Google's Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are coming soon and while eager shoppers will be tempted by Apple's recently announced iPhone 13 lineup, it might be a good idea to wait and see what the computational photography king has to offer. Google teased the new devices in August, revealing that the rumors of making it own mobile chip were true. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro will be powered by a new Google Tensor chip, enabling new capabilities.
Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max announcement revealed several significant improvements over the already impressive previous generation. An adaptive screen refresh rate of 10 to 120 hertz keeps scrolling and animations smooth without being too demanding on the battery. The A15 chip exceeds the A14's blazing speed, though not by much. Most notable were faster lenses for each rear camera, allowing better low-light performance and improved bokeh. The ultra-wide got autofocus, greatly improving its usefulness and allowing high-resolution macro photos, and the main camera got bigger pixels, another way to capture more light. Apple improved its image processing even further while taking video quality to the next level with its storage-hungry ProRes format.
Quite a bit has been revealed about Google's upcoming Pixel 6 Pro, however, much is still unknown. If it was just another Pixel upgrade, similar to the Pixel 5 or even returning to the top-of-the-line Qualcomm chip, it might not be that intriguing. The Pixel is a great smartphone but in recent years it has been showing its age and the lack of substantial hardware upgrades made it seem like Google wasn't really trying. That all changed with the announcement of the Tensor chip and the Pixel 6 Pro. This could be a game-changing technology, producing a flagship device unlike any other that Google has made before. With the ability to customize the silicon in the same way Apple has since the early days of the iPhone, the new Pixel phone can be integrated from the ground up. How powerful the new chip is and how that translates within Android 12 and the Pixel 6 Pro isn't entirely known. There have been some leaks and rumors, such as that from XDA-Developers, that indicate it might match or exceed the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, with two X1 cores. While it might not beat Apple's A15 in benchmarks, it could have plenty of power to handle most challenges.
Pixel 6 Pro Vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max
Google's Pixel 6 Pro sounds very interesting and yet, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is already known to be an awesome phone with great cameras and a fast chip designed specifically for the device. That means the Pixel 6 Pro has to have something really amazing to be worth the wait and perhaps it does. What is already known is that the Pixel 6 Pro will have three rear cameras spaced along its full-width camera bar, containing the usual ultra-wide, wide-angle, and telephoto, which in this case will provide a somewhat long four times optical zoom. Rumors suggest the image sensors will be a much higher resolution as well. The 120 hertz, 6.7-inch display might be a match for Apple's, while Google's Extreme Battery Saver could outlast even the iPhone 13 Pro Max's 28 hour playback time.
Apple has upped its computational photography game with a much improved night mode and portrait, both backed by LiDAR for accurate focus and blur depth. Video is enhanced with portrait blurring, automatic face detection, and rack focus, which is very impressive. Google will absolutely continue with its photographic magic, and with the Pixel 6 Pro, it will be backed by much higher-quality cameras. Real-time HDR and portrait blur in video mode has also been suggested as a possibility. Google's artificial intelligence is clearly superior to Apple's and a quick session with Google and Apple smart speakers will demonstrate how big of a gap there is. That means the Google Pixel 6 Pro has the potential to match the many strengths of the iPhone 13 Pro Max while retaining the crown for photo processing and AI usability, making it a phone worth waiting for.
Source: Google, XDA-Developers