Google Pixel 7 Professional Overview

Verdict

The Google Pixel 7 Professional is a robust worth proposition in comparison with different huge smartphones accessible in 2023. It has a fantastic digicam, a clean display screen and a set of software program options that’ll make switching onerous.

Introduction

They may not promote as many items because the competitors from Apple and Samsung, however Google’s line of Pixel telephones has at all times been a wonderful selection for individuals who worth digicam prowess and software program abilities over pure efficiency. The Pixel 7 Professional continues that theme.

2022 wasn’t a classic 12 months for revolutionary cellphone updates, with the iPhone 14 sequence solely receiving minor updates from their earlier variations. 2023 has began off in an analogous method, with the Galaxy S23 persevering with to supply minimal upgrades.

Whereas it’s an analogous story with the Pixel 7 Professional and its cheaper, smaller Pixel 7 sibling, the worth on supply right here – particularly with the pretty frequent financial savings rounded up in our Pixel offers web page – means this stands as one of many greatest Android telephones available on the market, much more so months after launch.

Display screen and Design

• Three color choices
• Shiny, crisp 6.7-inch barely curved show
• Ergonomic construct, even at this dimension

Google made a daring change with its Pixel 6 sequence, ditching the pretty non-descript designs of the sequence previous and changing them with one thing a complete lot extra enjoyable and fascinating. The swap melded properly with the Materials You modifications inside Android 12, because the {hardware} now matched the fluid really feel of the software program.

After such an enormous change final 12 months, the Pixel 7 Professional is extra of a revision of that formulation relatively than a drastic step ahead. It’s a really curvy cellphone, and one which feels very good and comfy to carry though it’s taller than an iPhone 14 Professional Max.

The standout design trait is the digicam visor, or Digital camera Bar as Google calls it, which runs side-to-side and covers the three digicam sensors on the again. This now contrasts with the color of the cellphone’s very shiny again, with my Obsidian assessment unit having an total black color scheme and a shiny silver visor. It seems to be good, and this darker black color is way nicer than the choice provided with the Pixel 6 sequence, which felt extra gray.

As my colleague Peter Phelps famous in his Pixel 7 assessment, the Digital camera Bar is a shelf for mud and particles. Stuff simply will get caught in there all through the day and it may be a ache to persistently wipe it clear. I believe most individuals will simply slip on a case and neglect about it, although.

Alongside Obsidian there’s a silver possibility and one other known as Hazel, that is the standout of the bunch for me with gold accents and a grey-tinged again. Google additionally stated the 7 Professional is made out of round 19% recycled supplies.

The Pixel 7 Professional has an IP68 score for defense from water and dirt, a USB-C port on the underside for charging and an in-display fingerprint sensor that, not like the model used on the Pixel 6 Professional, really works properly. Google has additionally added face unlock – this stays software-based, with none of the talents of the iPhone’s Face ID – which is a welcome addition for even faster unlocks.

The massive improve for the show is the upper peak brightness. The 6.7-inch panel is brighter each for taking part in again HDR footage and whenever you’re in direct daylight. I performed again some HDR footage via Netflix and the image is nice, although not on par, a minimum of to my eyes, with the iPhone 14 Professional. Apple’s flagship cellphone nonetheless manages to get that little bit further brightness in sure scenes and depicts a extra immersive picture. After all, nobody buys a cellphone purely for its HDR copy and the Pixel 7 Professional nonetheless does an admirable job.

The remainder of the display screen stays very a lot the identical because the Pixel 6 Professional – which isn’t any unhealthy factor. Google’s Clean Show is just like Apple’s ProMotion, permitting the display screen to adaptively alter its refresh fee relying on what you’re doing. 

For intensive gaming or clean scrolling, it may ramp as much as 120Hz, dropping to 10Hz for easier duties. It will possibly’t drop all the best way to 1Hz for its always-on show, a function you’ll discover on the iPhone.

The 1440p 6.7-inch OLED panel may be very barely curved on the perimeters, although to not an annoying quantity. Truly, the slight curves make the cellphone simpler to carry than the sharp iPhone 14, particularly in these larger sizes. For the smaller Pixel 7, I’m glad Google went with the flatter panel.

