Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13: Which flagship phone wins?

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Google Pixel half dozen vs. iPhone xiii: Which flagship telephone wins?

(Epitome credit: Tom'south Guide)

The big autumn phone releases have arrived in the form of the iPhone 13 and the Pixel 6. And now that we've had the opportunity to thoroughly test both phones — including caput-to-head photography face-offs — it's time to figure out who wins the Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone thirteen battle.

It'south certainly a tough contest. The iPhone xiii continues to gear up the standard for smartphones, with a powerful processor, noteworthy camera improvements and a bigger battery that addresses one of the iPhone 12'south few flaws. The Pixel 6, on the other hand, looks unlike from any Google telephone that'south come before it, merely it still offers the outstanding photograph experience you lot've come to expect.

The iPhone thirteen and Pixel 6 both offering different takes on design and displays, and Google's new Tensor processor offers an intriguing alternative to Apple's A15 Bionic chip. Only ultimately, this is ane battle that boils down to how the two all-time camera phones available compare when it comes to photos.

Here's how our Google Pixel half dozen vs. iPhone 13 confront-off went downwardly. (For a comparison of the larger, more than advanced models, check out our Google Pixel six Pro vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max assay.)

Google Pixel half dozen vs. iPhone 13: Specs

	Pixel 6	iPhone 13
Starting price	$599	$799
Screen size	six.4 inches (2400 ten 1080)	6.one inches (2532 x 1170)
Refresh rate	90Hz	60Hz
CPU	Google Tensor	A15 Bionic
Rear cameras	l MP maink 12MP ultrawide	12MP main, 12MP ultrawide
Front cameras	8MP	12MP
Battery size	iv,614mAh	Unknown
Bombardment life (Hrs:Mins)	8:12	10:33
Charging speed	30W, wired; 21W, wireless	20W, wired; 15W, wireless
Size	6.2 ten ii.9 x 0.iv inches	5.8 10 2.8 ten 0.3 inches
Weight	7.3 ounces	6.one ounces

Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13: Cost and availability

The Google Pixel vi beats the iPhone 13 on price, even though the cost of Google's phone depends on where you buy it from. In most locations including from Google every bit well equally from carriers like T-Mobile, yous'll pay $599 for the Pixel 6. Verizon and AT&T charge more than, as their version of the telephone works with their corresponding high-speed 5G networks.

The iPhone 13 costs $799 — a $200 premium over the Pixel 6's starting toll. Even the more affordable iPhone 13 mini costs $100 more than Google's telephone.

If y'all buy your iPhone from Apple, you tin go upwards to $700 off by trading in your current device, though the biggest rebates come from newer iPhones. Google doesn't offer any similar discount, though we are keeping an eye on the best Google Pixel 6 deals. Similarly, the best iPhone 13 deals tin help you save, too.

Ultimately, the Pixel wins in this regard — in fact, it'southward of the key areas where the Google Pixels beat the iPhone and Galaxy in 2021.

Winner: Google Pixel six

Google Pixel half dozen vs. iPhone xiii: Design

In the example of the Pixel, Google has moved drastically from its previous design linguistic communication. Up until now, Pixels take been pretty spartan affairs. Other than unique colorways, similar blue, orange, and pink, the Pixels have stuck with a muted pattern. The Pixel 6 bucks that trend completely, opting for a horizontal camera bar that spans the length of the phone, separating 2 variations of the same color. In the Pixel 6's case, your colour options include black, sage and coral.

(Epitome credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The camera bar on the Pixel 6 is certainly distinctive, though information technology does jut out from the dorsum of the telephone, adding to the Pixel half-dozen's thickness. The iPhone thirteen is a tenth of an inch thinner as a upshot. On the bright side, though, because that bar goes across the length of the telephone, the Pixel 6 doesn't wobble when you set it on its back. The iPhone 13, with a camera array in its upper left corner, does accept a slight wobble.

As for the iPhone 13'due south look, information technology'south a lucifer with the iPhone 12, though with a couple of key differences. First, the notch is smaller on this twelvemonth'due south iPhones — 20% smaller, according to Apple. The camera array on the rear features diagonally-opposed lenses, instead of stacking the cameras on top of one some other.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Smaller though the notch may be on the iPhone xiii, it'southward even so more prominent than the front camera cutting-out in the peak center of the Pixel 6's 6.four-inch display. That means more uninterrupted screen real estate on Google's phone.

