Verdict
The Google Pixel 7 stay a charming and impressive all - rounder with a specially impressive camera organisation , especially now that it ’s cheaper in the wake of the Pixel 8 release .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Google Pixel 7 is now over a class old , having been displaced by the newer , fasterGoogle Pixel 8 . But despite its historic period , it ’s still worthy of your care , especially at the new terms point
It ’s now possible to find the Pixel 7 telephone set with a sinewy price swing from its already tempting £ 599 RRP . With many flagship phones now cost upwards of £ 1000/$1000 , this makes the Pixel a bonafide bargain .
That state , there ’s peck of competition in the mid - range smartphone realm , including Google ’s ownPixel 7a , Nothing Phone ( 2)andMotorola Edge 40 .
So is the Google Pixel 7 still good enough to be a worthy buy in 2024 ? Here ’s our full followup , let in an in - depth delve into its camera skill and plenty more .
Design and Screen
Just as a high - performing camera is a touch of the Pixel range , so is an eye - catching design . This contemporaries has seen a significant makeover from its predecessors , with a nice shiny metallic camera bar now replace the somewhat nondescript disgraceful bar of thePixel 6 .
The lustrous back board both looks and feels highly attractive , available in a trinity of alluring colours ( Obsidian , Lemongrass , Snow ) while feeling very smooth to the touch .
However , whilst it certainly look upright , I did feel get to by the tv camera bar in oecumenical , mainly because of its vertical border . While many other phones have a smooth bump to the television camera module ( best exemplified by theOppo Find X5 Pro ) , this one has corners that are so geometric as to be almost sharp .
It makes it a tad less well-to-do to hold , it collects small suggestion of dust in the corners which detract from the visual appeal , and I set up it can even snag on jean pockets when you ’re take your telephone out . Therefore , while the Pixel 7 certainly does look good , I think it could have done with a piece more thought into its ergonomics .
Another slight grumble along these lines in the locating of the power and volume buttons . On most phone , you find these nearer the top and the bottom respectively , but this phone rescind the order of magnitude and so can take a little acquiring used to ; for the first few weeks of using it , you might accidentally shove along out your tympanic membrane when essay to switch off the screen , or turn off a video when you ’re trying to hear what someone is state .
You also wo n’t get any handy little “ optional extras ” as far as hardware is concerned : no 3.5 mm headphone jak , no SD card tray , and no physical double SIM capableness ( though there is eSIM livelihood ) . None of these are in particular surprising though , as Pixels left these features behind a while ago .
as luck would have it though , the Google Pixel 7 is a robust twist . It ’s got anIP68 evaluation , so it is well protected against body of water and dust , and it ’s also constructed fromGorilla Glass Victuson the front and the back , so will not be prone to scratching or cracking .
Most importantly , the design remains largely unchanged with the new Pixel 8 , so you ’re getting the same design regardless of the model you prefer for .
The AMOLED screen measures 6.3 inch and , therefore , is a touch modality larger than the unexampled Pixel 8 ( at 6.2 inches ) , Samsung Galaxy S23 ( at 6.1 inches and the iPhone 15 ( 6.1 inches ) but it persist very easy to utilise with one hand , and the video display is still plenty boastful enough to watch video on and employ your apps as common .
The settlement of 1080×2400 is incisive at this size , the contrast is robust thanks to its AMOLED tech , and it ’s hopeful enough to be able to be understand under direct sunlight .
One slight potential shortcoming is that its maximumrefresh rateis capped at 90Hz , while many rivals , admit the Pixel 7 Pro and young Pixel 8 , have hit a refresh pace of 120Hz . Even the chintzy Nothing Phone ( 2a ) flaunts a 120Hz , despite being cheaper than the Pixel 7 .
This means that the Pixel 7 feels less legato when you ’re scroll , as the display renews itself significantly fewer time per second . I do n’t recollect the fair person will mind too much , but when getting used to a speedier screenland , it is hard to go back .
