Google has launched another iteration of its flagship phones with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Offering a modern new design, better cameras, a next-generation Google Tensor G2 CPU, and a handful of new software tricks, it should be their best Pixel phone yet.
But competition is stiff. Apple has finally caught up with high refresh rate displays, OnePlus still makes some pretty decent stuff, and Samsung's dominance over the Android market can't be ignored. Has Google done enough to make the Pixel 7 worth leaving your Samsung Galaxy or iPhone behind? Let's find out.
Points for style
If there's an easy complaint about smartphones these days, it's the massive camera bump/module that looks very similar across a broad range of phones. Camera lenses are almost always centered in the top left of a phone, sometimes surrounded by the housing that keeps everything together. OnePlus added a little style by wrapping that housing around the edge of the phone, and Samsung ditches the housing to embed the cameras right in the chassis of the phone, but they're all relatively similar at a glance.
Google has tried to be a little different here, with a bar stretching across the back of the Pixel 7's recycled aluminum frame that holds its dual camera sensors. It is large and not flush with the back, but with the horizontal piece you don't get as much rocking back and forth while your phone lays on a table, and it looks different than everything else. You'd recognize this phone from a distance, for better or worse.
Otherwise, the phone is a sleek aluminum slab. The obsidian color is glossy black with dark gray aluminum edges that house the volume and power buttons on the right side, with a USB-C port and stereo speakers along the bottom. It's simple but stylish. I don't think the Pixel 7 will turn heads, but it does stand out on its own, feels great in hand, and holds up as a modern smartphone that doesn't feel like a copycat.
Customized Tensor performance
The Pixel 7 and its Pro counterpart rock a Google Tensor G2 CPU under the hood. This chip is totally customized and exclusive to the Pixel 7, building off the first-generation Tensor core that we saw last year.
It's a 4nm chip manufactured by Samsung utilizing a 2+2+4 core configuration. That means you get two super cores, two big cores, and four small cores that all work in tandem to handle different tasks based on how demanding the workload is. The paired GPU has also upgraded to a Mali-G710, offering 20% better performance and 35% better machine learning performance.
But where the Tensor G2 really stands apart is Google's custom-built hardware to handle things like image processing, machine learning, and performing AI tasks. Instead of just dumping all of these tasks on a general-purpose CPU like the latest Snapdragon chip, Google instead builds its CPU in a way that specialized pieces of the hardware handle different tasks for increased efficiency. It makes for a generally very pleasant experience with the Pixel 7.
Multimedia powerhouse
That Tensor chip might not be quite as powerful on paper as some of Qualcomm's new processors, but performance shouldn't worry you. With 8GB of RAM and a powerful CPU, all but the most demanding tasks shouldn't slow down the Pixel 7.
Multitasking was great, with very few app refreshes and redraws, and the UI is very snappy. Benchmarks don't quite score the Tensor chip as high as other flagship processors, but playing games and throwing tougher workloads at the Pixel 7 was always a great experience, especially on the 90Hz refresh rate screen.
The display itself is also great, offering a bright 6.3-inch OLED display that caps at 1400 nits of brightness. That's plenty for even very bright outdoor scenarios and unless you're comparing it side-by-side with something like the extremely color-accurate Galaxy S22, you'll very likely be pleased with the popping colors and saturation.
Speakers are just okay, and this still seems to be one of the most frequently cut corners in all but the most expensive phones. There's obviously not much room for quality speakers in thin phones, but we've heard better. You could do worse, but you'll want to keep those Pixel Buds or a USB-C headphone adapter handy if you plan on seriously listening to music or watching a movie.
Decent battery life
Google isn't cramming a huge battery in the Pixel 7, opting for a 4355mAh battery that's slightly smaller than the Pixel 6. It's also not the most competitive battery we've seen compared to other modern flagships, either, with many phones floating around the 5000mAh mark.
But Google promises 24-hour battery life thanks to the highly efficient Tensor G2 chip this year. Is that true? Maybe.
I personally really struggled to ever hit that kind of battery life with the Pixel 7. Fortunately, the phone supports fast charging, so you can drop it on a fast charger and get roughly 40% of your battery back in 30 minutes, but even that isn't quite as good as what some other phones offer.
I typically needed to grab a charger around 3/4 of the way through my day with normal usage. Throwing heavy tasks at the phone like gaming or editing would decrease that even further, but the 24-hour claim is really only going to happen if you're lightly browsing social media and casually using the phone. Bit of a disappointment.
Google's Android
The Pixel runs Google's ideal version of Android, continuing the trend of creating Pixel-exclusive features that sometimes (but not always) make their way into stock Android at a later point. The UX itself is pretty basic, but it does tightly integrate all of Google's stock applications that you're probably used to and using anyway.
But the Pixel 7 does do some really cool things, like unblurring your camera shots with AI, live translation of other languages, and upcoming features like AI-enhanced noise cancelation for your phone calls. That's on top of all the things that Pixel and Android devices already do, like being able to make phone calls to set reservations for you, contextual reminders and integration with your smart home and Google accounts, and clever automation for all kinds of things. This is all on top of what's new with Android 13, and you'll be first in line to get the newest features when new versions of Android drop.
Google has done a good job of differentiating the Pixel experience from a plain old Android experience, but these days many of the exclusive Pixel features have trickled into AOSP or have been replicated by other manufacturers. I don't know that there's much here that's a dealbreaker to not have on another device, but Google has definitely created a compelling, well-rounded experience nonetheless.
Excellent camera
Camera quality is almost always at the top of the list of things Google cares about when designing a new smartphone. The first Pixel phone really jumped out ahead of the pack, especially in tricky low-light situations, and the Pixel 7 continues the trend of offering an excellent experience at an affordable price.
Outdoor shots won't make the camera break a sweat here, with the Pixel 7 capturing extremely accurate, albeit cool-colored photos of almost everything. Details are sharp, colors pop, and there's very little noise in any shot.
And if you do end up capturing a blurry photo, the Pixel 7's unblur feature can clean things up. It works reasonably well, too.
Instead of any kind of hardware optical zoom, the Pixel 7 exclusively uses software to handle your zoom functions. Google claims you can get up to 8x zoom with the solution here, and it actually works surprisingly well. It does help that the Pixel 7 has a 50MP camera that takes photos that can then be sized down to compensate, but overall it holds its own against some other phones with better zoom capabilities. The 8x zoom is a stretch and you probably won't actually be happy with any photos like that, but up to around 5x is perfectly usable.
Night shots are also supposed to be captured much quicker than previous iterations of the Pixel line, and they still turn out great. Very little noise with plenty of detail is easy to capture, although the cooler temperature of Google's cameras is still very present on these night shots.
Worth it?
As a budget flagship, I think the Pixel 7 is an excellent choice for most people and especially for anyone looking for a high-end camera without a high-end price tag.
There are still some things that could be done better, like the battery life and the phone living up to the Tensor G2's hype, but nothing here is bad. The phone works extremely well, it's fast, the cameras are excellent, and Google's software is always pleasant to use. It's almost exactly what you'd think of when you try and imagine Android's take on an iPhone, for better or worse.
I'd still like to see Google's commitment to software updates on the Pixel line stretch further than three years, but aside from that gripe it's a great option and alternative for someone that's looking to move away from an iPhone, or they're just wanting to shake things up and not buy another Samsung when it's upgrade time.
