Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are here, and they promise improvements on everything from their security to their looks.
The Pixel 7, which starts at $599, and the Pixel 7 Pro, which starts at $899, pack many of the features you’d expect of top-tier smartphones, with a heaping helping of Google AI smarts packed in.
But it’s the cameras that are the standouts of these smartphones.
We’re talking about a 5x optical zoom on the Pixel 7 Pro, and a cropping capability that simulates a 2x zoom on the Pixel 7. On top of that, there are updates to phones’ low-light settings and improvements to options like Real Tone, which capture photos of people of color more accurately, not to mention an option for individuals with impaired vision that helps them better capture selfies.
That said, if you’re a current Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro user, you can likely hold on to your device a bit longer; ditto if you’ve got a Samsung Galaxy S22 or S22 Ultra. But if you’re in need of a new Android smartphone these two are the ones to go for.
Similar looks, big on camera
The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are unmistakably Google phones. Still, there are notable changes to the phones’ designs including new metal frames that cover the camera bump and run all the way around the phones’ edges. The phones also ditch the two-tone look of the prior generation in favor of solid hues like black, white, and yellow green.
The biggest difference, though, is the Pixel 7’s slightly smaller display. Rather than a 6.4-inch panel, Google opted for a 6.3-inch screen, which is a good thing for users who prefer smaller phones. The Pixel 7 Pro is still the same 6.7 inches as the Pixel 6 Pro.
The real changes to the phones come in the form of their updated camera capabilities. Many of the features found on the Pixel 6 are here on the Pixel 7 including the ability to crop images taken with the main camera to produce 2x zoomed shots. There’s also, of course, the phone’s wide-angle camera as well.
On the software side, Google has made improvements to its Real Tone feature that builds on the phone’s ability to more accurately capture skin tones of people of color by upgrading its low-light performance.
The Pixel 7 Pro gets all of those updates, but adds a 5x optical zoom, which means you can capture sharper photos of distant objects without them looking grainy. In fact, I found the 5x zoom helpful in regular photo situations too, making it easier to capture friends’ and family members’ faces.
Google also taps its cropping feature to enable a 10x zoom that’s still impressively clear. You can push that up to 30x, though you start to lose finer details at that point. Despite that, I was still able to see the small Dept. of Transportation signature below a street sign using the 30x zoom from about a half of a city block away.
Outside of zooming, the cameras offer photo performance that’s on a par with both Samsung and Apple (AAPL). A macro photo, a deeper than normal closeup, I took of a bumble bee on a flower looked crisp and clear.
A more challenging shot of an art installation at a local park also came out wonderfully, with beautiful color saturation and balanced lighting. Low-light shots of my cat, meanwhile, looked excellent on the Pixel Pro 7, beating out the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. The Pixel was simply able to capture more detail of my cat’s fur, while the fur in photos taken with the Ultra looked blurrier.
All three of those phones, however, take great pictures overall. The main difference between them almost comes down to color saturation, with Samsung sticking to over-saturation, Apple going with a more realistic saturation, and Google sitting right in between.
Google inside
I love Pixel phones because they eschew any third-party bloatware like unwanted games and apps in favor of Google’s own software. It’s a flatter, cleaner experience that focuses on Google’s services first. Both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro come with Android 13, which offers better customization by letting you change the colors of app icons to match your wallpaper, security updates including the ability to limit apps’ access to photos and videos, and more.
As far as services go, there are a handful of upgrades including the option to use TalkBack, an accessibility feature that announces on-screen prompts and commands for users with vision problems, to take selfies.
If you’re multilingual, you can now choose which language you want to use in each app. So now you can use, say, Spanish in one app, and English in another. There are also improvements to the overall calling experience including Direct My Call, which transcribes your calls to select 1-800 numbers and creates tappable buttons for automated call tree options.
That, coupled with call wait times, makes the whole process of calling places like banks or government agencies way less awful by helping you figure out when you should call to avoid busy times—and keeping you from forgetting the call options.
As far as performance, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro offer the kind of top-notch speeds you’d expect of flagship smartphones.
I did, however, notice a few hiccups here and there when trying to access the camera app at times, including slowdown while initially capturing photos. Battery life? You’ll get through the day with the 7 Pro easily, though the 7 might need to be topped off if you’re going out on the town after a long day’s work.
Should you get it?
Google’s Pixel lineup are some of my favorite Android smartphones, and the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are no different. The improved optical zoom on the Pro and the tweaks and touches Google made to Android this time around, including the visible phone tree and accessibility updates are welcome changes to the smartphone line.
If you’ve got a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro, there’s little reason to make the upgrade, since many of the software improvements found in Android 13 will end up on those phones. As for iPhone owners, well, they’ll likely stick to their Apple smartphones. But if you’re rolling with an older device and are in need of something new, the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are excellent options.
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