A big part of the iPhone’s success story has been the seamless blend of hardware and the iOS user experience. That’s one reason Google’s Pixel has been on our radar since its debut six years ago. Google brought some of its best features and smarts to its Pixel line with the latest iterations of Android and the latest security updates. It then kept improving the camera with its forte – computational photography. The Pixel smartphones have also stood out from the crowd with a unique, pleasing design aesthetic. This year Google has released both the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 7 in the Indian market. While the Pixel 7 Pro sits at the premium end of the market, we think the Pixel 7 might be the device that is likely to drive the Google Pixel line in India.
Guaranteed to stand apart
Place the Pixel 7 on a table whether you’re in a meeting or at the pub with your mates and it’s likely to be a conversation starter. While some devices might attract attention with bling, the Pixel 7 does it with refined elegance. The recycled aluminium frame looks premium. We checked out the snow (white) colour variant with a silver anodised frame, but it’s the lemongrass option that has our vote with it’s golden rim. It’s one of our favourite shades on any smartphone we’ve seen in 2022. It feels really good in your hand, at 197 gm it’s almost the perfect heft.
Scores on the features that matter
Google has reduced the size of the display marginally – from 6.4-inches to 6.3 inches, on the Pixel 7 (the Pixel 6 had a 6.4-inch display). We’ve been using the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro over a week and we have to say that the Pixel 7 is not too far behind it’s pricier sibling. You get an AMOLED display (1080 x 2400 pixels / 416 PPI) with a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10+. Colours are very vibrant on this display that peaks at 1400 nits.
Both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro share the same Google Tensor G2 chipset – a 4nm chipset with 2 Cortex-X1 cores, two Cortex-A76 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores. The slight variation is the 8GB of RAM (the 7 Pro comes with 12GB of RAM). The Pixel 7 slayed everything we threw at it from gaming to multi-tasking. Just like the 7 Pro, you are restricted to 128GB of device storage but this is where Google services like Google Photos come in to the mix. Battery life (there’s a 4355 mAh battery under the hood) was similar to what we experienced with the 7 Pro and very dependable. We experienced occasional mild heating while charging the device but this is certainly not a deal breaker.
Stellar cam with a bag of tricks
The Pixel 7 shares the same selfie shooter as the 7 Pro – a 10.8MP cam with an f/2.2 aperture. It aces portrait mode. The big story is the dual rear cam that features the same 50MP lens on the 7 Pro and a 12MP ultra-wide lens. The Pixel 7 misses out on the telephoto cam that we enjoyed using on the 7 Pro. If your usage scenarios don’t require a zoom lens, then this camera has pretty much everything you might need from a mobile shooter. Google’s Nightsight nails lowlight images. Of course, the Pixel 7 comes with a whole bag of tricks from Magic Eraser to the new Photo unblur that allows you to fix images (even images shot on other devices). This is probably the best smartphone camera in this price band.
7 or Pro?
Google’s Pixel phones have remained an outlier of sorts in the Indian market. While the phones have always delivered on their promise of a seamless hardware and software blend, Google’s pricing has not always helped their cause. The Pixel 7 could change all that. It delivers the best of Google, including a brilliant photography experience and all the Google smarts that we expect on our Pixel phones at a compelling price point. If you’re okay to miss out on a larger display and a telephoto lens, the Google Pixel 7 might be all the Pixel you
need.
The Google Pixel 7 (8GB/128GB) costs Rs 59,999. It comes in Lemongrass, Snow and Obsidian. Check out cashback and exchange offers that can further bring down the cost of these devices.
