Google’s Pixel 6 Might Be Even Cheaper Than the Pixel 5

Excitement is building over Google’s upcoming release of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. These devices will be the very first with the company’s long-awaited Tensor custom chip, and they’ll also have the first new camera array from Google in several years. With all this fancy hardware, Android fans were bracing for a hefty price tag. However, a series of leaks are challenging that assumption. It looks like the Pixel 6 will start at a mere $599, which is even less than the mediocre Pixel 5 from last year.

The leak comes from… well, take your pick—there are screenshots and photos all over Twitter from Target stores that show pricing for the new Google phones. The base storage Pixel 6 Pro with all the bells and whistles will run you $900, which is a very competitive price. If it can do battle with phones like the Samsung S21 Ultra, that’s a good value. The smaller Pixel 6 will start at just $599, which is much cheaper than anticipated.

The Pixel 6 is expected to have a Tensor system-on-a-chip (SoC), 128GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and a 6.4-inch 1080p OLED display. It doesn’t lose much compared to the Pixel 6 Pro, which sports a larger 6.71-inch 1440p OLED and 12GB of RAM with the same Tensor SoC. It gains a telephoto camera (probably 4x zoom), whereas the smaller phone has just standard and ultrawide cameras. However, all these sensors are new for the Pixels this year.

Here are the corroborated #Pixel6 and #Pixel6Pro prices in the Target inventory system in the US.

Pixel 6: $599Pixel 6 Pro: $898

Google has to be subsidizing this phone like crazy. This is insanity. #teampixel pic.twitter.com/OUBl8cXCBh

— M. Brandon Lee | THIS IS TECH TODAY (@thisistechtoday) October 18, 2021

Clearly, Google has decided to subsidize the prices more heavily than it has in the past. Last year, Google scaled back its phone plans with the Pixel 5, which cost $700 and had a mid-range Qualcomm chip inside. The Pixel 5 was a nice little phone, but the pricing made it hard to justify. Now, the Pixel 6 is going to be $100 less? That’s a big change for Google. But keep in mind, any OEM could do something like this if they wanted to gain market share at the expense of profits. It doesn’t cost anywhere near a thousand bucks to build a high-end phone, and Google wants to get its new custom hardware in as many hands as possible, even if it means making little on each unit.

So, perhaps you won’t have to save as many pennies to get your hands on Google’s latest smartphones. We’ll have all the details tomorrow (October 19th) when Google officially unveils the phones. The show starts at 10AM PT.

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