Google Pixel 7 Pro review

Design, build quality, handling

Google found the flagship path again last year after getting sidetracked with the Pixel 5 in 2020. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro brought back the premium build and high-end specs (obviously, the Pro more so than the vanilla), and there’s no need for further disruption in 2022 – evolution will do.

Pixel 7 (left) next to Pixel 7 Pro

Indeed, the Pixel 7 Pro is overall physically very similar to the previous generation. The large form factor handset with curved edges front and back is a tried and true formula across numerous brands, but the Pixel-specific camera assembly on the back – the ‘visor’ as some call it – makes it uniquely recognizable as the Google phone.

It’s precisely the visor that is among the few new design touches this time around. Now an integral part of the aluminum midframe, the camera protrusion promises to be more durable than last year’s glass-covered implementation. That is to say, less prone to breaking, but not so to scratching – the internet is filled with reports of users already having nicked the visor.

The exposed parts of the aluminum skeleton, together with the visor, are polished to a glossy finish on the Pixel 7 Pro, in a color to complement the rear panel’s hue. Our review unit’s colorway goes by ‘Obsidian’ and even if you’d be quick to default to labeling it black, it’s more of a dark gray.

The other two color options go by Hazel and Snow.

Pixel 7 (left) next to Pixel 7 Pro

Regardless of colorway, the Gorilla Glass Victus rear panel will inevitably get covered in fingerprints. Our Snow Pixel 7 is good at masking them, but the Obsidian 7 Pro shows them a little more prominently. The Hazel should be somewhere in between.

There’s no saving the high-gloss finish on the frame and particularly the aluminum visor – you might as well just accept that your Pixel will never really be spotless and move on.

As far as the metal bits collecting smudges are concerned, Pixel 7 non-Pro owners need not worry – the satin treatment on the vanilla model’s frame and visor are way less prone to fingerprint accumulation.

That said, neither model is immune to pocket lint collecting at the foot of the camera bump. A case will likely only make the grime less visible, but it will still be there.

Pixel 7 (left) next to Pixel 7 Pro

Both the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro phones are dust- and water-resistant and carry an IP68 rating for submersion down to 1.5m for as much as 30 minutes. Apple is making everyone in the industry look bad, however, quoting a 6m depth for water submersion for several generations of iPhones now, while others, Pixels included, only cover the standard’s minimum depth requirement.

Over on the display side, the 6.7-inch curved edge OLED display is surrounded by a minimal black border. Depending on how you look at it, the top one can be considered as thin as the side ones, while the chin is marginally thicker.

A thin slit above the display spans more than half the width of the phone – seems like overkill for an earpiece, even one that doubles as a speaker, though it’s so slim you won’t be seeing it too much.

The Pixel 7 Pro uses an under-display fingerprint reader of the optical type. It’s positioned high enough to not require grip adjustment of any sort or make us feel like it poses a risk for dropping the phone like some of the especially low-positioned FPRs.

It’s a complicated relationship we’ve had with this reader. Between this reviewer and the one handling the Pixel 7 non-Pro, our experiences have varied considerably. There were no missed attempts here, while there were occasions on the Pixel 7 where two consecutive missed attempts would lead to a PIN prompt, even though the allowed recognition attempts haven’t been maxed out.

Regardless, we all agree that this is not the fastest reader out there. It’s bordering on being slower than ideal. That could have something to do with how the unlock animations are executed; we can’t be quite sure.

And to wrap up a much too long fixation on the fingerprint reader on a positive note, we’ll just mention it lights up quite sparingly, so it doesn’t blind you in darker environments.

We counted no less than 8 antenna bands around the perimeter of the Pixel 7 Pro, but the 4 ones that are the visor’s natural extension to the sides could almost pass for deliberate design accents.

What is harder to swallow is the cutout in the frame’s top, behind which the mmWave antenna would normally go. Only this here is not a mmWave capable device, and Google somehow managed to cover the cutout with a plastic cap that is in a distinctly different hue, and it’s simply an eyesore – which you may or may not be able to tell from the photos. Somehow, the non-Pro makes do without it.

A mic is also to be found here, but that one is just the usual pinhole, nothing remotely bothersome.

The SIM slot is on the left side of the handset, and it would take a single nano SIM card. On the bottom is where you’ll find the USB-C slot, the ‘main’ loudspeaker (left slit in the below image), and the primary mic (somewhere behind the other slit).

SIM slot on the left • The usual stuff on the bottom

And little by little, we make it to the handset’s right side, where the power button is still confusingly placed above the volume rocker as opposed to the other way around like on virtually every other phone.

The Pixel 7 Pro measures 162.9×76.6×8.9mm and weighs 212g. While the dimensions don’t make it look any more compact than either the Galaxy S22 Ultra or the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the Google phone feels easily the most compact of this trio thanks to its rounded edges (compared to the blocky iPhone) and rounded corners (compared to the practically rectangular Galaxy). The weight does also give the Pixel 7 Pro an advantage, especially against the 240g iPhone.

If you’re after a more pocketable high-end Pixel, the vanilla 7 is as close as you can get. It’s hardly truly compact, and at 197g, it’s anything but lightweight, but it does feel smaller than the Pro.

Pixel 7 Pro (left) next to Pixel 7

6.7-inch display is hard to fault

The Pixel 7 Pro is equipped with a 6.7-inch OLED display with all the bells and whistles you expect from a top-end phone. It’s got a 1440x3120px resolution in a 19.5:9 aspect for a 512ppi pixel density. The LTPO panel supports up to 120Hz refresh rate, and it should be able to ramp down to 10Hz depending on the use case.

Google promises 1000nits full-screen brightness and 1500nits peak for a 5% lit-up area. In our standardized testing (lighting up a 75% area of the screen), we measured 1090nits with the Adaptive brightness enabled and 588nits when adjusting the brightness manually. While the Galaxy S22s and especially the iPhone 14 Pros stand as somewhat of outliers when it comes to peak brightness, the Pixel 7 Pro’s numbers are well worthy of its flagship stature.

By the way, for kicks and giggles, we did test the display with just a 10% patch of white and measured 1462nits, essentially confirming Google’s 1500-nit claim.

