Ameya DalviFeb 28, 2023 20:24:57 IST

Execs:
– Key options of Pixel 7 Professional for considerably much less cash
– Premium construct and design
– IP68 ingress safety
– Wonderful predominant digicam
– Greatest Android 13 expertise; extra updates assured
– Sharp show
– Good total efficiency

Cons:
– Sluggish charging; no charger within the field
– Extremely-wide digicam doesn’t have auto-focus
– Temperamental fingerprint scanner

Ranking: 4/5
Worth: Rs 59,999

The Google Pixel 7 Professional is an excellent all-round telephone that comfortably made it to our ‘Greatest telephones of 2022’ checklist, courtesy of its nice digicam efficiency and clean software program expertise. Regardless of the optimistic expertise, it isn’t precisely an reasonably priced telephone for a overwhelming majority of patrons. Lots of people don’t care about options like a curved show or QHD decision. For many Pixel telephones are primarily concerning the digicam high quality and quicker software program updates.

In the event you assume on comparable traces, the Google Pixel 7 might swimsuit you higher. It retains a number of goodness of the Pixel 7 Professional that features the primary digicam in addition to the software program expertise, and in addition the processing {hardware}. Sure, it misses out on the additional telephoto digicam and a better refresh price show amongst different issues, however saves you Rs 25,000. Time to determine if it certainly interprets into higher worth for cash.

Google Pixel 7 Design: Feels premium with a sturdy construct and simply the correct measurement
The Pixel 7 feels rugged in hand and appears premium courtesy of an aluminium body and glass again. The IP68 ranking for mud and fluid resistance has been retained right here, which is nice to see. The curved display screen on the Professional has been changed with a flat one right here, which is appropriate. The show and again are protected towards scratches by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The fingerprints and smudge marks are barely seen on the Snow White variant that we obtained for evaluation. The mixture of a white physique and metallic gray borders appears to be like elegant.

The metallic gray extends to the trademark digicam band on the again. The design is sort of much like that of the 7 Professional however with one much less digicam. Whereas it makes the telephone design extra putting, the protrusion makes the telephone look bulkier, and there’s a noticeable quantity of mud accumulation at its base. As a result of comparatively smaller display screen, the telephone feels nice in hand. The load has been saved beneath 200 grams too.

The quantity rockers in addition to the facility button are positioned alongside the correct edge. The location of the in-display fingerprint scanner is ideal, and one can entry it with out stretching the thumb a lot. The scanner stays moody although, and at instances simply doesn’t recognise your fingerprint and asks for the pin or sample. The SIM tray is positioned alongside the left fringe of the telephone, whereas a USB-C port and a speaker are current alongside the underside edge. A reminiscence card slot and three.5 mm headphone jack are absent.

Google Pixel 7 Show: Sharp show however with 90 Hz refresh price
The Google Pixel 7 has a compact 6.3-inch Full HD+ AMOLED show with a peak brightness of 1400 nits. The HDR10+ compliant display screen is sort of sharp with wonderful color replica and distinction. Similar to in case of the Professional, you don’t get elaborate color changes right here. You simply get two modes – Adaptive and Pure. The previous makes the colors look barely extra vivid whereas the latter retains issues pure. Strive each and select one which fits your style. 

Google has been stingy with the refresh price right here, and it has been restricted to 90 Hz. It isn’t a deal breaker but and considerably smoother than 60 Hz, however this isn’t precisely a finances telephone and the corporate ought to have opted for 120 Hz in my view. Telephones promoting for lower than half its value provide 120 Hz AMOLED shows. As I discussed earlier, you don’t get a curved show right here, and we’re completely fantastic with that. At all times on show is obtainable if you happen to desire it. 

Google Pixel 7 Efficiency: At par with that of the Pixel 7 Professional
The Pixel 7 is powered by Google’s second technology Tensor 2 processor that powers the Pixel 7 Professional too. As we concluded within the 7 Professional evaluation, it isn’t as highly effective as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chips in artificial benchmarks, and solely incrementally quicker than the primary Tensor chip. The uncooked efficiency of the Tensor 2 is much like Qualcomm’s earlier flagship Snapdragon 888 SoC, which isn’t dangerous in any respect. However one mustn’t neglect its AI crunching capabilities that common artificial benchmarks don’t compute.

