Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro review: superb camera and great price if you're into green bubbles
The Google Pixel 7 at just $599 has one of the best smartphone cameras I have ever reviewed – you (and your iPhone friends) just have to be OK with those green bubbles
It’s Matt, your friendly neighborhood Swider-Man here in NYC 🕸️, Before I dive into the review…. Don’t forget that Amazon Prime Day October deals are happening until midnight PT tonight.
The Pixel 7 review is below, while the Pixel Watch review is on a different page for email length constraints.
Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro review
🛍️📱 Pixel 7 and 7 Pro offers
🏷️ Best Buy: Pixel 7 Pro + $200 gift card
🏷️ Best Buy: Pixel 7 + $100 gift card
📦 Amazon: Pixel 7 Pro + $200 gift card
📦 Amazon: Pixel 7 + $100 gift card
🛍️ ⌚ Pixel Watch offers
🏷️ Best Buy: Pixel Watch starts at $349
🏷️ Best Buy: Pixel Watch LTE starts at $399
🤼 Biggest Pixel 7 rivals
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny review (1 min read)
🏆 Review Score: 4 out of 5 🏆
The Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are here to complicate your smartphone buying decision in 2022 in the best possible way. Both of the new Pixel phones have superb cameras for nighttime photos (better than the iPhone 14 Pro), and the Pixel 7 Pro has a telephoto camera that can almost keep up with the more advanced Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 4 zoom lens hardware. It’s Google’s impressive software doing the hard work at a better price than its competition, starting just at $599.
No, the Pixel 7 series design hasn’t changed much over the Pixel 6, but year-over-year, new perks like Photo Unblur, Face Unlock, smoother video recording, and a higher screen brightness will make you want to consider upgrading from the Google Pixel 5 if you’re two years or more behind. Just know Google still hasn’t come up with a way to appease your friends on Apple’s iMessage who complain about Android’s green SMS bubbles. Also, transferring files to a Mac is cumbersome, so I caution iPhone and Mac users in the US before switching just for Google’s better camera.
Good news: The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro are $100 cheaper than their closest smartphone challengers (plus US stores like Amazon and Best Buy are offering up to a $200 gift card with a Pixel 7 Pro pre-order) and now there’s a new Google Pixel Watch that pairs nicely with any Android phone. Google’s homegrown Pixel lineup is finally illuminating as the name suggests, and consumers can only benefit from more options.
Table of contents
❤️ What I loved
⚙️ Pixel 7 Pro & 7 specs
📱 Similar design as the 6 series, but better camera and AI software
🗓️ Release date: tomorrow, Thursday, October 13
💰 Price: $899 (Pixel 7 Pro) / $599 (Pixel 7)
🙌 No price increase year-over-year
📺 Pixel 7 Pro: 6.7” QuadHD+ screen with 120Hz refresh rate
📺 Pixel 7: 6.3” Full HD+ screen with 90Hz refresh rate
✨ Always-on display
💡 Peak brightness: 1,500 nits (Pixel 7 Pro) or 1,400 nits (Pixel 7) – big improvement, even though the iPhone 14 Pro is brighter
📸 50MP main camera: ƒ/1.85 aperture, 1.2 μm pixel size
🔭 48MP telephoto: 5x optical zoom, 30x “Super Res Zoom,” ƒ/3.5 aperture, 0.7 μm pixel size
🔒 The telephoto camera is Pixel 7 Pro exclusive
👐 12MP ultrawide, ƒ/2.2 aperture, 1.25 μm pixel size
🔎 Pixel 7 Pro exclusive: macro mode
🤳 10.8MP: ƒ/2.2 aperture, 1.22 μm pixel size
⌖ Pixel 7 Pro exclusive: Selfie auto-focus and wider field of view
⚙️ Google Tensor G2 chip
🗄️ 128GB / 256GB (Pixel 7 & 7 Pro); 512GB (exclusive to 7 Pro)
🐏 12GB of RAM (Pixel 7 Pro), 8GB of RAM (Pixel 7)
🔋 5,000mAh (Pixel 7 Pro) and 4,355mAh (Pixel 7)
🚗 Crash detection (a feature since 2019)
💦 IP68
🌈 Pixel 7 colors: Lemongrass, Snow, Obsidian
🌈 Pixel 7 Pro colors: Hezel, Snow, Obsidian
👨🔬 How I tested the Google Pixel 7
I spent SEVEN days testing the Google Pixel 7, the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel Watch in New York City, taking 500 photos with the new cameras led by a 50MP camera and I ran down the battery of each phone multiple times alongside the Google Pixel Watch.
