Google Pixel 7: Everything you need to know

It’s no secret that Google was going to announce the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro as its new flagship Android smartphones and now that’s finally happened, we have all the final details for you including release date, pricing and full specs. 

The Pixel 7 range arrives at a time when smartphone innovation leaves a lot to be desired and many question the relevance of the Pixel’s existence. Still, these are the benchmark for third-party Android phone makers and has plenty of fans around the world – including me. 

At the same prices as their predecessors, the Pixel 7 phones come with advancements such as Google’s new Tensor G2 processor, more eco-friendly designs, better cameras and more. 

When is the Pixel 7 release date? 

The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro release date is 13 October 2022 so you can order the phones now.

How much do the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro cost? 

Google has kept the pricing the same as last year’s Pixel 6 range meaning prices start at $599/£599. Here’s the full pricing: 

Pixel 7 prices 

• 128GB – $599/£599/€649 
• 256GB – $699/£699/€749 

Pixel 7 Pro prices 

• 128GB – $899/£849/€899 
• 256GB – $999/£949/€999 
• 512GB – $1,099

If you are tempted by either phone, Google is offering a range of different bundle deals if you buy one with another device such as the Pixel Watch or Nest Wifi Pro so you can get a nice discount. There are also trade-in offers available on a range of handsets.

Find out more in our where to buy the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro guide. 

What are the Pixel 7 new features? 

As mentioned at the top, the phones this year aren’t a huge jump from the Pixel 6 series. The same is true of the iPhone 14 range, but there are new features and developments to talk about here so let’s look at the main ones. 

Design  

Although the Pixel 7 phones look similar to last year, there are a few tweaks worth noting. Starting with the most obvious: different colours. 

Both come in Obsidian (black) and Snow (white) then the third option is different, so the Pixel 7 comes in Lemongrass (see above) and the 7 Pro has a less garish Hazel (below). 

Google has also gone a bit more eco-friendly as both devices have an aluminum enclosure “made of 100% recycled content”.

The Pixel 7 is also easier to handle than the 6.4in Pixel 6 thanks to a slightly smaller 6.3in display and smaller bezels. It’s a deliberate effort to make the phone more compact and also results in it being lighter than the Pixel 6 by 10g. 

Google has also put Gorilla Glass Victus on the back as well as the front, whereas the Pixel 6 had Gorilla Glass 6 as the rear cover. 

Tensor G2 

As expected, the Pixel 7 phones come with the new generation of Google’s own Tensor processor which arrived with the Pixel 6.  

Google says that with the Tensor G2, “we’ve improved almost every major subsystem in the chip, and we’ve designed them to work really well together to handle the nuanced and complex nature of our software and machine learning.” 

As well as improved performance – albeit small since the main upgrade here is from Cortex-A76 to A78 so uses the older Armv8 architecture – there are some practical results of the new chip including suggested emojis for Assistant voice typing which, for text, is now available in French, Italian and Spanish. 

You can also transcribe audio messages on Google’s Messages app and later in 2022 Clear Calling will use Google’s machine learning to do things like minimise wind and traffic noise and enhance the caller’s voice. 

These are largely thanks to a new on-board TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) but there are also security improvements thanks to the coupled Titan M2 security chip (the same as the Pixel 6), which allows for Face Unlock “thanks to advanced machine learning models for face recognition”. 

Furthermore, Pixel 7 owners will get VPN by Google One at no extra cost later this year. 

Cameras 

The other main area of development that Google wants to highlight in the Pixel 7 phones is better cameras. 

First up is Super Res Zoom which now goes to 8x on Pixel 7 and Pixel Pro Zoom up to 30x on Pixel 7 Pro (previously Super Res Zoom 7x and 20x respectively) with Google saying “We’ve also achieved optical quality similar to a dedicated 2x telephoto lens for Pixel 7 and a 10x telephoto lens for Pixel 7 Pro.” 

The 7 Pro also exclusively gets Macro Focus, which Google says delivers Pixel HDR+ photo quality from as close as 3m away from the subject. 

