- UK retailer Carphone Warehouse posted (and then pulled) promo pages for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
- The main Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro camera is 50MP and lets in 150% more light; the 48MP telephoto sensor on the Pro does 4X optical zoom/20X Super Res Zoom.
- Two new camera features include Magic Eraser and Face Unblur.
- Expect 5 years of Android security updates on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
Rather than shroud the Pixel 6 in secrecy, Google has taken a somewhat different approach with its upcoming return to flagship smartphones. The company already showed off the design and a number of the key features in a Twitter thread in August, with the promise to reveal more this fall.
The date of the reveal has since been confirmed as October 19, but it looks like there may not be too many surprises left, as a British retailer accidentally went live with its Pixel 6 promo page ahead of time, confirming rumored features and revealing a number of others in the process.
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The retailer in question is Carphone Warehouse, which as you can probably guess from its dated name has been in the mobile phones game since 1989. The page was hurriedly pulled down, but not before the prolific leaker Evan Blass could screengrab everything to share with his 448,000 Twitter followers. Or, if you prefer not to deal with Twitter’s over-the-top image compression, the Web Archive has backed up the Pixel 6 page here, and the Pixel 6 Pro page here.
The most interesting revelations come in the camera department, with the listing revealing a 50MP main sensor on both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. That's up from the 12MP module used on the last few Pixel handsets; and this will apparently let in “150% more light” than the Google Pixel 5.
This will be accompanied by a 12MP ultra-wide sensor and, on the Pixel 6 Pro, an additional 48MP telephoto lens for long-distance shots. That will apparently include a 4x optical zoom and, with Super Res Zoom, up to 20x zoom (although a footnote adds that this is “not available for all camera apps or modes”).
The page also lists a bunch of camera tricks Google has up its sleeve, including something called “Magic Eraser” to remove unwanted photo bombers from shots and “Face Unblur” to make blurry portraits appear sharper. The Pixel 6 Pro page also mentions a 94-degree field-of-view front camera to ensure you get “everyone in the shot”.
Another difference between the regular and Pro model: screen refresh rate. While the Pixel 6 Pro page specifically mentions a 120Hz panel with LTPO technology which can lower to 10Hz to save battery, the regular Pixel 6 just highlights a “Smooth Display” with a “high refresh rate”, so we’re guessing that means 90Hz.
Battery life is highlighted as a plus, which will be a relief to those who suffered with the Pixel 4’s limited stamina. Both pages mention “all-day battery life”, but the Pro listing goes further saying that the battery “allocates power to the apps you use most to last beyond 24 hours even on 5G.”
Speaking of charging, the new and improved Pixel Stand also gets a shout out on both pages, with the site claiming it’s “twice as powerful” as the first-generation model, with wireless charging rates of up to 21W for the Pixel 6 and 23W for the Pixel 6 Pro.
The final detail worth flagging is Google’s pledge to provide both Pixel 6 phones with five years’ worth of security updates from the day they go on sale. That’s an impressive guarantee and beats the four years that Samsung offers on its handsets.
All of this adds up to a pair of phones that are looking very promising indeed, and we can’t wait to put them through their paces when our review units arrive after the big reveal on October 19.
