The world of Android seems to be totally different than after I began focusing on this platform over ten years in the past. Gone are the times of Google specializing in its developer-centric units, permitting different producers to compete for the highest spot. If you look across the U.S. market, Android appears to have developed a homogeny akin to that of Apple’s iPhone. If you’re selecting a flagship Android smartphone, it’s now between Google and Samsung—possibly OnePlus for those who’re sick of the established order and know another exists.

The Google Pixel exists as a selected taste of Android, simply the best way Samsung’s rolled with all of it this time. You’re not getting a inventory model of the working system anymore: you’re getting a model of Android made in Google’s picture, full with Material You stylings and unique characteristic drops. The thought is that for those who select this path, you might have perks. Pixels now embrace robotic assist with customer support by way of Direct My Call and AI magic for unblurring outdated pictures. They additionally embrace probably the most up-to-date software program updates straight from the steward of the working system itself.

This is a superb technique for Google to persuade consumers that it’s the correct path. But I can’t assist feeling prefer it’s a devolution, as a result of it’s launched a brand new kind of fragmentation to an already disparate platform. The Pixel smartphone sequence exists to showcase Google’s prowess in AI processing, so it’s tuned with a batch of specially-made options. But that leaves different Android customers within the mud, since these talents are solely usready with the {hardware} inside Pixel telephones.

Let’s make this clear: for those who’re trying on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro as your subsequent smartphone, it’s since you need the digicam capabilities—not the unique software program options. I’ve been on a non-Pixel gadget for the final two years, and the factor I missed most was not the flexibility to have Google reply my telephone calls—a characteristic nonetheless restricted to Pixel units—however its digicam algorithms. The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are nonetheless the very best smartphone cameras for below $1000.

Is the Pixel 7 your sort of vibe?

To be sincere—and this isn’t a slight on the designers of the Pixel smartphone, who I’m positive gave their coronary heart and soul to reconfiguring the Pixel’s general design—I’m not a fan of the Pixel’s stylings of late. The digicam bar is a greater answer than the awkwardness of a side-camera array, which leaves the telephone crooked when it’s mendacity down, however the remainder of what’s occurring simply isn’t vibing with me.

That mentioned, I’m having fun with the Pixel 7’s coloration choices greater than final 12 months’s Pixel 6/6 Pro, making the remainder of the design extra palatable. The Lemongrass colorway on the Pixel 7 is a beautiful lime in particular person, whereas the Pixel 7 Pro is available in Hazel, which seems to be like a grown-up inexperienced. The digicam bar has additionally eschewed the blackout search for brushed aluminum, and the digicam sensors are extra pronounced as modules inside the bar. Like the iPhone 14 Pro’s rear digicam sq., the concept is to right away draw your consideration to the digicam capabilities of the gadget.

Annoyingly, the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are nonetheless as slippery as ever. I needed to catch each the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro from sliding off my desk as soon as I began scripting this part, indicating not a lot has modified. If you purchase this telephone, get a case instantly—one thing with extra grip than the bare telephone provides.

From the entrance aspect, the Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 look just about an identical. The 6.3-inch show on the Pixel 7 and the 6.7-inch show on the Pixel 7 Pro take up a lot of the chassis, with skinny bezels across the body. It’s well-paired with Material You, and you may see Google’s design language shine by the bundle. The aspect energy and quantity buttons protrude and are simple to press, even with a case.

In phrases of dimension, the Pixel 7 will likely be a greater wield for smaller fingers. But the Pixel 7 Pro isn’t untenable. I used to be stunned at my means to safe the Pro with out assistance from a pop socket.

There are variations between the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro’s shows moreover the dimensions. The Pixel 7 has a most refresh fee of 90 Hz, whereas the Pro maxes out at 120 Hz. Both telephones are tuned for barely totally different audiences, although the remainder of the {hardware} on the within is comparable. The Pixel 7 Pro additionally allows you to swap between 1080p decision and 1440p decision relying in your wants, however keep in mind that the upper it goes, the more durable it’s in your battery.

