By Javed Anwer: In the last few years, after the launch of the Pixel 3 in 2018, Google gave India a miss for its top Pixel phones. Suddenly and surprisingly, it changed this year. A few months ago, the company launched the Google Pixel 6A, a mainstream Pixel phone. Now, it has brought the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro to India, and has not just brought them here but has brought them at the same time as it is launching them in the US, and at prices that are consumer-friendly. At their respective price points, the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are the best phones one can buy in India. Or in other words, for Android fans — and particularly fans who were yearning for top Pixels in India — Diwali has come a couple of weeks early.
The Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are now on sale in India. The MRP of the two phones is: Pixel 7 at Rs 59,999 and Pixel 7 Pro at Rs 84,999. But there are bank offers available and they reduce the prices that most consumers will pay by some Rs 7000. And if you are exchanging an old phone, there is an additional discount.
Even at their MRPs, as this review of the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro finds, these are the phones worth their asking prices. Although they do not outright beat the iPhone 14, in areas like camera performance they do. And of course, they cost less than what Apple charges for the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Pro.
Distinct design and some warmth
One sad part of the Android world right now is that most of the phones in it look the same. There is some trend — square camera module, round, this flair or that — and everyone quickly ends up adopting the same design language. Google with its Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro is offering something different. The two Pixel phones in India — along with Pixel 6a, of course — are the most distinct looking phones due to the horizontal bar that runs across the rear cover. Unlike the similar raised strip in the previous Pixel phones, or in the Pixel 6a, the strip in Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro is made of metal and it is part of the phone’s frame. The whole metal part is one-piece unit. Also, the finishing of the metal is different from the rest of the phone. On the Pixel 7 Pro it is shiny, like that of steel, whereas the metal frame of the Pixel 7 uses brushed aluminium in matte finish. The overall design effect is rather bold. I like it, and I believe most users will.
In terms of usability, the aluminium frame on the Pixel 7 offers better grip. The shiny Pixel 7 Pro is, in contrast, extremely slippery. Although, both phones are likely to be used by consumers with a case, so I believe this is not an issue.
I find the metal and glass design of the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 7 impeccable. It is built and finished so well that I find it to be the best built Android phone on the market right now. Although, overall, Apple’s extremely pricey iPhone 14 Pro is a notch above in the kind of build materials it uses and the way it feels in hand.
The Pixel 7 phones come with an IP68 rating, so they are good enough for use in occasional rain or near a pool. Snow (white), Obsidian (black) are the two common colours. In addition, the Pixel 7 comes in Lemongrass (pale green yellow), whereas the Pixel 7 Pro is offered in Hazel (sort of grey). This review features Pixel 7 Pro in Snow and Pixel 7 in Lemongrass.
There is a clear indication that Google has put in some effort in getting the design and finishing of the Pixel 7 phones right. It is also visible on the front. Both phones come with a punch-hole front camera, and thin bezels. Google has even tried to get rid of the chin on bottom bezel and while the company doesn’t achieve the same symmetry that the recent iPhones and the Nothing phone do, the difference between the top and bottom bezels is extremely small.
I find that the Pixel 7 is more “handy” with its smaller size due to its 6.1-inch screen. But even the Pixel 7 Pro is fine enough. Its weight and dimensions are relatively pleasant in the world of large and heavy phones. Compared to phones like the iPhone 14 Pro Max — it tips scales at a hefty 240 grams — the Pixel 7 Pro is regular, normal and doesn’t make a user’s thumbs and fingers go through a gym routine.
One bit I particularly like about these Pixels is that finally, after some trying, Google has gotten the screens in them right. The Pixel 7 Pro supports variable refresh rate with up to 120Hz and the Pixel 7 comes with a 90Hz screen. In use, there is no significant difference between the two. The Pixel 7 has a 1080P display, but it is crisp enough. The Pixel 7 Pro, with its 6.7-inch screen size, has a 1440P screen. By default it runs 1080P to save battery, but for this review I used the phone with its full 1440P resolution.
The screens of the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro get extremely bright and show superb colours. Both phones also remain legible in strong sunlight. That issue of the somewhat dim screen that I faced with the Pixel 6a is not a problem here.
Although I do have one issue: Google continues to stick to warm tones for screens in its phones. I feel the tuning from Google is too warm, something I noticed immediately whenever I put the Pixel 7 Pro alongside the iPhone 14 Pro Max, a phone that arguably has the best-tuned display. The issue can be mitigated somewhat by choosing “natural colours” and switching off adaptive brightness in display settings. But then that’s not a practical solution. I wish Google had given an option for users to change the display’s white point. At the same time, I think this issue — and it is a subjective issue I must say, because some users are likely to prefer warmer tones — is also aggravated by the pastel colours that are part of Android 13 themes. They tend to subdue and mute the UI elements, and while some users would like it, while using Pixel 7 Pro I wished I could set sharper and punchier colours in the Android theme.
Irrespective, I find that in the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro Google has put some of the best displays it has ever put in its phones. And that counts for something!
Fast and feature rich
Compared to many other Android phones, Google has kept it simple. The Pixel 7 is available with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. The Pixel 7 Pro is the same but with 12GB RAM. Or, in the famous words of Henry Ford, “You can have any variant, as long as it’s 128GB.” Powering the two phones is Google’s Tensor G2, which on paper is a minor upgrade over the Tensor G1. Minor upgrade or major, what I found while using the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro is that they are extremely fast phones, and not just fast but more importantly they run cool.
