an object it wants to remove. It will therefore take the objects around the deleted element to "cache-misère".

As for videos, the Google Pixel 6 is capable of shooting up to 4K quality at 60 frames per second. It also has a slow motion and a fast motion option to create visual effects that will appeal to budding videographers. We won't dwell too much on this part, the Google Pixel 6 not having really advanced compared to its predecessor which already did a very good job in video despite some shortcomings in low light.

Muffled audio quality

Google's phones have never particularly shone on their audio part, and it's not the Pixel 6 that will change the situation. The stereo speakers aren't very powerful, whether it's your speakerphone calls or your media content like Spotify or Netflix, you'll have to crank up the volume to hear the sound from your device clearly. While it can do the day-to-day job just fine, don't count on the Google Pixel 6 to set the mood at a party. The audio quality remains generally good without really sparking. It should therefore be suitable for a majority of users, unless you are demanding on this part.

Good battery life for slow charging

Autonomy is a point that can quickly make you hesitate as that of Pixel phones can vary from one generation to another. This year, Google opted for a 4614 mAh battery, which is far superior to its predecessor, the Pixel 5, which had a 4080 mAh battery. This change is felt, since during our various test days, the Google Pixel 6 never fell flat. During normal use (messages, social networks, emails, YouTube), the phone showed around 40% battery at the end of the day. If you're a big gamer, and like to spend several hours on fairly resource-intensive titles, you may need to charge the Pixel 6 before going to bed. Concretely, the Google Pixel 6 is able to last more than a day, if not two, depending on your usage.

Pixel 6 fast charging is fast in name only. You will already need a power supply, since Google no longer includes one in the boxes of its phones. We also advise you to find out which one you could buy, since two of our three sector blocks did not work to recharge the Pixel 6. Once you finally have your grail, you will still have to wait nearly two hours to fully charge the phone.

Google Pixel 6 spec sheet

Conclusion: should you buy the Google Pixel 6?

In many ways, the Google Pixel 6 is one of the smartphones that has generated the most testing and debate among our entourage. Its objective is simple: to offer the best of a smartphone on a daily basis. Google's phone is doing extremely well, thanks in particular to the brand's in-house chip and Google's know-how on artificial intelligence. If you are looking for a powerful smartphone, capable of following you effectively on a daily basis and capable of taking even more beautiful shots than reality, the Google Pixel 6 has everything for you. You may need to consider its Pro version if you particularly appreciate screens with curved edges and if you fear a battery that is a bit tight for very advanced use.

Where to buy the Google Pixel 6?

If this test has convinced you to buy a Google Pixel 6, know that it is available from several retailers, including Fnac, which offers both colors and free delivery.

The Google Pixel 6 is at this stage available for pre-order pending its official release on October 28. A Bose 700 headset is notably offered for any pre-order before October 27 at 11:59 p.m.