You get only one variant of this telephone in India with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB UFS 3.1 storage. We might have most popular a 256 GB choice, however even the corporate’s flagship hasn’t been blessed with that. The Tensor 2 breezes by day-to-day duties like accessing social media or chat apps, watching movies, searching the web, opening a number of tabs or switching between them. Issues have been equally clean in images and gaming. The telephone usually stays cool and solely will get a little bit heat after half an hour of gaming. 

We ran just a few artificial benchmarks to gauge its efficiency. I received’t bore you with the numbers this time however we will safely state that the scores are actually neck and neck with the Pixel 7 Professional with lower than 2% variance at most. Even the body charges in 3DMark Wild Life and Wild Life Excessive benchmarks are precise. Benchmark scores aside, the Pixel 7 managed to run each sport we tried on it easily at excessive settings and not using a stutter.

This telephone has two audio system, one behind the earpiece and the opposite on the base of the telephone. Collectively they produce a reasonably loud sound output with good stereo separation. The telephone is Bluetooth 5.2 compliant and has tri-band WiFi with help for a/b/g/n/ac/6e requirements. The decision high quality and reception have been completely fantastic through the course of our testing.  

Google Pixel 7 Battery efficiency: First rate battery life with no actual quick charging
The battery backup on the Pixel 7 is fairly first rate. Regardless of a lesser capability 4355 mAh battery as in comparison with the 7 Professional, it lasts a little bit longer than the Professional courtesy of its smaller and decrease decision show. It stays powered for near 30 hours of average use, which is ok for the phase. The charging instances stay poor compared to the competitors although. Google doesn’t embody a charger within the bundle; only a USB-C cable. 

In the event you use a generic 10W charger, the telephone takes shut to three hours to cost totally. That holds true even for common Tremendous VOOC/ Tremendous DART quick chargers from Oppo or OnePlus that may solely ship a 5V/2A output for the Pixel 7. The telephone does help 20W quick charging utilizing USB-PD 3.0 chargers. So we obtained a few suitable chargers from Stuffcool, together with their Neo 45 that may ship 20W and 25W USB-PD output. 

The quickest time we clocked for charging the Pixel 7 from 1% to 100% was 1 hour and 35 minutes. Utilizing an excellent quicker USB-PD charger didn’t velocity up issues as the facility draw is capped for this telephone. Whereas its greatest charging time is nowhere near the proprietary options from most manufacturers as of late, it’s nonetheless half of what commonplace 10W chargers take. So if you happen to don’t have one already, it’s advisable to purchase a charger that helps 20W USB-PD output not less than.

Google Pixel 7 Digicam efficiency: Flagship grade predominant digicam in all situations
You get two cameras on the again as in comparison with three on the Pixel 7 Professional. The 50MP major digicam with Laser auto-focus and optical picture stabilisation (OIS) is strictly the identical as on the 7 Professional and performs as properly. The 48MP telephoto digicam has been omitted right here to have some factors of differentiation between the 2 telephones. The 12MP ultra-wide digicam, although appears comparable on paper, misses one essential aspect. Whereas the marginally narrower 114-degrees FOV shouldn’t be a difficulty, the dearth of auto-focus is. Resulting from its absence, the ultra-wide digicam can’t double up as a high quality macro digicam as on the Professional. 

The primary digicam captures some wonderful photographs in shiny in addition to low gentle situations. The colors are correct, and just about like that of the particular topic. The distinction is great, which has been a trademark of Pixel telephones over time. The digicam captures nice element in photographs with spectacular dynamic vary. The identical is relevant for low gentle images too. 

The telephone mechanically switches to Night time Sight mode when the sunshine is low and that brightens up the picture with out going overboard or compromising on the element. Nonetheless, the crimson shades really feel barely softer with Night time Sight enabled. The Pixel telephones have been nice at capturing portrait photographs, and the Pixel 7 isn’t any totally different with wonderful edge detection and close to good background separation. A 2X zoom choice in Portrait mode is obtainable right here too, and is sort of helpful. 

