Now that Google’s newest, biggest smartphone duo is official, anybody with final yr’s mannequin of their pocket will probably be questioning whether or not it’ll be value making the swap. Whereas we’ve but to get our arms on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Professional, we’ve spend ample time with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro – and a few intense spec sheet staring means we’ve obtained a reasonably good thought what the massive variations can be.
Whether or not you’re contemplating the extra compact, extra wallet-friendly Pixel 7, or wish to go all-out with the triple-cam Pixel 7 Professional, right here’s how they stack as much as the previous-gen Pixel pairing.
Design & construct: on the shelf
Bodily, the Pixel 7 Professional is barely 1mm shorter and 1mm wider than the Pixel 6 Professional, so we’re uncertain homeowners of the latter will discover any distinction by swapping. These are nonetheless pretty hefty telephones, with 6.7in screens that take up a good chunk of house in a pocket.
The Pixel 7, alternatively? It’s 3mm shorter, practically 2mm narrower and a sliver thinner too. Google has slimmed the display bezels down (and shrunk the panel barely to six.3in, down from 6.4in on the Pixel 6), so it could be a little bit simpler to make use of one-handed than earlier than.
Each telephone has a glass again, separated by the now-signature ‘shelf’ containing the rear cameras. Each Pixel 7s stand out on the supplies entrance, with a single piece of aluminium used for the body and digital camera shelf. The Pixel 7 has a matte end, whereas the Pixel 7 Professional will get a refined one or added jazziness.
Display & sound: barely-there bezels
The Pixel 7 has a barely smaller display than the Pixel 6: 6.3in to six.4in. Decision stays the identical at 2400×1080, as does the 90Hz refresh fee. The largest improve is brightness, with the brand new telephone promising 1000 nits for HDR playback and 1400 nits peak – a 25% enchancment over the outgoing mannequin.
There are even fewer tweaks for the Pixel 7 Professional. Display measurement continues to be 6.7in, decision continues to be 3120×1440, and it nonetheless makes use of an LTPO AMOLED panel for adaptive refresh charges as much as 120Hz. Brightness climbs even larger, although, with a peak 1500 nits promised.
All 4 Pixel fashions have an always-on show possibility, and use Gorilla Glass Victus, so must be equally immune to scrapes and scratches.
Efficiency & battery life: prime trumps
Energy-hungry telephone homeowners can be happy to listen to the Seventh-gen Pixels are extra highly effective than their Sixth-gen counterparts. Each use the Tensor G2 and Titan M2 safety co-processor, developed in-house at Google with speech recognition and machine studying in thoughts. They’ll outpace the Pixel 6 fashions in benchmarks, and must be higher performers in video games too.
RAM and storage stay the identical, with the Pixel 7 getting the identical 8GB and 128/256GB because the Pixel 6, and the Pixel 7 Professional accessible with 12GB and 128/256/512GB (the latter seemingly not accessible in each nation simply but).
There’s been no main change on the battery entrance, both. The Pixel 7 Professional’s 5000mAh (typical) cell is unchanged from final yr, and the vanilla 7’s 4355mAh is definitely smaller than the Pixel 6’s 4614mAh. Each promise “higher than” 24 hour battery life, although, which is unchanged from the earlier technology. Chalk it as much as a extra energy-efficient CPU, perhaps.
Cameras: zoom on in
The ten.8MP selfie digital camera is a step up on pixel depend for the Pixel 7 in comparison with final yr’s mannequin, and a step down for the Pixel 7 Professional. Elsewhere pixel counts haven’t modified all that a lot – however there are just a few essential variations.
The principle sensor stays a 50MP unit for each telephones, matching final yr’s efforts with optical picture stabilisation and dual-pixel autofocus. Solely the Professional will get a laser autofocus, similar as earlier than. 12MP stays the choose for the ultrawide snapper, too, however the Pixel 7 Professional has a wider 125.8-degree subject of view, and positive factors autofocus so it might double as a macro shooter. The Pixel 6 Professional was fairly hit-or-miss when it got here to close-ups, so this alone may very well be a tempting purpose to improve.
As earlier than, the Pixel 7 Professional will get a juicy third lens for telephoto snaps, solely this time the 48MP sensor isn’t a periscope telephoto. It’s arrange for 5x optical zoom, with Tremendous Res digital zoom filling within the blanks all the way in which as much as 30x – a good bit greater than the Pixel 6 Professional might handle. The Pixel 7 can hit 8x Tremendous Res Zoom.
Magic Eraser, Movement Mode and Face Unblur are already accessible on earlier pixels, however it stays to be seen whether or not Night time Sight low-light images can be higher on the newer {hardware}.
Preliminary verdict: small however significant positive factors
On paper, each the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Professional seem like pretty smart upgrades over their predecessors. They get brighter shows, extra highly effective {hardware} and refined designs, with out costing a penny greater than final yr’s fashions. Not too shabby, when even baked beans aren’t immune from a cost-of-living value rise.
We wouldn’t name the digital camera upgrades dramatic, with the Professional and its 5x optical zoom talents being the largest addition, however the proof can be within the algorithmic pudding as as to whether picture high quality has improved in any respect. How properly every telephone lasts away from the mains in real-world use stays to be seen, too.
And simply because there’s a brand new model of any gadget, it doesn’t make the final one immediately redundant. Each Pixel 6 fashions may be up to date to Android 13 (which the Pixel 7s will run out of the field), final a day per cost, have completely punchy efficiency and nonetheless take improbable images.
Nonetheless, there’s one thing right here to make each Pixel 6 homeowners (skinnier display bezels and a extra premium construct) and people with a Pixel 6 Professional (a wiser aluminium end and macro images) think about reaching for his or her wallets.
