Google’s $899 (£849, AU$1,299) Pixel 7 Pro solely has just a few modifications from final yr’s Pixel 6 Pro, however that is as a result of a whole overhaul is not one thing the corporate wanted to do that time. The Pixel 6 Pro gained my CNET Editors’ Choice award decide in 2021 as a result of it was an outstanding little bit of package, showcasing a significant design shift from the Pixel 5, Tensor-powered efficiency and nice cameras.Instead of needlessly changing every thing Google achieved with the 6 Pro, the corporate as an alternative made refined refinements this yr, tweaking and poking right here and there to make the 7 Pro even higher. And it’s higher, with improved cameras, some new neat tips and dare I say it, an much more enticing design. And in fact it is packing the second era Tensor G2 chip, Google’s home made processor. It’s very a lot evolution over revolution, and the $599 Pixel 7 is taking a lot the identical observe. It’s a small step, so in case you have a Pixel 6 Pro already, this is not a telephone to contemplate upgrading to.
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Pixel 7 Pro Review: Google’s Best Phone Gets Better
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But when you’re utilizing an older Pixel telephone — or any telephone from earlier than 2020, for that matter — you then’ll get lots from the Pixel 7 Pro. It’s highly effective sufficient for demanding gaming, it might probably take gorgeous images from its three rear cameras and the Android 13 software program is slick and fulfilling to make use of.
And it does all this whereas undercutting Apple and Samsung on value, particularly in comparison with the $999 iPhone 14 Pro and the $1,199 Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. And certain, the Pixel Pro is not low cost, however if you wish to put cutting-edge flagship cellular expertise in your pocket, it is a excellent choice.
Subtle tweaks make for an attractive Pixel 7 Pro designThe design is just like final yr’s 6 Pro however refined. Google has saved the attribute strip alongside the again of the telephone that homes the a number of cameras. But it is now a recycled aluminum strip that blends seamlessly with the steel encompass of the telephone, which I believe provides it an much more luxurious look. The again remains to be glass and the entrance nonetheless curves properly on the edges. But if I’m nit-picking — which I’m — there is a little bit of a lip between the curved show and the steel encompass, so the 2 do not mix seamlessly collectively. It’s undoubtedly noticeable once you maintain it, however does that really matter in on a regular basis use? Of course not. The design updates give it a classy look.
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It’s IP68 rated for water- and dust-resistance, so spilled drinks are not any concern. I do fear, nonetheless, that the shiny aluminum strip might be vulnerable to break — within the quick time I’ve been utilizing it, a number of small hairline scratches are seen on its floor and over time that might turn out to be extra pronounced. Whether that is an issue stays to be seen. It may even develop a pleasant patina, like aged brass instruments, that really enhances the look.
The show measures 6.7-inches and has a 3,120×1,440-pixel decision — precisely the identical because the 6 Pro. It’s sharp, vivid sufficient to simply see outdoors and it is obtained daring, punchy colours that I discovered lent themselves effectively to vibrant YouTube movies, however nonetheless managing to not look overly saturated or unrealistic. There is a “Natural” shade mode when you do wish to tone that down, although. There’s no query it is a huge telephone, which is nice when you love big-screen gaming or watching numerous movies on the transfer. But individuals with smaller fingers — or who merely want smaller telephones — may discover it cumbersome, particularly when holding it one-handed. You can go for the smaller Pixel 7 with its 6.3-inch show, however you may additionally make tradeoffs by not having a telephoto digital camera. Speaking of which…The digital camera bar homes three lenses.
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Pixel 7 Pro: Superb cameras, with welcome upgradesThe cameras on the Pixel 6 Pro have been excellent, able to taking beautiful pictures that rivaled any of the highest telephones round and I’m happy to see that Google hasn’t misplaced its contact right here. The Pixel 7 Pro’s 50-megapixel fundamental digital camera takes gorgeous images, with lovely dynamic vary and vivid colours. It’s grouped up with a devoted 48-megapixel telephoto lens that is unique to the Pro, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide digital camera.It’s taken some wonderful pictures on my take a look at photograph walks round autumnal Leith, Scotland, with vivid blue skies being captured completely and tons of element recorded by that high-resolution sensor.
I like the colourful colours, crisp element and spot-on publicity on this shot from the usual lens.
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It’s able to taking some beautiful snaps as you doc the altering seasons.
