With the Pixel 6, Google will return to measure itself in the top-of-the-line market.
The time of the presentation of Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, according to the latest rumors, is close, but in the meantime of the other rumors anticipate the features related to connectivity, which should be high-level just as you expect from two top of the range which will be the next Google smartphones.
The expectations on the Google Pixel 6 are high, if only because it will mark the return of Google in the Olympus of the absolute top of the range after some time of absence. The negative aspect for us Italians of the whole affair comes from the choice, in some ways incomprehensible for others explained by the global crisis of chips, to market the Pixel 6 only in a small circle of countries, among which there is no Italy. We don't know if Google will come back later and extend the availability of the Pixel 6, but last year the same choice was made for the Pixel 5 and Google didn't come back.
The Google Pixel 6 "caught" on the FCC site
Although the Google Pixel 6 is expected to be a cheaper product than the Google Pixel 6 Pro, which will instead be tasked with putting a spoke in the wheels of the top of the range 2021 and 2022, both would have support for Wi-Fi 6E, the fastest wireless communication technology of all.
This is reported on the website of the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission or Commission in Italian, which is a U.S. government agency. All smartphones marketed in the U.S. pass by the agency: sometimes it happens to be lucky as in the case of the Google Pixel 6 and then get some preview information on products not yet official.
The Wi-Fi 6E, which bases its speed in the 6 GHz band while the current Wi-Fi 5 reaches 5 GHz, will make the lion's voice within the connectivity entry of the data sheet of both Google Pixel 6. Only on one of the two instead, judging by the information, there will be Ultra Wide Band (UWB) and compatibility with 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) infrastructure.
How Google will leverage UWB
Google has been working on implementing UWB on its products for some time, the features of which would benefit Big G just as they have been for Apple, which introduced UWB already on last year's iPhone 12 and confirmed it on the iPhone 13 range. Apple uses UWB mainly to allow the use of AirTags, "clips" to secure objects that could be lost and that need to be recovered.
UWB is a technology that has among its strengths a very precise localization, so it lends itself well to all those applications that involve a short-range interaction between two objects. It's not clear if Google wants to launch itself in the tracker market with its own product, while it's known that Mountain View has been working for some time on the exploitation of UWB as a technology through which to open the car through the smartphone.