The Pixel 6 features an under-display fingerprint sensor that's proven to exist frustrating for some Pixel owners, every bit it takes a while to recognize your fingerprint. Withal, iPhone 13 owners take no fingerprint sensor whatever, relying instead on Apple's Face ID engineering to unlock their phones. Face ID is quick, reliable and secure, but not effective when y'all're wearing a face mask.

Winner: Google Pixel 6

Google Pixel six vs. iPhone 13: Display

As y'all can see from the Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13 specs comparison, Google'due south phone offers more than screen space — 6.4 inches to the iPhone's 6.1 inches. Apple does offer sharper resolution, even so.

(Prototype credit: Tom'due south Guide)

But Google gives its phone some other advantage — the Pixel half dozen offers a 90Hz refresh rate. While that's not as fast as other flagship phones, including the Pixel 6 Pro and its 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, information technology certainly tops the iPhone 13, which remains stuck at 60Hz. Apple only added adaptive refresh rates to the iPhone 13 Pro models, which means that the Pixel 6 offers a more immersive experience with smoother scrolling.

Pixel 6 (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Besides the faster refresh rate, the Pixel 6 holds another advantage over the iPhone xiii — it'due south brighter, though only past a little chip. We measure the iPhone thirteen at 795 nits of brightness with a light meter, which comes up simply shy compared to the Pixel 6's 843 nit rating.

iPhone 13 (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

That said, the iPhone thirteen's OLED brandish is still a pleasure to wait at. It'due south also slightly more than colorful than the Pixel vi, capturing 110.two% of the sRGB color spectrum to the Pixel 6'due south 100.9%. The iPhone 13 is slightly more than authentic, besides, with a 0.26 Delta-Eastward rating to the Pixel 6's 0.28 score. (The closer to nil, the more accurate the colors.)

Actually, these two displays aren't separated past much, and then the faster refresh rate wins the twenty-four hour period for the Pixel 6.

Winner: Google Pixel 6

Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13: Cameras

Both the iPhone 13 and Pixel 6 introduce significant changes to the camera hardware. In the iPhone'due south example, Apple opted for a bigger main lens that lets in 47% more light than the iPhone 12 did. The ultrawide bending camera likewise sees some low-low-cal improvements while capturing more of the background than it did before.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

Google made some changes of its own, going with a 50MP sensor equally the Pixel 6's chief photographic camera. That's coupled with a 12MP ultrawide bending lens. Both phones rely on software for zooming in on subjects, with Google'southward Super Res Zoom feature particularly proficient at filling in the details while minimizing photographic noise.

You tin see how Apple's focus on improving low-lite photography paid off in this shot of some Halloween decorations indoors at night. The iPhone thirteen's white residual is more authentic, and as a consequence, its camera deals with the harsh lighting with greater ataraxy than the Pixel vi did. The decorations don't popular in the iPhone's photo the style they do in the Google shot, but I dislike the warmer colors that the Pixel uses hither, and find the iPhone image much more authentic.

Sticking with low-light photography, the nighttime shots captured by the Pixel six and iPhone xiii are evenly matched. I like how the iPhone brightened the tree leaves and highlighted the white in skull perched in i of the branches, though I'd fence the Pixel 6 presented a more accurate film with better utilize of shadow. I remember I'd give the edge to the iPhone on this photo — the skull seems more than in focus to my eye — merely the Pixel half-dozen'southward shot is more than acceptable.

This photo of a persimmon tree in the throes of autumn illustrates a persistent issue I noticed with the Pixel 6'south camera. It skews toward cooler color casts which can sometimes dull the overall look of a photo. I call up the leaves in the iPhone 13 shot are much more than vibrant, and it'due south easier to spot the raindrops beading on the fruit itself. It'due south just a much ameliorate equanimous photo than what the Pixel 6 offers.

That approach to colors can serve the Pixel 6 well, though, as I plant out when testing ultrawide angle lenses. The cooler colors in the Pixel six photo brand the stormy sky wait much more foreboding. I recollect the iPhone 13 shot keeps everything looking sharper, but the Pixel 6 photo is cleaner overall.

