We already know a lot about the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, but thanks to a UK retailer leaking pretty much every spec and feature over the weekend, we now know so much more.
The retailer? Carphone Warehouse, who posted (and then quickly pulled) promo pages for the two new Android phones, which shared key details like camera features, hardware information and more about software support.
Unfortunately, the team was not fast enough to take it down before renowned leaker Evan Blass could screenshot everything and tweet it. Not only that, but the Wayback Machine has taken a snapshot of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro pages too.
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Hardware
The new Pixel phones are built using Gorilla Glass Victus and sealed for IP68 water and dust resistance. Let’s go into more detail about the hardware specs revealed here, which give us a deeper dive on the display, the processor, the cameras and the battery.
Starting up front, the Pixel 6 Pro features a 6.7-inch 120Hz display with LTPO technology, which means you get a variable refresh rate (VRR) that can go as low as 10Hz to save battery. The Pixel 6 page doesn’t talk about any of this technology: instead, talking about a 6.4-inch “Smooth Display” with a “high refresh rate.” What that rate is, we don’t know, but one thing I will confidently guess is there will be no VRR.
Heading into the phone, we already know that Google’s making its own custom-built chip named Tensor. We don’t have specifics on clock speeds or number of cores, but we now know this chip is 80% faster than Pixel 5, features a next gen Titan M2 security chip, a custom image processor and “advanced on-device AI.”
Next, the battery life. Again, no specific numbers, but both pages do highlight an “all-day battery life” that is adaptive to the apps you use most, while the Pro page does specifically mention that adaptive battery gives you longevity to “last beyond 24 hours even on 5G.” Charging-wise, you can juice both these phones up to 50% in 30 minutes, which doesn’t compete with the Xiaomi 11T Pro’s impressive 120W charging.
Finally, the camera. Both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro feature the same 50MP main camera that lets in 150% more light than the Pixel 5. The Pixel 6 deviates with only an additional ultrawide lens (megapixel count unknown), whereas the Pixel 6 Pro packs a 12MP ultrawide and 48MP telephoto shooters. This gives the Pro a 4x optical zoom and up to 20x digital.
Software
Of course, the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro ship with Android 12. We’ll leave broader details about the OS to Shubham’s review, but let’s talk about what will be unique to Google’s phone. These difference makers fall into two categories: camera and security.
For pictures, Google’s got two seriously good-sounding tricks up its sleeve. Face Unblur has the ability to keep subjects in focus even when moving around, and the Magic Eraser seemingly removes any unwanted subjects in the background — all of which is probably done through a combination of shooting multiple photos and smart computational photography.
As for the security side, after reviewing multiple Android devices, the standard security update support has been up to three years. However, Google is absolutely trouncing that standard with five years of security updates.
Outlook
After years of sitting on the sideline with niche phones that are impressive but hard to find, Google is finally swinging for the fences with a bonafide flagship. It’s exciting to see and this most recent leak may be enough to make some iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro users a bit nervous about their purchases.
We still have a couple of questions left: what are these cameras capable of on the video front? How much RAM do these phones have? And most importantly, what are they going to cost and when do they launch? These final questions are sure to be answered at Google’s October 19 reveal event.
And on a personal note, during my time working in digital marketing, I’ve walked into some Monday morning crises before. I know what the mass exposure of a seemingly small mistake like this does to someone’s anxiety. I hope everyone at Carphone Warehouse is doing OK!
