One of the biggest highlights of Google’s March Pixel Feature Drop wasn’t the debut of a brand-new feature, but rather, extending the availability of a Pixel 7-exclusive feature to the Pixel 6 series: Google’s best phones from 2021 received the Pixel 7's new Night Sight algorithm and controls. The company started rolling out this camera update in March already, but it took quite some time until it reached all Pixel 6 units out there.

The Pixel 6 Night Sight interface is now a 1:1 copy of the Pixel 7’s

The Google Pixel 7’s new camera app introduced three options for Night Sight: You can either turn it off completely (useful if you want to capture fast-moving subjects in the dark), use the regular mode, or turn on the new Max option. Along with these settings, you can see a handy estimate of how long it will take to capture a Night Sight photo on the right, below the viewfinder. This timer preview also serves as a shortcut for the aforementioned settings.

Left pair: Pixel 6's old camera interface. Right pair: Pixel 6 and Pixel 7's new interface.

Before the March update, the Pixel 6 had a much simpler interface. You could either turn night mode on or off, and that was it — you didn't even get a timer preview telling you how long an exposure would take. This has changed with the March Feature Drop. The Pixel 6 now offers a 1:1 copy of the Night Sight experience from the Pixel 7, complete with the timer and the three options. This already makes for a much better experience, but can the Pixel 6 compare with the Pixel 7 when it comes to the quality of the actual photos?

The results speak for themselves

To test the Pixel 6’s new camera capabilities, we did some side-by-side comparison shots. The first thing that’s noticeable is that the Pixel 6 is now just as fast as the Pixel 7 when it comes to capturing photos. When we last compared the cameras of the two phones during our Pixel 7 review, the Pixel 6 was significantly slower and needed about double the time to capture light, all to create an image that’s roughly as good as the Pixel 7. The new algorithm changes the equation for anyone with a Pixel 6.

First pair: Night Max. Second pair: Night Sight. Last pair: Night Sight off. (All: Pixel 6 first, Pixel 7 second)

In the past, the Pixel 6 also had the drawback that it didn’t offer a Max night mode at all. When we compared it to the Pixel 7 with Max mode activated, the Pixel 7 was still faster than the Pixel 6, but actually produced a slightly brighter image. With the Pixel 6 now capable of using the Max mode, it can capture images that offer the same level of detail and lighting as the Pixel 7 — only some minor differences in the color balance help us tell the two phones apart.

You can see a small difference in color reproduction, and both phones expectedly struggle with moving subjects. (Pixel 6 first, Pixel 7 second)

When you look at the resulting images, it’s now even harder to see a difference between the Pixel 7 and Pixel 6. The only big camera difference left between the two generations is the Pixel 7’s improved zoom handling. Rather than simply cropping a 2x zoom image, the Pixel 7 forgoes pixel binning on its 50MP sensor. In good lighting, you can see a significant difference in detail when you zoom in on images like these.

The Pixel 6 is right up there with the Pixel 7

Google was able to eke out a lot more Night Sight performance from the Pixel 6’s camera without any hardware upgrades. That makes sense, as the two phones share the same basic camera hardware. Both phones offer a 50MP primary camera and a 12MP ultrawide. Only the selfie camera has seen a full upgrade with a brand-new sensor.

It’s clear that Google’s improved Night Sight for the Pixel 7 was achieved with software, so there was never any reason to think that the Pixel 6 shouldn’t be capable of something very similar. This also begs the question whether the company could have added the improved algorithm much earlier. It’s easy enough to believe that Google intentionally delayed porting the new Night Sight in order to better sell its 2022 flagship phone. That said, the Pixel 7 still represents a significant upgrade over the Pixel 6, from a much more reliable mobile radio, to cooler and longer runtimes, to that ever-so-slightly refined look and feel.