Display test	100% brightness
	Black,cd/m2	White,cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Google Pixel 7 Pro	0	588	∞
Google Pixel 7 Pro (Max Auto)	0	1090	∞
Google Pixel 7	0	460	∞
Google Pixel 7 (Max Auto)	0	974	∞
Google Pixel 6 Pro	0	497	∞
Google Pixel 6 Pro (Max Auto)	0	860	∞
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra	0	494	∞
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Extra brightness)	0	829	∞
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Max Auto)	0	1266	∞
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max	0	828	∞
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max (Max Auto)	0	1760	∞
Sony Xperia 1 IV	0	602	∞
Xiaomi 12 Pro	0	506	∞
Xiaomi 12 Pro (Max Auto)	0	1050	∞
Oppo Find X5 Pro	0	475	∞
Oppo Find X5 Pro (Max Auto)	0	762	∞
OnePlus 10 Pro	0	498	∞
OnePlus 10 Pro (Max Auto)	0	780	∞
vivo X80 Pro	0	488	∞
vivo X80 Pro (Max Auto)	0	1014	∞

Color reproduction is handled in a very straightforward manner on the Pixel 7 Pro – you get just 2 modes with no further tweaking possibilities. The default Adaptive mode delivers a more vivid output and respectable, though not class-leading, accuracy for our DCI-P3 color swatches.

The Natural mode, on the other hand, is properly excellently tuned for sRGB content, though conversely, it’s less appealing in terms of pop. In either mode, there was no major color shift, so the absence of temperature adjustment capability isn’t really an issue.

The Pixel 7 Pro supports HDR10 and HDR10+, but no Dolby Vision. We got HDR streams across all popular platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, with the latter two streaming at 1080p, naturally.

For refresh rate, you get a single toggle in the settings menu called ‘Smooth Display’, which enables the 120Hz mode. The thing is, despite the official specsheet listing the display as being able to adjust refresh rate in the 10-120Hz range, Android only reports 120Hz and 60Hz modes, both in the Display.Mode class and while the phone is in use with the ‘Show refresh rate’ utility turned on in Developer options. So while it’s somewhat adaptive and will switch from 120Hz down to 60Hz for static content or when you’re not touching the display, other refresh rates don’t appear to be used (or supported). That’s quite perplexing.

Google Pixel 7 Pro battery life

The Pixel 7 Pro’s battery is specified at 5,000mAh, and if you’re particularly obsessed with detail, you could consider that a downgrade compared to the Pixel 6 Pro’s 5,003mAh capacity. Other big high-end Androids like the Galaxy S22 Ultra or the OnePlus 10 Pro also use 5,000mAh batteries, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max stands at 4,323mAh.

In our testing, the Pixel 7 Pro was good for a full day of voice calls, 12:38h of Wi-Fi web browsing (at a variable 120-60Hz refresh rate), or 17:14h of video playback (at a reported constant 60Hz refresh rate). Adding what turned out to be average for the class standby numbers into our formula, the Pixel arrived at an overall Endurance rating of 83h.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.

Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display’s highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage – check out our all-time battery test results chart.

The iPhone is markedly better at the screen-on tests, while the Galaxy and the OnePlus have only minor advantages in longevity.

The Pixel 7 Pro lets you change the resolution it renders from the native 1440p to 1080p. The numbers in the scorecard above are achieved in the default 1440p state and with the Smooth Display enabled for the web browsing test.

We did experiment with lowering the resolution, and we got over an hour extra in the web browsing test (13:49h), but essentially no difference in the video playback result. Keeping the resolution at 1440p but limiting the refresh rate to 60Hz also brought some savings in the web browsing test – 13:33h. Having found some idle time for our review unit, we figured the ultimate battery saving combo of 1080p resolution and 60Hz refresh rate was worth testing and we clocked that at 14:07h – it’s something, but not a lot.

Charging speed

The Pixel 7 Pro ships without a charger, but we tested with two third-party adapters that adhere to the USB PowerDelivery standard and are rated at up to 65W. Google’s specs say that the Pixel 7 Pro maxes out at 23W, and that’s roughly what we got with each of our chargers.

Now, while results were close between our two chargers, they were different – aren’t standards fascinating? The 1%-100% time we clocked on the Pixel 7 Pro with one of them was identical to the result of last year’s model (1:52h), and also the same as what we got on the iPhone 14 Pro Max with the Apple 20W adapter. The other adapter needed 1:49h.

Either way, that’s some of the slowest full charge test results we’ve gotten on a flagship phone – even notoriously slow-charging Sonys have gotten quicker with the Xperia 1 IV and the Galaxy S22 Ultra is a proper champ with its 1:04h time, even though industry leaders can do it in under 20 minutes.

It’s a similar story at the half-hour mark, where we got 43% and 46% with the chargers we used.

Of course, one may argue that proprietary charging solutions are needed for the crazy charging speeds that we see on the likes of the Xiaomi 12 Pro or the OnePlus 10 Pro. It’s worth pointing out, however, that the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra, whose 65W charger we used on the Pixel for one of our tests (the ever so slightly slower results), needs just 47 minutes from flat to 100% and is at 80% at the half-hour mark – with the same 5,000mAh capacity battery, mind you.

The ZTE isn’t entirely frank in its reporting, however, but even less so is the Pixel. Phones typically ‘lie’ to you and display a 100% state of charge while they continue to charge to reach a ‘full’ state. It’s a widely publicized peculiarity stemming from manufacturers aiming to protect battery health in the long run and also giving you a more appealing time for what is being presented as a full charge.

That is to preface that the Pixel is among the worse offenders in this respect, and it can take upwards of 25 minutes from the phone showing you a 100% number and actually reaching a ‘full’ state (it’s an Android flag that you can monitor for in software). Our tests are carried out to the 100% mark, a practice we’ve established for consistency reasons, and we don’t normally point out the distinction between 100% and ‘full’. On the Pixel 7 Pro, in particular, the 100-to-full time was so long that it merited mentioning.

