The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are Google’s big moment. The two phones combine Google’s first own chip called Tensor, the first new main camera sensor on a Pixel in years, and all of that helped by the biggest batteries ever included in the series.
So what is battery life on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro?
Pixel phones battery size evolution
But first, let’s take a quick look at the evolution of the Google Pixel family. Google ventured into smaller phones last year, only to come back to making bigger phones in 2021 with larger screens, and here is how battery size on the Pixels has evolved.
| Screen size | Battery size | |
|---|---|---|
| Pixel 6 Pro | 6.7″, 1440p at 120Hz | 5003 mAh |
| Pixel 6 | 6.4″, 1080p at 90Hz | 4614 mAh |
| Pixel 5 | 6.0″, 1080p at 90Hz | 4080 mAh |
| Pixel 5a | 6.3″, 1080p at 60Hz | 4680 mAh |
| Pixel 4 XL | 6.3″, 1440p at 90Hz | 3700 mAh |
| Pixel 4 | 5.7″, 1080p at 90Hz | 2800 mAh |
At 5,000mAh, the Pixel 6 Pro matches the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which has solid battery life, so that’s a great start. But let’s take a look at the battery test results, shall we?
Pixel 6 and 6 Pro battery test: Web browsing
The Pixel 6 Pro scored a bit lower than the Pixel 6 on our web browsing test, and that’s interesting as it shows that even with a smaller battery, the Pixel 6 can be more power efficient thanks to its lower resolution display and lower, 90Hz refresh rate.
Still, the difference between the two is not huge and their score ranks above the average for this test. The Pixel 6 Pro scores about an hour and a half lower than the Galaxy S21 Ultra, so it holds that middle ground between the S21 Ultra and S21 Plus in terms of battery life, while the regular Pixel 6 actually ranks very close to the S21 Ultra.
Pixel 6 and 6 Pro battery test: YouTube video streaming
Our second test, non-stop YouTube video streaming, shows that Google has made some optimizations to video playback and both these phones score excellent here.
Again, the smaller Pixel 6 actually outlasts the Pixel 6 Pro by quite a bit: the Pixel 6 lasts 11 hours, compared to 9 hours and 10 minutes on the 6 Pro.
Pixel 6 and 6 Pro battery test: 3D Gaming
Finally, our 3D gaming test has a quite intense 3D game running and stressing the GPU in particular. Interestingly, the Pixels both did not fare well on this test at all.
The Pixel 6 Pro in particular seems to have taken the biggest hit to battery life, lasting only 4 hours and 19 minutes, while the smaller Pixel 6 again outlasted its Pro sibling by nearly 2 hours.
But even the score of the regular Pixel 6 only compares to the Galaxy S21+ rather than the S21 Ultra, and the new iPhone 13 Pro series outlast the Pixel by a mile on this test.
Conclusion
Overall, we are content with battery life on these new Google Pixels.The most interesting takeaway from our testing is how the smaller Pixel 6 — despite its tinier battery — outlasted the Pro on all of the tests. But in our daily use, the Pixel 6 Pro would still easily last a full day, and even a bit more.
