To Pixel 6 or to Pixel 6 Professional? That’s the query.
By now, you have little doubt heard a lot about Google’s latest and greatest Pixels. So reasonably than repeat what you have already seen in a number of dozen different locations, I assumed we might deal with a purely sensible, real-world comparability for anybody torn between the 2 Pixel 6 fashions. I have been carrying round each the common Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Professional and residing with ’em for almost two weeks now, and I’ve collected some fairly telling observations that is perhaps a bit completely different from the extra spec-oriented comparisons you have pored over elsewhere.
At the start, I might say this: A lot of conventional tech critiques are likely to deal with measurement minutia and place the best emphasis on numerically pushed, goal variables. It is comprehensible, as that is a part of the job of the normal tech reviewer — and arising with an authoritative evaluation is definitely simpler when you’ve constant variables so as to add up and examine.
However I might additionally say this: That form of pondering continuously misses the forest for the timber. As an precise tech-totin’ human, the quantity of RAM in a cellphone or the variety of pixels in its show will not imply a lot for you. All that basically issues is what the cellphone is prefer to use in your day-to-day life. In distinction to all these goal measures, determining which cellphone is value carrying is an inherently subjective, experience-based judgment.
And that type of pondering is 100% what we’re gonna get into right here.
Pixel 6 vs. Pixel 6 Professional: The inspiration
Earlier than we get going, I need to step again for a second and shortly run over the technical variations between the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional — simply to ensure we’re all on the identical web page and to provide us a place to begin for this dialog. Then, we’ll break down how a lot all of those measurements do or do not matter and what you will truly discover when utilizing the telephones in actual life.
On paper, the first variations between the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional are:
- The screens: The common Pixel 6 has a 6.4″ FHD+ show with a refresh price that goes as much as 90Hz, whereas the Pixel 6 Professional has a 6.7″ QHD show with a refresh price that goes as much as 120Hz.
- The dimensions: Together with the Professional’s bigger display screen comes a bigger physique, at 6.5″ tall by 3″ large and 0.4″ thick in comparison with 6.2″ by 2.9″ by 0.4″ on the common Pixel 6.
- The RAM: The Pixel 6 has 8GB of RAM whereas the Professional has 12GB.
- The cameras: The Professional has a higher-quality front-facing digicam together with an additional telephoto lens on its again facet.
- The storage: The Professional goes as much as 512GB as an choice for native space for storing, whereas the common 6 tops out at 256GB. (Each telephones begin at 128GB.)
- The battery: The Professional has a 5003 mAh battery inside it, whereas the common Pixel 6 has a 4614 mAh energy middle.
Aside from that, the telephones are kind of the identical — identical Google-made processor, identical distinctive Android expertise, identical considerate and genuinely sensible characteristic additions, identical unmatched level of ongoing software support, and identical lack of added nonsense that you just see in most different Android units (y’know, the always-fun stuff that compromises your privacy and makes for a messy, disagreeable, and often unprofessional virtual environment).
Bought it? Good. Now, with all of that in thoughts, let’s dive into how the telephones truly differ.
Pixel 6 vs. Pixel 6 Professional: The display screen and the physique
We’ll begin with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional shows and total sizes, as a result of that is the place you is perhaps probably the most shocked by a few of these units’ real-world variations. First issues first, the Professional’s show is certainly noticeably bigger than the common Pixel 6’s, although not by any type of large, experience-changing margin. It is also extra pixel-dense, however we’re speaking a stage of distinction that nobody with out Superman-level imaginative and prescient may discover.
I am going to take that very same pondering a step additional: Basically, I do not suppose any regular particular person would give any of the quality-related variations between the units’ shows an oz. of thought. Even when wanting on the two telephones facet by facet, I believe most folk would say, “Okay. The Professional’s display screen is a bit bit greater. Cool?”
JR Does measurement matter? The bigger Pixel 6 Professional, at left, and the common Pixel 6, at proper.
The identical holds true for these attention-demanding refresh charges. The Pixel 6 Professional’s 120Hz determine could sound spectacular on paper, however you are virtually definitely not gonna discover the distinction between that and the Pixel 6’s 90Hz refresh price in real-world use.