30min charging test (from 0%)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12 Pro
  100%
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  98%
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  95%
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  91%
• vivo X80 Pro
  88%
• ZTE Axon 40 Ultra
  80%
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  75%
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (25W)
  61%
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  48%
• Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  48%
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  47%
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  46%

Time to full charge (from 0%)

Lower is better

• Xiaomi 12 Pro
  0:21h
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  0:32h
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  0:33h
• vivo X80 Pro
  0:39h
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  0:40h
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  0:42h
• ZTE Axon 40 Ultra
  0:47h
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (25W)
  1:04h
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  1:42h
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  1:49h
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  1:52h
• Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  1:52h

The Pixel 7 Pro supports wireless charging at up to the same 23W that it can take over a cable. That’s when using the Pixel stand, while other Qi-compliant pads will max out at 12W. Reverse wireless charging is also possible.

Speaker test

The Pixel 7 Pro has a hybrid stereo speaker setup with a ‘main’ unit firing out of the bottom of the phone and the earpiece acting as the second channel. The top speaker is assigned the left channel in portrait, while in landscape, the channels will be adjusted to match the actual orientation.

The bottom speaker will join in for the low-frequency range of the opposite channel too. You can easily tell that it’s louder if you play the same content solely in one channel and then in the other, but with real-life content, that imbalance isn’t nearly as pronounced.

Bottom speaker (the right slot) • Top speaker/earpiece

When it comes to loudness, the Pixel 7 Pro earned a ‘Very Good’ rating in our testing, on par with the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the OnePlus 10 Pro, and a notch above the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The sound quality is really nice, and we’re hearing rich vocals and a respectable low-end presence.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal “0db” flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Clean Android 13 with a Pixel twist

This is one of the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro’s key selling points – the clean, burden-less Android experience without heavy customizations and overlays. Just how Google intended it to be. But that doesn’t mean the Pixel 7 Pro lacks exclusive features. Quite the opposite, actually. Many functionalities can only be found on Pixel devices as Google wants to stand out from the crowd.

The Pixel 7 Pro is, of course, running the latest Android 13, which leads us to the next big advantage – updates. Google Pixel phones offer the fastest Android updates on the market, and the company promises at least three years of major Android updates and 5 years of security patches.

Lock screen • Home screen • Recent apps • App drawer • Quick toggles • Notification shade

If you are familiar with the stock Android look, you will easily feel right at home. The quick toggles are now pill-shaped in the notification shade, and there’s still no toggle for the automatic screen brightness.

One of the biggest new additions to the stock Android is support for theming – of the icons too. Music players now change their appearance based on the album art too. Last but not least, swiping up from the home screen opens up the app drawer along with the keyboard for an instant search – though if that’s not how you like to operate your app drawer, you can disable the auto keyboard behavior.

General settings • Theming

Speaking of music, Android 13 has native support for Spatial Audio as long as you have the appropriate headphones. The same goes for Bluetooth LE Audio, which improves quality and offers lower latency connection and broadcasting to multiple devices.

Those are, however, features found in other Android 13-powered devices. To stand out, Google decided to focus on the “smarts”. Some even call the Pixel “the smartest smartphone around,” and they may have a point there. Most of the features rely on machine learning algorithms leveraging the Tensor G2 SoC. On paper, the SoC doesn’t seem all that impressive, but in reality, it has a pretty powerful NPU. More on that later.

One of the most interesting features involves calling and speech. Call screening, for example, lets Google’s voice assistant take the call for you and even let you know what the call is all about. When calling a service or a business that requires you to select options using the dialpad, the assistant will transcribe all options, which the robot lists, on the screen and let you choose. No more guessing and remembering options from the voice menu. The dialer will even suggest calling at another time if you are calling the business at a busy time.

Smart calling features

Call captions are also an option. You can answer a call during a meeting or class without having to talk. The AI will transcribe what the person is saying on the other end, and you can answer by typing. The voice assistant will, of course, read out what you are typing to the other party in the call. Sadly, many of these features are limited to certain markets and languages, such as the Call screening, for example. The best part is that none of these features require an internet connection – the computational heavy lifting is carried out locally by the Tensor G2’s NPU.

While we are still on the subject of calls, we have to mention the advertised noise-suppression feature during phone calls. It works both ways – the other end can hear you more clearly when you’re in a noisy environment, while the Tensor G2 can remove the background noise from the other end of the call coming into your ear.

Other AI-based features include the ability to transcribe a whole real-life conversation with speaker labels, even if the phone is in your pocket. It’s a built-in function of the audio recorder app. It works really well for English speakers, and it might come in handy to journalists or people often making voice memos. There’s also a search function inside the app that would help you find certain parts of a conversation.

Recorder transcription of a podcast playing on speakers

The audio recognition capabilities of the Pixel 7 Pro include the long-standing ‘Now playing’ feature, of course. Former Pixel users will be familiar, but newcomers may be surprised by the built-in Shazam-like functionality. You just flick a switch in the Sound settings menu, and the phone will now look for music playing around you and automatically display the name of the track on the lockscreen or Always-on display. It will use Google’s audio search in case it can’t recognize the track.

Now Playing

The AI can also extract text and images on the go. In the recent apps menu, you will find two buttons – one for screenshot and one called “Select”. Once you tap it, you can select, copy, share or select text from the screen, even if it’s an image. You can even extract images using this feature. Interestingly, selection also works in the default recent apps menu with a tap-and-hold action.

Text and image recognition in apps

Blurry photos in the default gallery app, which is still Google’s Photos app, can be easily fixed using machine learning algorithms. Let’s just say that your mileage will vary with this one.

Unblur photos

The NPU is supposedly put to work to help improve the default face unlock. Since the latter uses the standard selfie camera, it’s still unreliable in low-lighting conditions or when half of your face is covered. It’s still blazingly fast in ideal conditions, though.

Performance and benchmarks

The Google Pixel 7 series is powered by the second-gen in-house Tensor chip, and when we say in-house, we mean that it’s designed by Google’s engineering team and tailored to the Pixel’s needs. It’s co-developed with Samsung, and it comes out of Samsung’s factory manufacturing 5nm 5LPE chips.

