Google Pixel 6 And 6 Pro Rumored With Beefy, Flagship-Worthy Camera Specs

New rumors are shedding light on the Pixel 6/Pixel 6 Pro and how they will advance the smartphone sector once released. @FronTron published the information, alleging that the Pixel 6 smartphone will support what's being billed as a "gimbal-like steady cam mode." The leaker doesn't go into any further detail on how the feature will work. We can only assume that it will rely heavily on optical image stabilization (OIS) in modern smartphones and clever AI trickery to produce silky smooth video footage in challenging situations.

Google will reportedly adopt a large Samsung sensor for its primary camera, backed by a custom, in-house Image Signal Processor (ISP) and Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Older Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3/Pixel 3 XL smartphones carried Google's custom Pixel Neural Core for image processing, while the Pixel 4/Pixel 4 XL brought forth the Pixel Neural Core. The Pixel Neural Core added the ability to handle machine learning (ML) tasks like voice recognition and transcription.

However, when the Pixel 5 launched, it did away with the custom Google chips and relied solely on the Snapdragon 765G to handle image processing and ML operations (likely for cost reasons). There are allegedly three cameras on the back, including one with a periscope telephoto lens.

A separate report claims that the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro's custom Whitechapel SoC will use a Mali-78 GPU. As XDA-Developers reports, the Mali-78 supports up to 24 cores, although Samsung's [global] Galaxy S21 uses the 14-core version. We would expect at least 14 cores for Whitechapel if Google wants to erase the Pixel 5's early GPU performance missteps. Our previous reporting suggests that the overall Whitechapel CPU performance will slot somewhere between last year's Snapdragon 865+ and this year's Snapdragon 888.

Other features reportedly set in stone for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro include 6.64-inch (FHD+) and 6.67-inch (QHD+) 120Hz AMOLED displays, respectively. We're also expecting up to a 5,000 mAh battery (Pixel 6 Pro), while both smartphones will support wireless charging and an in-display fingerprint reader.

Expect to see the new Pixel 6 family launch this fall at a dedicated Google hardware event.