The Google Pixel 7 is coming to dominate smartphone cameras
To our delight, Google is sticking to its formula for the Pixel 7. This new smartphone looks almost identical to its predecessor, but its cameras are more powerful, accessible and usable than ever. In addition, the Pixel 7 Pro finally adopts Face Unlock!
Pre-orders for the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are open today. Both devices ship on October 13, and they retain the great prices of the Pixel 6 lineup.
Notes: The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones debuted at the Made By Google 2022 event. They were accompanied by the Pixel Watch and the Pixel Tablet.
In this section:
A brighter, shinier set of Pixel phones
The new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro build on the success of Google's previous smartphone, the Pixel 6. They arrive without a price increase, offering the same competitive value with impressive new improvements, especially in screen quality. camera, battery life and AI. -features enabled.
Here is the price of the Pixel 7:
- Pixel 7 (6,3 inches): $600
- Pixel 7 Pro (6,7 inches): $900
On the design side, the Pixel 7 range reuses the “ Robotcop” camera visor we got last year. On the standard Pixel 7, this visor has a satin finish, while it's much glossier and glossier on the Pixel 7 Pro.
The Pixel 7 now uses a 6,3-inch screen – it's slightly smaller than the Pixel 6's screen, but only because the bezels are tighter. Unfortunately, the Pixel 7 still uses a 90Hz display. You need to upgrade to the Pixel 7 Pro if you want a 6,7-inch 120Hz display.
Of course, the cameras get the biggest upgrade here. Low-light selfies look better on Pixel 7, zoom settings are more efficient and sharper, and Pixel 7 introduces a new feature to fix blurry photos. Additionally, the Pixel 7 Pro finally gains Face Unlock.
Battery life is also a noticeable improvement. Google says both devices will last over 24 hours on one charge (or up to 72 hours with Extreme Battery Saver). And interestingly, the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro support 30-watt fast wired charging. (At least, that's what Google says. Remember, Google lied about the Pixel 6's charging speed.)
The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro both get five years of security updates and three years of major OS updates.
The powerful second generation tensor
The new Pixel 7 range comes with an improved chipset, the Tensor G2. According to Google, machine learning algorithms work 60% faster and with 20% more efficiency on this new chipset. This means faster image and video rendering, a faster live translation tool, and better battery life.
Essentially, the Pixel 7 offers the same AI and machine learning features as its predecessor. But there are a few new additions, including transcriptions for audio messages. If someone sends you an audio message while you're in public, you don't need to play it out loud. Just transcribe it!
And for journalists, the Pixel 7's Recorder app adds new speaker labels to transcripts. If you interview someone on your Pixel 7 and access automatic transcription, different speakers will be identified by labels (such as "Speaker 1").
The Tensor G2 will also enable a "Clear Calling" feature later this year. Pixel phones already clean up your phone calls, but Clear Calling specifically targets the person you're calling. It improves their voice quality and removes background noise picked up by their phone.
Unfortunately, we still don't have detailed specs for this chipset. We assume it's comparable to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, but Google's presentation focused more on AI performance than raw power.
More inclusive and powerful cameras… and Face Unlock
As always, camera quality is at the center of Google's Pixel lineup. And the Pixel 7 series takes camera quality to a new level, adding a long list of improvements and new features.
Both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro use an improved 10,8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide front camera, which improves low-light performance when taking selfies or video calling. Additionally, both phones get 2X Pro Res zoom on their main camera, and each of the Pixel 7 cameras offers improved sharpness and stabilization, especially when zooming in on distant subjects.
Video quality is significantly improved on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. New 10-bit HDR gives you improved color and contrast, while a Cinematic mode lets you shoot high-resolution video with shallow depth of field. In other words, you can enable Portrait-style background blur for videos.
The Pixel 7 Pro gets an exclusive camera upgrade, a macro shooting mode. By taking advantage of the ultra-wide camera, Google can ensure highly detailed shots of subjects up to 3cm away. You can take close-up photos of raindrops, hair follicles on the skin, or other subjects that are usually outside the wheelhouse of a smartphone.
Google has also added Face Unlock to the Pixel 7 Pro. We haven't seen a Pixel phone with Face Unlock in years, so this is a very notable upgrade. Hopefully the feature actually works.
And, of course, the Tensor G2 enhances all features of Google's AI-enabled camera. It doubles the speed of Night Sight, reducing motion blur in night photography. And the Real Tone feature that Google introduced last year now works better in low-light environments, ensuring subjects with darker skin tones are accurately represented in all photos.
Google has also introduced a new feature called Guided Frame, which helps visually impaired or blind users to take selfies. Essentially, a voice tells you which direction to move the camera and tells you when you're in the correct frame.
But what about your old photos? Well, Google is introducing a Pixel 7 exclusive feature called Photo Unblur. It removes motion blur and smudges from any photo, even photos you've taken with other phones. Combined with Magic Eraser and other editing tools, Pixel 7 lets you enhance all your favorite memories. That's a serious selling point, if you ask me.
Pre-orders open today
You can pre-order the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro for $600 and $900, respectively. Both phones start with 128GB of storage, but you can upgrade to 256GB. If you want even more storage, you're bound to buy the Pixel 7 Pro, which has 512GB in its most expensive configuration. .
Orders for the Pixel 7 will ship on October 13. The phone will also hit store shelves that day. If you're on the fence, I suggest you wait for the reviews to come in – we'll post a review in a few weeks.
Note that carriers will offer deep discounts for this phone. Google says you can get a Pixel 7 Pro for free with a qualifying trade-in.