The Tensor G2’s CPU is in the same principal configuration as the previous one – 2+2+4 setup – which is still a bit unusual in the industry. The changes for this year include new mid-tier cores – Cortex A78 in place of A76, and they’re clocked a wee bit higher – 2.35GHz vs. 2.25GHz. The high-performance X1 cores have gotten a minor nudge from 2.80GHz to 2.85GHz. The quad-core efficiency-focused cluster remains the same – 4xCortex-A55 at 1.8GHz.

The GPU is new now – the Mali-G710 MP7 sits behind the wheel promising gains in the graphics department compared to last year’s model. That said, the MP7 designation is 3 fewer than the Mali-G710 MC10 in the Dimensity 9000, and fewer can’t be better in this context (not to mention the P vs. C discrepancy).

While the CPU improvements seem incremental on paper, Google promises a much-improved Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), which is capable of some serious number crunching when it comes to AI-related tasks. The camera and machine learning algorithms run about 60% faster here than last year’s Tensor G1 TPU. Many of the standout features we outlined in the software section might only be possible because of the new TPU.

We ran the usual set of benchmarks on the Pixel 7 Pro, and here’s how it compares to rivals powered by the latest and greatest from Samsung, Qualcomm and MediaTek.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  4338
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  4300
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  4265
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  4081
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  3839
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  3657
• ROG Phone 6D
  3531
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  3528
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  3512
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  3505
• vivo X80 Pro
  3505
• Realme GT2 Pro
  3501
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  3447
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  3433
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  3403
• Google Pixel 7
  3288
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  3187
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  2831
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  2659

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1324
• Asus Zenfone 9
  1313
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  1277
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  1276
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  1238
• Realme GT2 Pro
  1238
• vivo X80 Pro
  1184
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  1180
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  1165
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  1160
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  1127
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  1110
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  1056
• Google Pixel 7
  1051
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  1042
• ROG Phone 6D
  1015
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  1002
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  1001
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  975

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  1083092
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  1074722
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1039412
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  1032185
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  1012896
• vivo X80 Pro
  1002570
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  980755
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  968359
• Realme GT2 Pro
  966251
• ROG Phone 6D
  948594
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  931170
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  886916
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  886248
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  838832
• Google Pixel 7
  813114
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  796369
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  762090
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  719815

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  67
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  65
• ROG Phone 6D
  61
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  59
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  58
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  52
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  50
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  50
• Google Pixel 7
  49
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  43
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  40
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  38
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  37
• Realme GT2 Pro
  36
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  35
• vivo X80 Pro
  34
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  30
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  28
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  26

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  46
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  46
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  45
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  45
• ROG Phone 6D
  43
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  43
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  43
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  43
• Realme GT2 Pro
  42
• vivo X80 Pro
  41
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  40
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  40
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  37
• Google Pixel 7
  31
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  31
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  29
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  26

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  69
• ROG Phone 6D
  64
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  63
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  62
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  58
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  56
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  55
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  51
• Google Pixel 7
  46
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  45
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  41
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  39
• Realme GT2 Pro
  39
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  36
• vivo X80 Pro
  34
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  29
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  26
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  25

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  52
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  51
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  50
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  48
• ROG Phone 6D
  46
• Realme GT2 Pro
  46
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  44
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  44
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  43
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  38
• vivo X80 Pro
  37
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  34
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  32
• Google Pixel 7
  31
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  30
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  30
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  26

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  89
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  79
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  74
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  73
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  72
• ROG Phone 6D
  71
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  68
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  68
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  65
• Google Pixel 7
  59
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  59
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  48
• Realme GT2 Pro
  48
• vivo X80 Pro
  44
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  44
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  39
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  37
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  34

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  104
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  104
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  102
• Huawei Mate 50 Pro
  101
• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  100
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  97
• Realme GT2 Pro
  95
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  94
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  93
• vivo X80 Pro
  90
• ROG Phone 6D
  84
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  82
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  79
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  76
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  76
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  72
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  70
• Google Pixel 7
  66
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  63

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  10533
• Asus Zenfone 9
  10469
• Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
  10248
• Honor Magic4 Pro
  10183
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  9794
• vivo X80 Pro
  9778
• Oppo Find X5 Pro
  9758
• OnePlus 10 Pro
  9610
• Realme GT2 Pro
  9487
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  8687
• ROG Phone 6D
  8666
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  7437
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  7405
• Google Pixel 6 Pro
  6602
• Google Pixel 7
  6569
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  6470

3DMark Wild Life Extreme (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12T Pro
  2740
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  2611
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  2599
• ROG Phone 6D
  2555
• Google Pixel 7
  1848
• Google Pixel 7 Pro
  1835

As you can see from the results, the Tensor G2 is no slouch, but it’s also dragging behind the current competition. To be frank, Google Pixel phones have never been particularly strong performers in synthetic benchmarks. What we can report, anecdotally, is that the Pixel 7 Pro feels pleasantly smooth in use, so benchmark scores don’t tell the whole story.

More optical zoom, AF on the UW, better Super Res

The Pixel 6 Pro brought the major camera upgrades, the 7 Pro builds on them. For starters, the main camera is unchanged from last year’s model. The ultrawide may or may not have a new sensor, but it certainly has autofocus this time around – a most welcome development you don’t get on the non-Pro. At the opposite end of the zoom range, the telephoto now reaches 5x optical zoom (up from 4x) albeit at the expense of using a smaller sensor.

The primary camera’s sensor is most likely the Samsung GN1 and it has a 1/1.31″ optical format and uses 4-to-1 to get from its nominal 50MP resolution to 12.5MP resulting images. Google specifies an 82-degree field of view for the lens, which more or less corresponds to a 25mm equivalent focal length, though the EXIF data reports 24mm and that’s what the sensor’s crop factor points to as well. The lens is stabilized.

The ultrawide camera maintains the sensor numbers of its predecessor – 12MP, 1.25µm pixel pitch (so 1/2.9″ optical format), and it still produces 12.5MP images because numbers don’t matter anymore. The lens has a wider field of view this time (125.8° vs 114° on the Pixel 6 Pro), though you won’t be getting all of it once the distortion correction has its way. The most important development here is the introduction of autofocus, which not only enables the new macro mode, but also just plain lets you capture a wider variety of shots.

