The Pixel 6 Pro proves that User experience is king

I know I am late to the Google Pixel party!

I’ve had a couple of Android phones in the last seven years and more recently I actually changed from the iPhone 12 Pro Max to the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

But when Google announced the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro I was really intrigued by it. I’ve always wanted to try a Google Pixel and see for myself what the fuss was all about.

I always enjoy trying different products anyway. As much as I love having the convenience of the Apple “ecosystem”, there are certain things that I think the Google Pixel 6 Pro is actually better at. For instance, voice texting. Or speech to text if you will. This one feature I truly believe is a game changer for a lot of people.

IT COMPLETELY BLEW ME AWAY!!

Is it perfect? No, but I have a strange accent being from Brazil and whenever I tried to use this feature on the iPhone I just ended up getting frustrated and typing instead.

The Google Pixel 6 Pro from an Apple user’s perspective

One of my friends from the YouTube channel has a condition which makes it really hard for him to type. So he really relies on speech to text.

The iPhone makes some horrible mistakes all the time and doesn't even try to fix them once the sentence has finished.

With the Pixel, one can see it live where it thinks it heard a word but when it hears the rest of the sentence.... It contextualises it! I simply had to try it for myself as this is something I really value.

For me it’s all about time saving. I run another business as well as my content creation business so any time that I can shave off it’s a major bonus for me.

It can be when I am driving and trying to send messages, when I am out and about and an idea pops up... I love all of that!

And interacting with the device like a true assistant is something that has been lacking from other smartphones.

The Google Pixel 6 Pro design would have people going crazy if it was from Apple.

I was immediately in love with how ergonomic the Pixel. 6 Pro is. The weight is great and it looks fantastic.

Undoubtedly the most easy to use smartphone on the market for me

I love my iPhone 13 Pro Max and have used the larger display iPhones since the iPhone 7 but I have to say... And Apple fans out there, I am sorry but I gotta give it to Google when it comes to the ergonomics.

It is so pleasant to have this screen real estate but still feel comfortable to hold, especially for longer periods.

The Haptics are awesome too, which is only a small thing I know, but all of those little touches add up to a really nice experience.

Performance - Is the Tensor chip as revolutionary as Google makes up to be?

When it comes to performance, it’s not Snapdragon but it’s meant to be optimised by Google for Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence. I only just barely experienced some of it with the speech-to-text recognition and the computational photography features which are truly excellent.

What about the camera?

The camera on the Google Pixel is the one thing on this device that I have been really looking forward to.

In good lighting so far, this has been incredible! I am not going to get over excited here but having used the S21 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro Max and 13 Pro Max... The Pixel 6 Pro does hold its own!

It’s early days still for me but it has not disappointed!

There are a couple of situations especially when indoors, and there’s no natural light involved when the shots are nothing special.

When I reviewed the S21 Ultra, the camera features was one aspect that I thought it also did really well. With the built-in camera app, Android does make it more fun to use in comparison with the iOS camera app from Apple.

Apple take excellent ‘point and shoot’, no fuss pictures and it gets you excellent pictures straight off the bat.

But I believe we need a bit of fun, don’t we? Of course we could do some of this in PhotoShop but this is in our hands now and it gets done in seconds.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, it’s only been a few weeks but I am looking forward to using the Pixel 6 Pro for a bit longer and seeing how they compare in the long run.

What about the battery life?

I know this has been a ‘hot subject’ and I am not going to say it’s been amazing because it hasn’t. I don’t think I use the phone in a normal way though as I have other devices but first impressions... the battery is not that good. It will probably last all day if I was really using the phone but I will have to test that properly.

I do get through an entire day and into lunch time of the following day on a single charge with the iPhone 13 Pro Max and based on early indications, I am not convinced I will be able to do the same with the Pixel.

I am aware that some people on YouTube and social media have been going crazy about how bad the battery is but I think a lot of it comes down to brand loyalism and people wanting it to have problems... which is why I always take some of these reviews with a pinch of salt and is always best to see it for ourselves.

User Interface - Has Android 12 turned into the most friendly Android ever?

When it comes to using Android 12, it has really been impressive. I love how much Android is changing to make the user experience more friendly.

When I jumped from the 12 Pro Max last year to the S21 Ultra after about 7 years of only using iPhones... I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly Android had become.

The little animations and the fact the wallpaper sort of dictates how the rest of the phone feels, along with the haptics and customisation options, makes it really compelling, even for people coming from the super easy to use Apple iOS.

It’s tricky to fit Android into an Apple ecosystem but as far as a smartphone experience goes, Android 12 is top notch!

There are issues though!

Even though it’s only been a few weeks there are a couple of things that I think Google could have done better.

Some of it I can probably be fixed with software updates, in fact some already have been fixed such as overheating when taking timelapse videos. However some issues are quite fundamental to how the device was built and I don’t think Google can fix with software. The display brightness for example and bluetooth connectivity issues.

The Optical Sensor fingerprint is another issue that I am not sure can be fixed with software. It’s extremely slow, and just not good enough. It is a cheaper phone in comparison with the S21 Ultra when it was released but I was honestly expecting this feature to work flawlessly.

In conclusion, it’s hard for me not to draw any comparisons with the iPhone 13 Pro range or the Samsung S21 or S22 Ultra for example but my very first impression of using the PIxel 6 Pro was one of pleasure, lightness and simplicity.

And that’s pretty cool to me!