Pixel 7 Pro review： Google is FIGURING it out!

The Pixel 6 was a reinvention of Google's smartphone, pushing the company firmly into flagship territory in a way that past devices probably really hadn't aimed at. Now we're at that second generation of that reboot and the Pixel 7 Pro builds on Google's flagship and shows that finally the company is figuring out how to do this properly. Thanks for watching 9to5 Google here on YouTube. Remember to thumbs up, hit subscribe and then tap the bell icon to be among the first to watch our upcoming videos. The Pixel 7 Pro has the same visor camera design but now with metal covering the entire module into a seamless expansion of the device's frame. This not only looks more refined but should make that camera module a little bit more durable. The smaller cutouts should also help avoid issues with skin oils and other debris sticking to the glass and resulting in blurry photos. More about that in just a moment. Only time will tell how that pans out but we have a good feeling based upon our first few days with the Pixel 7 Pro. It's hard to deny that Google should have adopted matte glass though on both models. The back glass is a magnet for fingerprints especially on the hazel and black models. The lighter snow might fare better but if you plan rocking without a case expect to be wiping and cleaning quite regularly. Google has sprinkled in some other improvements throughout this device though. There's greater separation on the buttons which is slightly more comfortable to press. The frame cutout for that millimeter wave 5g radio antenna is far better hidden in that top bezel too compared to last year's quite distracting plastic design. The Pixel 7 Pro also has the same 6.7 inch display as last year and it's a sharp QHD panel that is a pleasure to look at. The OLED panel has vibrant colors and wonderful contrast and now has a max brightness boost up to 1400 nits. The added brightness isn't something you'll really feel though unless you're in direct sunlight but it was definitely easy to see everything when outdoors during our testing so far. One change you might not notice though is that the Pixel 7 Pro is running Android 13 out of the box and it does scale down the software to 1080p. You can change this in the settings as you wish up to QHD plus as well but it doesn't really impact the sharpness of the display. In fact you probably won't even notice the difference leaving display scaling at 1080p also should have a minor impact on battery life as countless other Samsung phones have had this feature and shown us over the past several years so we would say leave it at 1080p and you might enjoy a little bit extra lifespan. Perhaps the biggest improvement though comes with that glass covering. Instead of a steep almost waterfall like curve at the sides the Pixel 7 Pro has a tame curve on either side of the display. It's still a noticeable curve though and will make tempered glass screen protectors a little bit more difficult to obtain and install but it is a step in the right direction if not a flat display which I think a lot of us would really like to see. Casting your mind back though to the Pixel 6 Pro and that was a reinvention of Google's smartphone identity and that was same off that Android 12 update that launched on that smartphone. Now a year later Android 13 is the name of the game and it's an update that really focuses on fixing Android 12's problems and building on it more than anything else. Android 13 stabilizes a platform and there are fewer bugs here on the Pixel 7 Pro than there were on the 6 Pro at launch. It also adds a handful of new features which we've detailed in our full hands-on so definitely go check that out. In reality though there's nothing in particular that stands out on a platform level with the Pixel 7 series this year. Rather Google improved a bit on its own software suite that exclusive to these devices. There's not a ton of new Google Pixel exclusive features outside the camera and we will talk a little bit more about those later on. Pixel 7 owners do get free access to Google One's VPN and snore detection without wearable is also available. There's also improvements to the Attagirls widget plus a few extra tweaks on top. All of these are neat but none of them are groundbreaking but they're very welcome nonetheless and they're also backed by five years of security updates and still just three OS upgrade. In terms of performance though that five nanometer Tensor G2 processor is in reality only a marginal improvement over its predecessor most notably adopting slightly newer cores for its supplementary processing cores. Google claims the chip is 20% more powerful and energy efficient but in reality and to be honest it feels roughly the same as Tensor did last year. But we will note that heat is one of those key areas of improvement where Google's first Tensor chip would heat up very quickly especially in the hotter summer months. Tensor G2 took a bit longer to start heating up in our usage and that is going to be a big benefit to some of you out there. It took around two hours of almost continuous usage on 5G which is far more consistent this year with improved signal strength for those of you wondering plus an hour of light gaming for the phone to really start feeling warm or toasty and that's certainly better than its predecessor. Frankly we just haven't had enough time to properly dive into Tensor G2 over the past six days. There's a lot more to really sink our teeth into specifically in how this new chip compares to last year but on the bright side things are at least off to a good start. The 5000 milliampere pack inside means that the Pixel 7 Pro should last all day but that's heavily dependent on your usage. Around four hours of active usage can drain it to around 20% remaining. The threshold for battery saver