Pixel 6 is Google's flagship phone released in 2021; in the first time after the official sale, I placed orders through various channels, and finally got the red Pixel 6 half a month later.
Since I am a person with a high frequency of changing machines, I think further about the software and hardware design habits of various mobile phones: Why should developers/designers design in this way? Therefore, I am less likely to use "whether it is easy to use" to evaluate a certain function or design of the mobile phone, and "whether it is suitable for me" may be a more accurate expression.
And "Is the Pixel 6 right for me?" is my answer to this question.
In the ID design of the first three generations of Pixel, you can also see some family-oriented mobile phone ID design, with different materials or processing processes, the phone is separated horizontally up and down, the first generation of Pixel is in this way, to achieve unforgettable visual effects, of course, mobile phone sales are another matter.
The original Pixel's impressive Really Blue color scheme (Credit: Jordan Keyes).
According to this logic, Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 are two generations that have abandoned their own aesthetic system in design: using a solid color body + rounded rectangular black camera module design. Of course, the impact of this on sales is not listed here, and in terms of aesthetics alone, it is already a serious regression for the Pixel series.
But when it comes to the Pixel 6, Google has adopted a new three-stage design that is more exaggerated than the two-stage model. The design of the Pixel 6 camera module also brings it super high recognition, holding it on the street, you can hardly find a second flagship phone designed in this way: I myself am holding the Pixel 6 and I have encountered the question of strange users who are also Google fans, "Is this the Google phone that was just released?"
After all, the Back Design of the Pixel 6 is truly quite unique: although the Pixel 6 is one times less telephoto periscope lens than the 6 Pro, the two versions share the same camera module design: across the phone, dividing it into two camera modules that are combined in two different colors act as a thick dividing line – and of course the most conspicuous.
The controversy caused by this design has been continuous since the official announcement of the Pixel 6, but in fact, Osterloh, senior vice president of Google, who is directly responsible for hardware projects such as Pixel, has issued a direct response to this design: Google has a lot of thinking about how to deal with the design of the mobile phone camera when designing the Pixel 6, but instead of making the ID design invisible, it is better to directly and enthusiastically embrace this design and use it to match the most impressive color combination.
It is true that for the Pixel 6, which originally did not sell too much mobile phone series, the mobile phone to do more "recognition", perhaps a prowes outweighed the disadvantages, but the Pixel 6 camera module bulge is really out of the spectrum, including almost all the Pixel 6 mobile phone cases launched by Google first parties, are inevitably compromised for this design.
In addition, the Pixel 6 is very non-flagship in the camera module overlay glass using a three-piece rather than a more textured integrated glass, after a period of use between the glass gaps is easy to appear dust accumulation. Moreover, the R angle processing of the Pixel 6 camera module is actually not at the same angle as the curve of the fuselage, and it is not as smooth as imagined when actually touched.
In general, the Pixel team strives to emphasize the "eye-catching design" in this generation of models to improve the recognition of the way, itself from the design point of view is understandable, but in the details of laziness + cutting corners, so that the pixel 6 design sense even in my own "fan filter" of the user, but also fell at the level of less than satisfactory, less than a little of the previous generation of Pixel's exquisite sense.
Perhaps it is also the influence of Pixel 6 itself, so that this year there are also many domestic bloggers for the first time to get started with the Pixel 6 experience, but some media in the experience spit "power buttons arranged on top of the volume keys" is quite "anti-human" This thing, in fact, has been the Google Pixel series (to be precise from the Nexus era has joined) Features, most of the old fans have defaulted and are used to such a setting, but for the habit of domestic Android This may be a bit inconvenient for users of mobile phone design.
After continuing the "classic design" of several generations of rear physical fingerprint sensors, Pixel 6 this time uses the fingerprint recognition design under the screen, but Google is still "slow and half-beat", using the optical fingerprint recognition module solution of Huiding Technology, which is technically a generation behind the domestic flagship mobile phone released this year; and the fingerprint recognition accuracy / speed after covering the tempered film has both declined, but it has finally caught up with the trend; from the current information, the future Pixel 6 Pro may still join 2D Face unlock function.
However, in the screen experience part, the current Pixel 6 on my hand only supports 1080P 90Hz display, the 6.4-inch screen is actually not much to talk about, and the PPI of 411 is only barely crossing the passing line in the 2021 flagship phone sequence, which is also related to the fact that the pixel 6 and 6 Pro of this generation are large-screen mobile phones; the weight of the starting 207g makes its texture quite weighty.
As far as the mobile network experience of Pixel that domestic users are most concerned about, the pixel 6 support is still the best actual test signal is still Unicom, if you are an advanced player, you can also unlock the use of telecom 4G by unlocking the way to swipe into Magisk, which is also one of the inevitable learning costs of Pixel in China.
But the Biggest Problem with Pixel 6's use of mobile networks is actually more than that: if the previous generation of Pixel 5 / 4a 5G using Qualcomm SoC can also "curve to save the country" through various Magisk plug-ins, using 5G networks in Chinese mainland, but Pixel 6 uses Tensor SoCs, so as of January 2022, there is no means to use any carrier's 5G network normally in Chinese mainland: for the foreseeable future, It can only display the "LTE" icon representing 4G in my hand.