Talking of zoom, whereas a devoted telephoto digicam is lacking right here, you continue to get 2X to 8X zoom choices that are principally digital. The 2X output feels pretty much as good as optical zoom, and issues are nearly usable as much as 5X. Past that photographs really feel too delicate and lack element. The 12MP ultra-wide digicam is sort of good when the sunshine is nice, and the colors and dynamic vary are corresponding to the primary digicam. However when the sunshine is low, it’s best to stay to the primary digicam. As I discussed earlier, the ultra-wide digicam lacks auto-focus, and therefore you don’t get a macro mode right here.

The selfie digicam is identical as on the Pixel 7 Professional. The ten.8MP entrance digicam does job with selfies with pure pores and skin tones. It has a reasonably broad FOV and helps portrait photographs too that come out fairly properly. This telephone can document 4K movies at 30 and 60 fps, and might go as excessive as 240 FPS for 1080p movies. You get OIS and EIS help to compensate for the shakes. A ten-bit HDR choice is obtainable for movies too. You’ll be able to document 4K movies at 30 or 60 FPS with the entrance digicam as properly. The recorded movies from the rear cameras are sharp and stabilised and fairly good for this phase. 

Click on right here for unedited digicam samples: https://photographs.app.goo.gl/ueKcLmbJbyRuPG9E6

OS and consumer interface: Nearly as good as its will get on Android
There’s completely no change on this division as in comparison with the Google Pixel 7 Professional, and also you get the very best Android 13 expertise in the mean time. The Pixel 7 runs the most recent iteration of Android 13 with the February 2023 safety patch, and one can anticipate extra periodic updates. As with all Pixel gadgets, you get pure Android expertise with none bloatware, and with the Materials You design language. The consumer interface is fluid, completely lag free and void of any main bugs. 

As we’ve stated prior to now, Pixel telephones are as a lot concerning the software program expertise because the {hardware}. And that additionally consists of the digicam picture processing along with some cool instruments for picture modifying. The Magic Eraser and Camouflage choices are greater than helpful, with the previous letting you take away objects or people from the photographs by merely circling or highlighting them. It produces completely acceptable outcomes after a few makes an attempt. 

The face unlock on the Pixel 7 continues to be work in progress, and never in the identical league as Apple’s Face ID but. You get a bunch of helpful instruments on this telephone to play with that received’t beg in your consideration, however the software program and AI algorithm quietly do their job within the background. Be it object recognition utilizing Google Lens or speech recognition/ voice typing, issues simply work. Usually we take the software program facet without any consideration, and solely discover it when it malfunctions. So credit score the place it’s due for such a seamless expertise. 

Closing phrases: 
The Google Pixel 7 is priced at Rs 59,999 in India with a one yr guarantee, which makes it Rs 25,000 cheaper than the Pixel 7 Professional. It may typically be noticed for Rs 5,000 to 10,000 decrease in on-line gross sales. What one must let go of for that value distinction is a better decision curved show, a devoted telephoto digicam (the one on the 7 Professional is sort of superior) and auto-focus on the ultra-wide digicam, thus forfeiting its macro capabilities. 

For 25K much less, I can reside with out them provided that we nonetheless get the identical major digicam, the identical processing {hardware} and the precise software program expertise right here. Add to that, quick and periodic software program updates for the foreseeable future, making the Pixel 7 a superb all-round telephone beneath 60K. Sure, chances are you’ll have to spend extra on a related quick charger if you happen to don’t have one already, and even then the charging instances are something however quick for this age. Regardless of that, the Pixel 7 is a powerful choice on this finances.

As for alternate options, there are fairly just a few on this finances, however in terms of pure Android expertise and predominant digicam efficiency, there are none. I’d nonetheless prefer to suggest a few choices that provide some extras in different departments. Firstly, the Realme GT 2 Professional with highly effective processing {hardware}, a superb show, good cameras and quick charging. And secondly, the newly launched powerhouse, the OnePlus 11 5G is arguably probably the most highly effective telephone on the market in the mean time with versatile cameras, an excellent higher show and quicker charging. Select one relying on the options that attraction to you extra.