Tech giant Google has released its latest series of Pixel smartphones with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, and while flagships have been part of the Pixel range since its inception, it only feels like they hit their stride last year with the Pixel 6 Pro.
The Pixel 6 Pro finally offered a more premium experience for users looking for a higher resolution screen, a bigger device, more RAM and higher battery capacity among a few other upgrades.
The Pixel 7 Pro is the latest and greatest in their flagship line that brings the new advancements of the Pixel 7 to a high-end, flagship model, offering that larger frame and beefed-up hardware.
Last year Google deployed its own chip called Tensor which was developed with Samsung and favoured AI machine learning capabilities over raw power.
The Pixel 7 Pro provides that same flagship performance but now with their new 2nd generation chip Tensor G2 as well as a subtle redesign and an improved camera.
The Pixel 7 Pro is a decent size for a flagship at 162.9mm x 76.6mm with a slightly curved body and screen as well as a depth of 8.9mm making it very comfortable to hold and use in one hand.
It does have some serious heft to it at 212g but is still lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Samsung S22 Ultra and that larger camera module does give your fingers somewhere to rest, keeping the phone stable.
The camera visor is larger this time around and stands out more due to its larger size and metal glossy finish rather than the solid black band on the Pixel 6 line.
The camera visor is also joined to the frame of the phone making it look nicer and more solid.
This gives it a more premium look when compared to the Pixel 6. However, the more prominent visor does collect dust, lint and dirt very easily if you don't have a protective case on it.
Be warned that the smooth, glossy slightly curved design makes it very easy to slip out of your hands, so yet another reason I would recommend picking up a case.
However, if it does slip out of your grasp it's moderately well protected with its tough aluminium frame and Scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass Victus front and back, but if you drop it in the sink you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing it's IP68 dust and water resistant too.
It's available in three colours Hazel paired with a gold frame and visor Snow with Silver & Obsidian with a grey metal look. All variations have a slightly glossy back that is the usual fingerprint magnet.
The Pixel 7 Pro has an absolutely gorgeous and slightly curved, LTPO, 6.7" display which isn't huge for a flagship, making it slightly smaller than the Samsung S22 Ultra and smaller than iPhone 14 Pro, but unless you're after the biggest possible the Pixel 7 Pro display is will suit most users.
The 7 Pro features tiny bezels at the top, left, and right sides and a slightly thicker chin at the bottom, there's also a small centred punch-hole selfie camera at the top, meaning you get a high screen-to-body ratio of 88%.
The Pixel's screen is bright, offering stunning colours and strong contrast keeping your blacks dark and your whites bright, giving you some of the best image quality possible.
It puts out a crystal clear resolution of 1440 x 3120, 513 PPI, higher than QHD, making it incredibly sharp which is for gaming and films but you won't really notice the difference between it at the Pixel 7.
Some users and especially gamers will notice that the display supports a variable refresh rate of 120Hz which makes the action on-screen look smoother, as well as make your scrolling experience more pleasant.
However, this does have an impact on battery life but automatically adjusts the refresh rate to save battery.
Specifications
Processor: Google Tensor G2
2 x 2.85GHz Cortex X1
2 x 2.35GHz Cortex A78
4 x 1.80GHz Cortex A55
Screen: 6.7 inches QHD+ (1440 x 3120) LTPO OLED at 512 PPI
RAM: 12 GB LPDDR5 RAM
Storage: 128/256/512GB UFS 3.1 storage
The Pixel 7 Pro uses the same new Google Tensor G2 chip as the Pixel 7, with even the same clock speeds but it does have more RAM to work with.
Rather than competing with raw power like Qualcomm's Snapdragon or the Apple A16 Bionic chip, Google's second-gen chip continues its focus on AI and machine learning.
In Geekbench the Pixel 7 Pro scored 1055 for Single-Core and 3250 for Multi-Core which is a respectable score and only slightly higher than the standard Pixel 7.
In day-to-day use the Pixel 7 Pro proved itself to be very fast and responsive, loading apps quickly and performance was brilliant.
There Pixel 7 only offers one RAM configuration of 12GB RAM which is fine for most regular use allowing you to have plenty of apps open.
There are also three storage configurations, either 128GB, 256GB or 512GB but unfortunately, there is no micro SD slot to expand it further.
I tested the Pixel 7 Pro's gaming chops with the usual games, Genshin impact, COD Mobile, and Minecraft.
Performance was decent, but not quite on par with the top-level Snapdragon chips, as I was still experiencing the occasional stutters and it wasn't much better than on the standard Pixel 7.
