Google Pixel 6 vs Pixel 6 Pro

Google Pixel 6 vs Pixel 6 Pro display and design

The first, and most obvious difference between the two devices is the size. As is customary, the Pro is bigger, with a screen size of 6.7 inches. The regular Pixel 6 is only slightly smaller, at 6.4 inches. In other words, the regular Pixel 6 is by no means a “mini” or “compact” — it’s more of a medium-sized phone.

Both phones have OLED panels, so no skimping there — you will get deep, rich blacks and sharp contrasts with either device. The Pixel 6 Pro’s screen can hit the coveted 120 Hz refresh rate, while the Pixel 6 is “limited” to 90 Hz. This is, however, still noticeably better than 60 Hz screens of yesteryear, so — even with the Pixel 6 — you will feel an improvement in animation smoothness and response.

The panel on the Pixel 6 Pro is also LTPO, which means it will automatically drop to a 10 Hz refresh rate when displaying static images so they save battery. The regular Pixel 6 does not do such magic tricks.

As for resolution, the Pixel 6 Pro has the sharper screen with a resolution of 1440 x 3120 or 512 pixels per inch. The Pixel 6 has a resolution of 1080 x 2400 or 411 PPI. In reality, both are sharp and dense and you won’t be seeing jagged edges or individual pixels with the naked eye. Both screens look great, are colorful, and get plenty bright.

The Pixel 6 Pro has a very slight edge to its screen — a slight curve towards its sides, like Samsung’s edge displays. Google calls it a “waterfall display”. The Pro as a whole has thinner bezels and a more cutting-edge to it.

Whichever you pick, both of them are protected by Gorilla Glass Victus on the front — the latest-and-greatest from Corning that’s applied to Samsung’s top-tier phones, too. On the back, the Pixel 6 Pro has another slab of Gorilla Glass Victus, while the Pixel 6 is protected by the last-gen Gorilla Glass 6.

Both phones have a duo-tone look on the back, where the lower part and the top part of the panel are separated by the camera strip and each is painted in a slightly different shade. Also, both glass panels on the back are glossy, which makes them fingerprint magnets.

Speaking of colors, you will find that the Pixel 6 comes in more “fun” colors — vibrant and fresh — contrasted against matte black frames. They are Stormy Black, Kinda Coral (salmon-like), and Sorta Seafoam (mint-green). The Pixel 6 Pro comes in the more sophisticated… and boring Stormy Black, Cloudy White (like silver), and Sorta Sunny (gold) versions. But the Pro is extra shiny with matching frames with a glossy finish over them.

Honestly, the colors themselves might be your reason to pick one model over the other — the regular Pixel 6 just looks much more fun in the two colored options. But the Pro’s Sorta Sunny option also offers a lot of bling, or — if you are one for subtlety — you might enjoy the elegance of the 6 Pro in Stormy Black.

Google Pixel 6 vs Pixel 6 Pro hardware and performance

The good news is that both the regular Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have the same internals. For the first time ever, Google is releasing its phones with homemade chips — the Google Tensor. In lieu of a Snapdragon SoC, and in direct contrast to Apple’s A series chips — hopes are high for Tensor to up the game for Android phones dramatically.

Google talked up the Tensor quite a bit, claiming a massive improvement in performance and optimizations catered specifically to the AI-powered Assistant and the many AI features that come with Android’s stock apps. There are cores specifically designed to improve the speed and accuracy of speech recognition as well as image enhancement after you’ve pressed that shutter button.

Both phones start at 128 GB of storage. The Pixel 6 has 8 GB of RAM, no matter what tier you pick, and the Pro — 12 GB. If you want to upgrade the storage, $100 extra will get you 256 GB for each of these models, and the Pixel 6 Pro has an extra storage tier — 512 GB for a total of $1,099.

Google Pixel 6 vs Pixel 6 Pro camera

Google’s Pixel phones have always had one core strength — the camera. The hardware itself hasn’t been special for years now — just a 12.2 MP sensor behind a pretty regular lens. But Google’s software worked wonders behind the scenes, leveraging HDR+ and enhanced algorithms to create clear, detailed, sharp images with plenty of exposure even in low light conditions.

Well, with the Pixel 6 line, we get upgraded cameras. And it seems like a huge leap forward. Both phones get the upgraded main sensor — that’s a 1/1.3 inch 50 MP sensor with 1.2 μm individual pixels for the main wide angle camera. The secondary, ultra-wide camera sports a 12 MP sensor. It’s not ultra ultra-wide, really — it goes down to 0.7x on both phones, when current competitors usually go down to wider-angle 0.5x.

Pretty much the same main camera performance on both sides. Here’s some more samples to show you how the Pixel 6 camera performs in both light and dark:

In terms of video, Google claims that it has made strides to bring the Pixel picture quality to video capture. Again, with the power of Tensor, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are capable of capturing more vivid clips that mirror the look of HDR+ for photos. Even at 4k at 60 FPS!

Now, the paths diverge a little. The Pixel 6 Pro has a third camera on the back — a periscope lens with 4x optical zoom — so zooming in for video will, obviously, look better on the Pixel 6 Pro.

The fast Translate features, voice typing, and the new upgrades to the Google Assistant voice recognition will be available on both phones in equal quality. And both phones are guaranteed to get “at least” 3 years of major Android upgrades and 5 years of security patches.

Google Pixel 6 vs Pixel 6 Pro battery life

Despite having its own, home-made chip running the show in the new Pixels, Google still touts “all day battery life”. So, no, not 2-day, not multi-day. The Pixel 6 specs page does state that both phones can make it up to 48 hours of battery life if you turn Extreme Battery Saver on.

In real life? Both of these phones can comfortably take you through a day. I would consistently end up with about 30% of charge left at 6 PM if I made the conscious decision to not put them on the wireless charger on my desk. Google seems to have improved the standby battery drain — while it’s not at iPhone levels, it’s pretty consistent. As you can see from the benchmarks, the phones can keep the screen on for quite a while, actively doing tasks, too. Where it kind of falls apart is heavy apps like gaming.

With all we’ve seen so far, it kind of looks like the Pixel 6 is the better deal here. It’s a full $300 cheaper, its screen is still relatively big at 6.4 inches, it has that new Tensor chip inside, and the same main camera. OK, the Google Pixel 6 Pro has a 4x optical zoom — that’ll matter to you if you want to take portraits while standing quite a way back from your subjects. And that shiny and curvy design on the Pixel 6 Pro is definitely more… well, pretty.

But the Pixel 6? That’s probably the best bargain of 2021.