The telephoto is all new. It uses a 48MP 1/2.55″ sensor with 0.7µm pixels and this one is fairly certainly the Samsung GM5, replacing the 1/2″ imager of last year’s model. Again, the final photos are 12.5MP despite what arithmetic will have you believe. The lens here will get you 5x zoom to an EXIF-reported equivalent focal length of 117mm (Google says 20.6 degrees of field of view which should be 119mm). This lens is stabilized too, and has an f/3.5 aperture.

The selfie camera is now specified at 10.8MP with a 92.8° field of view, which sounds an awful lot like the old 11.1MP 94° field of view unit cropped in slightly. But since we’ve already established that numbers are all made up, you’d be getting 10MP selfies. The f/2.2 aperture lens lacks autofocus and we’d say that’s inexcusable anymore.

Completely overhauled for the previous generation, the camera app is now more or less the same as last year. In the main viewfinder, you’ll see a Settings cog in the upper left corner while the the location option that lets you decide whether to save photos or videos to the Photo Gallery or the Locked Folder has been assigned to a long press on the gallery shortcut next to the shutter release.

Viewfinder • Storage location • Quick settings • Portrait mode • Auto Night Sight • Night Sight

The camera app will always default to the ‘Camera’ photo mode. From left to right, the shooting modes are: Night Sight, Motion, Portrait, Camera, Video, and Modes which lets you access the Panorama, Photo Sphere, and Google Lens modes. Lens has modes for Translate, Text, Search, Homework, Shopping, Places, and Dining.

Tapping somewhere in the viewfinder will make a bunch of sliders show up – for white balance, shadow, and light. You can disable the lot of them, if you prefer. An option to shoot RAW images is provided, but you need to specifically enable this one in settings first. Similarly to last year, there’s no setting or mode to make the Pixel 7 Pro shoot at the sensor’s native 50MP resolution.

The Motion camera mode introduced on the last generation is here as well, with the same shooting options, still in Beta. Action Pan is used for capturing a fast-moving subject by following its path with the phone and blurring the background in the process. Long exposure is the opposite: you press the shutter button to capture something like a train, car trail lights, or something that’s moving quickly, and the background stays clear.

Settings • More settings • Advanced settings • Macro • Motion

Daylight image quality

Daylight photos out of the Pixel 7 Pro’s main camera are predictably great. Much has been said about that ‘Pixel look’ and we’re getting that on the 7 Pro as well. We’re talking about that gritty detail and extra clarity in textures and a tone curve that may leave shots looking a touch darker in the shadows than rival renditions. It’s a ‘look’ and it’s a look you may not like subjectively, but we’re mostly fans.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x)

The fall we have here does bring out the best of the Pixel’s color science and we’re getting rich hues that aren’t oversaturated yet look more vivid than even a Galaxy can muster. Dynamic range is excellent on the Pixel too, with that caveat we mentioned before – it just likes its lower midtones deeper and more intense, if that makes sense.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x)

Comparing against a Galaxy S22 Ultra, the images aren’t all that different in their overall impact, though the Galaxy does brighten its shadows more and can have its own take on skies and greenery. A Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, on the other hand, can almost look washed out next to these other two – it’s just not quite as expressive.

Comparison, main camera: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra • Mi 11 Ultra

At the 2x zoom level, the Pixel 7 Pro’s main camera leverages the camera shake you inevitably introduce when handholding the phone or creates its own controlled shake using the OIS mechanism if you’re on a tripod, in order to gather more date and come up with an image that’s better than a simple crop and upscale.

Indeed, the results are solid and if you’re worried that the gap between the main camera’s field of view and the 5x telephoto is too wide, fret not – Super Res has you covered.

Daylight samples, main camera (2x zoom)

Now, that’s not to say that others don’t do an equally good job of that. In fact, the iPhone 14 Pro (Max) is sharper and more detailed at 2x than pretty much anything, Pixel included, and even the Mi 11 Ultra has the edge against the Google phone. The Galaxy S22 Ultra does an okay job too, but it wouldn’t be our first pick.

Comparison, 2x zoom: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra • Mi 11 Ultra

The Galaxy doesn’t depend on that 2x zoom level quite as heavily, since it has a dedicated 3x camera. The Pixel can do 3x too even though it doesn’t have a shortcut to that magnification in the viewfinder (it does have a 2x). The way the Pixel achieves intermediate zoom levels between 2x and 5 is by stitching up composites where the center part of the image is sourced from the telephoto, while the periphery comes from the main camera.

It’s not a new concept and can work miracles depending on subject matter, though if you’re shooting something that has comparable level of detail across the frame, you’ll see the difference between the areas sourced from the different cameras.

Comparison, 3x zoom: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra

At 5x zoom, you’re at the native magnification of the Pixel’s telephoto. It’s not quite as sharp as some 5x alternatives, and it’s not processed quite in the same Pixel way so that texture and grittiness isn’t there. It’s still nicely detailed, it just doesn’t have any particular bite. It also has a different color rendition compared to the main camera – a more greenish tint that’s oddly not visible in the composites above.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (5x)

The Mi 11 Ultra is more or less our benchmark for telephoto performance and it has an edge over the Pixel 7 Pro when it comes to sharpness and fine detail, as well as microcontrast. It is noisier, however.

Comparison, 5x zoom: Pixel 7 Pro • Mi 11 Ultra

At 10x zoom, the Pixel 7 Pro takes on the Galaxy’s second telephoto and the past experience has proven that the Mi 11 Ultra is also competent at this level. Google’s efforts produce respectable results, and we’d certainly be okay with the Pixel’s 10x photos, though ultimately we’d say that the other two deliver an extra level of sharpness.

Comparison, 10x zoom: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra • Mi 11 Ultra

Things get more interesting at 30x. Here, the Galaxy has the lead, but the Pixel is roughly on par with the Xiaomi – albeit behind the Samsung.

Comparison, 30x zoom: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra • Mi 11 Ultra

From long tele to ultrawide, the Pixel 7 Pro’s new-ish module performs to a high standard. It’s a perfect match for the main camera’s output in terms of color and detail rendition (in a way that the tele isn’t).