Pixel in the internal hardware configuration, the most innovative is perhaps still because it is the first Google phone equipped with Google's self-developed SoC: with the gradual end of Moore's Law, the development of mobile SoC can be most intuitively reflected: mobile phones need to explore different ways to exchange for further release of performance, such as adding an AI coprocessor suitable for deep learning computing scenarios for mobile phones, or ISPs dedicated to improving mobile phone imaging efficiency.
These certainly don't sound strange in 2021 - because Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have all added custom ISPs with deep involvement in the design to their flagship phones to enhance the camera experience of mobile phones; these are things that Google Pixel has become familiar with in the first five generations of Pixels, and the Tensor Chip chip on the Pixel 6 is the next step: integrating self-developed coprocessors into self-developed SoCs.
Based on the enhanced version of speech input implemented by the combination of Google Assistant language recognition model and Gboard input method speech input, these Googles demonstrated their related technologies as early as the 2018 I/O Conference, but with the improvement of AI computing power, this time Google can finally move these speech models from the server to the mobile phone, which can be more conveniently used in offline environments.
As mentioned earlier, the Pixel 6 is equipped with a rear dual-camera module: the main camera with a wide-angle lens and another ultra-wide-angle camera. Except for the absence of telephoto, the rest of the hard configuration is almost exactly the same as the Pixel 6 Pro.
The Pixel 6's main camera is a 50-megapixel sensor that can be combined to take 12.5-megapixel photos using a four-in-one pixel combination. Although the ancestral IMX363 has finally been replaced after four years, the details are still above the passing line even in terms of Pixel standards: especially considering that Google is likely to continue to use the same sensor for three consecutive generations, relying on algorithms to squeeze performance, think about it.
However, for pixels, high-quality imaging has become a bit boring, and what is more interesting is the camera's various ways to play: for example, the "portrait light" mode that appeared in the Pixel 5 era, which automatically recognizes the portrait in the photo and simulates the effect of the fill light, and there is still amazing magic in the Pixel 6 today.
In addition, the new dynamic photography modes of "motion panning" and "long exposure" of the pixel may be easy to confuse people in the naming, but in fact, one is a blurred background and the other is to add a dynamic effect to the subject of the picture, which mainly completes the framing in a very short time; the former realizes the pursuit of focus shooting, and the latter is a literal long exposure effect.
Both of these features are to make the shooting techniques that were originally demanding for photography technology/external environments easy to achieve on the Pixel 6 through computational photography. The specific difference has been seen in the application of the following effect in the finished film, I believe you can understand.
In the Pixel native camera, not only can you adjust the brightness/contrast of the picture directly during the framing stage, but you can also adjust the tone of the picture directly by dragging; these functions are not much different from filters in nature, but the experience improvement of the scene of "free-to-take out" is still immediate, at least I will be more willing to take it and shoot around, record more.
Although the Pixel 6 is far from replacing the existence of SLR or even micro-single, the effects achieved by computing photography on the Pixel are not to replace professional photography equipment, but to lower the threshold to allow more users to experience the fun of photography, and then shoot the same good work: capture precious moments at any time. This may be the biggest value of mobile computing photography at this stage.
You've probably heard it many times: Android 12 is probably Google's biggest improvement in UI design since Android 5.0, and if you want to experience the intuitive effects of this change at a close distance, pixel is undoubtedly the best choice (but if it's just for the experience, there's no need to spend 5K on Pixel 6).
The Pixel 6, as the first mobile phone with Android 12 pre-installed from the factory, is itself a very full gimmick: in a sense, Android 12 is tailored for Pixel 6, and the "airplane draft" seen in March last year has vaguely revealed the relevant hardware design of Pixel 6.
The theme system is also the same as the old joke in Android 12, but as far as the current domestic Android 12 system update is concerned, not only colorOS, MIUI and other deep customization Android have no related theme implementation methods, but the native Android system running by relatively "international" brands such as Lenovo and Sony still castrates many of the theme implementations in Android 12 (at present, the country is closest to Android 12). The native theme system is implemented instead of vivo's OriginOS Ocean).
Perhaps because of this, native Android still has such a unique attraction for domestic Android players: in addition, a large part of the system equipped with pixel 6 has belonged to Google's own "private goods", and does not belong to the AOSP project open to OEMs.
Coupled with Google's commitment to five years of security updates and three years of Android version updates when the Pixel 6 was released, that is to say, at least until Android 15 in 2024, Pixel 6 can use most of the new Android features for the first time: Google's "buy a system and send a phone" style has become more obvious on Pixel 6.
Google built the imperfect Pixel 6, and also developed the Tensor SoC chip and Android 12, which are far from being "revolutionary".
It's not for me, and it's probably not for you reading this — I estimate that the probability is about 99%.
But I still love holding it, and it's probably a phone built for 0.5% of Android native fans and another 0.5% of heavy Pixel/Google users.
This article was originally released by Geek Park GeekPark, please add Geek Jun WeChat geekparker.