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 is the same – 2x Cortex-X1 + 2x A76 and 4x A55, though with a
mild bump in clock speed. The GPU is more interesting, 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.