Curiously, if you’re viewing the Pixel’s images on a PC, the thumbnails you’d be seeing would give you a wider field of view with a ton of distortion, while the actual images will have the distortion correction applied and denying you some of the coverage – apparently, the embedded thumbnails are generated before the final processing. Our thumbnails here are obtained from the final image, so they’re not representative of that ‘issue’.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera

In any case, the Pixel 7 Pro’s ultrawide captures sharper images than what should be a better-specced unit on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and does so with practically no noise or purple fringing – both readily observable on the Samsung. The Xiaomi’s ultrawide is an entirely different beast with a much larger sensor but that’s not giving it any meaningful advantage in bright daylight (though it does have a more natural rendition of fine detail than the other two).

Comparison, ultrawide camera: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra • Mi 11 Ultra

With the ultrawide camera’s new-found autofocusing capability, the PIxel 7 Pro can be used to capture closeups. It’s one of those implementations where an auto ‘macro’ mode kicks in, if you’re shooting on the main camera and get really close to a subject, at which point the phone will switch to a zoomed in view from the ultrawide. If you want to stay in this mode, you can tap on the padlock icon to ‘lock’ yourself into macro mode – otherwise, the phone will switch back to the main camera. You can also disable the auto macro behavior if you don’t want the phone to be changing cameras without your explicit consent.

You can’t get into this macro mode from the ultrawide, you need to be on the main camera for the phone to trigger the mode.

Anyway, the closeup photos are good. You can make out the pocket lint accumulated around the Pixel 7’s visor (it’s the same on the 7 Pro, but the 7 doesn’t have the macro capability to capture it), and the a certain Danish toy company’s logo is also easily readable. Naturally, per-pixel detail isn’t strictly matching the 12.5MP resolution, but a decent performance overall.

Mind you, as a lot of imaging processes on the Pixel, the macro shots take a few extra moments to reach their final form – don’t be alarmed if the image in the viewfinder or in even in the gallery immediately post-shot looks kinda soft, it will get better.

‘Macro’ samples

Low-light image quality

With the advancement of the Night mode and the ever growing popularity of its auto application in the default photo mode, we’re somewhat at odds how to proceed with our low-light testing methodology. On the Pixel 7 Pro, we observed that the Auto Night Sight produced largely identical results to those obtained in the dedicated Night Sight mode. As a rule of thumb those are better results than what the Camera mode can deliver in all but the best lit of scenes in which Auto Night Sight doesn’t kick in (explicitly – we can never be too sure what’s going on). Consequently, we’ll be treating the Night Sight photos as the ‘default’, though we will provide samples with it turned off.

With that lengthy preamble out of the way, let’s just say that the Pixel 7 Pro takes some great-looking low-light shots, though it can’t quite claim the ‘best’ title. It retains the intense colors we saw in daylight and also isn’t too keen to boost the shadows – not during the day, and not after dark either. Dynamic range is very good, but again, not the widest – you’ll see below that highlights can be contained a notch better. Detail is about on par with competing 12-ish MP efforts and noise is competently removed.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Night Sight

You’ll see in this improvised comparison that both the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Xiaomi 11 Ultra capture generally brighter images and lift the shadows more than what the Pixel 7 Pro does. Perhaps it can be argued that the Pixel approach is more true to life, but we tend to prefer our night-time images brighter. Both the Galaxy and the Mi (especially the Mi) are also more aggressive with their highlight preservation.

Comparison, main camera, Night mode: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra • Mi 11 Ultra

With Auto Night Sight turned off, the Pixel 7 Pro’s main camera still does very well in all but the darkest scenes which can end up noticeably softer and underexposed (3rd row, second sample).

Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Camera, Auto Night Sight OFF

At the 2x setting, the Pixel maintains a very respectable level of performance – similar, but not quite up to the iPhone 14 Pro (Max)’s standard at the same magnification. We also got unusually noisy results in some scenes on the Pixel.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x), Night Sight

Just as was the case at 1x, the 2x shots aren’t dramatically different without Night Sight.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x), Camera, Auto Night Sight OFF

The 5x telephoto on the Pixel 7 Pro does admirably in the dark. In fact, the darker it is, the better the Pixel’s shots look in comparison to competitors at the same zoom level, though conversely, in more abundant lighting it can be slightly softer than that Mi 11 Ultra (compare further down below). The Pixel has great color preservation and wide dynamic range, so it’s hard to find grounds for complaint.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (5x), Night Sight

The Galaxy doesn’t look too good at 5x in the day, so we figured we won’t torture it in the dark and kept it at its native 3x for this intermediate zoom comparison. We think that’s fair – even though it makes for an essentially different shot, it’s the shot that you’d be able to capture with it in that situation.

As we mentioned, the Pixel can be sharper than the Xiaomi in darker scenes, but more importantly it’s got more faithful color rendition – the Mi tends to bleach warmer lights. The Galaxy does very well with color, and is also excellently sharp – more so than the other two, although there’s a bit of that apples vs. oranges caveat (the 3x vs. 5x thing).

Comparison, telephoto camera, Night mode: Pixel 7 Pro (5x) • Galaxy S22 Ultra (3x) • Mi 11 Ultra (5x)

With Night Sight off on the Pixel’s tele, dark scenes can get problematic – the second and fifth sample here are way underexposed and soft.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (5x), Camera, Auto Night Sight OFF

At the 10x zoom level, the Xiaomi falls behind the other two in terms of sharpness, and it’s mostly a toss up between the Pixel and the Galaxy.

Comparison, telephoto camera (10x), Night mode: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra • Mi 11 Ultra

The Pixel 7 Pro’s ultrawide is best described as ‘good enough’. It captures decent detail in the dark, while maintaining color fidelity and solid dynamic range.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), Night Sight

The Galaxy does manage an extra level of sharpness over the Pixel, but its yellowish take on warm floodlights is a bit off. Somewhat disappointingly, the Mi 11 Ultra’s large-sensor UW doesn’t seem to be doing a better job.