As for the thought of the Pixel 6 Professional providing you with extra display screen house, here is an surprising actuality: The Pixel 6 Professional’s display screen truly tends to be much less information dense than the common Pixel 6’s. In different phrases, should you’re wanting on the identical precise net web page, e mail, or doc on each telephones, you will usually see barely extra of the content material on the common 6’s display screen than you’ll on the Professional’s (despite the fact that the person characters and parts are a bit bigger on the Professional).
JR Paradoxically, you find yourself seeing extra textual content on-screen on the identical time with the common Pixel 6, at left, than you do with the Pixel 6 Professional, at proper.
That apart, one factor you will completely discover is the form of every cellphone’s show. Extra particularly, the Professional’s display screen curves over on the edges — and that makes a really noticeable and significant distinction in what the gadget is like to make use of.
First issues first, credit score the place credit score’s due: The curved smartphone display screen definitely seems to be futuristic, cool, and becoming for a “premium” product. Heck, it is form of a technological marvel! The issue is that from a sensible perspective, it truly makes the cellphone significantly much less pleasant to each your fingers and your eyes.
JR Livin’ on the sting: The Pixel 6 Professional’s curved display screen, at left, subsequent to the common Pixel 6’s flat show.
Visually talking, the curved show continuously causes textual content to be more durable to learn and pictures, movies, and different content material to be awkwardly sloped over at their edges. This impact is not distinctive to the Pixel 6 Professional, both. It is simply the character of the know-how. It is a placing instance of prioritizing form over function, and it is virtually a reduction to return to a flat show after spending time with a curved one.
The opposite impact the Pixel 6 Professional’s curved display screen causes is an especially noticeable distinction in what the cellphone is like to carry in your sweaty meat-hooks in comparison with its smaller sibling. Because of that curved display screen, y’see, the Pixel 6 Professional has a a lot smaller straight-edged space of its body on the cellphone’s sides. For the reason that display screen is curved, the gadget’s perimeter has extra of a slope to it and finally ends up feeling virtually uncomfortably sharp in opposition to your palm once you maintain it.
Here is a photograph displaying the Professional on high and the common Pixel 6 on backside. See how the world you truly maintain in opposition to your hand is a lot smaller and extra angled on the Professional in comparison with the common Pixel 6?
JR Aspect view: The Pixel 6 Professional, on high, and the common Pixel 6, on backside.
On the common Pixel 6, the whole perimeter is mainly flat, and that’s what rests in your palm once you’re holding it. On the Professional, it’s only a tiny strip of flat perimeter with sloped edges main into it.
JR The a part of the cellphone that rests in opposition to your palm on the Pixel 6 Professional (high) vs. common Pixel 6 (backside).
Mixed with the Professional’s further top and width in comparison with the common Pixel 6, I’ve truly discovered that my hand begins to cramp after holding that cellphone for some time — with one-handed use particularly however even after I’m hanging onto the factor in a single hand and actively swiping or tapping with the opposite.
And yet one more factor on this identical topic: On the Professional, the floor of that body on the cellphone’s sides is shiny and shiny, which makes the fabric noticeably extra slippery than the common Pixel 6’s grippy, matte-finished various. In case you’re planning to place the Professional in a case, that’d masks most of that (except for the curved show’s look, in fact). However should you’re planning to make use of the cellphone with out something round it, you would possibly need to give it some thought.
Pixel 6 vs. Pixel 6 Professional: The digicam, the battery, and past
In order that’s the place the Professional appears like a little bit of a step down in comparison with the common Pixel 6. The place the Professional comes out forward is totally within the realm of the digicam.
Each telephones take phenomenal photographs, following within the custom of Google’s Pixel line — with some refined however significant enhancements over Pixels previous, each within the core high quality of the photographs the units seize and within the instruments they supply you for fine-tuning and enhancing these photos after the very fact.
Whenever you need to zoom into one thing distant, although, the Pixel 6 has a large benefit.
I imply, simply look: Here is the identical shot from the common Pixel 6:
JR An everyday shot taken from the Pixel 6. (Click on picture to enlarge.)