I discover the concealment to be detailed and punchy , and while you might desire a expectant control board if you ’re look on a lot of video or play a flock of game – and you might specially need a gamey refresh rate if you ’re keen on the latter – I imagine that most users will be more than satisfied with the screen ’s effective character .
Camera
Of of course , the star feature of Google ’s Pixel phones is typically its camera . These handsets are often seen as the central Android camera player , perhaps even dominate Samsung , so the pressure is on to see whether the Google Pixel 7 can keep up those gallant standards .
The tv camera system here seems highly similar to that of the Pixel 6 , at least on the keister where you ’ll once again find a 50 - megapixel primary television camera and a 13 - megapixel ultrawide lens ( with a telephotograph lens being book for the more expensivePixel 7 Pro ) . On the front there ’s a new selfie camera with a 10.8 - megapixel resolution , meaning that it ’s now capable of shooting 4 K footage .
It ’s worth noting that , while the newfangled Pixel 8 shares the same combination of a 50MP main and 13MP ultrawide , the elemental sensor is Modern and more open in modest - weak conditions so you will see a slight boost by opt for the newer model .
disregardless , I was undoubtedly pleased with the television camera during my time using it across various unlike kindling weather .
Images taken with the Pixel ’s rear cameras can sometimes be jaw - droppingly good ; punchy yet not by artificial means vivid , highly detailed , and various enough to give you a few different shot selection . Friends take note the quality of the word picture , even those who are not specially into photography .
Below is a selection of shots from the master tv camera , including closelipped - ups of food , and portrait barb , to show its quality and versatility :
Some of the above pictures were taken under very firm sunlight yet did not appear lave out ( though there was once in a while some lense flare ) , and this character held up under dark conditions as well , with gloss being restitute to the image effectively but not submerge it :
The ultrawide detector ( which adopt the image directly above ) packed some redundant versatility into the parcel , letting you squeeze more into the frame , which was particularly useful when in mountainous region and trying to give some idea of the scale of the beleaguer scenery , or if trying to hit a sizeable looming construction :
As you may see , while these image were take with a lower closure sensor than the main one , they still stay on impressively detailed . Unfortunately , there ’s no autofocus on the wide-cut - angle tv camera here , with Google introducing the feature to the Google Pixel 8 phone instead .
There ’s no dedicated telephoto sensor on board this phone either , so if you desire to zoom a little nigher to your subject then you ’ll have to number on the digital soar capabilities of the main sensor . Set by default to 2x , this still work well ; the below motion-picture show were taken of the same bridge , from the same position using the ultrawide , main television camera , and 2x digital zoom for a side - by - side comparing :
Selfie photos were also generally appealing , with sharp and punchy images that accurately reproduced the textures of pelt and hair :
Finally , I was also very impressed with the video capture capability . Able to take 4 K footage at 60 frame per second , the video recording we took with this telephone set on these preferences ( note that the default is 1080p @ 30fps ) was very sharp and smooth .
Performance
The Google Pixel 7 political campaign on aTensor G2chip . This is the continuation to the Tensor , which was Google ’s first - ever own - brand name wandering processor and debut on the Pixel 6 , though the Tensor G3 of the unexampled Pixel 8 has since usurp it .
In our review of the Pixel 6 , we noted that the chip did n’t force up trees in terms of its CPU and GPU benchmarks , but that it did , however , still perform very well when it came to image processing and intelligent features . This seems to hold true for the Tensor G2 ’s performance as well , and if you were wondering , we line up it to be the pillow slip with the newer Tensor G3 too .
The below score show its CPU scores ( according to Geekbench 5 ) and the GPU scores ( according to 3DMark ) , compared to vie Android flagship :
Test Data
As you’re able to see , the CPU scads pass behind the like of the Samsung Galaxy S23 , although that col is somewhat come together by the newfangled Pixel 8 .
While execution overall was tranquil and fluid , even when run involve apps or multitasking , the phone did crash at one point – and this was actually when run that GPU benchmark psychometric test . We encountered quite a few hemipteron when using the Pixel 6 , but fortuitously , these did not recur during my fourth dimension using the Pixel 7 .