Comparison, ultrawide camera, Night mode: Pixel 7 Pro • Galaxy S22 Ultra • Mi 11 Ultra

You’ll probably not want to turn off Night Sight on the Pixel 7 Pro’s ultrawide. Darker scenes can end up nearly pitch black, but even better lit ones will look underexposed.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (1x), Camera, Auto Night Sight OFF

Once you’re done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Google Pixel 7 Pro stacks up against the competition.

Google Pixel 7 Pro against the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the iPhone 14 Pro Max in our Photo compare tool

Portrait mode

The Pixel 7 Pro’s Portrait mode operates at two magnifications, both captured on the main camera. They’re labeled 1x and 2x in the Portrait mode viewfinder, but they correspond to something like 1.6x and 3x if you match their field of view in Camera mode – why not. Then there’s the matter that if you tap on the 2x zoom in Camera mode and then switch to Portrait mode, the Phone will be at 1.3x in Portrait mode (which will match the FoV of the 2x in Camera mode).

That’s all part of the otherwise most welcome behavior of the Pixel phone (and none other that we can think of) not to default to 1x whenever you switch between modes, but to maintain whatever magnification you were at. If looked at from that perspective, and with the argument of consistency, perhaps it makes sense. But we still find it disconcerting that the fields of view of the zoom levels in Portrait mode don’t match those in Camera mode for the same ‘x’ designation.

Anyway… The 1x Portrait mode shots are excellent. The 38-ish mm equivalent focal length is just enough to place you at a comfortable distance from your subject, while Google’s image processing blurs the line between digital zoom and magic and the subjects are nicely detailed – not quite pixel-perfect nice, but very good. Subject detection is proficient too and the background blur looks as natural as can be.

Portrait mode samples (1x)

Things do tend to fall apart at the 2x zoom level in Portrait mode and detail becomes pretty sketchy. With closer background, you may also end up without much blur either.

Portrait mode samples (2x)

We also shot the same scenes in regular Camera mode with the main camera in its native field of view. These images do have better per-pixel clarity and there’s some of that characteristic Pixel-style texture enhancement, now applied to faces. With distant backdrops you’ll also get decent subject separation but you’d be better off in Portrait mode when your subject is placed against a nearby background.

Camera mode samples (1x)

Selfies

There’s some wild zoom action on the selfie camera as well, with the supposedly 10.8MP sensor capturing 10MP images at two zoom levels – the native 0.7x and what has to be a crop-and-upscale-and/or-super-res 1.0x zoom level.

At the wide setting and when treated to good light, the Pixel 7 Pro’s selfie camera can produce some very good images. It can be very picky what constitutes good light, however. It doesn’t like backlit scenes, where faces tend to end pretty soft. Indoor light isn’t ideal either, even though the phone maintains ISOs around 50, and harsh sunlight does make the list of recommended conditions either. Global properties like color rendition and dynamic range are great, but detail leaves us wanting in all but that first photo, and especially in the backlit scene.

Selfie samples, wide (0.7x)

Due to the confusing nature of the 1.0x mode, we can’t dismiss it as simply a crop from the main images in the same way Samsung’s and Apple’s selfie crops work. That said, these do generally look softer than the 0.7x ones (expected), but only ever so slightly so (somewhat surprising). Again, lighting is key and anything remotely demanding hurts the per-pixel quality.

Selfie samples, crop (1x)

Portrait selfies can be slightly softer still, compared to their respective regular shots, but they do look just fine at fit to screen viewing level. Subject separation isn’t infallible and there are occasions where bits of the background will remain unblurred along the border betwe subject and background. Overall, it’s not a bad performance, but it’s not ‘wow’ either.

Selfie portrait samples, wide (0.7x)

Selfie portrait samples, crop (1x)

Video recording

The Pixel 7 Pro can record video up to 4K60 with all four of its cameras. There’s no 8K capability, which only goes to show the level-headedness on Google’s part – 4K is good enough. The h.264 codec is used by default, but you can opt for the h.265 in settings. Stabilization is available in all modes on all cameras, and there are several flavors of it, some tailor-made for specific use cases.

Main camera footage at 1x zoom in broad daylight is great. The 4K30 (47Mbps bit rate)and 4K60 (71Mbps) clips have essentially the same picture quality with lots of fine detail (if a little heavily processed) and essentially no noise. You’re getting excellent contrast and lovely vivid color output.

The 2x zoom level does look kinda mushy when viewed from up close, but it maintains the overall look of the 1x footage (it’s the same camera after all) and if you step back, you’ll be okay with the footage. Of course, it’s no good for critical work (if we’re to assume that native FoV capture is). There’s no difference between 30fps and 60fps here either.

You guessed it, 4K30 and 4K60 at 5x zoom look the same between them, as well. They’re not the sharpest zoom clips we’ve seen, but they’re almost up there – just behind the Mi Ultras of this world. Just as in stills, there’s a fairly prominent green cast if you look at side-by-side comparisons with the main camera, though it may go unnoticed in isolation.

The ultrawide continues the strong performance and captures great-looking clips, be it at 30fps or 60fps.

The main camera is a very competent low-light shooter and shows high detail levels and well controlled noise. Colors maintain their pop, dynamic range is excellent and halos are kept in check too.

2x zoom footage during the night is soft and more evidently exposes the camera’s tendency to flare in such conditions – the bright light dots scattered across the frame shouldn’t be there.

Neither the tele, nor the ultrawide are impressive when taken out of context as the footage of both can look soft and noisy. However, in their respective realms, both deliver above average results.

Video stabilization on the Pixel 7 Pro can get a review of its own, but we’ll try to keep it brief. There are four separate modes, Standard being the default multi-purpose one for all cameras and resolution/framerate combos.

Then there’s Locked mode that is only available at the 2x and 5x zoom levels (still up to 4K60) and is meant for distant subjects and you keeping still.

Active mode, conversely, is for action shots and it’s somewhat odd that it’s limited to 30fps (at 1080p too) – we’d expect 60fps. It’s sourced from the ultrawide camera but offers 1x and 2x zoom levels.

