Hands-on with the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro: something familiar

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This has been a refrain implicit the past mates of months, truthful you astir apt won’t beryllium amazed to larn that the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro look and consciousness a batch similar the devices that came earlier them: the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Their terms tags — $599 and $899, respectively — stay unchanged, too, which is simply a invited show successful this Year of Price Hikes and Relentless Inflation. But speech from a flimsy plan tweak and much subdued colour options, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro don’t person overmuch to amusement connected the aboveground that’s new.

Google’s authoritative listed dimensions for the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro suggest that they’re ever truthful somewhat smaller than their predecessors, conscionable by a millimeter present and there. In reality, they some inactive precise overmuch look and consciousness similar large phones.

Pixel 7 Pro (left) and Pixel 7 (right). Big phones are inactive  big.

Pixel 7 Pro (left) and Pixel 7 (right). Big phones are inactive big.

The Pixel 7’s surface diagonal measures 6.3 inches compared to the Pixel 6’s 6.4-inch display, and Google says the bezels person gotten slimmer, too. I’m taking Google astatine its connection connected this; I surely couldn’t archer a difference. The Pixel 7 Pro is inactive listed arsenic a 6.7-inch show and is inactive conscionable arsenic smooth-scrolling arsenic the 6 Pro’s display, with the aforesaid 120Hz apical refresh rate. The Pixel 7 sticks with a 90Hz screen, and portion some assertion a 25 percent betterment successful highest brightness, we weren’t capable to spot this for ourselves without taking the devices outdoors.

Something you can’t spot from the extracurricular is the Pixel 7’s upgraded selfie camera. Underneath the display’s hole-punch cutout is the aforesaid 10.8-megapixel sensor that the 7 Pro (and 6 Pro) includes. It offers a wider 20mm equivalent focal magnitude to get much radical successful your radical selfies, and it’s susceptible of 4K / 60p recording, whereas the Pixel 6’s selfie camera was constricted to 1080p.

<em>Hazel is our “fun” Pro colour  this year.</em><em>Face Unlock is simply a caller   summation  this year.</em><em>Both phones get   a caller   2x harvest  mode.</em><em>There’s an updated selfie camera nether  this Pixel 7’s hole-punch cutout.</em><em>Macro mode   is activated erstwhile   you determination   adjacent  capable   to your subject.</em>

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Hazel is our “fun” Pro colour this year.

Overall, Google is sticking with the aforesaid plan ethos arsenic past year, keeping the horizontal camera barroom with a flimsy update. Rather than a high-contrast achromatic finish, the look is simply a small much reserved, with a metallic decorativeness that blends into the phone’s broadside rails. Personally, I’m inactive not successful emotion with the wide design, but I deliberation this is an improvement.

Like past year, the Pro model’s aluminum framework features a polished finish, portion the modular Pixel 7’s framework uses a matte finish. They’re inactive IP68 devices, and they inactive look and consciousness similar the existent deal: existent flagship phones.

The lemongrass Pixel 7 is the champion  Pixel colour  this year. Don’t astatine  me.

The lemongrass Pixel 7 is the champion Pixel colour this year. Don’t astatine me.

Of course, the existent prima of the amusement isn’t disposable from the outside: Tensor G2, Google’s second-gen customized chipset. It’s down galore of the improvements Google is touting successful the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, similar amended telephone quality, a faster Night Mode, and the caller Cinematic Blur diagnostic for representation mode-style bokeh during video recording. I tried Night Mode with the camera covered by my achromatic shirt, and adjacent going for the maximum vulnerability and processing time, it did look rather a spot faster.

There’s a caller 2x zoom mode, too, disposable connected some devices. It crops into the halfway of the main camera sensor to make a 12-megapixel last representation that doesn’t necessitate immoderate up-sampling. It’s similar to what Apple is doing with the 14 Pro camera, and similar connected the iPhone, it’s disposable (and truly good suited) for Portrait Mode.

The 7 Pro includes a 10x harvest  mode   utilizing its 48-megapixel telephoto camera’s sensor.

The 7 Pro includes a 10x harvest mode utilizing its 48-megapixel telephoto camera’s sensor.

On the 7 Pro, you besides get a 10x zoom utilizing the aforesaid method connected the 5x telephoto camera. Interestingly, there’s a 5x mounting disposable for speedy entree successful the camera app, but you person to manually zoom to 10x to find the longer harvest mode. The Pro has a caller macro mode, too. It’s made imaginable by the summation of autofocus to the ultrawide camera, but it’s automatically activated erstwhile you’re utilizing the 1x main camera with a adjacent subject.

There’s much that Tensor G2 does, of course, but Google’s announcement contiguous doesn’t springiness the content that the acquisition of utilizing the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro volition beryllium drastically antithetic than the erstwhile generation. At slightest close now, these latest Pixel devices look awfully familiar.