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Pixel 6: The latest smartphone from Google: Talking Tech podcast

Brett Molina
USA TODAY

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Hey there listeners. It's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. My co-host Mike Snider is off today. It's now Google's turn to launch their own smartphones. On Tuesday, Google held a virtual event where they introduced two new smartphones, the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro. The Pixel 6 has a 6.4 inch display. Starts at $599. The Pixel 6 Pro has a 6.7 inch display and it starts at $899. Both displays are made with Gorilla Glass Victus, which Google says will offer twice the protection of previous Pixel displays. Both those phones are available for pre-order now.

They'll arrive in stores on October 28th. Among some of the other big features to expect from the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, Google designed its own processor for this. It's called the Tensor. Google says it delivers 80% faster performance than the Pixel 5. There's also going to be a big upgrade in camera. It will include a sensor that collects 150% more light and a new feature called Face Unblur, which helps capture faces and focus. There's also this really cool feature called the Magic Eraser, which lets you remove unwanted items from photos.

There was a demo during their event that was really cool, where someone took a picture, there was a car in the way, and there was a person in the way. You highlight that and you literally use your finger to erase and that gets rid of the image. It looks like your regular image, only those items are removed. It's almost like a very... It feels like a very advanced Photoshop type technique, but it was really simple to execute on the phone.

The Pixel Pro camera has a telephoto lens with 4X optical zoom and an ultra wide front camera so that you can capture really big group selfie photos if that's what you're thinking about. Google also says the phones will offer day long power due to its adaptive battery. There's also going to be an extreme battery saver, which Google says will boost battery life after 48 hours, which is really impressive. Let me take that apart from the top. These new smartphones arrive as Google has really struggled to capture a big slice of the smartphone market.

We've heard a lot of players like Apple and Samsung. Those seem to be the two dominant ones obviously, Apple and the iPhone Samsung with the Galaxy. That's kind of been the top level Android smartphone. As far as Google goes, according to Neil Moston, executive director of research firm Strategy Analytics, Google's share of the global smartphone market is less than 1%. It's a very tiny fraction. These are really nice looking phones, the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro. The big question has been with their devices is, how much reach are they going to be able to achieve here?

Apple and Samsung, again, have been very popular and it's going to be a big challenge, but we'll see. Again, it's a Very nice phone. And having a Google built phone with Google Android, you get the complete experience, almost similar to what you have with Apple in terms of one company building the hardware and the software. We'll see what happens. You can follow up on the latest about Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro by going to tech.usatoday.com. Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas?

Any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter @BrettMolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.

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