Just 60 minutes after Apple unveiled the newMacBook Pro with the M1 Pro and M1 Max processorsat its“Unleashed ” event , it was Google ’s play to snap up the spot with thePixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro . And while the outcome brought very different mathematical product , Google ’s scheme with its newest earphone seemed awfully familiar .
It ’s not like anyone will err the fresh Pixel for an iPhone . After looking likea cheap iPhone clone for years , Google last broke out with a unique design that actually looks pretty good . The marquise lineament is the camera bar , a bulging slip across the back of the earpiece that house a row of tv camera . It ’s a nice departure from the straightforward regalia used by the iPhone and previous Pixel and Galaxy phones and gives the Pixel 6 genuine grapheme .
But aside from how it looks , the new Pixel phones are more Apple - like than ever . For starters , they have a Google - made chip . Dubbed Tensor , Google claims it ’s up to 80 percent faster than the Pixel 5 , but it ’s less about f number than it is about the things that Google does best but bringing it onto the gimmick : AI , computational photography , and force efficiency .
Tensor is n’t just Google ’s first CPU , it ’s also a realisation that off - the - ledge processors are trammel . Qualcomm ’s Snapdragon 888 may be fast and power - efficient , but it fall brusk for the things Google needs it to do , not unlike Apple ’s Intel bother . By induce its own CPU , Google is able-bodied to construct a phone from the inner out and focalize on the feature that make the Pixel stand out . It might not be the fastest Android phone you could grease one’s palms , but it ’ll be the most capable .
When Apple introduced the A4 in the original iPad , its focus was on speed and electric battery spirit . Apple called it “ a unco powerful yet remarkably power - effective nomadic mainframe ” and praise its multitasking abilities . It took several generations for the A12 Bionic to showcase the material benefit : camera processing and neural networking .
Google ’s Tensor splintering is already in a stronger position , and it could become one of the best smartphone chips on an Android gimmick . For the first prison term , Google insure the whole stack ( as they say ) , and like the iPhone , Tensor could split up the Pixel from the ingroup . Google already blows away most of its competition with its AI and photo processing , and a consecrate chip could do more for the Pixel than the A - Series chip does for the iPhone .
We already recognise the Pixel 6 will make for a grand camera and the salutary Android experience , but the Tensor check could finally surrender an experience that challenger — and mayhap even surpasses — the iPhone . For the first time , Google has build up a earpiece that ’s more Apple than Android , and it could grade a major shimmy in the smartphone landscape .
Leaning into the ecosystem
Google has been making two sizes of its Pixel phones for years , but with the 6 it ’s taking a pageboy from the iPhone by separating the two model into Pro and non - Pro models . away from a better front photographic camera , the differences are similar too : a third telephotograph camera , big and faster display , more RAM , a bad battery , and different colors .
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have major differences between them .
Apple has successfully driven up the iPhone ’s intermediate merchandising price and campaign people to the Pro models and it ’s a strategy that should work for Google , too . Google is charging $ 599 for the Pixel 6 and $ 899 Pixel 6 Pro , which is a bombastic enough opening to make the Pixel 6 finger like a bargain and the Pixel 6 Pro feel like more of an upgrade than it actually is .
Google is also offering a very Apple - like payment plan for the Pixel that ’s a brainy mash - up of Apple One and the iPhone Upgrade Program . Here’show it works : For $ 45 ( Pixel 6 ) or $ 55 ( Pixel 6 Pro ) per month , you get 200 GB of Google One memory , Preferred Care , and subscription to YouTube Premium , YouTube Music Premium , and Google toy Pass for two years . At the end of the two yr , you could upgrade to a unexampled Pixel or keep your exist one .
Here ’s how much each would be individually :
That ’s a savings of $ 7 a month for the Pixel 6 and $ 11.50 a calendar month for the Pixel 6 Pro . It ’s like if Apple had an iPhone Apple One plan that volunteer AppleCare+ , Apple Music , Apple TV+ , and Apple Arcade , which would be a fantastic package . Instead , the iPhone Upgrade Program is little more than a defrayal programme with no actual savings .
The Pixel 6 will stand out in a crowd of iPhones .
The Pixel Pass is more than a discount . Google ’s Pixel Pass takes Apple ’s ecosystem lock - in to a new spirit level by mix computer hardware and software in a unique way . No other Android phone tender the software and services that Android does , and if the Pixel can last deliver a ironware experience to match , it might be a dependable contender to the iPhone .
It ’s no mystery that Apple makes most of the smartphone profits and has the most successful phones on the major planet . Apple ’s strength is n’t just in design and feature of speech , it ’s about build an ecosystem they enjoy being locked into . Google is endeavor to do something similar with the Pixel 6 — and some iPhone users might find themselves changing Florida key .