Guided Frame helps blind or low-vision users to capture selfies with a combination of audio guidance, high-contrast visual animations and haptic feedback. Videos can also be shot in 10bit HDR while Cinematic Blur gives footage a shallow depth of field. 

Photo Unblur – which does as you’d expect – is a Google Photos feature coming to Pixel 7 phones first. And Google has also updated the Real Tone algorithm having trained it with more than 10,000 portraits to ensure skin tone is as accurate as possible. 

Finally, Night Sight now only needs half the amount of exposure time it previously did to capture detailed images in low-light situations. 

Most of this is on the software side as the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro have the same cameras as last year. So they share a 50Mp Octa PD Quad Bayer wide camera as the main camera along with a 12Mp wide-angle option, then the Pro additionally has a 48 MP telephoto camera. 

However, the selfie camera on both phones has been bumped from 8Mp to 10.8Mp with a wider field of view.

Pixel 7 specs 

• Android 13 
• 6.3in 20:9, 90Hz flat Full HD+ (2400×1080), OLED HDR 
• Google Tensor G2 chipset 
• Titan M2 security chip 
• 8GB LPDDR5 RAM 
• 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage  
• 50Mp wide camera w/ 1.2μm pixels, f/1.85, 82° FoV, 1/1.31in image sensor, OIS + EIS, 8x Super Res Zoom 
• 12Mp ultrawide camera w/ 1.25μm pixels, f/2.2, 114° FoV, lens correction 
• LDAF (laser detect auto focus) 
• 10.8 MP hole-punch front camera w/ 1.22μm pixels, f/2.2, 92.8° FoV 
• In-display fingerprint sensor + Face Unlock 
• Stereo speakers 
• USB-C (3.2 Gen 2) 
• Dual SIM (via eSIM) 
• 4355mAh battery 
• Wired charging up to 30W (USB-PD 3.0 + PPS) 
• Wireless charging 
• Battery Share 
• Extreme Battery Saver 
• WiFi 6E 
• Bluetooth 5.2 
• NFC 
• GPS 
• Sub6 + mmWave 5G (varies by market) 
• 195g 
• 155.6 x 73.2 x 8.7mm 
• IP68 
• Gorilla Glass Victus front 
• Edgeless Gorilla Glass Victus rear 
• Matte aluminum frame 
• Colours: Obisdian, Snow, Lemongrass 

Pixel 7 Pro specs

• Android 13 
• 6.7in 19.5:9,120Hz curved-edge Quad HD+ (3120 x 1440) LTPO OLED HDR display 
• Google Tensor G2 chipset 
• Titan M2 security chip 
• 12GB LPDDR5 RAM 
• 128/256/512GB UFS 3.1 storage  
• 50Mp wide camera w/ 1.2μm pixels, f/1.85, 82° FoV, 1/1.31in image sensor, OIS + EIS, Super Res Zoom up to 7x 
• 12Mp ultrawide camera w/ 1.25μm pixels, f/2.2, 114° FoV, lens correction 
• 48 MP Quad Bayer PD telephoto camera w/ 0.7 μm pixel, f/3.5, 5x optical zoom, 30x Super Res Zoom 
• LDAF (laser detect auto focus) 
• 10.8 MP hole-punch front camera w/ 1.22μm pixels, f/2.2, 92.8° FoV 
• In-display fingerprint sensor + Face Unlock 
• Stereo speakers 
• USB-C (3.2 Gen 2) 
• Dual SIM (via eSIM) 
• 5000mAh battery 
• Wired charging up to 30W (USB-PD 3.0 + PPS) 
• Wireless charging 
• Battery Share 
• Extreme Battery Saver 
• WiFi 6E 
• Bluetooth 5.2 
• NFC 
• GPS 
• Sub6 + mmWave 5G (varies by market) 
• 212g 
• 162.9 x 76.6 x 8.9mm 
• IP68 
• Gorilla Glass Victus front 
• Edgeless Gorilla Glass Victus rear 
• Polished aluminum frame 
• Colours: Obisdian, Snow, Hazel 

Check out our roundup of the best new phones coming in 2022.