☑️ Why trust my Google Pixel 7 review
I’ve reviewed or professionally tested every single Google Pixel phone and, before that, every Google Nexus phone on TechRadar, including the Google Nexus 6 and Google Pixel 3. For testing, I carried around up to six smartphones at a time to do side-by-side comparisons to determine which smartphone camera was best.
🛍️📱 Pixel 7 and 7 Pro offers
🛍️ ⌚ Pixel Watch offers
What I loved about the Google Pixel 7 Pro ❤️
🎨 Its 50MP camera’s colors are picture-perfect. It’s not about megapixels, it’s about the post-processing software, and Google’s strikes the right balance to truly impress day or night. iPhone 14 Pro exhibits warmer colors, while Pixel 7 Pro has cooler colors, but the opposite is sometimes true at night when Apple amps up the brightness a bit too much. In daylight, they’re very close in quality.
Here’s an unedited Pixel 7 Pro camera review sample in New York’s famous Katz’s Deli after a tech event. I’m still recovering from this monster 🥪.
🌙 Superb camera quality at night. In side-by-side comparisons, Google Pixel 7’s Night Sight mode helped me take better photos in dark places. While the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a powerful night mode too, Apple turns up the brightness too much, robbing us of moody shots. Google Pixel 7’s camera processing raised up the shadows without killing the jazz club vibe with artificial brightness.
Google Pixel 7’s camera processing raised up the shadows without killing the jazz club vibe with artificial brightness.
Google Pixel 7 Pro Night Sight ⬇️
iPhone 14 Pro Max Night Mode⬇️
Google Pixel 7 Pro Night Sight ⬇️
iPhone 14 Pro Max Night Mode ⬇️
🔭 30x ‘Super Res’ zoom keeps up with Samsung. I was shocked to see that Google’s telephoto camera (only on the Pixel 7 Pro) matched my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra up to a 30x zoom range. Google eked out of tie in most of my side-by-side photo comparisons thanks to the company’s AI picture processing that really kicks in beyond the 5x optical zoom. Of course, Samsung’s flagship phone has the telephoto lens hardware to punch in with a 100x zoom. But, truthfully, both Google and Samsung photos look best at a 10x to 15x zoom at their max.
They’re pretty much the same:
Google Pixel 7 Pro 30x Super Res zoom ⬇️
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 30x zoom ⬇️
📹 Much better video (but not as good as iPhone). The Pixel 7 gives us 4K60fps video recording on all cameras and smoother transitions between the different lenses. Apple’s iPhone remains the video champ and you’ll have to keep this device to 30fps if you want these two perks: 10-bit color and speech enhancement (aka background noise reduction).
⌖ Virtual camera level in the UI (on by default). It’s a small, but important tool for helping ensure you have level photos. Only a few of my mirrorless cameras (like the Lumix S5) support this helpful camera interface guide.
💡 Brightness boost is night and day. At 1,400 nits peak brightness (Pixel 7) and 1,500 nits (Pixel 7 Pro), I could use these new phones outdoors on a sunny day in a way that I couldn’t functionally use the Pixel 6 series. The iPhone is still brighter at a peak of 2,000 nits, but Google has made a huge 25% YoY leap here.