to kick in and where the battery anxiety starts to become a problem is probably around this level anyway but as with anything new results may vary. There are plenty of people who have been able to pull six plus hours of active use of the Pixel 6 Pro and there's certainly a bump here. At least that is going to be though heavily dependent on how you use your smartphone. What's not improved at all though is in the charging speeds. Over a cable you'll max out 23 watts on the Pixel 7 Pro and the same speed when using that Pixel stand wireless charger. This isn't super slow but it certainly does feel a bit sluggish at least at times compared to some of the other devices that this will compete directly against like the OnePlus 10T which does have super fast 125 watt charging. On top of that the camera situation on the Pixel 7 Pro is just pretty similar to the previous generation at least on paper. There's a 50 megapixel primary camera, 12 megapixel ultra wide, 48 megapixel telephoto and an 11 megapixel selfie shooter. Google is doing a lot more though with these sensors this time around on this particular device. 50 megapixel stop shots are still excellent. The 48 megapixel telephoto sensor now has a new five times optical zoom versus four on the 6 Pro which lets you take sharper images from even further away. But it's the work that Google has done in improving the zoom throughout all of those other stops that has really impressed us. From 2x to 30x and everything in between Google is intelligently using all the cameras on the device to create the best possible picture. This isn't groundbreaking or breaking a new ground as Apple does do something similar but it works very well here too. Meanwhile another exclusive feature on the 7 Pro is that that ultra wide also doubles as a macro camera up to 3 centimeters. It's a great double use case and we think the results are decent here too adding extra detail that you may not have seen on everyday items and everything in between. The new big feature for this camera at least in stills this year is the photo unblur option that uses machine learning to fix blurry photos or photos that are slightly blurry. It works and it works well but it won't fix images that are almost fully blurred. Think of this as an upscaler that works on photos even those not even taken on pixel. I've also talked a little bit about video quality in our full Pixel 7 review so go check that out but an area of focus this time is in that cinematic mode and that 10-bit HDR. Overall we have to say that that latter might be more valuable so long as you have plenty of extra storage space. Overall video quality on Android is often ignored but in an effort to flex the Tensor G2 chip Google has introduced a few more features to improve video quality on the Pixel 7 Pro. The biggest in terms of those silent upgrades in the video is with 4k 60 across all of the lenses as you'll find on the 7 as well. This means that you have exceptional options in terms of stability and the ability to slow down and that's something that I think a lot of people out there may really value. Something I've also not touched on too heavily here and will have touched on more heavily in our Pixel 7 review is face unlock which is a great option to the improved fingerprint scanner. It's the same on the Pixel 7 Pro as it is on the Pixel 7. It's fast and it works well and that enrollment process is simple although you can't actually use that face unlock for secure payments or that kind of thing. You will need to use the in-display scanner for those but people who have problems we think that the fingerprint sensor is much improved but overall it's still a lot slower than the likes of OnePlus and Samsung. You can't just quickly tap the sensor and immediately unlock but the accuracy seems to be bumped up just a little bit and it doesn't require the same level of muscle memory to get that right position for unlock. Plus it does feel slightly quicker than last year. It's roughly on par with the Pixel 6a and all of those updates that have been added to the 6 and 6 Pro to improve those. So to wrap up in essence the Pixel 7 Pro is on paper and at least in person a very iterative upgrade from what has come before it but it's a device that shows that Google has learned the lessons or at least learns the bad lessons as it goes along. Improvements to the chip, to the hardware and to the feature set without a price bump make the Pixel 7 series even more compelling this time around. Pixel phones often tend to look great in a bubble where they're only compared to other Pixels but Google is steadily figuring out how to make these phones competitive with everyone else at least more directly. Really what this phone feels like to us is proof that after seven generations Google is finally figuring out how to make flagship smartphones plus the additional camera hardware in the Pixel 7 Pro helps better separate it from the Pixel 7. It's still a bit difficult to justify that $300 gap between these phones as you do get 90% of the Pro's features on that regular Pixel 7 but the Pro is standing out a little bit more on its own right this year. Really though the Pixel 7 Pro is a great device someone that's improved by looking at the flaws of its predecessor. It's hard to say with confidence won't mess something up. The Pixel 6 Pro was great at launch but it suffered some head scratching issues in the month that followed and that's understandable why people may have left it behind. That's perhaps the biggest lesson we hope Google has learned but realistically only time will tell. Overall though we want to know what you think of the latest and greatest Pixel 7 series. Are they a go or a no-go? Let us know down in the comment sections below but until next time this is Damian with 9to5Google saying thanks for watching and I will speak to you later.