The Google Pixel 7 Pro smartphone is a great combination of price and performance. Every year, a new smartphone with the latest technology and features is released to the public, but with the Google Pixel 7 smartphone, they have exploited this trend and delivered a smartphone that looks like the best of the best, save for a few bells and whistles. I was able to get my hands on the new Pixel 7 Pro, and I can confirm that it is mostly a minor update from the Pixel 6 Pro. There are some new features, such as an improved camera, but overall it is a small step forward from the previous model.
The Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro are both great phones in their own right, but you don’t have to pay extra cash for the Pro model to get great new features. Both phones are powered by the Tensor G2 chip. It offers all the artificial intelligence features and enhancements offered by the chip. Google has also managed to keep some key features of the phone on both models, including the 50MP main camera, 10.8MP selfie camera, and 30W fast charging.
Despite some flaws, the Pixel 7 Pro smartphone still offers great specs. Not only featuring Google’s new Tensor G2 chip, the Pixel 7 Pro comes with 12 GB of RAM, a 5,000 mAh battery, a 6.7-inch screen with a resolution of 3120 x 1440 pixels, and a 120 Hz refresh rate that drops to 10 Hz. There are also triple camera setups and more. All these features, the new Material UI, and the sleek design make the Pixel 7 Pro a great phone.
Google’s Pixel 7 Pro is shorter, wider, and about the same thickness as the Pixel 6 Pro, with a body size of 162.9 x 76.6 x 8.9 mm. It’s also only slightly heavier than the Pixel 6 Pro. The Pixel 7 Pro smartphone offers a quality look compared to its predecessor. The front of the device is pretty much the same as last year’s model, with a large 6.7-inch screen, a single hole punch front camera, and a slightly curved panel like the Pixel 6 Pro. We were hoping the Pixel 7 Pro flat-screen rumours were true, but alas, that does not seem to be the case.
The Google Pixel 7 Pro has an aluminum frame, textured power button and volume rocker. The aluminum frame turns into the camera shield at the back of the lens. Note that the shiny aluminum doesn’t feel as pleasant to the touch as the Pixel 7’s brushed aluminum.
The device comes in three colour variants: Hazel, Snow and Obsidian. I tested with the Obsidian variant, and it is as premium and sleek as you would expect from a flagship from Google. The phone features a dark grey visor with grey accents that change depending on the light. It also includes three large lenses with circular holes in the main and extra wide lenses and a new unique periscope lens. It looks great when it first comes out of the box, but due to the texture, be ready for fingerprints.
With a beautiful 6.7-inch screen with a resolution of 1440 x 3120 pixels, the display is excellent for a variety of content, including photos, videos, and games. The smartphone’s colours are great, with rich, full tones, bright whites and deep blacks.
The Google Pixel 7 Pro smartphone can achieve up to 1,500 nits of brightness and features a stunning 120Hz refresh rate panel, and you can dial it down to 10Hz if you don’t need a higher refresh rate. This allows for smoother scrolling and gaming while extending battery life. It works incredibly well for gaming, with action feeling smooth, and colours and darks looking vibrant and rich.
While the Google Pixel 7 Pro’s screen may not be as bright or as vibrant as some other flagship phones on the market, it still looks fantastic for media and gaming. Much like with the Pixel 6 Pro, the new Tensor G2 SoC is good for gaming and media, but does lag behind comparable Qualcomm chips, especially if you want to play the latest games like Fortnite, Call of Duty Mobile, or Diablo Immortal. Everything will work as intended, but it does feel noticeably less smooth when compared to gaming on the OnePlus 10T, or the ROG Phone 6, making for good, but not amazing gaming experiences.
I will say that even though the Google Pixel 7 Pro lags behind in performance, the speed will not be noticed for most games or apps. The phone is still incredibly snappy to use, with the Android 13 interface feeling incredibly responsive. Google has taken advantage of the tight hardware and software integration to make a phone that, while slower than other flagships on paper, never feels it in daily use. I am excited to see how the Google Tensor chip evolves over time, but it already shows real potential for a wide range of needs, including photography.
While we normally focus on gaming and performance when we look at any smartphone, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the camera is one of the most important features of a device. The Pixel 7 Pro has the same 50-megapixel main shooter as last year’s Pixel 6 Pro, but it’s upgraded to a 48-megapixel telephoto lens that offers 5x optical zoom and an ultra-wide 126-degree field of view.
The Pixel 7 Pro’s zoom capabilities are impressive. The main sensor is 50 megapixels and allows 2x optical zoom. The phone uses data from the primary and telephoto sensors for zoom levels between 2x and 5x. The Pixel 7 Pro at 5x uses only telephoto optical zoom but repeats the sensor cropping process with a 48-megapixel sensor to achieve a 10x zoom.
The unblur feature in this software program sometimes helps add details and sharpening to blurry photos, but it is only sometimes successful, and the results are not always outstanding. In some cases, the feature can be helpful (such as when zooming in 10x), but this is not always the case.
The Pixel 7 Pro’s portrait mode does a great job of blurring the background. It’s worth noting that the shots are slightly more saturated than those on the iPhone 14 Pro. That said, the iPhone 14 Pro is better at capturing dynamic range than the Pixel 7 Pro, but that only became apparent when the two phones were compared side-by-side. Low-light photography is still good, with sharp images rich in detail. Smartphones are good at lighting only certain parts of a photo, so the overall image always looks like it was taken at night.
“…the Google Pixel 7 Pro Smartphone is one of the best value for money in the premium smartphone category.”
While most of my Pixel 7 Pro experience was good, the battery life could be better. After an hour of gaming and using the phone with video playback, the 7 Pro’s battery dropped from full to 85 percent. While using the phone around Las Vegas for work, I would see the phone quickly drop well below the 30 percent range in under a day. This is less bad while on Wi-Fi compared to LTE, but for people that like to see their phone last a full day and then some, Pixel 7 Pro does disappoint a bit more than I would have liked.
I would not say the Pixel 7 Pro’s battery is bad, but it has some room for improvement, especially compared to many competing phones on the market. Thankfully, the Pixel 7 Pro supports up to 23W wired charging, so you should easily top up the device before a night out. In our tests, the charging speeds were very good, reaching 62 percent in around 45 minutes, just in time for a quick shower before a night on the town.
Gaming and battery aside, the Pixel 7 Pro is a fantastic phone, offering premium features and specs that match or exceed any other flagship phone on the market. Featuring a 120Hz refresh rate, 3120 x 1440 pixel resolution, bright display, 5000mAh battery, Tensor G2, 12 GB of memory and a great camera, the Google Pixel 7 Pro Smartphone is one of the best value for money in the premium smartphone category. If you don’t need the extra features the Pro offers, the standard Pixel 7s is also a fantastic phone and one that price makes incredibly compelling.