While trying the phone, I played some games — Asphalt 9 and Cover Fire — tens of minutes at a stretch and the Pixel 7 Pro stayed cool as a cucumber.
Both new Pixels come with fingerprint sensors embedded under their display, as well as the face unlock. The issues of the iffy fingerprint scanner in previous Pixels seem to have been resolved. The sensor in the Pixel 7 and the 7 Pro is superfast, unlocking the phone quickly and without fuss. The face unlock too is fast but because it relies on the front camera, it doesn’t work in dark and extreme low light, say unlike the face unlock in the iPhone Pro that uses infrared for mapping and reading a face, and hence can be used in all lighting conditions.
The two phones come with stereo speakers. They are loud and belt out rich sound but I have heard better. The soundstage, for example, I found much better on the iPhone 14 Pro compared to the Pixel 7 Pro when I played Sia’s Unstoppable and Impossible Dream sung by Elvis Presley. Yet, just like what I found with the display, the difference between the absolute best and what Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 7 offer to consumers at significantly lower prices isn’t that much.
The network speed of both the Pixel 7 and the 7 Pro was excellent — around 200 mbps — when connected to a 5Ghz Wi-Fi. Both phones support dual SIM functionality, but only one SIM can be physical. The other has to be an eSIM. I used an Airtel SIM in the phones for 4G connectivity and noticed no glitch or abnormality in its cellular performance. The Pixel 7 phones support 5G but a patch to enable it in India is on the way.
The Pixel 7 comes with a 4355mAh battery. The Pixel 7 Pro has a 5000Mah battery.Among the premium phones, I feel the Pixel 7 Pro offers the best battery life. One day when I downloaded a lot of data via the Google Play store, browsed in Chrome, played some games, and streamed videos on YouTube, I saw the phone’s battery go down by just 10 per cent in around a couple of hours. This is excellent battery performance and I am sure most users will easily get 15-17 hours of battery life from the Pixel 7 Pro. The Pixel 7, meanwhile, is likely to offer around 14-15 hours of battery life.
At their respective MRPs the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are excellent choices. If a high-end Pixel has been on your mind, or if you just want to get the best Android phone, go ahead, and get the Pixel 7 or the Pixel 7 Pro.
Charging the phones with a compatible USB C charger — any charger can be used though fast-charging of 30W is only supported with chargers that can supply at least that much power — is on the slower side for a 2022 Android phone. But I don’t think slower charging — which is similar to the charging speed of the latest iPhones — should hold you back from the new Pixels. Although, do understand that if you do not have a charger with you, you will have to buy a new one because like other high-end phones the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro too don’t come with a charger.
The two phones are powered by Android 13. Apart from the theme engine, which to my taste has dull pastel colours, I like everything about the Android 13 in the Pixel 7 and the 7 Pro. It is fast, slick — once you have got the hang of swipes and slides — and fairly easy to use. It is also feature rich with Google’s AI powering different options and giving users, particularly power users, the ability to do more on their phone in a way that only Google products can. If you come from iOS, it will take some getting used to. But if you are an Android native, you will feel right at home.
Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 camera review
I am going to keep this brief. Because Pixels rule the camera space when it comes to phones. And the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are no different. Compared to the Pixel 7 Pro, the Pixel 7 lacks the 5X optical zoom camera. And it doesn’t come with Macro mode, which on the Pixel 7 Pro kicks in automatically when you get too close to what you are shooting. Apart from that, both are similar. And excellent. Check the image samples (best seen on a laptop or PC). Some points:
— Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro come with a 50-megapixel main rear camera. It clicks fantastic photos in all lighting conditions. The images have the typical pixel looks, which means: tons and tons of details, slightly underexposed to preserve details, great and deep colours, good dynamic range, and brilliant low light performance.
— The 5X optical zoom camera on the Pixel 7 Pro offers good results for a camera of this type. Zoom is difficult to get right, but Google has done it. 30X optical zoom, however, is good enough for only grainy photos that you may want to capture not for aesthetic reasons but “for the record.”
— The wide-angle lens camera is quite good and one of the better ones of its kind I have seen in phones.
— The Macro mode in the Pixel 7 Pro is fun but I doubt that it will be used all that frequently because despite what name suggests, it’s not meant for shooting tiny insects and pollen of flowers.
— The new 10-megapixel selfie camera is excellent in ample light but only okay in low light. In low light shots, smoothening is visible and details do not meet the high-standard set by Pixel’s rear cameras.
— Overall, I do feel that the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro have the best cameras in a phone available right now, although the difference between it and others — most notably the iPhone 14 Pro and the Galaxy S22 Ultra — isn’t that big.
Best Android phones in India
It’s been a long wait for Pixel fans in India. But now that the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are here, it can also be said that the wait has been worth it. After trying the two phones for several days I have no hesitation in saying that the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are the best Android phones you can buy in India. In fact, they are the best phones you can buy at their respective price points. The only reason why I still recommend — to those who do not mind splurging — the iPhone 14 to some consumers is because I like the stability and longevity that Apple offers with the iPhone. And then plus minus some.
But overall, even at their respective MRPs the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are excellent choices. Even the areas — display and design — where previous Pixels would seem ordinary, the new Pixel 7 and the 7 Pro excel. So, if a high-end Pixel has been on your mind, or if you just want to get the best Android phone, go ahead, and get the Pixel 7 or the Pixel 7 Pro. Although, that 128GB storage — it’s the only variant available in India — can be a bit of a downer for some.
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