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The optical telephoto zoom has been given a lift from 4x zoom to 5x. That won’t seem to be an enormous distinction but it surely provides that additional attain in its zoom that will help you crop tighter in scenes and discover extra fascinating compositions that’ll be misplaced to your iPhone 14 Pro-packing mates with their 3x max zooms. At 5x optical zoom, this picture stays pin-sharp, with excellent publicity and colours.
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I like the extra fascinating compositions you may get with the 5x zoom lens.
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Like the primary lens, the telephoto zoom captures pictures with spot-on dynamic vary and little noticeable shade shift once you change lenses. The 48-megapixel decision implies that pictures look pin-sharp, but it surely additionally provides some scope to additional digitally zoom in. Personally I like the telephoto zoom right here; it is an incredible candy spot between the iPhone’s 3x zoom and the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 10x zoom which means I’m extra more likely to really use it. Switching to the ultrawide lens allows you to pack rather more into your scene and I’m impressed that there is once more virtually no noticeable shift in colours between lenses, with the deep blues of the sky and the nice and cozy tones on the buildings of Leith wanting virtually equivalent, no matter zoom mode I used to be utilizing. The ultrawide lens packs hundreds extra into the scene, however maintains the correct colours and nice publicity steadiness.
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The ultrawide lens’s new autofocus system brings a neat new macro pictures function. You can now focus inside a few inches, which helps you to get tremendous shut as much as the extra tiny issues on the earth like bugs or flowers. It works effectively too, robotically switching to macro mode when it detects an in depth up object and focusing shortly. It gives the identical stable picture high quality because the lens supplies on any common wide-angle picture too. Sure, it won’t be a must have function for most individuals, but it surely’s a enjoyable addition on these events when a fancy-looking bug wanders your approach and also you wish to seize a close-up shot for the ‘gram.
The macro mode works effectively and is nice enjoyable to mess around with once you discover a neat-looking topic like this flower.
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Night time pictures are good too, with the Night Sight mode in a position to take 6-second exposures, capturing enormous quantities of sunshine, even in darkish situations. Night pictures are vivid and crisp, though I’ve discovered points with flaring if there are avenue lamps dominating within the picture, which generally spoils the look. Against the competitors, evening pictures from the Pixel 7 Pro look brighter and sharper than from Samsung’s S22 Ultra, however the iPhone 14 Pro’s look brighter nonetheless. The Pixel 7 Pro can take some nice images at evening.
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But vivid lights, like this avenue gentle, can generally trigger issues with flares within the lens.
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Google has continued to make a wide range of AI enhancements to the digital camera software program too, with updates to its Real Tone algorithm for higher seize of darker pores and skin tones. My colleague Lisa Eadicicco put that to the take a look at in CNET’s Pixel 7 assessment by taking images with the Pixel 7, the iPhone 14 and the Galaxy S22, then having the individuals within the images decide their favorites — you’ll be able to take a look at that assessment to see how the telephone fared. There’s a brand new Guided Frame function that makes use of audio cues to assist blind and visually impaired individuals take selfies. A neat new trick is the Photo Unblur instrument which, because the title suggests, makes an attempt to sharpen blurry or out of focus pictures. The Photo Unblur instrument really labored fairly effectively on this selfie from a number of years in the past.
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I attempted it on a handful of older images from my library and the distinction might be noticeable, with the definition enhancing considerably in some pictures after the instrument has executed its magic. It did not appear to make that a lot distinction to others, nonetheless. So in case your picture is solely a blurry mess, no quantity of software program tinkering goes to rescue it. The Pixel 7 Pro’s digital camera system is great general that’ll swimsuit each eager cellular photographers and informal snappers equally effectively. Those zoom pictures particularly are a favourite of mine and it is that zoom that is one of many greater upgrades of the 7 Pro over the bottom Pixel 7, together with the macro mode. For me, that is sufficient motive to spend the additional, however you may need to work out for your self how a lot of a precedence zoom is in your pictures.
Pixel 7 Pro has stable efficiency and slick software programThe telephone runs on the second era of Tensor G2, Google’s home made processor. It was a daring transfer for Google to create its personal chip from scratch, fairly than use one from the likes of Qualcomm, however in follow it makes little distinction to your expertise utilizing the telephone on a day-to-day foundation. The Pixel 7 Pro features like some other Android telephone and it is obtained greater than sufficient energy to run superbly. The Pixel 7 Pro arrives with the newest Android 13 software program on board.
