Google’s Pixel smartphones are not officially for sale in the Netherlands and that is a shame. The latest Pixel 6 is a very interesting premium phone for a competitive price. In this Google Pixel 6 review you can read everything about the smartphone.
Google Pixel 6
Price € 649,-
Colors black, green, pink
OS Android 12
Screen 6.4 inch OLED (2400 x 1080, 90 Hz)
Processor 2.8 Ghz octa-core (Google Tensor)
RAM 8GB
Storage 128GB
Battery 4,614 mAh
Camera 50 and 12 megapixels (rear), 8 megapixels (front)
Connectivity 5G, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6E, GPS, NFC
Format 15.9 x 7.4 x 0.89 cm
Weight 207 grams
Connections usb-c, wireless charging, dualsim (e-sim or nanosim)
Website store.google.com 7.5 Score 75 
- Pros
- Price to quality ratio
- Cameras
- Five years of updates
- Negatives
- 5G (bug?) drains battery
- Charging limitation
- fingerprint scanner
Google itself does not sell its Pixel devices in the Netherlands, so you have to rely on Dutch (web) stores that import from neighboring countries such as Germany and France. You will then pay a higher price than the recommended retail price. After all, the sun rises for nothing. You can of course also do that import yourself, so that you do pay the recommended price of the smartphone. I bought a Google Pixel 6 (list price 649 euros) from Germany and share my experiences with the smartphone in this review.
Design and screen
The Pixel 6 is made of glass and clearly has its own identity, thanks to the camera bar on the back. I like the design, although you may think differently. The smartphone is pleasant to hold, but it is slippery, so I don’t dare to use it without a case. The Pixel 6 is available in three colors, including the black I tested.
The smartphone is waterproof and dustproof with an IP certification (nice), can charge wirelessly (handy) and lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack (less handy). The Pixel 6 looks modern with its front-filling screen and has a hole in the display for the selfie camera. That camera is fine without standing out.
The screen of the smartphone measures 6.4 inches and can therefore be operated with one hand for many. The OLED display shows beautiful colors and the Full HD resolution makes the image nice and sharp. Also nice is the refresh rate of 90Hz, which makes the image appear smoother. Although a 120Hz screen is standard in this price range, I find the difference between 90Hz and 120Hz barely visible and therefore not a problem. Especially because the slightly lower refresh rate is more favorable for the battery life.
I am less happy with the fingerprint scanner. It sits behind the screen and is rather slow. He also makes mistakes a little more often than I’m used to from other smartphones. OnePlus, Oppo and Realme in particular sell devices with more accurate scanners. After getting used to it, the Pixel 6 is also fine, but it is certainly a less good scanner.
Specifications
The hardware of the Pixel 6 is in line with the competition. 8 GB of RAM lets you quickly switch between recently used apps and games, and thanks to 128 GB of storage memory, you can store a lot of media on the smartphone. Please note that the device does not have a micro SD card slot. Of course, the Pixel 6 can handle 5G internet, the new Wi-Fi 6E and it has an NFC chip to let you pin contactless in stores.
So far nothing exciting, although it is a complete total package given the suggested retail price of 649 euros. The processor makes the Pixel 6 interesting. Google has developed its own smartphone processor for the first time, the Google Tensor. This chip will debut in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. According to Google, the processor is as powerful and energy-efficient as high-end processors from well-known manufacturers, but the Tensor has special features that help the Pixel 6 take better photos and process and translate text faster.
In practice, the Pixel 6 is indeed very fast to use and doesn’t feel slower or smoother than competing high-end smartphones. I will come back to the photography abilities in a moment. Processing text for translations, for example, works very well according to English-language media, but is not an exciting function in the Netherlands because the Dutch language does not benefit from it. Of course you can use the Pixel 6 completely in Dutch and your Dutch SIM card also works properly.
Google Pixel 6 cameras
On the back of the Pixel 6 you will find two cameras: a 50-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera. These camera lenses have also been placed on the Pixel 6 Pro, which in addition has a telephoto lens for zooming a few times without losing quality. The Pixel 6 can only zoom through the main camera, basically by cropping. This is not good for the quality.
The primary and wide-angle camera are particularly good in practice. That was already the expectation, because Pixel smartphones have been part of the smartphones with the best cameras. Google is now raising the bar again. The photos are wonderfully detailed, show realistic colors and deal well with the sun, clouds and other objects that can be challenging in terms of lighting.
