By Clairy Chang, Lily Wu
Two weeks have passed since Google launched the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. These new flagship phones come packed with new features, especially in AI and photography departments. The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have powerful camera hardware, including 50MP wide cameras and 12MP ultrawide cameras (with 4x optical zoom and up to 20x zoom with an improved version of Pixel’s Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 6 Pro), but it is their new software features, driven by Google's new custom Tensor chip, that make shooting with the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro interesting.
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have modes designed to overcome limitations in the hardware and the shooter’s skill as a photographer. These new modes include Magic Eraser, Face Unblur, and many more. Here we are going to look at how each of these tools works and what results they can achieve. We will also view some of the issues reported with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
Magic Eraser is designed to help users get rid of an irrelevant person or an object from a photo. For instance, when a pedestrian walks into the shot during shooting, users can remove that person from the image after taking it using Magic Eraser. Users will find suggestions to remove unwanted elements in Google Photo and they can choose to remove them all at once or tap a single element to remove it.
Face Unblur allows users to sharpen blurry faces when shooting a moving subject. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro do this by taking a shot from the main lens and the ultrawide lens and fusing both images. This feature is simple and helpful, especially in the way that saves one the time and effort to edit images in Photoshop.
Action Pan is under the Motion option in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro’s camera app. It focuses on a moving subject and “adds a creative blur to the background” according to Google. In a way, it is the opposite of Face Unblur: instead of reducing blur, it aims to add “action.”
Long Exposure is also under the Motion option in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro’s camera app. The best way to explain how it works is to imagine Action Pan but in an opposite way where the moving object is blurred out and the static elements remain in focus.
Night Sight and Astrophotography mode let users take vibrant photos with rich color in the dark. Night Sight, which has been around on Pixel smartphones since 2018, uses AI to create well-exposed low-light scenes when shooting handheld. It looks for blur and noise and then removes them from the final shot. Astrophotography mode, however, only appears when using Night Sight and the phone is completely still.
Users also have reported some problems with Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. They are as listed below.
Flickering display when shutting down
This refers to a flicker of residual light when either turning off the phone or when it is already turned off and the user applies slight/momentary pressure to its power button. You will have to wait for a patch that will come with the December 2021 update. In the meantime, you will have to ignore the flickering light as much as you can, and not let it spoil your enjoyment of an otherwise superb phone.
Random reboots
This incident occurs with problems from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, issues which are caused by certain third-party apps, the Camera app, and even when unlocking the device.
Slow charging
Google’s claims of 30W charging may not be accurate. With an average of 13W during a charging session, to get a device like a Pixel 6 Pro and its 5000mAh battery back to a 100% charge takes roughly 111 minutes. Google has set up the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro to only charge at 22W for the first 50% or so before tapering it off. This is common, but the tapering seems to be pretty dramatic once it starts, thus it takes so long to charge one of these phones.
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