The Pixel 7 and seven Pro have an Adaptive brightness characteristic you could toggle on from the Display part of the settings panel, which makes use of AI to be taught your show wants. Both telephones even have dynamic refresh charges that get dialed down primarily based on what you’re doing to assist save on battery, and you may swap between a “natural” trying coloration mode or an “adaptive” one. I favor the latter for its vibrancy over the pure look. Otherwise, the Pixel 7’s colours seem uninteresting in comparison with the saturated show panel on Samsung’s newest units.

Regarding sturdiness, the Pixel 7 and seven Pro are IP68-rated for mud and water resistance. Google additionally says there’s a fingerprint-resistant coating on show, which is an admirable try however doesn’t stay as much as the truth of residing with my greasy fingers. It is what it’s!

A brand new, outdated option to unlock

I’m joyful to report that the Pixel 7 and seven Pro have face unlock added again to their repertoire, becoming a member of the in-display fingerprint scanner and the opposite three unlocking mechanisms Android provides by default. Face unlock is a characteristic that has been lacking from Pixel smartphones because the Pixel 4 debuted, which used Soli radars to acknowledge your face.

The draw back to getting the face unlocking characteristic again is that it’s not as strong as Apple’s Face ID. You can’t use it to approve Google Play Store purchases, as an illustration, or unlock your checking account by one other app. You’ll nonetheless have to make use of fingerprint unlock for these situations—even for Google Pay.

I haven’t had a lot time to multitask with the Pixel 7 and seven Pro to see how Face Unlocking works when issues are hectic. That tends to be the true take a look at of this expertise. For occasion, I’ve sung the praises of Apple’s Face ID earlier than for its relative quickness, however I confronted its limitations this previous weekend whereas touring throughout the nation, carrying a masks and sun shades. For probably the most half, the Pixel 7’s face-unlocking mechanism exists to make sure that it’s able to go within the fingers of its proprietor. At the very least, the interface reveals a halo-like animation on the display to verify that the gadget has registered your face.

Don’t count on record-breaking efficiency

I’ve had lower than every week to expertise the true capabilities of the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Things are easy thus far, however I’ve had a few hiccups. Once, the digicam app went clean on me and required a restart. The Pixel Stand 2’s software-specific options that pop up when it acknowledges a Pixel additionally crashed on the Pixel 7 and seven Pro.

I convey this up as a result of I’m having a tough time forgetting that the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro appeared affected by user complaints within the months after my preliminary overview. This is why it’s vital to revisit these units after the launch hype! However, I’m not suggesting that the Pixel 7 will likely be wrought with the identical points. Here’s to hoping the hiccups I encountered had been all simply pre-release software program jitters.

Google has geared up the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro with its second-generation Tensor CPU. The Tensor G2 has a 2.85 GHz Dual Cortex X1 because the “big CPU” cores, a 2.35 GHz Dual Cortex A78 for the “medium CPU cores,” and a 1.8 GHz Quad Cortex A55 for its “small CPU” cores. The GPU on this configuration is an ARM Mali G710 MP07, and the TPU—or Tensor Processing Unit—inside is Google’s custom-made chip. Google additionally infused its Titan M2 safety chip into the bundle for on-device encryption. As an apart, the Tensor G2 is a 5nm chip, not a 4nm, as rumors speculated.

One factor to notice about this chip: it’s exhausting to check it on to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8/8+ Gen 1 as a result of it’s not an apples-to-apples comparability. Google’s Tensor chip is extra centered on neural processing, which is the way it facilitates all the Pixel’s AI smarts—and why Google says some Android units aren’t appropriate with the options. As a end result, the same old artificial benchmark suites don’t fairly pan out so nicely for Google’s Pixel.

For instance, in our Geekbench assessments, which I needed to sideload as a result of the Play Store mentioned the app wasn’t appropriate with the brand new Pixel units, the Pixel 7’s outcomes had been related to the budget-priced Pixel 6a’s for the single-core rating, and solely about 600 factors higher within the multi-core rating. The OnePlus 10T scored higher general than the Pixel 7 household, whereas the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, which has the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 as its chipset, outpaced it by about 250 factors within the single-core rating. If you had been to take a look at our scores for the iPhone 14 Pro with its A16 Bionic chip, the Pixel 7’s Tensor G2 numbers are much more dismal.