Below you see a photo series made during the day with from left to right the normal camera, the wide-angle lens and 2x zoom via the normal camera.
Also striking is the accuracy of the portrait mode, which blurs the background on demand so that a person, animal or object is highlighted in the front of the frame. The Pixel 6 does not use a special sensor for depth determination (which many devices do) but uses smart software via the main camera. The portrait photos are almost always excellent. What I miss is a macro mode, for example via the wide-angle lens. Shooting very close up often results in blurry images. That’s too bad.
The Pixel 6’s camera also performs incredibly well in the dark. The camera sees much more than I expected and often even more than I see with the naked eye. The photos below were taken on different days when it was already dark for hours. The images are very bright and clear, with crisp skies that don’t seem like nighttime. In my opinion, the iPhone 13 Pro (Max) can only match the photo quality of the (much cheaper!) Pixel 6 in terms of sharpness and details in the dark. The good thing is that Google’s smartphone itself determines how many seconds the camera needs to take a night photo. shooting, just through the automatic mode. So you don’t have to use a special night mode.
Battery life and charging
The Google Pixel 6 has a 4614 mAh battery; common for this type of smartphone. I had therefore expected that the battery would last one long day to one and a half days with my type of use. Nothing could be further from the truth: the Pixel 6 will survive for two days. Even longer with lighter use. Google’s promise that its Tensor chip is energy efficient and improves battery life seems to be correct.
At least, with 5G disabled and 4G as the preferred network. Initially, I used the Pixel 6 with 5G as the preferred network. The battery was empty before dinner those days. After I turned off 5G, the battery life was immediately much better. Remarkable, because a 5G connection normally consumes hardly any more power than a 4G connection. Maybe my device (which I bought in the store) has a bug. If your Pixel 6 offers disappointing battery life via 5G, I recommend that you turn off 5G. You will not miss anything for the time being, because 5G will not be faster than 4G until the end of 2022 or later.
Charging the Pixel 6 has some points of attention. They are rather redundant, but created by Google itself. For example, the manufacturer initially implied that the Pixel 6 (Pro) can fast charge with a maximum of 30 watts and also sold a 30 watt fast charger itself. Independent reviews quickly showed that charging is possible with a maximum of 22 watts, so that fast charger is not necessary. Google then confirmed the charging speed.
You’ll need a charger anyway, because the Pixel 6 box only contains a USB-c cable for environmental reasons. I can get in there. Less handy is that Google has determined that the Pixel 6 may only charge via a charger that supports the PPS protocol. And not all USB-C chargers do that, no matter how well they work with your other equipment. For the Pixel 6 you need a special one. With an unsuitable charger, the device simply says that the charger is connected but the battery is not charging. That feels illogical if you can charge another smartphone, tablet and sometimes even laptop with the same charger.
Wireless charging is also possible, but slower. That does not matter to me given the good battery life of the smartphone.
Five years of quick updates
A spearhead of the Pixel 6 series is the update policy. Google guarantees three years of version updates and five years of security updates. The update policy has thus been improved compared to previous Pixel smartphones such as the Pixel 4a 5G (review). Older Pixel devices can count on three version updates and three years of security updates.
With the Pixel 6, which runs on Android 12 as standard, you are assured of updates to Android 13, 14 and 15. You can also expect security updates until the autumn of 2026. That is very nice and there are few Android smartphones that are so long get updates. Still, there is room for improvement, as Apple gives its iPhones five to six years of version and security updates. It is a pity that Google cannot or will not match this, especially because – just like Apple – it puts its own processor in its smartphone and – just like Apple – it is the publisher of the operating system on the smartphone.
Conclusion: Buy Google Pixel 6?
The Google Pixel 6 isn’t trying to be the best high-end smartphone of 2021 – that task is up to the Pixel 6 Pro. What the Pixel 6 does want to be: the flagship with the best value for money. That works perfectly. The smartphone is competitively priced at 649 euros and still offers a premium user experience. Not only because of the powerful and complete hardware, but also because of the tidy software and warranty of five years of updates. In particular, the battery life and cameras of the Pixel 6 are above average. Weaker points are the slower fingerprint scanner, the charging limitation and – at least on my device – a bug that reduces battery life with a 5G connection.
Bottom line, the Google Pixel 6 is definitely worth buying if you don’t mind getting the smartphone from abroad or paying a higher price at a Dutch (web) store. Interesting alternative phones are the Samsung Galaxy S21, iPhone 13 (mini) and OnePlus 9.
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