🔋 Battery life. The 5,000mAh (Pixel 7 Pro) and 4,355mAh (Pixel 7) batteries lasted me all day during my testing, with the Pixel 7 dying before I went to bed and the 7 Pro needing charging by breakfast the next morning. That’s typical of smartphone testing in which I recorded 4K60fps video, took hundreds of photos, and had the phones connected to the Google Pixel Watch. The battery life didn’t seem remarkable either good or bad. It has 30W wired charging and fast wireless Qi charging, but no reverse wireless charging as seen on Samsung phones.
💬 Voice message transcriptions. Google added helpful transcriptions for voice messages you receive in its Messages app. I expect all phones to adopt this idea – it’s a very helpful little extra.
☎️ Direct My Call will keep me sane. This helps wade through the menus of toll-free businesses before the “Please listen carefully as our menu options have recently changed” dialogue is slllooowwwllllyyy spppoookkkeennn ttooo yyyoooouuu by a robot voice option-by-excruciating-option.
🛍️📱 Pixel 7 and 7 Pro offers
🛍️ ⌚ Pixel Watch offers
What I hated about the Google Pixel 7 Pro 💔
💰 Pixel 7 vs Pixel 7 Pro price. $599 is a great price for the Pixel 7… $300 more for the Pixel 7 Pro is steep. I really liked the 30x Super Res functionality, macro photo capability, larger display size and extra battery life, but it feels like the Pixel 7 series suddenly jumps to $899 for these features. The Pixel 7 may be the sweet spot between the Pixel 6a and Pixel 7 Pro.
🫥 Google’s ecosystem is incomplete. Google has been calling out Apple for locking down iMessage and it’s trying to put pressure on the company to adopt the RCS messaging standard. It hasn’t worked. Texting is still broken between iOS and Android, and that really hurts Google in the US. This makes it hard for me to recommend switching to Android when I talk to iPhone owners. It’s Google, not Apple, that has done a poor job at creating (several) chat apps over the years, and it could do more to bridge the gap on its own. It launched the AirDrop-like “Nearby Share” in 2020, but this file transfer feature is for Android and Chrome OS. Why not launch a Mac app* and an iOS app** to court Apple users to a Google software solution? I feel like Google could do more here.
*Do you know how long it took me to upload camera test photos to Google Drive and download them to my Mac for this review?! Too long! It made me want to switch back to my iPhone 14 Pro Max for phone-to-Mac AirDrop.
**Yes, an iOS version of Google’s “Nearby Share” app would likely force users to download photos and videos to Apple’s Files app instead of directly to the iOS camera roll due to locked-down permissions (Samsung’s QR share feature does this workaround). But it would be a start to bridge the gap.
🤳 Samsung’s camera selfie timer is 100% better. If you’re into taking selfies, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is a better choice. I’m going to take points off for this every time this feature is missing: Samsung’s default camera app lets me trigger a selfie timer with a simple open-palm-to-fist gesture. Google’s Pixel 7 has me dive into a submenu where the multiple timer options are flanked by three other camera options you can easily trigger instead.
😅 Do product designers at Google (and Apple) not know the intense pressures of taking a group selfie?
🐬 Can’t flip between cameras while recording. Samsung gets this right here too. A few years ago, I constantly pestered execs and product designers at Samsung (and LG at the time) about why we couldn’t flip mid-recording between the front and back cameras (for vlogging). I annoyed them so much with this query that product leads called my idea “The Swider Shot” when I brought it up time and time again. Samsung finally adopted it four years later. Google, please do the same for show-and-tell narration videos. I also love the Samsung feature where you can swipe anywhere on the screen to effortlessly flip between the front and back cameras (Apple, you need this too).
🌈 Lack of Pixel 7 colors. Like a lot of smartphones in 2022, the Pixel 7 colors are muted. We’re in tough economic times and all of the colors industry-wide, especially for the more expensive Pro models of phones, make it feel as if we’re on a sepia-toned trip back to the Great Depression. Geez, thanks for the reminder.
We’re in tough economic times and all of the colors industry-wide make it feel as if we’re on a sepia-toned trip back to the Great Depression.
