After months of hype, teasers and leaks, the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are finally official. They stand to have some of the best smartphone photography capabilities out there, and also feature a bunch of minor improvements over last year’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
For starters, it’s nice to see a mostly similar-looking Pixel device compared to its previous generation; Google’s Pixel devices have tended to lack a strong underlying design philosophy, something that the company is apparently taking aim at with their new devices. The Pixel 7 will feature a 6.3-inch, FHD+ OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate while the Pixel 7 Pro gets a larger 6.7-inch QHD+ OLED display with adaptive 120Hz refresh rate.
Both devices also feature a peak brightness of 1,500nits, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus over it, with an always-on display that can light up when you look at it. The back of the devices also have a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus on them, with the Pixel 7 getting a zirconia-blasted matte aluminum frame while the Pixel 7 Pro gets a polished aluminum frame instead. They both have an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance along with a layer of fingerprint-resistant coating all over. Google added that they’ve incorporated more recycled material in the production of the Pixel 7 series too.
Powering it all is the new Google Tensor G2, the second generation of Google’s in-house system-on-chip, along with up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage and 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM on the Pixel 7 with the Pixel 7 Pro getting 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. However, it’s looking to be a mostly modest bump in performance.
Unlike the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 series for instance which has the newer Cortex-X2 big core, the Google Tensor G2 is keeping the same double Cortex-X1 big cores from the original Tensor, except they’re clocked a little higher at 2.85GHz. The medium cores have also been upgraded to a dual Cortex-A78 layout, with four more Cortex-A55 little cores rounding out the lot. Its GPU has been upgraded too to the newer Mali G710 GPU. Overall, while not the most powerful among the flagship chips, Google claims the Tensor G2 will power a lot of the machine learning capabilities of the Pixel 7 series. For added security, the Pixel 7 series also features a Titan M2 security coprocessor. They’ll of course come with Android 13 out of the box, with five years of software support.
Perhaps the main thing the Pixel lineup has been known for though is its camera capabilities, and it’s no different with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. The Pixel 7 will feature a dual camera setup, with a main 50MP, f/1.85 main camera using a 1/1.31″ sensor flanked by a 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide shooter. The Pixel 7 Pro meanwhile will have those two along with an additional 48MP, f/3.5 telephoto camera with a 5x optical zoom, as well as a Super Res Zoom up to 30x. Both devices will also have a 10.8MP, f/2.2 front camera for selfies.
Feature-wise, the Pixel 7 series looks set to have some serious photography and video capabilities. One new feature Google showed off is Guided Frame, which allows visually impaired users a way to take guided selfies of themselves with ease, though it’ll help anyone take better selfies too. The Pixel 7 Pro meanwhile also gets a new Macro Focus tool, similar to the Macro Mode feature on the iPhone Pro devices. There’s also Face Unblur and Photo Unblur, which are machine learning-powered features that will help you fix blurry photos. As for video, there’s now a Cinematic Blur, which adds a depth of field look to video, similar to the iPhone’s Cinematic Mode. Other popular features from last year’s Pixel 6 make a return too, such as Real Tone and Magic Eraser, as well as improved low light photography.
Elsewhere, the Pixel 7 has a 4,355mAh battery with 30W charging that can power it up to 50% in just half an hour. Google rates it for beyond 24 hours of use, with up to 72 hours if using the Extreme Battery Saver mode. The Pixel 7 Pro meanwhile gets a 5,000mAh battery with the same 30W charging and battery life. There’s also an under-display fingerprint sensor, stereo speakers and support for 5G, WiFi 6, NFC and Bluetooth 5.2. The Tensor G2 chip also powers some new features such as a Recorder app that can automatically label different speakers and transcribe them too. The Pixel 7 will be available in Obsidian, Snow and Lemongrass colour options, while the Pixel 7 Pro gets the first two along with a Hazel colourway.
As for the price, well according to Google themselves, they want more people to give people a try, and so they’re pricing them below what its rivals go for in the United States. There, the Pixel 7 will start at just USD599 (~RM2,776.96), while the Pixel 7 Pro starts at USD899 (~RM4,167.76), undercutting a lot of their competition. In comparison, the Apple iPhone 14 starts at USD799 in the US while the iPhone 14 Pro starts at USD999. Even within the Android scene, the Samsung Galaxy S22 starts at USD799 while the Galaxy S22 Ultra starts at USD1,199.
Unfortunately, as is the case with most of previous Made by Google products, they won’t be available in Malaysian markets in any official capacity. This is despite Google bringing the Pixel 7 series to more locations this time round. The closest place you can go to to buy one of the new Pixel 7 series devices will have to be Singapore, the only country with Google hardware sold in Southeast Asia. There, the Pixel 7 Pro will start from SGD1,299 while the Pixel 7 starts at SGD999.
