After nine months of daily use of the Pixel 6 Pro, it’s time to take stock of this long-term test of a frustrating smartphone.
The launch of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro was supposed to be an event for Google. For the first time, it seemed like Android was taking smartphones seriously. After outsourcing its Nexus line to other manufacturers and then introducing Pixel smartphones that weren’t for wholesale, the Google Pixel 6 was the first smartphone designed to truly sell to the general public. As a testament to its investment, Google reached out to a lot of billboards and 4×3 displays, made its own chip and increased the size of its main image sensor.
When the Google Pixel 6 Pro was released, we gave it a score of 9/10, which is a sign of a smartphone.” excellent “. But after nine months of using it every day, the smartphone is clearly a relatively disappointing one.
Before I get into my experience with the Google Pixel 6 Pro, there is a small point in my personal experience – I promise it will be short. I’ve used the Oppo Find X2 Pro for two years, and it’s a smartphone that won me over with its software customization, photo performance, and fast charging. A few years ago, my everyday smartphone was the Nexus 6P. At the time, if I found its format to be cumbersome, I nonetheless appreciated the “pure” Android experience offered at the time and wanted to find this simpler interface. When the Pixel 6s was released, I set my sights on the Pixel 6 Pro in order to test it daily for the long term — what we call “Long-term test” in Frandroid.
Experience engaging visuals, without being revolutionary
Why Pixel 6 Pro instead of the more compact classic Pixel 6? Because I’m a fan of photography, especially the long focal length. Next I wanted to find the experience as close as possible to the x5 optical zoom offered on the Oppo Find X2 Pro I’ve been using until then. And at this level, I was served.
I’d never used a Pixel before—except for our Pixel 3a XL review three years ago—and was keen to try out the much-touted portrait mode in Google’s smartphone lineup, while I liked Night mode and HDR functionality. Indeed, the Pixel 6 Pro is capable of taking very good photos. Tant et si bien que, même si je me suis acheté un appareil photo hybrid en fin d’année dernière, j’avais souvent tendance à dégainer le Pixel 6 Pro — rappelons que, par définition, le meilleur appareil que est photo always with you.
The sheer versatility – allowing me to go from a 16mm equivalent ultra-wide-angle lens to the equivalent of 24mm wide-angle to the equivalent of a 104mm telephoto lens – has allowed me to find a shoe for every scene on my feet. I found, with this unit, everything I expected from a good photophone. The tools provided by Google were also useful to me…to a lesser degree. there “magic eraser“Initially only integrated on Google Photos of the company’s latest smartphones, it’s very practical to remove an ugly plot, a background passerby, or a post spoiling the scene. On the other hand, I haven’t found any real uses for the two new software features built into”a movement»From the Photos app: Animate by Motion and Long Exposure. As a reminder, the first will make it possible to make filaments – capture a sharp moving target with a blurry background – and the second will create beams of light, practical for example to pick up headlights from a road bridge.
I’ve now had my first disappointment with the Google Pixel 6 Pro: I was expecting better photos. Let’s be clear, the smartphone takes very nice shots and offers real versatility. But I’ve heard and read a lot that Google has had such a crazy lead in the competition that, coming from the Oppo Find X2 Pro, I’m only disappointed. Except for the more effective HDR mode on the Pixel 6 Pro compared to my previous smartphone, I didn’t notice any real quantum leap. Worse, over the past few months, manufacturers are now offering much larger sensors – from Xiaomi and Sony – or particularly advanced software functions – from Vivo or Oppo – which makes me want more of the very identical aspect of the Pixel 6 Pro.
I was probably expecting a lot from this Google Photos experience. Certainly, even. But it is clear that Mountain View must now face stiff competition.
Tonnage far from 2022 standards
Unfortunately, my previous use of the Oppo smartphone also revealed other shortcomings of the Google phone. This is the state of autonomy…or rather, fast charging. Admittedly, I took great tastes with the 65W charging power of the Oppo smartphone, but you have to admit that the Pixel 6 Pro pales in comparison to just over two hours of charging for a 100% full battery. Especially since the manufacturer does not provide a charger in the box and the charger I had was not compliant with the Power Delivery PPS standard. So it is impossible to use the maximum power of 30W that the Pixel 6 Pro offers.
In most cases, this deficiency is not really one, because the 5000 mAh battery allows you to wait until the evening to recharge your smartphone. But on busy days, even this large capacity can play tricks on you, and then we get frustrated at not being able to recharge the smartphone in about twenty minutes.
Where the Pixel 6 Pro ultimately disappointed me was more than the software experience. I’m not talking about the interface, which was a huge hit, but about the many bugs that plagued the launch of the smartphone.
Unintuitive software experience
Whether it was a finicky fingerprint reader, a working light sensor, or my pants pocket opening, I spent the first few months sighing while using the Pixel 6 Pro. Fortunately, it ended up working. The fingerprint sensor is now more responsive – without reaching the speed of an Oppo or Vivo smartphone – the light sensor is more responsive – it now seems to take the brightness in front of the screen first and the brightness in front of the screen is no longer the back screen – and the fake unlock is fixed simply by disabling Smart Lock.
But after all, it took more than six months for all these concerns to be rectified. Not to mention the ones Google hasn’t thought of yet. The curved screen, for example, is very reminiscent of the experience of the first models that used this design, six or seven years ago. The smartphone picks up on many of the presses made by my thumb’s tip-up – especially when I’m typing with one hand. However, in 2022, I thought all manufacturers had integrated a desktop system to analyze and correct these dummy struts. It is not. There is no function in the program settings to block programs for these side supports. Now you understand why many people complain about smartphones with curved edges. When poorly managed, it quickly becomes very frustrating, especially with a large format smartphone.
Another disappointment in 2022, Google still doesn’t offer facial recognition on the Pixel 6 Pro. However, most competing manufacturers now offer the choice between a fingerprint reader and facial recognition to unlock their devices. Even Apple chose to put the fingerprint reader aside, which is slower than facial recognition. With a sensor as slow as on the Pixel 6 Pro, I spent several months hoping that Google would finally opt for facial recognition – even if it’s less secure – to no avail.
As my colleague Titouan pointed out in his article that listed several bugs in the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, I finally had the impression that I had spent several months with a smartphone in the beta phase. Enameled experience so many concerns regarding image quality, autonomy, and user interface that I had a hard time catching up. Of course, we must bear in mind the price of the Pixel 6 Pro, which launched at 900 euros – and is now offered at 800 euros – when its main premium competitors now easily cross the 1,000-euro limit. Let’s also not forget that this is the best way to take advantage of Android updates as quickly as possible and that the image quality remains very high.
But after nine months of having the Pixel 6 Pro in my pocket, I come to believe that Google is still far from the level of more experienced smartphone manufacturers, such as Oppo, Xiaomi, Samsung or Vivo.
Manu, who uses the Pixel 6, will soon give you his feedback that promises to be even more positive. He didn’t have many problems. stay tunedFrandroid.
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 pro have been very popular with critics but over the past few months they have been plagued by problems and bugs that pop up over the course of updates. we’ve got…
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