Should you plow to a digital zoom, you lot'll prefer what you get from the Pixel 6 and its reliance on Google'southward Super Res Zoom capabilities. The Oakland skyline is in much sharper focus in the Pixel 6 shot, with the Tribune Belfry standing out confronting the dark sky. The iPhone 13 tries, but it allows too much noise into the picture when I zoomed in at 4x for this photo.

I was repeatedly disappointed past the selfie cam on the Pixel half-dozen, whether I took shots in skillful low-cal or in bad. (And the lighting is very poor in this self-portrait, believe me.) The Pixel 6'due south love of cool colors and over-smoothing gives my face a very unnatural look and subdues features similar my beard and my baseball cap. The iPhone 13's effort is overly warm — we'll arraign the low lighting on my much too ruddy face up — but at to the lowest degree it's more than accurate than what the Pixel 6 came up with.

While photo comparisons tell about of the story hither, nosotros can't ignore the unlike photo editing features both phones bring to the mix. The iPhone 13 offers a Cinematic style for shooting video, in which the focus can switch dorsum and forth between objects in the foreground and background — information technology's a really impressive effect. The Pixel half-dozen, meanwhile, introduces clever capabilities like Magic Eraser for effortlessly removing people who've wandered into your shot and Motion fashion for adding stylistic blurs to activity shots.

Winner: iPhone 13

Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13: Performance and 5G

Google acquired a stir past dropping Qualcomm'south Snapdragon system-on-chip in favor of its own Tensor chip for the Pixel 6. Google wanted a greater accent on auto learning for the silicon powering its phone, which is why the Tensor chip has its own Tensor Processing Unit that handles a lot of the tasks that might unremarkably get through the CPU. As a result, at that place'due south a lot of on-lath smarts with the Pixel 6, as we'll see when nosotros get to the software section of this Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13 face-off.

(Image credit: Google)

Equally for performance, while the Tensor can hold its ain with the Snapdragon 888 every bit we found in our Pixel 6 benchmarks, information technology's really no friction match for the A15 Bionic chip inside the iPhone thirteen. That's no surprise, every bit the A15 has proven to be the fastest chip nosotros've tested.

That's reflected in benchmarks like Geekbench v, where the iPhone 13's multicore score of 4,129 trounces the Pixel 6'due south two,696 consequence. Fifty-fifty in graphics tests, where the Pixel 6 and Tensor fare meliorate, the iPhone xiii blows it abroad — in 3DMark's Wild Life Unlimited examination, Apple tree'southward phone racked up a 55.nine frames per 2nd result to a 34-fps score from the Pixel 6.

In our existent-world test, where we employ Adobe Premiere to transcode a 4K video, the Pixel 6 turned in i of the best scores produced past an Android phone — 49 seconds. Equally proficient every bit that consequence is, information technology'south nowhere near the iPhone 13'south time of just nether 26 seconds.

iphone thirteen (Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

The iPhone thirteen as well holds an edge over the Pixel 6 on the 5G front end. Buy an iPhone 13, and it will work with whatsoever 5G network. The Pixel 6 can, also, but you'll need to purchase your telephone specifically from AT&T or Verizon if you desire to take advantage of the ultra fast mmWave-based networks those carriers offer. The unlocked version of the Pixel six only works with sub-vi GHz 5G used by carriers to build-out nationwide coverage. The Pixel 6'southward modem is also older than the modem Apple tree uses in the iPhone thirteen, which means that its 5G speeds may not friction match what you see in other phones. (For an case of this, accept a look at Pixel 6 Pro 5G speed tests and how they lag Samsung's Galaxy S21.)

Winner: iPhone 13

Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13: Battery life and charging

The Pixel 6 sports a 4,614 mAh ability pack, and while we don't know the official size of the iPhone 13'south bombardment, Apple tree has confirmed that it's larger than what you got with the iPhone 12.

The motion paid off in Apple'south case. The iPhone 13 lasted 10 hours and 33 minutes on our battery test, where we accept phones surf the web over 5G until they run out of power. That'south not just ameliorate than the average smartphone, it'southward a 2-hour improvement over the iPhone 12's fourth dimension.

