{"id":563758,"date":"2026-08-09T12:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T12:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563758\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T12:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T12:54:15","slug":"the-pixel-6-pro-is-losing-software-support-its-the-end-of-an-era-for-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563758\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pixel 6 Pro is losing software support; it’s the end of an era for Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve used every Google Pixel phone<\/a>, but a few have truly stood out for me over the years. The Pixel 6 Pro is one of those.<\/p>\n

The first to debut the iconic visor-style look, the Pixel 6 Pro is finally reaching the end of its software support. And that makes me sad.<\/p>\n

I don’t really use the phone as a daily driver, and it certainly wasn’t my favorite because of its speed or camera chops.<\/p>\n

The Pixel 6 Pro<\/a> stood out to me because it was the first time around that Google was truly focused on making great phones.<\/p>\n

It changed what a Pixel phone was supposed to be, and five years later, everything we love about Pixel phones can be traced back to this device.<\/p>\n


\n \"The<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t6 reasons Google Pixel 6 was peak Pixel (Don’t hate me)
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The underrated gem you need to remember<\/p>\n

Google found its smartphone identity with the Pixel 6 Pro<\/p>\n

The Tensor chip was the foundation<\/p>\n

I might be in the minority, but I believe that before the Pixel 6 Pro came out, Google was going through its weird teenage years phase.<\/p>\n

Between the Pixel 4, which couldn’t be sold in several territories, and the Pixel 5 and its bioresin-based body, Google spent a lot of time experimenting to see what sticks.<\/p>\n

When the Pixel 6 Pro debuted, you could see that Google had finally figured out what it wanted the series to represent.<\/p>\n

For one, it introduced a distinctive new design<\/a> that gave the Pixel lineup its own unique identity. The visor design continues to exist, showing the level of foresight Google had.<\/p>\n

More than that, though, it was the first Pixel phone to be powered by Google’s in-house Tensor chip<\/a>. That chip and the phone around it shaped Google’s entire software over raw performance philosophy.<\/p>\n

Love it or hate it, it’s helped Google gain inroads into the hypercompetitive Android smartphone space.<\/p>\n

It felt like a gamble in the moment and got a fair amount of criticism, but Google stuck to its guns and used the chipset’s unique features to craft a user experience that’s truly unique.<\/p>\n

Even today, the Tensor chip isn’t aimed at winning benchmarks. Instead, it powers features we’ve come to take for granted on Pixel phones.<\/p>\n

Think of things like the Recorder app<\/a> that lets you transcribe audio on-device and scrub through it at lightning speed. Or Live Translate that uses on-device machine learning to help you while traveling.<\/p>\n

Even features like Call Screen, filters, and Voice Typing make use of the on-device TPU to varying degrees.<\/p>\n

The Pixel 6 Pro’s Tensor chip wasn’t the first to enable this, but it shaped the industry’s direction and pushed manufacturers to start looking beyond specs.<\/p>\n

There’s a case to be made that it was the Pixel 6 Pro that took the first step towards putting practical software and reducing everyday frictions over raw specifications.<\/p>\n

In 2026, that’s an approach that most smartphone manufacturers take, but that wasn’t the case when the Pixel 6 Pro launched.<\/p>\n

The Pixel 6 Pro gave Google a roadmap to build towards<\/p>\n

And Google committed to the vision<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Pixel 6 Pro wasn’t Google’s best phone. For me, that would be the panda Pixel 2 XL, but I’m biased.<\/p>\n

What the Pixel 6 Pro did was give Google a solid foundation to build on.<\/p>\n

For the first few years of the lineup, the Pixel series was just good, not great. It didn’t really beat the competition at anything.<\/p>\n

Every device felt isolated, with each generation trying out something new. Be it radar-based gestures or squeeze-based controls, the Pixel 6 Pro changed all that.<\/p>\n

Google still experiments. The thermometer and upcoming notification LED comeback are proof of that, but the Pixel 6 Pro clarified Google’s positioning as a software-first smartphone company, and it deserves credit for that.<\/p>\n

I’d go a step further and say that features like Magic Eraser<\/a>, Best Take, Pixel Studio, and the company’s growing suite of AI-powered features exist because Google committed to the vision.<\/p>\n

Part of that vision was longer software support, and we’ve seen Google match that vision in practice.<\/p>\n

Today’s Pixel hardware gets a full seven years of support compared to the five years promised for the Pixel 6 Pro.<\/p>\n

It shows how much trust and confidence Google has in the platform it started building with the Pixel 6 Pro.<\/p>\n

When I look back at the Pixel 6 Pro, these are the things that stand out to me. It was the phone that proved to buyers that Google had a long-term plan.<\/p>\n

Every Pixel I’ve used since then, and I’ve used all of them, has felt like a distillation of the same idea rather than an experiment.<\/p>\n

The Pixel 6 Pro defined the modern arc of the Google Pixel<\/p>\n

The Pixel 6 Pro reaching the end of its software support doesn’t quite make it obsolete.<\/p>\n

If you’re still using the phone, it’ll continue to work as normal. For everyday tasks like calling and texting, it’s perfectly functional. It just represents the end of an era.<\/p>\n

For me, the Pixel 6 Pro marked the moment Google stopped experimenting and started building a cohesive smartphone brand.<\/p>\n

Call it looking back with rose-tinted glasses, the Pixel 6 Pro had its issues at launch, but it’s the phone that convinced me to stick with the brand in the long run.<\/p>\n

Today, despite its follies, the Pixel lineup continues to be my favorite Android phone<\/a> every year, and the Pixel 6 Pro is where it all started.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tSoC \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGoogle Tensor<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tRAM \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t12GB<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tStorage \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t128, 256, 512GB<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tBattery \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t5,003mAh<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tPorts \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUSB-C<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tOperating System \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndroid 14<\/p>\n

The Pixel 6 Pro is Google’s 2021 flagship, and while it had a rough start to its life, with monthly software updates, it’s proven to be one of the best and most reliable Android phones you can buy in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve used every Google Pixel phone, but a few have truly stood out for me over the years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-563758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}