Malcolm Owen
Google has teased its Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones ahead of a launch later in 2021, smartphones using a new custom-designed Tensor chip.
Posted to Twitter on Monday, the thread offered quite a few details about Google's upcoming smartphone launches, replacing the current-generation Pixel 5 series. Rather than a complete device breakdown, the posts focused on the imaging capabilities, as well as its processor.
For the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, Google is opting for a "Camera Bar," a black bump that stretches across the width of the smartphones, with metal accents at the top and bottom. While the Pixel 6 will include two cameras, the Pixel 6 Pro will have three, adding a telephoto lens with a 4x optical zoom.
The releases will also be the first to use Google's first own-designed system-on-chip, the Tensor. Akin to Apple's use of the Neural Engine on the A-series chips in the iPhone, such as the A12, the Tensor will be able to process "Google's most powerful AI and ML models directly" onboard the device.
Google claims the chip will help enhance the image processing capabilities of the camera, as well as speech recognition and other features. For speech recognition, Google touts advances in voice commands, translation, captioning, and dictation.
Here's a sneak peek at the newest Google Phones powered by Google Tensor - the brand new chip designed by Google, custom-made for Pixel.
— Made By Google (@madebygoogle) August 2, 2021
Meet:
#Pixel6
#Pixel6 Pro
Both are coming later this year.
We'll tell you a little about them in this
(1/13) pic.twitter.com/SRhzvRA7WC
Google also says the Pixel 6 is built "with the most layers of hardware security in any phone," clarifying it is "based on count of separate hardware security layers." The thread doesn't go into detail about what this entails.
The thread also promoted the Material You UI that Google introduced at Google I/O, which it plans to use on the smartphones.
As for when to expect the release, the search giant says the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will arrive in the fall. This would put it directly against the "iPhone 13," which Apple is expected to introduce in its annual fall event.
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28 Comments
Who cares? Even in the Android world, Google's phone launches do NOT generate ANY interest or whatsoever, mostly due to Google's failings on multiple levels (Pricing, Features and Availability). Only Google can tell us whether they are taking the smartphones seriously and failing miserably at that OR it is a hobby and they are not taking it seriously and that no one should take them seriously either.
Separate hardware security layers.
”No one will harvest your data but us!!”
They sure look cool though. Dig that yellow/blue one, I wonder if you could pick top/bottom colors at checkout?
I'd take that bar over the wobbling that the squircle creates when you put your iPhone on a table. Probably makes it less likely for your thumb to enter the edge of a picture, too.
Who thinks these look good? They almost have a retro feeling to them. Modern? Futuristic? No.
And case makers will have a fun time wrapping around that bar.