Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro hands-on review

Design

Both Pixel 7 phones have a revised design for 2022, although it will take you a second to notice the difference. Most of the changes are on the back; gone is the two-tone finish of the Pixel 6 and replaced with a single color. The blacked-out camera bar with a glass cover has been replaced by an aluminum band, with cutouts for the camera lenses.

These changes don't necessarily strike us as improvements as the previous design had more personality to it. It is likely more practical, though, as the reduced glass area on the camera cover should make it more durable and less prone to lens flares.

The larger Pixel 7 Pro has a glossy aluminum frame, which flows seamlessly into the camera band. The Gorilla Glass Victus on the front has gentle curves on the sides, which makes it look suitably premium. What isn't premium, however, is the sizable cutout for the front camera and the slightly thick bezels all around the display. There are phones out there now, especially in this price range, that do both of those things in a less intrusive way.

The buttons on the side of the phone are in the usual inverted layout for Pixel phones. They are both the same color, as the unique accented power button was dropped last year with the Pixel 6 series. The buttons on the Pixel 7 Pro are oddly stiff. Sure, you can't press them accidentally but it's also hard to press them intentionally sometimes. They are also difficult to access when holding the phone in landscape mode.

The Pixel 7 Pro is a large phone but the slim body with curved edges and grippy sides and back makes it relatively easy to use singlehanded. The weight is also manageable and the phone doesn't feel too heavy for its size.

The smaller Pixel 7 feels noticeably downmarket in comparison. While it uses the same premium Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and aluminum frame, the way it is designed and finished leaves a lot to be desired.

The Pixel 7 has noticeably chunky bezels all around, which looks especially bad on the black model. Google says it has made the bezels smaller this year but it doesn't seem to have made any noticeable improvement. The camera cutout, while the same size as on the Pixel 7 Pro, is even more distracting on the smaller display.

The aluminum frame, which has a zirconia-blasted matte finish, has oddly sharp edges all around, particularly next to the display and the camera bar. The edges constantly rub against your thumbs when you use gestures and even while just holding the phone. The buttons on the side are somehow even stiffer and harder to press than those on the Pixel 7 Pro.

The Pixel 7 is also oddly heavy for a phone of its size. The weight is very close to that of the Pixel 7 Pro but while the bigger phone spreads it across a larger area, the Pixel 7 feels dense and chunky in hand. That said, the smaller Pixel 7 is definitely easier to use singlehanded and the flat display has its advantages.

Both phones have an IP68 dust and water resistance rating. Both come in three colors each, with Snow and Obsidian being common for both. The Pixel 7 Pro also comes in Hazel while the Pixel 7 comes in Lemongrass.

Display

The Pixel 7 Pro has the same display as last year's model, a 6.7-inch, 3120x1440 LTPO OLED panel with refresh rates that go up to 120Hz. The Pixel 7 has a new 6.3-inch, 2400x1800 90Hz OLED panel that is slightly smaller than the 6.4-inch panel on the Pixel 6.

Both phones have really good display quality with good color calibration. The smaller Pixel 7 looks very sharp and the 90Hz refresh rate feels adequately smooth for everyday use. The display also gets bright enough to view comfortably outdoors. Just make sure you have auto brightness enabled as the manual brightness does not get bright enough outdoors.

The Pixel 7 Pro display is outstanding. Aside from having a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate and QHD resolution, the display also gets extremely bright outdoors, which makes it very easy to see even under direct sunlight.

Indoors, however, the auto brightness can be very conservative on both phones and needs to be manually bumped up every so often. The Pixel 7 Pro also comes set to FHD resolution instead of QHD out of the box, so users will need to change that manually when they first get their device if they want to experience the maximum image clarity that the panel is capable of.

Google is very lenient with its refresh rate adjustment, so you tend to get the maximum refresh rate of the display on both phones in most situations. This is unlike other manufacturers, who will often lock certain apps to 60Hz for some ungodly reason. The only apps that are locked to 60Hz on these phones are Camera and Maps.

Both phones also support HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG standards for watching HDR content, but there's no Dolby Vision support. The HDR performance is good, especially on the Pixel 7 Pro, which can get much brighter. Neither display can output the full 10-bit color of HDR content, however, and use dithering to map it to their 8-bit panels.

Both Pixel 7 phones also include an optical fingerprint sensor built into the display. The sensor was fast and reliable during our testing and didn't give us any reason to complain. There is also an always-on display mode available but this puts a sizable dent in the battery life and isn't recommended if you plan on getting through a long day away from the charger.

Audio

Both the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro have stereo speakers, one placed discreetly inside the earpiece grille and the other at the bottom of the phone.

The stereo speakers on the Pixel 7 Pro sound really good, with rich vocals and decent bass response at medium to high volumes. The speakers also get very loud but there is some distortion at higher levels. The sound is also a bit imbalanced, with the bottom speaker sounding louder. Also, since the earpiece speaker fires out of a thin slit, the sound is very focused and directional, and minor adjustments to the angle of the phone can change how the speaker sounds.

The speakers on the Pixel 7 are much less impressive. Audio quality is nowhere near as good as the Pixel 7 Pro and the speakers sound fairly tinny in comparison. They also don't get as loud. The stereo imbalance is even more pronounced here, although oddly it's the earpiece speaker that's louder on the Pixel 7.

As you'd expect, there is no headphone jack on either of the two phones nor are there any audio accessories provided in the box. As with previous Pixel phones, neither of the Pixel 7 phones supports analog USB audio adapters, which forces you to use a USB DAC if you want to use wired headphones with them.