This has been a chorus over the previous couple of months, so that you most likely received’t be shocked to study that the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro feel and look lots just like the units that got here earlier than them: the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Their worth tags — $599 and $899, respectively — stay unchanged, too, which is a welcome sight on this Our Year of Price Hikes and Relentless Inflation. But other than a slight design tweak and extra subdued shade choices, the Pixel 7 and seven Pro don’t have a lot to indicate on the floor that’s new.

Google’s official listed dimensions for the Pixel 7 and seven Pro recommend that they’re ever so barely smaller than their predecessors, simply by a millimeter right here and there. In actuality, they each nonetheless very a lot feel and look like huge telephones.

The Pixel 7’s display diagonal measures 6.3 inches in comparison with the Pixel 6’s 6.4-inch show, and Google says the bezels have gotten slimmer, too. The Pixel 7 Pro continues to be listed as a 6.7-inch show and continues to be simply as smooth-scrolling because the 6 Pro’s show, with the identical 120Hz high refresh price. The Pixel 7 sticks with a 90Hz display, and whereas each declare a 25 % enchancment in peak brightness, we weren’t capable of see this for ourselves with out taking the units outside.

Something you possibly can’t spot from the surface is the Pixel 7’s upgraded selfie digicam. Underneath the show’s hole-punch cutout is identical 10.8-megapixel sensor that the 7 Pro (and 6 Pro) consists of. It provides a wider 20mm equal focal size to get extra individuals in your group selfies, and it’s able to 4K / 60p recording, whereas the Pixel 6’s selfie digicam was restricted to 1080p.

Overall, Google is sticking with the identical design ethos as final 12 months, protecting the horizontal digicam bar with a slight replace. Rather than a high-contrast black end, the look is a bit more reserved with a metallic end that blends into the telephone’s facet rails. Personally, I’m nonetheless not in love with the general design, however I believe that is an enchancment.

Like final 12 months, the Pro mannequin’s aluminum body incorporates a polished end, whereas the usual Pixel 7’s body makes use of a matte end. They’re nonetheless IP68 units, they usually nonetheless feel and look like the actual deal: true flagship telephones.

Of course, the actual star of the present isn’t seen from the surface: Tensor G2, Google’s second-gen customized chipset. It’s behind lots of the enhancements Google is touting within the Pixel 7 and seven Pro, like higher name high quality, a sooner Night Mode, and the brand new Cinematic Blur characteristic for portrait mode-style bokeh throughout video recording. There’s extra that Tensor G2 does, in fact, however Google’s announcement immediately doesn’t give the impression that the expertise of utilizing the Pixel 7 and seven Pro might be drastically totally different than the earlier era. At least proper now, these newest Pixel units appear awfully acquainted.