Pixel 7 and 7 Pro unveiled with camera improvements and Tensor G2

 

Unlike other makers Google doesn’t saturate the market with constant releases – the newly unveiled Pixel 7 duo brings the total of new phones for 2022 to just three (the other being the 6a). That’s fewer phones than even Apple.

Like last year there are two models – a smaller vanilla phone and a larger Pro and they serve the same roles as last year. The smaller one is cheaper ($600) and, well, smaller, the Pro has the better display and camera (dedicated telephoto), but you pay extra for it ($900). It’s almost like there could have been a Plus model in between the two, but not this year. Let’s have a closer look at the phones that we did get.

𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙋𝙞𝙭𝙚𝙡 7 𝙋𝙧𝙤:

The Pixel 7 Pro is the best phone from Google for the next 12 months or so and it has the makings of a true flagship: a sharp, high refresh rate display, a big camera sensor, the wide/ultra wide/tele lens combo, a distinctive look, security features and promises of long software support.

That said, the differences from last year’s Pro are not that many. It all rides on the new Tensor G2 chipset and the revamped telephoto camera. Let’s look at the chipset first.

It is fabbed as Samsung’s 4nm process, not well-loved but still an improvement over the 5nm node used for the original chip. The CPU uses 2x Cortex-X1 cores, 2x A78 and 4x A55 cores along with updates in clock speed. The GPU is a Mali-G710 MC10, which promises a performance and efficiency increase over the G78 for graphics but also a 35% boost for machine learning tasks (something that the Pixel Camera app leverages heavily). There is also a new Tensor core and new modem to boot.

The next-gen Tensor processing unit is able to run machine learning tasks 60% faster and 20% more efficiently. It is responsible for features like Photo Unblur, which is exclusive to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro - it uses Google's advanced AI to remove blur and noise from old photos taken years ago with any old phone. It works to improve the Pixel 7's own cameras too, of course, more on that in a second

Like last year, the phone comes with 12GB of RAM and you can choose between 128GB, 256GB and 512GB storage. There is no microSD slot, of course, what you do get is a nano-SIM slot and an eSIM for a second line.

Let’s look at the cameras next. The main module still utilizes a 50MP 1/1.31” sensor (1.2µm) with the option for 4-in-1 binning. The f/1.85 lens has an 82° field of view. If you want to capture more of the scene, there is the 12MP ultra wide camera (1.25µm) with 125.8° FoV. One upgrade this year is that the ultra wide lens has autofocus, allowing it to take macro shots.

The main camera has Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) as well as electronic stabilization, it can record 4K videos at 30fps and 60fps. The "speech enhancement" feature can now be enabled in 4K/60fps mode as well. The phone can record 10-bit HDR video and Google has partnered with the makers of apps like Snapchat and TikTok to enable the higher quality videos for them as well. The camera app leverages the machine learning skills of the Tensor G2 chipset to create cinematic blur or to stabilize handheld footage even further.

Next up, the telephoto camera. It now has a longer lens with 5x optical magnification, up from 4x. The extra reach comes at the cost of a slightly smaller sensor, (0.7µm pixels instead of 0.8µm), but it still has 48MP resolution, allowing it to zoom in further digitally with some special Pixel magic. There is the selfie camera to talk about, but we’ll leave that for the Pixel 7 report below.

The 6.71” AMOLED display on the Pixel 7 Pro makes it stand next to its vanilla sibling. Not only due to its size, but also because it is a QHD+ LTPO panel with 10-120Hz variable refresh rate. The sides of the display are not as curved as last year, though they are still guarded by Gorilla Glass Victus.

There is an in-display fingerprint reader in there as well, which is fast and secure. Alternatively, you can use the more convenient Face unlock.

There are a few more things left to mention, like the 5,000mAh battery – same capacity as last year. It supports fast charging (fast in Pixel terms), wireless and reverse wireless charging.

The phone has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. While it is a millimeter shorter, it is nearly a millimeter wider than last year’s model (we guess that’s the price to pay for the flatter display). The metal chassis of the phone is made out of 100% recycled aluminum.