Lastly, there’s Cinematic pan, which is not to be confused with the standalone Cinematic video mode (more on that later). This one is available on all four rear cameras at both 1080p and 4K resolutions and records at 60fps, but plays back at half speed – ‘for professional-looking cinematic shots’. You need to provide sound in post, none is being recorded in this mode.

In Standard mode, the Pixel 7 Pro’s camera is ever so slightly too shaky for our liking when it comes to smoothing out walking induced shake. It’s great when you’re pointing in one direction and pans without abrupt transitions, it’s just that walking is stabilized better elsewhere.

The ultrawide, on the other hand, is essentially flawless.

Active mode on the main camera does remove walking shake just fine – or rather running shake. But it limits you to 1080p30 and that’s no way to shoot your videos.

The 5x telephoto, in the same regular Standard mode, is stabilized very well, if not quite perfectly so.

We saw no meaningful improvement in the stabilization in the Locked mode on the 5x. We did observe a marked difference in the color rendition – in a positive direction too. We’re not sure exactly what to make of it.

The Cinematic mode is sort of like Portrait mode for video, where the phone will apply extra blur to your background (or foreground, depending on subject). It records in 1080p at 24fps on the main camera only.

Here’s a glimpse of how the Google Pixel 7 Pro compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Google Pixel 7 Pro against the Galaxy S22 Utlra and the iPhone 4 Pro Max in our Video compare tool

Competition

Positioned against the big two – Apple and Samsung, the Google Pixel phones at least make it somewhat easy on us to round up the alternatives. And with a base price of $900/€900/INR 85K, the Pixel 7 Pro is almost universally less expensive than either the iPhone 14 Pro Max or the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

The Pro Max, for one, is $200 pricier in the US, a whopping €550 more in Europe, and a similar 65% on top of the Pixel 7 Pro’s asking price in India. The Google phone then doesn’t even have to be better than the iPhone to make a compelling enough case for itself – and in many ways, it’s as good. Sure, the iPhone may be posher and built tougher, but the Pixel is lighter and more compact-feeling. Not quite perfect, the Pixel’s camera system is superior to the iPhone’s in some ways. If anyone can compete with Apple on hardware-software integration, it’s got to be Google. The iPhone’s battery life is a strong advantage, admittedly, but need we reiterate the price difference?

It’s all the more revealing how good of a deal the Pixel 7 Pro is compared to Apple’s offerings when you consider that even the iPhone 14 Pro (non-Max) is $100/€400/INR 45K pricier.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s price isn’t as easy to specify since you can get one at more outlets than you can an iPhone. Still, a quick search at reputable retailers returns $1100/€970/INR 96K numbers, and those are, again, higher prices than what you can get a Pixel 7 Pro for. Now, the Galaxy has some unique selling points of its own, the most prominent one being the stylus. It’s got a battery life advantage over the Pixel, and actually charges faster (not a category where Galaxies often emerge victorious). There’s no clear-cut winner in a camera comparison here, and software can be a divisive subject between these two.

Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max • Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G

It can then be argued that maybe the Pixel 7 Pro’s main competitor is the Pixel 6 Pro. Taking some of the more contentious considerations out of the way, like software and camera differences (because, let’s face it, the 7 Pro’s camera system is not a giant leap coming from the 6 Pro), and without any of the advantages like the iPhone’s battery life or the Galaxy’s S Pen, the Pixel 6 Pro will do most of what the 7 Pro will, at some $250/€200/INR 20K less. You’ll be missing out on the new chipset, and all the known and unknowable goodies it provides, and also the AF-capable ultrawide, but the core reasons to go #teampixel are there.

Core Pixel defined, this year’s ‘small’ 7 comes in at a similar price as last year’s Pro. It has the latest chipset with all that entails but is missing a telephoto, though you may very well be perfectly okay with the perfectly okay Super Res 2x zoom.

Google Pixel 6 Pro • Google Pixel 7

Verdict

Pixels have historically lacked mainstream appeal, and the lack of truly global availability is no small part of why that is so. This year, the list of countries with official Pixel presence has been expanded to 16, and maybe that will drive sales numbers up, even if a lot of the world will still be missing out.

And there’s quite a lot to be missing out on. The camera system is the single biggest Pixel 7 Pro selling point that comes to mind, and it brings some welcome improvements, even if a bit modest. That, of course, comes on top of what is a hard to quantify character that you simply can’t get on anything that’s not a Pixel.

Similarly challenging to put a number on is the software experience – benchmarks certainly don’t do the 7 Pro any justice. Android, the way Google envisions it, is a rather unique blend of simplicity and feature-richness, and here, it’s delivered to your fingertips with a level of fluidity only Apple can muster.

But it’s when getting to the numbers that the Pixel 7 Pro struggles to compete on quite the same level as a lot of the other big-name rivals. Battery life is markedly worse than on a current iPhone, and a Galaxy will likely get you better longevity too. Neither Apple nor Samsung are industry leaders in charging speed, but Google has become an industry… trailer? Two hours for a full charge can turn into an actual issue in day-to-day use, we reckon. And then, despite all the gushing over Pixel cameras, there’s potential for improvement here or there as well.

Ultimately, though, the Pixel 7 Pro is a compelling package that can easily win over other brand loyalists if given a chance, and the enticing pricing helps a lot. Meanwhile, the folks already on the #teampixel bandwagon will need more convincing, particularly if they’re already rocking the previous generation Pixel. But that’s true for mostly any smartphone sequel these days, ain’t it?

Pros

• Lighter than the two main competitors, about as premium too; IP68 dust- and water-resistant.
• Sharp, bright, color-accurate, with a high refresh rate, this display is stellar.
• Android from the source, exclusive feature set, unrivaled perception of smoothness on this side of the OS divide.
• Superb stereo speakers.
• Great camera quality overall with an unmatched character that has a loyal following.
• Less expensive than major competitors.

Cons

• Below average battery life, perhaps partly a consequence of display refresh rate seemingly not as adaptive as advertised.
• Very slow charging by today’s standards.
• Certain software features are regionally limited (though admittedly, so is the phone’s availability, to begin with).
• Ultrawide camera underwhelming in low light.
• Selfies rarely come out tack sharp.