We remember a time in the not-too-distant past when picking a high-end smartphone meant you were probably in one of two camps: Apple or Samsung (sorry BlackBerry, RIP). That’s no longer the case.
Google’s Pixel series came out swinging two years ago with a fresh design, brilliant camera system and serious software smarts – expertly balancing style, performance and value. Last October, there was new flagship on the block: the Pixel 7 Pro. Depending on whether you used the prior model it either feels like a revelation or induces a powerful sense of deja vu.
Pixel 7 Pro: What's New?
Like the most recent Apple iPhone 14 series, the phone's appearance is refined instead of revamped – and at a glance, we admit that it looks pretty much identical to its predecessor. But there have been a few subtle changes, mostly under the hood, that make this the best version of the phone yet, especially if you’re a first-time visitor to Pixel world.
It has a better camera system, longer battery, updated design and face unlocking. We’ve been using the 7 Pro handset for more than six months – paired with the sleek Pixel Watch – and here’s the TLDR: it is without a doubt the king of the Androids if you want the best-of-the-best when it comes to screen quality, battery and cameras, but if you have a 6 Pro in your pocket it’s not a must-have, and you get many of the same features in the more affordable Pixel 7 or the just-released affordable alternative, the Pixel 7a.
Pixel 7 Pro: Design
Naturally, the first thing you’ll notice about the Pixel 7 Pro is that it looks, well, like the 6 Pro. There’s no way around it: the design hasn’t changed much – although the slightly more snug camera bump and sides are now made with a shiny polished aluminium (the standard Pixel 7 uses a matte metal) instead of glass.
We like the look, and our initial fears that it would attract scratches was unfounded – after more than six months of use there are no unwanted marks around the panels or charging ports.
At 6.7-inches, this is a big phone – roughly the same size as the iPhone 14 Plus and the S22 Ultra, and it looms over the standard iPhone 14 when sitting side by side.
We struggle to use the device with one hand, especially when scrolling through social media and Reddit feeds just before bed (yes, we know that’s bad), but we eventually got used to the size and found it excels when we throw on a random YouTube video or stream movies from our phone (forgive us, Christopher Nolan). Thankfully the display is plenty bright (Google claims 25% more than the 6 Pro) and we've no complaints about reading websites on the OLED panel in sunlight.
It’s great to see the refresh rate goes up to 120Hz (it’s up to 90Hz on the standard 7 and still a measly 60Hz on the iPhone 14) and swiping through our apps and menus is consistently smooth. It feels high-end. You can change both the resolution and the refresh rate in the settings – and lowering them is a good way of saving battery.
It isn’t all flowers and rainbows. Here's some advice from uncle Esquire: for anyone who is considering a 7 Pro and wants to ever set it down, buy a case. Without one, the phone may as well have legs. The camera bump helps with grip, but the glass back and sides mean that it’s almost impressively slippy without a back cover. We've often been tempted into removing our cover and it's been a mistake every time, with our phone fleeing from the hand.
For a case we’ve been using the Mous Limitless 5.0, which is made in collaboration with Google to work with MagSafe accessories initially designed for Apple iPhones, including power banks and wireless chargers. We love the Black Leather version, but it also comes in five designs – with another standout being the stylish walnut wood-effect finish.
Pixel 7 Pro: Camera
If you were to list the reasons for buying a Pixel, we’d bet our pet cat that its camera system is towards the top. There's a good reason its reputation is so good: this is a setup that just works, delivering great photos both day and night. You get a solid 50-megapixel (MP) main shooter, alongside a 12MP ultrawide that has an auto macro mode for taking extreme close-ups, plus a 48MP telephoto for zooming. If you’ll be indulging in selfies or video calls, there’s a 10.8MP lens on the front.
There’s nothing as fancy as the iPhone 14’s new Dynamic Island, but there’s no big notch, either. We're frequently impressed with how effective the camera system is for day-to-day use, in any type of lighting.
We've used it to take family photos, product images, portraits and landscape shots in our six months of use – it's never disappointed or produced an unusable image.
Unlike the Pixel 6 Pro, you get a 5x optical zoom and a “super res” zoom of up to 30x. Tested on the streets of London on a bright-ish day we got excellent results with vivid, but accurate, colours. You won’t need to spend any time editing snaps before posting them to Instagram. Here’s a handful of shots taken on the cameras, and they haven’t had any post-processing:
Gallery: Pixel 7 Pro Sample Photos
We like the simple menu layout – you’ll choose between 0.5x, 1x, 2x, and 5x zoom and six modes (night, motion, portrait, camera, video and cinematic). On the far right menu you access Google Lens, which is used to translate languages from text on the fly via the camera – that’ll help with reading the bar or restaurant menu on your next holiday. Translating text and voices is speedy and accurate.
Most of the heavy lifting is done by the Android 13 software paired with the Tensor G2 chip, which you won’t find if you break open the earlier models, with the exception of the 7a.
The G2 processor increases efficiency and performance – but also helps to power the suite of futuristic editing modes. The Photo Unblur mode is a new one. It cleans up messy images if your subject was caught moving – and it definitely sharpens a blurry selfie, but doesn't completely salvage the image.