The excellent news is that the Pixel 7 and seven Pro don’t carry out within the hand as their numbers point out they’d. They are each zippy and quick, and I had no downside switching between the digicam shortcut and Pokemon Go’s AR mode in speedy succession. But once more, I’ve had these units for lower than every week. Let me get again to you in a few months, and I’ll let you understand how it’s going.

One very last thing to notice when deciding between the Pixel 7 and seven Pro: they’ve totally different reminiscence configurations. The Pixel 7 has 8GB of RAM, whereas the 7 Pro comes with 12GB of RAM. If you’re into severe cell gaming, particularly AR-heavy titles, extra reminiscence may pan out higher in the long run. Regardless of which mannequin you select, you’ll want to get the storage configuration that fits your wants. The Pixel 7 has 128 and 256GB of storage, whereas the 7 Pro tops out at 512GB. And no, people, there aren’t any SD slots right here. They’ve develop into much less widespread on Android units lately.

The Pixel battery’s lofty promise

The Pixel 7 and seven Pro even have different-sized batteries. The Pixel 7’s is a 4,355 mAh battery pack, whereas the Pixel 7 Pro is a 5,000 mAh battery, the identical as this 12 months’s Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and the OnePlus 10 Pro. Google guarantees “beyond 24-hour battery life” on each units, regardless of the variations in dimension, or “up to 72-hour battery life” on Extreme Battery Saver mode, which you’ll toggle on from the gadget settings.

Unfortunately for you, pricey reader, I’m nonetheless testing the efficacy of those claims. I hope to have an replace as constructive as I did on the iPhone 14 Pro’s battery capability, which additionally took me a while to check. The iPhone 14 Pro fashions lasted over 22 hours in our battery rundown take a look at. The Pixel 7 and seven Pro must beat these numbers to be the very best.

Still the very best digicam

It wasn’t simple to curate the pictures I needed to share on this overview. Overall, the very best photos the Pixel 7 Pro took had been of my daughter out on a vibrant and sunny day. But that’s too many pictures to try to blur her face out of, so let’s have a look at footage of a day romp round San Francisco as an alternative. Note that the pictures have been compressed, so what you’re seeing right here just isn’t the full-resolution expertise.

I primarily centered my testing on the 7 Pro, due to its additional digicam sensor. The Pixel 7 and seven Pro have related digicam methods, together with a 50-MP sensor and a 12-megapixel ultrawide digicam, although the Pixel 7 has a 114-degree subject of view whereas the 7 Pro has a barely bigger 125.8-degree subject of view. The 7 Pro additionally has a 3rd 48-MP sensor to facilitate its Super Res Zoom, which allows the 30x digital zoom on the Pixel 7 Pro. It’s as much as 8x on the Pixel 7, although the first digicam sensor permits that. Both units have the identical 10.8-MP front-facing digicam with a hard and fast lens and a 92.8-degree subject of view.

We’ve already established the Pixel 7/7 Pro takes improbable daytime photographs, so let’s discuss this Super Res Zoom. It’s alleged to be the best on the Pixel 7 Pro as a result of it has the glass and the AI smarts to handle taking pictures at a protracted distance. The characteristic will instantly kick in between the two.5x and 5x zooms and after 10x zoom on the Pro’s devoted telephoto lens. The Pro additionally boasts Zoom Stabilization, which didn’t at all times work for my shakey fingers. While I managed to take clear pictures of the windmills outdoors my yard, that are miles and miles away, I had problem positioning the telephone to get a pointy shot. It’s not simple attaining that sort of stability with out a tripod in tow. It was even more durable to attempt to shoot one thing at evening.

