Google launched its much-anticipated Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro at an event attended by people and streamed live worldwide.
Both phones come with a custom Google Tensor ‘G2’ SoC with a dedicated GPU and a dedicated Titan M2 security chip derived from the same chip used to protect Google cloud data centers.
Google states that the Titan M2 chip is now certified – it meets the same criteria guidelines approved by banks, carriers, and governments.
Google promised 5 years of guaranteed security updates.
Design:
Google mentioned that both Pixel phones are sophisticated and distinct.
The Pixel 7 has a 6.3′ Full-HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate and 72 hours of battery. It features a rear dual camera system and an upgraded ultra-wide front-facing camera. The Pixel 7 Pro has a premium polished aluminium design with a bigger 6.7″ QHD, and a 120HZ variable refresh rate. The Pro variant has a triple rear camera system. The front camera on both phones doubles as a Face Unlock biometric alongwith an under-display fingerprint sensor.
Features:
The Pixel 7 Pro has a 50-megapixel triple rear camera setup, and the primary camera supports Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS). It is backed by a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor.
The setup includes a 48-megapixel telephoto lens with f/3.5 aperture and OIS support with a 4.8x optical zoom, an upgrade over the 4x optical zoom. There is also up to 30x digital magnification.
The standard Pixel 7 doesn’t get a telephoto sensor, but Google has decreased the field-of-view of the standard model from 114 degrees to 106 degrees. On the front, both phones have a 10.8-megapixel selfie camera, and Night Sight is twice as fast, too.
Google focused on video by announcing Apple-like ‘Cinematic Blur’ that shoots at 24fps, prioritizing depth data in subject tracking using a shallow depth of field.
Another main software feature is ‘Photo Unblur,’ which reduces the blurring of any photos – regardless of whether it was taken from the Pixel 7 series or not.
The Pixel 7 has 8GB of RAM, and the 7 Pro has 12GB of RAM (both LPDDR5). Both phones support 30W wired charging, and their batteries can be topped with a fast wireless charger.
As for the batteries, the Pixel 7 offers a smaller 4,355mAh unit. For comparison, the standard Pixel 6 had a 4,600mAh battery. The Pixel 7 Pro has a mammoth 5,000mAh battery.
The Pixel 7 comes in 128GB and 256GB UFS 3.1. storage options, while the Pixel 7 Pro has more choices: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB in UFS 3.1.
The new Android devices run on the latest Android 13 out of the box and feature IP68 water-resistant rating.
Privacy:
Google talked a great deal about privacy, and the list is quite huge:
The Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro minimize data footprints, de-identify data, so it is not linked to the users, and restrict access to users’ data.
Google also mentioned that the Pixel 7 phones have multiple layers of verifiable security. Pixel 7 also uses protected computing to keep health and wellness data private.
The best news at the event was the announcement that the Pixel 7 series would be the first smartphone with a built-in VPN at zero cost. If you are worried about Google accessing your data, their private VPN can’t associate app and browsing traffic with the user’s Google account or identity.
Moreover, Privacy and Security settings are all in one place.
Pricing:
Google Pixel 7 will cost $599 for the base 128GB, while the Pixel 7 Pro will start at $899.
The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro are up for preorder in 17 countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and India.