Still, we love that the feature is built into Google Photos, so any photos saved in the gallery can be unblurred, even if they were taken on an older phone from your unruly university nights out.
Magic Eraser mode is used to remove small unwanted details from photos, too, and it works just as well as the previous models. It’s very good at removing one or two people from your snaps, but don’t expect it to work on a crowd. We don't find ourselves using the modes too much on daily use, but we appreciate they are there, just in case.
A Macro mode is another helpful tool (it automatically switches as you zoom into a subject) but it's also not really a regularly used feature. After six months, we remain unimpressed with the cinematic video mode, which adds a blurry background to your recordings.
We could unfortunately see very distorted edges around some objects in our test clips. This could be fixed by Google magic in a software update, but that's yet to happen at the time of writing this update in May 2023.
Pixel 7 Pro: Software
On the Pixel 7 series, Android 13 runs the show. It's fast and clean – with no bloatware or unwanted apps in sight. The software gives you loads of control over app permissions and lets you add themed icons and resizable widgets to your main screen.
We used one that displays the battery life of connected devices – so we could always manage the fuel in our phone, Pixel Watch and wireless earbuds.
Making a return for the first time since the Google Pixel 4 is face unlock. It was mysteriously absent in recent years – and we welcome it back like an old friend. It’s fast, but still not on the level of Apple’s Face ID. While you can scan your face to quickly unlock the screen you have to press your fingerprint for any banking or payments.
Thankfully, Google has fixed one of the biggest issues with the Pixel 6, making a noticeable improvement to the under-screen sensor this time around. We haven't had any trouble with the clever biometric unlock when tapping on our review unit since release.
Performance is smooth, but we encountered overheating when the phone was initially put under strain – such as multitasking, streaming or intensive gaming. This has not been a long-term issue. We barely notice it.
As always, future support is strong on the Pixel series and you’ll get Android updates until October 2025 and security updates under the same month in 2027. Like the previous Pixels, the Google phone comes with crash detection (take that, Apple) and fall detection has since been rolled out, alerting the emergency services if your phone senses you've taken a hard plunge.
Pixel 7 Pro: Performance
You’ll get a little over a day of battery life out of the Pixel 7 Pro – but with the refresh rate and display resolution maxed out it’s likely to be a little less.
We got ourselves into a nice routine of charging the phone and watch every night and accepted that the dream of a two-day battery wasn’t one that would come true.
With daily use of playing Spotify during the commute to and from work, periodically checking emails, reading websites and watching videos, we get a day-and-a-bit. We don’t play lots of mobile games, but that will be another drain – as will be watching live-streaming content from Twitch or YouTube.
We found that the battery would go from dead to 50% full in around 30-40 minutes with a 30W wall charger (yes, like other flagships these days there’s no adapter in the box, just the USB-C cable).
The 7 Pro also supports 12W Qi wireless charging, and you can extend the amount of fuel in the tank significantly using the Battery Saver mode.
We found that it’s very helpful if you find yourself stuck without access to a charger. Just know that turning this on severely limits access to apps – we turned on the extreme mode at one point and were swiftly restricted from browsing our Instagram.
Pixel 7 Pro: Drawbacks
The Google Pixel 7 Pro isn’t perfect – so let’s have a quick chat about those problems. We’ve covered how slippy it is, and that’s one of the big issues we encountered before using a case that Google tactically included with our review unit (well played).
But that’s not all: there’s no expandable storage, so you’re limited to 128GB, 256GB or 512GB capacities when buying the handset unless you pay for extra cloud space, and the large physical size may be disconcerting for fans of smaller handsets (or anyone with smaller phalanges).
While the phone is still good value – at £849 RRP, it’s £250 cheaper than its iPhone 14 Pro rival – it’s not what everyone would call affordable at a time when it feels like paying for a single day of household energy use could soon set you back more than a messy weekend at Glastonbury.
Pixel 7 Pro: Should You Buy?
The Google Pixel 7 Pro is still our favourite high-end Android phone. It’s a refinement of a reinvention – improving the prior model by adding face unlocking, a shiny camera bump and further enhancing some of the best portable cameras that you can have in your pocket.
Yes, the Pixel 7 and the most recent Pixel 7a have many of the same features for less, and it’s not an instant buy for anyone with a Pixel 6 Pro, but aesthetically the 7 Pro remains one of the most head-turning handsets that you can pick up in 2023 – and it has the style and swagger of a smartphone that knows it’s that good.
Pros
- Fantastic camera
- Unique design
- Now has face unlocking
Cons
- Not too much has changed
- No expandable storage
- Some missing features
Pixel 7 Pro: The Need-to-Know
• Screen size: 6.7-inches
• Resolution: QHD+ (1440 x 3120 pixels) OLED
• Operating system: Android 13
• Processor: Google Tensor G2
• Cameras: 50MP wide, 12 MP ultra-wide, 48MP telephoto, 11MP selfie
• Battery: 5,000 mAh
• Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
• RAM: 12GB
• Weight: 212g
• Water resistance: IP68
• Micro SD card slot: No
