The Pixel 6 success - strangely - does not depend just on its excellence

So here is the Pixel 6 story so far: we have leaked design photos that show two phones, a compact version, likely the Pixel 6, and then a larger sized phone that might end up being called Pixel 6 XL or Pixel 6 Pro. Both of them feature identical design with the cameras being the focal point, housed in this fancy protruding strip of glass and reminding us of a Daft Punk helmet.

However, it's not just about the looks. Google has been working for years on a custom ARM chip and the Pixel 6 family is the first product expected to finally have it. Google head honcho Sundar Pichai has been priming us for this exact moment in the past few Google conference calls saying that we should expect “significant product updates and announcements”.

At the heart of them is this new chip, currently known with its codename "Whitechapel". And of course, while hopes are that it will be a watershed moment similar to Apple's M1 launch, Android Police has looked into the rumored specs and anticipates more of an upper mid-range chip rather than a Snapdragon 888 killer. Whatever it is, being developed by Google itself should provide a number of advantages, even if it is not the highest performing chip on the market.

With or without the fastest chip on the planet, the Google Pixel 6 is surely a "significant" launch for the company. The radical new design of the phone coincides with what is likely to be a completely new look for Android 12, coincides with a new processor, coincides with a new camera sensor for the first time in a few years. All the stars align. Fingers crossed it will be a great phone.

However, the sceptic in me has to point out that Google needs a bit more than a great phone in order to make this work. It needs a phone that people can actually buy. And that has not been quite its forte... ever.

Ever since the beginning of the lineup and all the way until the fourth generation, Pixel phones were sold exclusively at Verizon Wireless, meaning that a big majority of customers in the United States couldn't buy one, even if they wanted to. The exclusivity finally ended with the Pixel 4 family, but unfortunately that also happened to be one of the worst launches for Google as the phones had sub-par battery life and a number of experimental technologies like gesture controls that barely worked and had little practical advantage.