The telephoto lens on the 7 Pro is most helpful when trying to border a cropped picture. I discovered it particularly useful on a stroll round my neighborhood, the place I snapped footage of the Halloween decor that neighbors had put up. The telephoto lens made it in order that I didn’t must cross the road to get a more in-depth look, and I might crop in to attain extra element. Because of its lack of a devoted zoom lens, you don’t have this type of malleability with the Pixel 7. If you’re a frequent concertgoer, or possibly you’re continuously taking pictures pictures for archiving functions, you’ll need to think about paying for that third telephoto.

Night Sight on the Pixel 7 and seven Pro stays unparalleled, even when Apple’s algorithm has improved. Google shortened the time that the shutter has to remain open to seize mild knowledge—anyplace from three to 6 seconds. Of course, the Pixel remains to be far more aggressive at lighting up a scene than the iPhone 14 Pro. Still, I discovered the Pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max’s evening pictures almost indistinguishable aside from firming.

Lastly, I need to point out Pixel 7’s new Cinematic Blur video mode—that’s all it’s. It’s a bokeh fashion blurring impact for the video that engages when you faucet your give attention to the display. So far, it looks as if a video model of the Pixel’s Portrait Mode impact and never a direct competitors in opposition to the iPhone’s similarly-themed Cinematic mode. I’m nonetheless determining the right way to make the very best use of it.

Now that the Pixel 7 has been launched, I can lastly plan a while to do a serious smartphone pictures shootout. Stay tuned for extra comparisons between the Pixel 7/7 Pro and iPhone 14/14 Pro, which I do know is what you’re all right here for.

Exclusive Android smarts

Part of Google’s ploy to get you to decide on the Pixel smartphone over its quite a few OEM companions is what Google deems its “Pixel drops.” The firm releases software program updates only for Pixel units, and so they’re usually AI-enabled options which are solely appropriate with what’s inside Pixel {hardware}.

The Pixel 7 is the debut of a number of new digicam options, together with Photo Unblur. There’s additionally a novel means within the Pixel’s dialer app referred to as Direct My Call, which helps you skip by the menu whenever you’re on the road with customer support, facilitated by Google’s Duplex expertise. And for those who use the Android Messages app to ship voice memos, Google will mechanically transcribe them. The Pixel 7 can also be the primary to get the Assistant’s Quick Phrases, which makes it simpler to ship instructions with out the opening line of “Hey Google.” I want Google introduced this to my sensible audio system first—those I’ve already lined my complete home with.

Some of those talents will make it to older Pixel smartphones, although it’s not at all times clear which of them will get them. For now, the one means to make use of these talents is to purchase a brand new Google Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro.

It’s price noting that these software program options aren’t required to have a robust Android expertise. They’re merely perks that Google is providing to distinguish itself from, nicely, Samsung, which additionally has its record of unique options solely obtainable to customers of its units and peripherals. As I mentioned: Android remains to be very fragmented. It simply seems to be a bit of totally different than it used to.

Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro?

When I initially sought to overview the Pixel 7 and seven Pro, I selfishly made it about myself and my subsequent telephone buy. I’ve been away from the Pixel household for just a few years as I refamiliarized myself with different Android manufacturers. This 12 months, I need to come again, primarily as a result of the digicam expertise stays unparalleled by the opposite gamers on this platform.

Still, I’m a bit of disheartened by the very fact that there’s a distinction between Google’s Android and everybody else’s, particularly concerning these AI-infused options. I suppose Google has to prop itself up in a roundabout way. But for those who’re contemplating a Pixel gadget, don’t do it due to the software program talents. The digicam is the Pixel’s strongest characteristic, even with out all of the methods you possibly can unblur a photograph and take away somebody from the background.

If you’d prefer to know which Pixel I’m adopting, it’s the Pixel 7. First, that Lemongrass coloration is lovely in particular person—footage can not do it justice. I additionally realized I needed a smaller gadget that didn’t really feel like I needed to pressure a small purse to shut over it. The 8GB of RAM and 90Hz refresh fee additionally aren’t a drastic drop down from the Pro’s 12GB and 120Hz refresh fee, and it’s a complete $300 cheaper.