Digital camera

• Three rear cameras, all able to nice photographs
• Wonderful low-light efficiency
• A lot of intelligent AI modes and settings

The Pixel line has produced a few of my favorite smartphone cameras since its inception. It has not at all times been the perfect total, however there’s one thing concerning the processing of photographs and Google’s concentrate on punchy, contrast-heavy photographs with great color copy that I take pleasure in quite a bit.

It’s onerous to decide on between the Pixel 7 Professional, the iPhone 14 and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely relating to figuring out the greatest digicam telephones as all of them take an distinctive image.

The Pixel 7 Professional retains an analogous setup to the Pixel 6 Professional, with solely a smattering of {hardware} modifications. There are three cameras on the again: a 50-megapixel large with an f/1.9 lens, 48-megapixel 120mm telephoto (up from 104mm) and a barely wider 120-degree 12MP ultrawide. There’s additionally a 10-megapixel entrance digicam that captures good selfies.

I’ve been capturing with the Pixel 7 Professional for every week, taking a whole lot of photographs and my love for the type of Pixel photographs stays. Photographs are stuffed with element, dynamic vary and wealthy, contrast-heavy color. Reds and greens in daylight photographs pop each on the cellphone’s show and an LCD laptop computer display screen, whereas the publicity ranges are at all times good.

If you wish to tweak your photographs in Lightroom or VSCO endlessly, you’ll get higher outcomes with the iPhone 14 Professional. Whereas I typically felt the photographs from the Pixel 7 Professional have been adequate simply with Google’s intelligent processing.

An actual energy of the Pixel 6 Professional was the copy of pores and skin tones, and once more the Pixel 7 Professional is the perfect cellphone available on the market for this. Google’s Actual Tone function helps this little doubt, higher representing a various vary of pores and skin tones and hues.

Google kicked off the current pattern of night time pictures with its Night time Sight mode and whereas the Pixel 7 Professional isn’t out in entrance in all situations of low-light efficiency, it’s nonetheless superb. It’s quite a bit faster at capturing good photographs at night time, and whereas I typically most well-liked the iPhone 14 Professional’s outcomes, the Pixel is a bit more dependable when you don’t have time to arrange your photographs.

Each the ultrawide and zoom digicam produce good photographs, too. The ultrawide is just a little wider than earlier than, cramming extra into photographs and giving a greater, extra distinctive total picture. The telephoto zoom makes use of each an optical zoom and a few AI-infused software program trickery to get you nearer to an object. As much as 5x zoom the photographs are good, even when there’s a noticeable leap when the software program processing takes over – push it additional and the standard degrades. The outcomes aren’t on a stage with the Galaxy S22 Extremely however they’re quite a bit higher than the iPhone 14 Professional.

It’s not simply the photographs that make the Pixel digicam nice, however the different tips contained in the digicam which are merely simply not accessible, to the identical high quality, elsewhere. One in all my favorite new additions is an unblur possibility that does precisely what it says on the tin – make blurry photographs usable. This doesn’t simply work with new photographs snapped on the Pixel both, and I used it to enhance quite a few older photographs I’ve beforehand scanned into my Google Images library from bodily photographs. 

After all, it doesn’t work each time – however turning a as soon as ineffective snap of my canine or one in all my grandparents right into a sharper one is a trick that can by no means get previous. I’d solely assume this function will get higher and smarter with updates, too simply as Magic Eraser has executed over the previous 12 months.

Magic Eraser helps you to take away photobombers and faulty objects from photographs and, like Unblur, does a fantastic job in lots of situations. If there’s a transparent object, like an individual, within the background then the function is wise sufficient to search out it and take away it.

Not every thing works to the identical diploma. The brand new Macro mode, unique to the Professional mannequin, is, like related modes elsewhere, a bit garbage. Sure, you’ll be able to pull out extra element by leaping into this mode and getting near an object – however the outcomes are sometimes worse than the already fairly horrible outcomes from devoted macro cameras.

Video seize additionally isn’t the strongest talent of the Pixel 7 Professional. The footage I recorded was completely serviceable, with vary of stabilisation choices, however it doesn’t have the identical great colors because the photographs.

Efficiency

• Powered by the Tensor G2 chip
• 12GB RAM, as much as 512GB storage in some areas
• Succesful performer

Not solely did Google make drastic modifications to its Pixel 6 line with its design and digicam setups, however it was additionally the primary to make use of a chip designed by Google. Tensor was by no means the quickest silicon round, simply outmuscled in benchmarks by the competitors from Apple and Samsung. But it elevated the prowess of the cellphone’s AI abilities, each in on-device studying parts and the processing of photographs from the digicam.

