My Initial Impressions with the Pixel 6

So it's been a little over a week since I made the official switch from my Pixel 5 to the Pixel 6 and it's time I gave you some of my initial thoughts.

First off, it's funny how I can flip flop on size of a phone.  Originally, I complained that the Pixel 5 was too small, but almost a year later I loved the size.  Going to something just a little bigger has me scrabling around the screen trying to reach again.

So there's that.

Part of the reaching around the screen is to go up and pull down the notification shade.  On the 5 they had a fingerprint sensor that let you have a gesture swipe to do that.  On the 6, they've removed the fingerprint sensor (like come on... the 2, 3 and the 5 had it, but the 4 and 6 don't... feels like a recessive gene).

Sure, on the home screen you can swipe down in an open area of the background to bring down the shade, but if you're in an app... forget it.

Speaking of the fingerprint sensor, it's built into the display, like many others we've seen for a while now, but it's ... slow.

It's not bad, like some we've run into, that needs like a bunch of tries, but it isn't fast.

The camera is always a winner with me for Pixels, and it lives up to his heritage, but it doesn't really WOW me in terms of camera performance in my mind.  It's good, not ... WOW like it used to.  Maybe I've come to expect amazing quality.

One thing I did notice when using the camera, it has the 3 options for the 'zoom'.  The ultra wide (.7x), and then you see 1x and 2x.  Those both use the same lens, but just digitally zooms for 2x.

I thought it was odd at first, but to be honest, I find I'm using 2x zoom a lot lately.  Especially for closer objects.

I find that when I use the regular lens (1x) and I take a picture of food, or something in my hand, especially if I have to get closer, I noticed some lens abberations.  It was really hard to show off on screen or get a snapshot of it, but it's like it's field of focus is pretty narrow and then distorts anything off in the corners of the lens with some extra fuzzy / distortions.

To combat this, I ended up putting it in 2x zoom mode and pulling back the camera a bit further.


which looks 'cleaner' to you?

What I do love about the photos tho is the new magic eraser, but I posted about that already.



Another big win for me is the battery.  I actually just changed phones at work, and it's more basic now for work, so I'm not putting any of my social media, or other apps on it, so now I"m more heavily reliant on my personal for use now.  Even still, it went from a day that I was up at 6 and out the door for work and used it until like midnight, and it still had 40% of battery left.

That is more than good.  Remember, I use my phone A LOT.

Overall, I'm liking the 6, but it's still new in my hands, so I'll be getting you a full review in the next little bit.

If there's anything specific you'd want to hear about, or wanted to share your own stories, drop me a line!

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