In fact , the scant - touch software bestow to the pre - existing magical spell of the Pixel 7 , and I savor my clock time with it . You ’ve get the conversant suite of Google apps here of track , and there ’s little else besides .
While pre - installed voice recording equipment apps are seldom movement for celebration , the Pixel ’s one is peculiarly good , and can transliterate the sentence you speak into text . Even though there were often some error here and there in the copy , it ’s still a beneficial tool that allows you to search through recordings and pen up the results much more quickly .
Most of the software tricks , however , are reserved for the tv camera . Effects such asMagic Erasermean you may quite effectively snip objective out of the frame if you do n’t require them there ( though this is best done for things in the background rather than the foreground ) , while Photo Unblur allows you to focalise up images from your Google Photos program library if there ’s movement blurring . Again , this works well when you require a subtle sharpening rather than a complete rehaul , but it ’s a worthful puppet that does make some difference to previously underwhelming photos .
There are some extra AI features that you could only benefit from by raise to the Pixel 8 . This includes the Best Take feature , which permit you to take the best bits ( such as a smiling boldness ) from multiple group photos to see everyone looks neat , all but eradicating alas timed blinking .
Battery Life
Those hoping for a battery boost compared to the Google Pixel 6 will number away ; while the Pixel 6 had a 4614mAh capacity , the Pixel 7 offer just 4355mAh . However , in my experience , this actually did deliver comely battery life-time over the course of the day , more so than I would have expected impart the numbers on the specification sail .
This may be in part due to the efficiency of Google ’s Adaptive Battery characteristic , which adjusts utilisation based on your activity with the phone , but I broadly speaking find oneself that I could get a cloggy day of use out of the phone without needing to interest about the battery when I stimulate near the end of the 24-hour interval , which would usually finish around 20 % .
On the other hand , I ca n’t be quite as positive about the charging speeds of this telephone . There ’s no charging brick included in the box seat for starters , so you ’ll have to cater your own , and even when you do , you ’ll have to make do with one that supplies 30W maximum . This will see the phone topped up in just over an hr , which is not so quick by mod standards .
While this might not gravel you too much , it does mean that you wo n’t be able to chop-chop top up the battery if , say , you ’ve forgotten to institutionalize it overnight . It ’s not the most significant shortfall a phone can have , but fast charging is still a lineament I usually appreciate , so I was a piffling underwhelmed by the speeds on go here . as luck would have it , at least the Pixel 7 does offer wireless charging , add appliance of a different kind .
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Final Thoughts
Even with the release of thePixel 8 , the Google Pixel 7 remains a solid phone overall – specially at its newly discounted price that aligns it with the £ 449Pixel 7a . That ’s fairly good value for photographic performance of this calibre , and its premium - looking and robust design also belies that rather more modest price tag .
Plus , with a near - identical design to the Pixel 8 , you ’re not missing out onthatmuch away from a tweaked primary sensor , a slightly faster 120Hz refresh rate and boosted Tenser G3 force .
That ’s not to say that the Pixel 7 is without its faults , of class . The good - looking camera bar can sometimes be a fiddling windy , the charge speed lag behind many of its Android contender , and it does n’t have a telephoto photographic camera . That said , these all amount to pretty nonaged quibbles that really should n’t be dealbreakers for the majority of vendee .
If you ’re expect for amid - compass Android phone , and a expert photographic camera is your antecedence , it remains hard to expect past the Pixel 7 .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every mobile earphone we review exhaustively . We use manufacture - standard tests to liken characteristic properly and we practice the phone as our main twist over the recap period . We ’ll always recite you what we find and we never , ever , accept money to review a product .
FAQs
Yes , as long as you ’ve got a compatible SIM card and mesh insurance coverage , then you ’ll be able to get 5 G peregrine data .
The Google Pixel 7 has anIP68 rating
It ’s available in Obsidian ( Black ) , Snow ( White ) , and Lemongrass ( as depict in the above review )