THe redesigned camera features a triple camera setup, with the main camera being a 50 Megapixel Octa PD Quad Bayer wide camera, a 12 Megapixel ultrawide camera and the additional camera in the Pro model only is the 48 Megapixel Quad Bayer PD telephoto camera.
The main camera is just fantastic, offering sharp, high-quality images with an incredible amount of detail, as well as very accurate colour reproduction for great portraits,
Low light performance is just simply amazing, with optical image stabilisation to help minimise your camera shake and any blurring as well as using its clever algorithms to enhance the brightness and clarity without ruining image quality.
The big difference here is the telephoto camera which provides around offers around 5 x optical zoom. really owing you to get closer to your subjects and when combined with the image stabilisation as well as digital zoom and the Pixel's clever algorithms it can produce some insane results.
I managed to take photos of the crane outside my office and then take zoomed in so that I could clearly see the crane driver's socks!
The Tensor G2 really impressed me, improving how responsive the camera is and enhancing its photos with its faster image processing, better sharpening and noise reduction, especially in night shots.
The front of the phone features a reliable 10 Megapixel selfie camera that while not the most impressive of the bunch still benefits from all the Google's clever camera software.
Video can be recorded at 1080p up to 60fps, 4K resolution video up to 60fps. A new addition to the 7 series is Cinematic Blur mode which makes your videos look more professional and dramatic by keeping your subject in focus and adding a adds bokeh, blur effect to the background which looks great.
Exclusive to the Pixel 7 Pro is its Macro mode, allowing you to take staggeringly detailed close-up shots, and they look fantastic, while not essential is really fun to experiment with and another must for photographers.
Its 5000 mAh battery easily provided me with all-day use and beyond at around 12 hours which included video and some mild gaming but more intensive usage knocked me down to around 8 hours.
However, it does feature an Extreme Battery Saver which can squeeze around another 72 hours and that proved accurate.
It also supports fast charging up to 30W which while not the fastest out there does beat Apple's 20W but loses out when compared to Samsung's S22 45W and OnePlus's 150W charging, it's still good, allowing it to get fully charged in about an hour.
It also supports Wireless charging up to 20W and reverse wireless charging, which allows you to charge accessories or other even phones on the back of the device.
The phone strangely only comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable which is handy for initial set up and no plug or USB-A to USB-C which is inconvenient if you don't have spare plugs or cables.
Just like the Pixel 7, the 7 Pro will have a Built-in VPN via Google One to help keep personal data secure when online without needing to subscribe to one of their storage plans, however, at the time of writing this wasn't yet available to test.
The Pixel 7 comes with the latest Android 13 and will receive up to 3 years of major software updates and 5 years of security updates.
As with all Google’s phones, the Pixel offers the most simple and pure android experience unencumbered by unnecessary apps and unremovable bloatware, making it swift and as simple to use.
Face unlock has been added to the Pixel 7 giving you more options to secure your phone, also the fingerprint scanner has been
improved and is noticeably faster the last year's Pixel 6.
Pixel 7 is just as secure as last year's 6 as it's also sporting a dedicated Titan M2 security chip designed by Google that makes it more resilient against attacks.
The Pixel phones have also offered some fantastic tools for photography with the Magic eraser allowing you to remove unwanted or distracting subjects from photos, or the unblur tool which sharpens up blurred images and both can be used on old photos that weren't taken on the Pixel.
Colours look great and yet natural and not unnecessarily overdone especially in skin tones due to Google's Real Tone technology, which is incredibly accurate at skin tones, which some photos have historically struggled with darker skin tones.
Google Pixel 7 Pro Verdict: 4/5
The Google Pixel 7 Pro isn't the leap in performance that some were expecting, but its consistent and incremental upgrades and refinements still add up to a remarkable if not flashy smartphone.
The Pixel 7 Pro shines when the improved hardware, combined with the new Tensor G2, their incredible under-the-hood AI learning and algorithms work together to produce some honestly incredible results, especially in photography.
If you own either the Pixel 6 Pro or Pixel 7 I would struggle to recommend it, however, if you've never used a Pixel or want something that produces absolutely stunning photography then I cannot recommend the Pixel 7 Pro enough.
It expertly balances style, performance and value with hardware that finally feels like it's catching up to match Google's impressive software and the Pixel 7 Pro is Google's most distilled and polished experience to date.
The Pixel 7 Pro shows that Goole isn't just an alternative to Samsung or Apple but that they are one of the leading android devices with its own software-focused approach.
The Pixel 7 will set you back £599 or £849 for the Pixel 7 Pro and are available directly from The Google Store
