The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro Might Just Be Google’s Best Phones Yet

The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro Might Just Be Google’s Best Phones Yet

Back in May, Google teased the next generation of its flagship phones, spending the next five months drumming up excitement over what we were all expecting to be the best Pixels yet. Well, merely moments ago, Google officially unveiled the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro, and our first thoughts are “wow”.

The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro still boast Google’s phone ‘feel’, differentiating just enough from the 6 and 6 Pro. There’s a more rounded edge to the Pixel this year and on the back, where the camera lives, has a more succinct layout.

Google VP of product management Brian Rakowski called it “the ultimate refinement of Pixel”. He also fired a few shots at Apple.

Oh. The Pixels now use face unlock and have a free VPN.

Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro

Last year, Google upped the ante, with the Pro boasting a 48MP camera that partnered Google’s software to make a phenomenal photo/video-taking experience. It wasn’t just the camera, battery life was epic and overall the Google software-hardware combo had Pixel fiends delighted. This year, the camera systems remains mostly unchanged, but the Google Tensor G2 chip means the software is more powerful, delivering a better all-round camera experience.

It of course isn’t just about the camera.

Pixel 7 specs at a glance

  • Screen: OLED, 6.3-inch, 20:9 aspect ratio
  • Refresh rate: up to 120Hz
  • Size: 155.6 mm x 73.2 mm x 8.7 mm
  • Weight: 197 grams
  • Battery: all day (24 hours+), up to 72-hour battery life with Extreme Battery Saver
  • Storage: 128 GB, 256 GB
  • Processor: Google Tensor G2
  • Camera: 50MP wide, 12MP ultrawide and 10.8MP selfie cam
  • Authentication: fingerprint, face unlock, PIN/pattern/password
  • Network: 5G
  • Water resistance: IP68
  • Colours: Lemongrass, Snow, Obsidian (black)

Pixel 7 Pro specs at a glance

  • Screen: OLED, 6.7-inch, 19.5:9 aspect ratio
  • Refresh rate: up to 120Hz
  • Size: 162.9 mm x 76.6 mm x 8.9 mm
  • Weight: 212 grams
  • Battery: all day (24 hours+), up to 72-hour battery life with Extreme Battery Saver
  • Storage: 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB
  • Processor: Google Tensor G2
  • Camera: 50MP wide, 12MP ultrawide, 48MP telephoto and 10.8MP selfie cam
  • Authentication: fingerprint, face unlock, PIN/pattern/password
  • Network: 5G mmWave
  • Water resistance: IP68
  • Colours: Hazel, Snow, Obsidian (black)

More camera things

Adding to last year’s commitment to representing all skin colours via Real Tone, the new Pixels promise to better represent everyone in night-time settings. Google has also added ‘Guided Frame’ allowing those with vision impairment to still capture photographs – it’s basically a ‘smart selfie’ feature. It’s great to see.

Cameras have always struggled to get clear photos at all times, but with the Tensor G2, Google reckons the Pixel 7 can nail it every time. Night Sight is twice as fast this year, reducing motion blur. During the day, fusing images from ultrawide and main camera to ensure faces are clear, but this year machine learning has been applied to reduce even more blur. But…with Photo Unblur, the Pixel can take an older photo (ones not taken on a Google phone) to unblur the shot. You can even use Google’s Magic Eraser on old shots, too.

Cinematic Blur brings this feature to, you guessed it, Cinematic Videos. 10-bit HDR also means brighter vids, higher contrast and essentially more like real life. Active Stabilization also promises to reduce the movement in videos, upping its auto-focus capabilities, too. Speech enhancements have also been jammed in.

On zoom, Google reckons it’s like having the power of “all the DLSR lenses you’ll ever need”. Super Res Zoom means ridiculous zoom capabilities – there’s a whole article alone in the zoom capabilities of the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, but the TL;DR is it can zoom all the way up to 30x.

At the other end of the spectrum, the ultrawide lens in the Pixel 7 Pro allows for macro shots to be taken up to 3cms away with super high clarity.

Shots fired at Apple

Rakowski took the opportunity to highlight things that Google phones have had for years that other phones (cough, Apple) are only just bringing in, such as the always-on display that the Pixel 2 had, as well as placing useful info on a lock screen. He said night sight (launched with the Pixel 3) and astrophotography already set the bar for night photography on a smartphone. Also, he reminded us, that car crash detection has been a thing in the Pixel world for the last three years, as has Safety Check and Emergency Sharing.

When it comes to text messages, Rakowski also mentioned he hopes that soon, more device manufacturers will jump on RCS, calling it “the modern industry standard for messaging”.

What else?

If you’re already a Pixel user, you’ll get most of what you’re used to, but one of the standouts has to be Google giving away its VPN by Google One service to Pixel 7 and 7 Pro users.

Voice assistance gets a boost – which was shown off by asking the Pixel 7 to insert a “woohoo” emoji (the one with the two raised hands you never know what words to use to search for it).

There’s a tonne of additional features, head to Google’s website to read more.

Pixel 7 and 7 Pro Australian pricing and availability

Currently, Optus doesn’t have any deals on the Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro, and it seems across the board, Vodafone is offering the cheapest price for each handset, with the Pixel 7 (128GB) starting at $81.62/month over 24 months, with a monthly data allowance of 40GB.

Cheapest 24-month Pixel 7 (128GB) plans

Cheapest 24-month Pixel 7 (256GB) plans

Cheapest 24-month Pixel 7 Pro(128GB) plans

Cheapest 24-month Pixel 7 Pro (256GB) plans

Cheapest 24-month Pixel 7 Pro (512GB) plans

If you’re someone who prefers to buy their new phones outright, or you want to compare the full retail price to the minimum cost of the above plans, here’s the price for each Pixel 7/7 Pro model:

  • Pixel 7 (128GB): $999
  • Pixel 7 (256GB): $1,129
  • Pixel 7 Pro (128GB): $1,299
  • Pixel 7 Pro (256GB): $1,449
  • Pixel 7 Pro (512GB): $1,599

Every version of the Google Pixel 7 will be available from Thursday, 13 October.

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This article has been updated since it was first published.


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