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Navigating across the interface is swift and lag-free. High-resolution movies stream with out challenge, switching between open apps is speedy and demanding video games like Asphalt 9: Legends and Genshin Impact play at max settings with none noticeable points. In quick, this telephone packs numerous energy, but it surely’s the behind-the-scenes stuff that Google says has been boosted with the brand new processor. The chip is constructed with AI and machine studying, with Google saying it is higher at AI duties similar to speech recognition, face unlock, object detection in imagery and background noise discount once you’re taking calls. It’s working the newest Android 13 software program, which gives a clear and uncluttered interface which I actually take pleasure in utilizing. It’s obtained no bloatware or preinstalled apps on board, which helps it really feel streamlined. And, as with Android 12 on the Pixel 6, you’ll be able to change all of the system fonts’ shade robotically to match the picture you have set as your homescreen. Google calls this Material You and it simply makes it straightforward to provide your telephone a private contact.
So what do not I like about this telephone? Well, battery life might be higher. After one hour streaming a YouTube video on Wi-Fi with the display screen at max brightness, the 7 Pro’s battery dropped from full to 95%. The Pixel 7 dropped to 97% in the identical time whereas each the older Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 6A dropped to solely 98%. After an extra hour, the 7 Pro dropped to 87% and was all the way down to 80% after a 3rd hour — nonetheless under the 83% of the Pixel 7 after 3 hours. The base Pixel 7 carried out higher than the 7 Pro in our battery exams.
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Is battery life unhealthy? No, under no circumstances. It’s effective. It’s simply inferior to it might be. But it will nonetheless comfortably get by means of a day of blended use. Like just about all telephones, it will need a full recharge once you put it in your bedside desk at evening. But if squeezing each drop of battery out of your telephone is vital then the battery life is value preserving in thoughts.
Pixel 7 Pro: Bottom lineThe Pixel 7 Pro won’t have the identical pizzazz the Pixel 6 Pro had final yr, but it surely nonetheless gives loads of enhancements to lead to an outstanding telephone. The $300 premium the Pro carries over the $599 Pixel 7 is well-reflected with the telephone’s 48-megapixel telephoto digital camera, together with the identical, bigger display screen introduced over from the 6 Pro.There’s little else I can say that I do not like about this telephone, but it surely’s value mentioning that lots of the Tensor-specific options like Photo Unblur, enhancements to Real Tone and Night Sight are shared with that cheaper telephone. But the {hardware} exclusives the 7 Pro does have make it simply as deserving of carrying that “flagship” standing alongside the most effective from Apple and Samsung.
Google Pixel 7 Pro specs vs. Google Pixel 7, Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Google Pixel 7 Pro
Google Pixel 7
iPhone 14 Pro Max
Galaxy S22 Ultra
Display measurement, decision, refresh charge
6.7-inch LTPO show, 120Hz QHD+ (1440 x 3120 pixels)
6.3-inch OLED show, FHD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels), 90Hz
6.7-inch Super Retina XDR, OLED show, 2,796×1,290 pixels
6.8″ AMOLED (1440×3088 pixels)
Pixel density
512ppi
416ppi
460 ppi
TBD
Dimensions (Millimeters)
162.9 x 76.6 x 8.9 (mm)
155.6 x 73.2 x 8.7 (mm)
160.7 x 77.6 x 7.85mm
77.9 x 163.3 x 8.9 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)
7.5 oz; 212g
6.9 oz; 197g
8.47 oz.; 240g
8.08 oz; 229 g
Mobile software program
Android 13
Android 13
iOS 16
Android 12
Camera
50-megapixel (fundamental), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), 48-megapixel (telephoto)
50-megapixel (fundamental), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide)
48-megapixel (vast), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 12-megapixel (telephoto)
108-megapixel (vast), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide) 10-megapixel (telephoto) 10-megapixel (telephoto)
Front-facing digital camera
10.8-megapixel
10.8-megapixel
12-megapixel
40-megapixel
Video seize
4K
4K
4K
4K
Processor
Google Tensor G2
Google Tensor G2
Apple A16 Bionic
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Storage/RAM
12GB + 128 GB, 12GB + 256GB, 12GB + 512GB
8GB + 128 GB, 8GB + 256 GB,
128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
8GB + 128GB ; 12GB + 256GB; 12GB+512GB; 12GB+ 1TB
Expandable storage
None
None
None
None
Battery
5,000 mAh
4,355 mAh
Undisclosed
5,000 mAh
Fingerprint sensor
Under show
Under show
No (Face ID)
In-display
Connector
USB-C
USB-C
Lightning
USB-C
Headphone jack
None
None
None
None
Price (USD)
$600
$600
$1,099 (128GB), $1,199 (256GB), $1,399 (512GB), $1,599 (1TB)
$1,200