Google launches Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro and new Android OS to compete with iPhone

The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro differ only slightly in size, memory, and camera specs, both built around Google’s Tensor system-on-chip, a custom semiconductor that took four years to develop. Tensor is optimized for Google’s strengths in image processing and artificial intelligence, helping to deliver faster and more accurate speech recognition and better battery life.

While Google’s Android is the top smartphone operating system globally, Alphabet Inc. The unit has very little market share in mobile handsets. The company is now trying to stand apart from the competition with its own processors, joining Apple in such a move.

Outside of the iPhone, most smartphones rely on Qualcomm Inc. and to a lesser extent, MediaTek Inc. for their processors, leading to a relative lack of variation. In addition to Tensor, Google’s new tools include the company’s Titan M2 security chip, which is tasked with handling tasks like passcode protection, encryption and secure transactions in apps.

Android 12 is the latest version of the software in what Google calls the biggest design change in its history. It features personalization via color palettes and redesigned widgets, and a privacy indicator prompts when an app is accessing the device’s microphone or camera. Its security features will ensure that Google’s audio and language processing is exclusively on the device.

The 6.4-inch Pixel 6 is priced at $599, while the 6.7-inch Pixel 6 Pro is priced at $899, both shipping on October 28. The more valuable device bumps up the memory from 8GB to 12GB, includes an additional 4x zoom camera and has a bigger battery. . The 6 Pro also has an adaptive display refresh rate, like the iPhone 13 – scaling from 120Hz for fast-moving on-screen action or animations to 10Hz to preserve battery life.

Another similarity with Apple, which this year introduced a cinematic mode for video recording on its latest iPhone, comes in Google’s push for creative imaging extras. It’s adding a long-exposure feature, which blurs out moving objects such as vehicles passing an intersection, as well as an action mode, which blurs out the surroundings of a subject in motion.

Google and Apple are competing in a much-changed smartphone market this year, as companies from Oppo to Vivo to Xiaomi Corp. As of now Chinese Android vendors have made substantial improvements to fill the gap left by approval-stricken Huawei technologies company Vivo, for example. has collaborated with Carl Zeiss on its lenses and the recently launched X70 Pro flagship features four gimbal-stabilized cameras on its back.

Google still has to prove that the Pixel can be more than a place for an audience loyal to its products and dependent on its services. Bespoke silicon, more personalized Android software and a comparatively affordable price point could help the company push its case into the wider market.

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