The Google Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro have comparable cameras set apart by subtle differences. Read more to learn which will take the best shots.
With the launch of the Google Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro smartphones this year, Google is finally adopting new camera hardware similar to other flagships. To tech enthusiasts, this can be a bigger surprise than Apple finally admitting it was wrong about the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar. These camera setups are in line with the modern competitor and can put up a tough fight to the likes of the iPhone 13 and the Galaxy S21 series. In this article, we look at which model you should buy between the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro. Ever since its first generation, unrivaled camera capabilities have been the hallmark of Google’s Pixel lineup. But despite their focus, the Pixel smartphones received only minor upgrades in terms of their camera hardware until the last generation. This is primarily because Google was content its software experience was more than enough to fill any gaps created by the old — cough obsolete — 12MP primary camera sensor. However, with the improvements to the Pixel 6 series’ cameras this year, Google has clearly had a massive change of heart. The new Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro feature an all-new 50MP camera sensor on the primary camera. This is a sizeable upgrade from the 12MP primary camera seen on all of the preceding Pixel smartphones. The Pixel 6 series uses the same 50MP Samsung ISOCELL GN1 that was seen previously on Vivo’s flagship device — the Vivo X70 Pro Plus. This 50MP camera sensor is almost as big as Samsung’s ISOCELL HM3 sensor found on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It measures 1/1.31 inches in size and employs pixels measuring 1.2μm in width. Paired with an f/1.85 aperture lens, the camera offers an 82-degree wide field of view. With Quad Bayer pixel-binning, four adjacent pixels combine to form a single pixel measuring 2.4μm. Google claims this allows the 50MP to capture 2.5 times more light than the Pixel 5’s primary camera. In addition to the 50MP primary camera, both — the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro — feature a 12MP ultrawide camera. This camera sensor captures 115-degree wide images using an f/2.2 aperture camera lens. Besides capturing wider spans than the primary wide-angle camera, this ultrawide-angle camera is also used for correcting blurred faces using a feature called Face Unblur, which we’ll talk about later in this article. A telephoto camera is returning to the Google Pixel series after being removed from the Pixel 5. The 48MP telephoto camera on the Pixel 6 Pro uses a periscope setup — first introduced commercially over two years ago on the Huawei P30 Pro and the Oppo Reno 10X. The periscope allows 4x optical zoom and up to 20x digital zoom. The 48MP camera sensor measures a half-inch in size, which is even bigger than the primary camera on the previous Pixel phones. The camera sensor is paired with an f/3.5 aperture lens module. If we compare this to existing flagships from other brands, the 4x telephoto lags behind the 5x telephoto on the Samsung Note 20 Ultra or the 10x telephoto on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. But, combined with Google’s impeccable computational photography, we can expect some stunning results using this camera.