The Pixel 6 was non so lucky. We merely recorded 8 hours and 13 minutes when testing over T-Mobile'due south 5G network. That'southward beneath boilerplate for a telephone. Note that when we tested on a LTE network — Verizon'south, specifically — the Pixel 6 performed dramatically better, turning in a 10 hr and 52 minute fourth dimension more in line with the iPhone 13's operation. Nosotros suspect that the disparity is caused by Google'due south use of an older 5G modem in its phone that's impacting ability efficiency when you connect to 5G.

iPhone xiii (Epitome credit: Tom's Guide)

The Pixel half-dozen supposedly charges faster than the iPhone 13, with a 30W charging speed when using a wireless charger. It'south capable of 21W wireless speeds using the new version of the Pixel Stand charging accessory. The iPhone thirteen remains capped at 20W wired charging and 15W if you lot use ane of Apple's wireless MagSafe accessories. Of course, neither telephone ships with an included charger, so you lot'll have to option up a uniform accessory to savor maximum charging speeds.

In our testing, nevertheless, the iPhone 13 charged faster. The iPhone reached 51% in 30 minutes, compared to just 29% for the Pixel 6.

Winner: iPhone 13

Google Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13: Software and special features

Whatsoever Pixel vs. iPhone comparison that discusses software turns into a proxy fight for Android vs. iOS. The software yous adopt will likely conduct the day here, and the latest Android 12 vs. iOS 15 comparison provides plenty of argue fodder.

(Paradigm credit: Apple tree / Google)

iOS 15 has introduced a number of welcome additions to the iPhone. You tin lookout movies and mind to music with other people during FaceTime calls, cheers to the new SharePlay feature. Focus mode helps eliminate distractions and gives you lot notification management tools missing from previous iOS versions. And existing apps similar Maps, Photos, Weather and Wallet have all gotten valuable enhancements.

Merely Android 12 introduces some practiced changes likewise, and the Pixel half dozen is peculiarly good at exploiting them. Android 12's Textile You lot interface introduces wallpapers that adapt to your Pixel 6'southward color scheme too every bit themed icons that reflect the phone's design.

Pixel 6 Banana Voice Typing (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

But the real story with the Pixel 6's software is all the new feature that Tensor powers. That includes everything from Banana Voice Typing, which offers authentic real-fourth dimension text message and email dictation, to new call management features where the Google Banana can help you navigate menu options.

The Pixel 6 even supports some voice commands that no longer require you to say "Hey Google" first. This is Google's most advanced phone always, regardless of where you lot autumn on the Android vs. iOS debate.

Winner: Google Pixel half dozen

Google Pixel vi vs. iPhone thirteen: Verdict

Past Pixel vs. iPhone comparisons have felt like more of a no-contest, with Google'south phone but competing on the camera front end. That'southward changed with the Pixel 6 vs iPhone 13, as Google's handset is a much more impressive phone that gives the iPhone 13 all the competition information technology can handle. In the end, we think the iPhone 13 is the better device, but not past much.

	Google Pixel 6	iPhone 13
Price and availability (10 points)	ix	seven
Design (10 points)	8	7
Display (15 points)	thirteen	11
Camera (twenty points)	17	18
Performance and 5G (20 points)	xvi	20
Battery life and charging (15 points)	x	xiii
Software and special features (10 points)	x	9
Overall (100 points)	83	85

The deciding factors turn out to be the iPhone 13's superior functioning and photos that were a touch better than what the Pixel 6 could produce. We also appreciate how long the iPhone 13 can terminal on a accuse and its faster real-earth charging speeds.

Only the Pixel 6 made strides in areas where Google's phones have traditionally come up upward brusk. This is the best-looking telephone Google has ever produced, and the display'southward faster refresh rate gives information technology an border over the iPhone that Apple tree really must address with time to come handsets. The switch to the Tensor processor was also a great move by Google, thanks to all the smart software capabilities that are at present possible with the Pixel 6.

Overall, the Pixel 6 is the best Android phone for the money and perhaps the best flagship phone in terms of sheer value. Simply the iPhone 13 is the amend overall telephone based on our comparison.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom's Guide. He has potent opinions well-nigh Apple, the Oakland Athletics and former movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/face-off/google-pixel-6-vs-iphone-13-which-flagship-phone-wins

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