Ron Amadeo
The Pixel 7 may be Google’s first flagship ever.
That may seem strange to say about “version 7” of a smartphone, but so far every flagship Pixel has switched manufacturers or used a new design from year to year. This strategy is the exact opposite of the one used by the bigger, more serious hardware companies like Apple or Samsung, from which you can expect stable, iterative smartphone designs, with major redesigns every few years. If you go out of your way every year to build a smartphone from scratch, it’s hard to do much in the way of error correction, improvements, or adjustments to customer feedback.
The Pixel 6 Pro was already the best Android phone you could buy, so Google didn’t have to do too much to hand in a good smartphone this year. All the important bits of the Pixel 6 are here, like its industry-leading price tag, great camera and fast, clean software. But even with that solid foundation, Google did a good job of fixing some of our minor complaints about the Pixel 6. There’s no reason to upgrade if you have a Pixel 6, but a true “version 2” of Google’s flagship smartphone might entice more people to try the brand.
Refining an already great design
Ron Amadeo
| SPECIFICATIONS AT A GLANCE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pixel 7 | Pixel 7 Pro | |
| SCREEN | 6.3-inch, 90Hz, 2400×1080 OLED | 6.7 inches, 120Hz3120×1440 LTPO OLED |
| OS | Android 13 | |
| Processor | Google Tensor G2
Two 2.85GHz Cortex-X1 cores |
|
| GPU | ARM Mali G710 MC10 | |
| RAM | 8GB | 12GB |
| STORAGE | 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 | 128GB/256GB/512GB UFS 3.1 |
| BATTERY | 4355 mAh | 5000 mAh |
| NETWORKS | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC, 5G mmWave (optional) & Sub-6GHz | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC, 5G mmWave & Sub-6GHz, UWB |
| PORTS | USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 1 with 30W USB-PD 3.0 charging | |
| BACK CAMERA | 50 MP Main 12MP wide angle |
50 MP Main 12MP wide angle 48MP 4x telephoto |
| FRONT CAMERA | 10.8MP | 10.8MP |
| MATE | 155.6 x 73.2 x 8.7mm | 162.9 x 76.6 x 8.9mm |
| WEIGHT | 197 grams | 212 grams |
| START PRICE | $599 | $899 |
| OTHER BENEFITS | IP68 dust and water resistance, eSIM, wireless charging, in-screen fingerprint reader | |
The best part of the Pixel 6 design, the camera bar, returns in the Pixel 7. Google’s camera bar remains the best rear camera design in the industry, as it accomplishes the goal of making room for a camera lens while being functional. . The bar is a raised, horizontal stripe across the back of the phone, allowing the device to sit on a table without rocking back and forth (an unfortunate side effect of corner-mounted camera bumps). It’s a big improvement over the usual wobbly smartphone. The camera bar also helps with grip if you put an index finger under the bezel it makes over the back of a phone. It’s hard to prop up a device with a camera bump in a corner, but the large, tactile cam gives you another point of contact.
However, the Pixel 6’s camera bar was a mess of parts. The top and bottom edges were aluminum and a single strip of glass covered each lens. Google couldn’t bend the glass around the left and right sides, so the glass stopped abruptly and awkwardly switched to black plastic. The large pane of glass was also a magnet for glare in some lighting conditions. Light can penetrate the strip of glass from many angles and bounce around to wash out your photos.
The Pixel 7 camera bar simplifies things. A single piece of aluminum now forms the phone frame, sides and exterior of the camera bar, with only one or two glass cutouts for the camera lenses. Glare problems are reduced. Not much has changed on the camera, but a 5x telephoto lens (and 30x software zoom) has been added.
google
Google has made the wrong choices when it comes to distinguishing the design of the Pixel 7 Pro from its little brother, the Pixel 7, giving the cheaper phone a better overall design. The Pixel 7 Pro uses a mirror finish on the aluminum sides and the camera bar. The finish picks up fingerprints and marks scratches, and the camera bar of my barely a week old review unit is already scuffed. The base model Pixel 7 has a brushed matte aluminum finish, which hides scratches better. The brushed aluminum looks better, as it doesn’t get covered in fingerprints, and it feels better, with the matte aluminum sides offering a little more grip than the smooth finish of the Pro.
The base model Pixel 7 also has a completely flat screen, while the Pixel 7 Pro has a curved screen. Curved screens distort content at the edges of the screen, trapping glare, and making accidental touches easier. They are a marketing-driven anti-feature that manufacturers should abolish. The Pixel 7 Pro screen is noticeably less curved than the Pixel 6 Pro, but why not just completely relieve the user of this obnoxious design?
With a better aluminum finish and a flat screen, the $600 Pixel 7 feels like a big upgrade over the $900 Pixel 7 Pro, and it’s what I’d pick if I could get the base model with a high-end 120. Hz screen. Google should ditch the 7 Pro design and make two versions of the Pixel 7, because none of the “premium” design changes it’s made are worth it. Every day I pick up the Pixel 7 and am tempted to switch from the Pro because the design is so much nicer on the outside.
Ron Amadeo
Speaking of bad trends, let’s talk about mmWave. The worst part of the Pixel 6 Pro design was a giant plastic mmWave window on the top edge of the phone. On my white version, it’s a huge white strip on the top of the phone and it doesn’t match the cream back or the silver aluminum band. The Pixel 7 Pro looks much better, reducing the cutout to a rounded, color-matched window that only takes up about 40 percent of the length of the top. It’s a big improvement.
