Daily Authority: Google’s Pixel plans 📈

Google delivered a new smartphone announcement that only Google can do: partly on Twitter, partly exclusively, but mostly surprising. It’s the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, even with Google’s own hardware!

• The new Tensor chip is a big deal, Google (finally) fully investing in the Pixel line is a big deal, and there are a number of interesting details.

Shortly:

• In short, Google has announced / confirmed the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro and announced that it will ship its own chip with these flagship phones it calls Tensor. As Qualcomm calls its chips Snapdragon, Samsung Exynos and so on.
• It’s closer than ever to a real made-by-Google phone.
• The Pixel 6 will be released “this fall”, which means the end of September / beginning of October.
• Nothing has actually been announced for the Pixel 5a. Google’s Rick Osterloh confirmed that it would not get the new Tensor chip but would stick with a Qualcomm chipset. There is talk of coming.

In detail:

There are a lot, so I’m just going to pick a few high-level things here:

• The announcement of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro confirms that previous renders are pretty accurate, and all the noise about Google’s own chipset, codenamed Whitechapel, has come together.
• The Pixel 6 Pro is the new name for the larger version, which was previously called XL.
• The tensor chip has limited specification details for now. This is about everything we know about an interview with The edge: “Google does not share who developed the CPU and GPU, nor does it share benchmarks on their performance – although Osterloh says it should be“ market leader ”. (Current rumors suggest that Samsung might offer these more standard component designs.) He adds, “The standard things people look at will be very competitive and the AI ​​things will be completely different.”
• This “AI stuff” is dedicated on-chip hardware for machine learning, which Osterloh says: “We are now able to run data center quality models on our device.” which implies some pretty loaded algorithms. There’s also some security hardware out there: a new security core and a Titan M2 chip that Google says does better than anyone on the market, but let’s see what that really means over time.
• At the front of machine learning, this initially looks like improvements like: real-time object detection and HDR in every frame of a video for better video quality for the camera, real-time on-device translation, and closer live captioning. That could be very handy.

Other specifications, design selection, colors, availability:

• Specifications of the Pro flagship: a 6.7-inch 120 Hz display, 4x zoom, a fingerprint sensor under the display with “slightly” curved edges.
• The Pixel 6 will have a smaller 6.4-inch 90 Hz display that is flat, rather than a telephoto lens.
• That means that Google is finally switching its image sensor to something new, setting itself apart from the Sony IMX363 it has had since the Pixel 3.
• In theory, that means an overdue jump in image quality.
• The cost, however, is a massive, visor-like camera blast that runs all over the phone, something Osterloh said was more likely to be embraced than attempted to hide it, but it’s definitely a look. A metal strip protects the glass.
• There are also a number of new colors for the Pixel 6 series with at least five different color styles.
• And both are launched in eight countries: USA, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan. Not India, but maybe that’s because the Pixel 5a will be the only Pixel phone there.
• As for the price? Google said it will be a “premium priced product,” so … the Pro is close to $ 1,000, I guess?

More: Why the Pixel 6’s tensor chip is actually a big deal (and why not)

• The last frame of the video in June 2021 shows Android at 72%, which may reflect where you are but almost enough for the global view from mobile devices.

Let it be well with you,

Tristan Rayner, Managing Editor