With the Pixel 7 Professional it’s an analogous story. The Tensor G2 isn’t essentially aiming to rival the efficiency of the A16 Bionic or the 8 Plus Gen 1, as a substitute it’s designed to extend the talents of Google’s suite of AI options. 

There’s a whole lot of this cellphone you in all probability wouldn’t suppose is powered by the Tensor G2 however really is – from the Actual Tone and Face Unblur digicam abilities to unmatched translation and voice transcription abilities, I might truthfully take these advantages over a couple of extra factors scored in an artificial benchmarking app like Geekbench.

The Recording app is one thing I miss every time I’m not utilizing a Pixel cellphone. That is essentially the most correct transcribing and voice recording device I’ve ever used, seamlessly turning audio conversations into excellent textual content without having a web-based connection. The Pixel’s auto-captioning is nice too, even when it may typically fall just a little behind faster-moving movies.

There are plentiful different AI options powered by Tensor. The cellphone can, in some areas, reply spam calls or flip these annoying automated phone providers into textual content so that you’re not left ready to search out out whether or not you might want to press one, two or three.

Synthetic intelligence apart, the Pixel 7 Professional’s software program stays stuffed with distinctive touches. For example, the Now Taking part in function quietly reveals you any music taking part in in your neighborhood on the lock display screen and saves all of them so that you can look again on. That is like Shazam, however you don’t must even take into consideration opening an app.

Widgets have been an enormous focus of Android 12, however they nonetheless stay far beneath what’s accessible on iOS. Google-designed ones apart, widgets for the apps I have a tendency to make use of every day felt like they have been constructed 5 years in the past and never touched since.

Though the main target may not be on pace, the Pixel 7 Professional is quick and clean in a approach I’ve typically felt was lacking from Pixel telephones. Video games play simply as properly, a minimum of in my assessments, as they do on Qualcomm-powered telephones and even a demanding title like Genshin Affect ran properly.

Paired with the Tensor G2 chipset is 12GB RAM (that’s up from 8GB on the Pixel 7) and both 128GB or 256GB of storage. As common, there’s no expandable storage, so select properly when buying except you’re blissful to make use of the cloud.

In contrast to the iPhone 14 sequence, the Pixel 7 Professional helps the quicker Wi-Fi 6E normal, which makes a whole lot of sense as Google has just lately launched a Nest Wifi Professional system with help for 6E.

A variety of telephones really neglect concerning the cellphone facet, however the Pixel 7 Professional doesn’t. Together with the automation options I discussed earlier, cellphone calls right here sound improbable with quantity of background noise blocked out. The haptic response is nice too – providing you with beautiful little pops of suggestions whenever you hit keys or get a notification. It’s the little issues like that simply make Pixel telephones such a pleasure to make use of.

When it comes to software program updates, Google guarantees a minimal of 5 years of safety updates and sure 4 years of correct numbered Android updates. Contemplating Samsung affords related, and Google has full management over all parts of this cellphone, it might have been good to have a couple of years extra.

Battery Life

• Very related endurance to the Pixel 6 Professional
• 5000mAh battery
• No charger included

There’s little or no to get enthusiastic about with the battery life and endurance of the Pixel 7 Professional. It’s a cellphone that’ll probably require nightly expenses except you’re prepared to severely restrict the talents of the gadget with the brand new Excessive Energy Saver.

This mode may be good for a competition or tenting journey when you really want that multi-day battery life, however usually the sacrifices aren’t actually value it to me.

All through my week with the Pixel 7 Professional, it’s left me with about 10-15% left on the finish of the day, roughly the identical because the outcomes I acquired with the iPhone 14 Professional – however properly behind the Professional Max.

That is with the display screen set to FHD+, the default setting and the Clean Show turned on. If you would like a sharper image you’ll be able to flip it to QHD+ (1440p) and it’ll use about 3-5% extra per day.

Google hasn’t superior a lot with quick charging tech both. There’s help for chargers as much as 30w, although a full cost took me 80-90 minutes and naturally there’s no charger within the field. It is a lot slower than lots of the greatest Android telephones for charging, with one thing just like the OnePlus 10T going from 0-100% in lower than 20 minutes.

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