…and from the Pixel 6 Professional:
JR An everyday shot taken from the Pixel 6 Professional. (Click on picture to enlarge.)
Just about an identical, except for the ever-so-slightly completely different positioning of my hand — proper? However then you definately zoom into Mr. Turtle, and — nicely, here is what you get once you zoom all the way in which in with the common Pixel 6:
JR A completely zoomed-in shot taken from the Pixel 6. (Click on picture to enlarge.)
…after which with the Professional:
JR A completely zoomed-in shot taken from the Pixel 6 Professional. (Click on picture to enlarge.)
So, yeah: a particular, important distinction in terms of longer-range zooming. No query about it.
As for the remainder of the contrasts between the 2 units, the RAM is nearly definitely not gonna be one thing you will discover in common day-to-day use. I definitely have not. Once I requested Google for context on what distinction the Pixel 6 Professional’s further 4GB of RAM would possibly make for anybody in sensible phrases, a Pixel crew member advised me that 8GB is usually a lot for on a regular basis use and that the Professional’s extra reminiscence is usually there to assist energy the bigger, high-resolution show, which requires extra graphical assets. They did say there is perhaps some impact with with the ability to maintain extra issues in energetic reminiscence and thus change between apps extra shortly when you’ve loads of stuff open directly, however any such distinction has been pretty refined and tough to detect for me.
That very same caveat is value retaining in thoughts in terms of the battery measurement as nicely. Sure, the Professional has a bigger battery — however it additionally has bigger energy necessities. I’ve seen some checks, in actual fact, that give the common Pixel 6 the stamina edge. In real-world phrases, there are tons of variables concerned, and it actually comes all the way down to how, precisely, you are utilizing the telephones on any given day. In my nonscientific real-life observations, I’ve discovered the Professional to have a slight edge over the common Pixel 6, however they’ve usually been in the identical primary ballpark. And each telephones have finished nicely; even with heavy use and a number of other hours of energetic display screen time, I’ve but to expire of juice on both mannequin earlier than the top of the day.
Pixel 6 vs. Pixel 6 Professional: Placing all of it collectively
Whew! That is loads of information to chew over, I do know.
Let’s put all of it collectively as merely as doable: The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Professional are each beautiful units, and Google is well positioning the bigger, higher-priced choice not simply as the larger model however because the “pro-level” expertise — the “totally loaded,” most “premium” cellphone accessible for the “extremely technophile,” as the corporate has put it.
That branding is sweet. It definitely made me need to get the Pixel 6 Professional — up till I truly frolicked utilizing each fashions for prolonged intervals in the true world.
Primarily based on my experiences with the common 6 and the Pixel 6 Professional, I would not say that the Professional is any extra suited to skilled use than the common Pixel 6 mannequin. In reality, I believe it comes with some significant productiveness disadvantages in comparison with the common 6 — specifically round what its display screen is like to have a look at and the impact its curved-edge, glossy-framed building has on the consolation of its use. What the display screen seems to be like and what the cellphone is like to carry are fairly consequential components, should you ask me, they usually deserve an terrible lot of weight.
So all thought of, I might say this: If the Pixel 6 Professional’s distinctive photo-zooming functionality is necessary to you — and/or should you completely want the highest-level 512GB storage choice that it alone affords — then consider carefully about whether or not that outweighs every little thing else and makes the Professional worthwhile on your wants.
In any other case, I might strongly recommend going with the common Pixel 6 as an alternative. You may save your self 300 bucks — a 150% worth distinction! — and you will get the higher all-around expertise, even when you do not get that spectacular super-zooming energy. The actual query to ask your self is how usually you’d use that telephoto zooming and the way a lot it truly issues to you, particularly with every little thing else within the image.
For most individuals and particularly professionals, the common Pixel 6 is the perfect all-around expertise you could find on Android (and arguably past) proper now. When you think about its worth and its actual per-year value, nothing else even comes near evaluating — and that features each the Pixel 6 Professional and the lower-priced Pixel 5a.
See? We weren’t kidding after we stated these telephones could change everything. And what we’re seeing now remains to be solely the beginning.
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