Buying a Google Pixel 6 or 6 Pro is finally a good idea - except for one issue
Better phone, worse value
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Since its launch in late 2021, theGoogle Pixel 6family has been a double-edged buy - while the phones are great, months ofPixel problemshave plagued users, with software bugs and problems making the devices difficult to use for some.
Sure, the phones sit high in some of our rankings, sitting near the top of our list of thebest camera phonesandbest Android phones, especially theGoogle Pixel 6 Prowith its bigger screen and additional camera.
But given the many bug-free mobiles on the market, we’ve found it difficult to recommend the phones based on their software issues… until now.
Are the problems over?
For theGooglePixel 6 series' first few months of existence, the problems were bad and getting worse: each new software update seemed to introduce more bugs than were eradicated.
That leveled off into 2022, and with theApril Pixel updatebringing a huge swathe of fixes and patches, Pixel 6 phones are now a different proposition than they were before.
Sure, software bugs will never be eliminated in any gadget, but the new update brings the Pixel 6 family’s issues into a reasonable level of expectations. Now, encountering a bug is a surprise, not a daily activity.
With the phones less prone to silly little errors, it means they’re a lot more tempting buys than they were a few months back… with one tiny little stipulation.
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The price isn’t right
We usually see the price of a smartphone drop over time, which makes them more affordable if you wait just a few months. That’s natural, and it’s a general rule in the capital-driven world of tech and gadgets.
However that’s not the case for the Google Pixel 6 family, despite nearly six months having elapsed since they debuted. In the US, the handsets generally cost exactly the same as they launched for. In the UK, at least at the time of writing this article, we’re seeing that most prices are actually higher.
So the general rule of smartphone price entropy doesn’t quite stand here, for now at least.
That could change in the future though, so if you’re keen to buy a new Google Pixel phone and have decided the bug fixes mark your time to leap in, we’d recommend getting your calendar out.
Amazon Prime Day 2022will likely fall in mid-July, and if you can wait that long, we’d recommend doing so. This period (it’s not just one day, despite the name) will likely bring temporary price reductions for loads of Android phones, and given their age (and the lack of discounts), Pixel phones seem likely suspects for deals.
Even if they don’t get reduced, they won’t cost even more (hopefully) and you’ll be able to pick up cases, power banks and more at a reduced cost.
If you don’t want to wait for July, you can probably find someGoogle Pixel 6 dealsto help ease the financial load, but it’d be worth just keeping your phone going for a few more months if you can.
Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.
He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist.
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