What had me torn with the Google Pixel 7 Pro 🤔
🔐 Face Unlock is back – in limited form. I welcome the return of the ability to unlock a Pixel phone with my face again. I do find the under-display fingerprint sensor plenty fast and accurate, but Face Unlock is even faster. Alas, it’s limited to unlocking the phone. It won’t log you into apps or authenticate payments. It’s not as secure as Apple’s Face ID (score one for the big Dynamic Island) and Google axed its original Face Unlock for several years. The good news? It no longer unlocks my phone when my eyes are closed (a prior issue with Pixel 4).
Blurry ⬇️
Slightly less blurry ⬇️
😶🌫️ Photo Unblur is more Google magic – when it wants to be. Exclusive to the Pixel 7 series (so far), this feature lets you dive back into your Google Photos library and unblur pictures – even ones taken on other older devices. It’s akin to last year’s acclaimed Magic Erase function (which of course is still present), but Photo Unblur only worked to enhance some (not all) moderately blurry photos, but not the blurriest photos and not zoom-in pics that lacked the resolution to do anything more than overly sharpen the blur.
🎞️ Cinematic video capture is here for your shallow depth of field needs at 24fps. It kept the subjects in focus and blurred the background as desired in my tests, though the iPhone 14 Pro outdoes the Pixel 7 series by also allowing foreground blur and working on the front camera as well as the rear cameras.
Pixel 7 features I’m eager to test soon 🧪
🎙️ Voice recorder transcription will get speaker labels. This is a college student’s (and a journalist’s) best friend – Google’s voice memos app can transcribe what’s being said aloud, i.e. in a lecture hall, and it has improved since the feature made its debut in the Pixel 4. Coming soon: it’ll add speaker labels to this real-time transcription tool. Huge asset.
🔊 Clear calling. Coming to the Pixel 7 and 6 series, phone calls will sound better by reducing background noise. It’s similar to the tech in Google Meet video calls.
🤳 Guided frame. An exciting accessibility feature for people with impaired vision. Guided Frame will emit audible cues for various smartphone functions like taking a selfie.
🤫 Just say ‘Silence’ to mute an incoming call. No need to say “Hey, Google” or reach for the phone (maybe in another room) to silence incoming calls.
What I don’t care about (you shouldn’t either) 🙄
🏔️ Camera bump. I hate when reviewers mention this. It’s lazy. Very lazy. We all want the best possible camera, but no camera bump. Our critiques have to be grounded in the reality of modern tech (and budgets). Give me the biggest camera bump to get me close to a 1-inch sensor (force me to quit carrying the Sony’s RX100 and ZV-1 point-and-shoot, please). The Google Pixel 7 and the iPhone 14 Pro camera bumps are big, but I typically put a case on my phone. If Google and Apple made their camera bumps any smaller, the same lazy reviewers would complain about the inevitably worse camera hardware. 🤷♂️
Should you buy Pixel 7? 🤔
Yes, if…
✅ Camera: You want a stunning camera on an Android smartphone
✅ Value: You can get a good trade-in value + that $100 or $200 gift card
✅ Better screen: You want a bright screen outdoors and an always-on display
No, if…
❌ Last-gen: You have the Google Pixel 6 Pro and are satisfied
❌ Not a shutterbug: The camera perks don’t mean that much to you
❌ iPhone? = this is not your phone: You’re a current iPhone user and your friends and family use iMessage
🛍️📱 Pixel 7 and 7 Pro offers
🛍️ ⌚ Pixel Watch offers
Your Google Pixel 7 questions answered 👇
Did I miss anything? Ask me questions about this phone. All subscribers can ask below and I’ll add important answers to the review!
Hi Matt! It is the first time I read you. Good analysis. A little more objective than many that I have read. Where can I find you? Twitter? IG? They are the networks I use most. I am part of the Pixel Superfans group. I have a GP6Pro and I just received a GP7Pro. I also bought an Olympus M5 Mark III (I have no idea why, LOL) but I plan to learn some photography. I love it! IG:@shotbymarlozan
Twitter: @shotbymarlozan
Thanks for your advice!