Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro hands-on review

Camera

The Pixel 7 Pro has a triple camera system while the smaller Pixel 7 has dual cameras at the back. Both phones share the main 50MP f1.85 camera that has been borrowed from the Pixel 6 phones, as well as the new 12MP f2.2 ultra-wide camera, which now has autofocus.

The Pixel 7 Pro also has a new 48MP f3.5 telephoto camera with 5x magnification over the main camera. Combining optics and Google's Super Res Zoom image processing, the Pixel 7 Pro can achieve 30x magnification whereas the Pixel 7 is limited to 8x.

Both phones also have laser autofocus, spectral and flicker sensor, and OIS and EIS on the wide and telephoto cameras.

The camera app is a simple affair, with the zoom toggle below the viewfinder as well as the mode switcher. Swiping down on the screen brings a few quick toggles for Night sight, Top Shot, Timer, and more. From there, you can also access the full settings.

Camera app

As with previous Pixel phones, Google's Camera app is not loaded with a lot of options or modes. Notably, there is no pro mode, although you can still optionally save images in DNG RAW format. These are processed RAWs, similar to Apple's ProRAW, except Google has been doing these since the Pixel 3 days.

Update 14 Oct: We've updated the camera quality conclusions below and we've added new camera samples following some last-minute software updates of the Pixel 7 & Pixel 7 Pro.

Moving on to the image quality, the Pixel 7 main camera delivers results that are consistent with what we have come to expect from Pixel cameras.

Starting with the main 50MP camera, the Pixel 7 phones deliver sharp, detailed images with low noise. Images have the typical Pixel look, with aggressive texture and clarity enhancement, and prominent tone mapping. The colors tend to mostly be realistic, with the usual blue/magenta bias in daylight shots. It's remarkable how consistent the overall image processing looks among Pixel phones, even going as far back as the original Pixel and it's clear Google has decided not to mess with its winning formula. This also means you don't necessarily see any major gen on gen upgrades as you may expect.

Main camera

The 12MP ultra-wide camera is different on both phones. On the Pixel 7 Pro, the camera has wider field of view and also autofocus, which also makes it usable up close. Image quality is great, and color rendition and overall image processing is very similar to the main camera.

Pixel 7 Pro ultra-wide camera

The smaller Pixel 7 ultra-wide lacks autofocus, which at regular shooting distance for an ultra-wide is not a concern. It also has a smaller field of view compared to the Pixel 7 Pro but since it has the same resolution the images are more detailed in comparison.

Pixel 7 ultra-wide camera

The new 5x telephoto on the Pixel 7 Pro is a bit of an odd man out. The image processing is not consistent with the other two cameras, producing softer, less aggressively processed, and notably warmer/greener images every time. The images are still detailed and the image processing is arguably much more natural and realistic but it does not blend well with the other two cameras.

Pixel 7 Pro 5x telephoto camera

The new trick up the Pixel's sleeve is the updated digital zoom processing. Using a revamped version of the Super Res Zoom feature, the Pixel 7 Pro can produce some remarkable results. 2x and 3x zoom on the main camera provide very usable images. At 5x and beyond the camera switches to the dedicated telephoto camera. 8x, 10x, and even 15x produce very good results. The Pixel 7 Pro maxes out at 30x, which doesn't look great but is much better than what you'd imagine.

Pixel 7 Pro 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x • 10x • 30x

The smaller Pixel 7 does not have a telephoto camera, so all zooming beyond 1x is done digitally. 2x and 3x are again quite usable. 5x is about as high as one would want to go and even that doesn't look great. The camera maxes out at 8x, which is quite blurry.

Pixel 7 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x • 8x

We do have an important note regarding the zoom, which is that the quality of the digital zoom varied a lot in our testing. At its best, the digitally zoomed images from both phones but especially the Pixel 7 Pro looked really good and that's what the above description is based on. However, we also saw instances where the zoomed images look rather poor. We are not sure why this happened but one theory we had was that the phones were simply running too hot during our testing under the sun, which may have caused the phone to dial back the image processing as the chipset was likely throttling. We will have to investigate this more in our full review but know that the results can be quite varied at times.

As a side note, the UI for the zoom is rather small and difficult to dial in precisely. This likely won't be an issue for the average user but getting exact zoom numbers dialed in for this review was a pain due to how sensitive the dial is and how much it moves if you simply lift your finger off it.

The Pixel 7 Pro also has a new macro mode, which uses the new ultra-wide camera with autofocus. The camera automatically switches to macro mode when close to the subject and this can be disabled using a tiny button that appears in the middle of the viewfinder. You can also lock the macro, so it stays in that mode even when you move away. The results from this can be quite good assuming you manage to get the camera to focus.

Pixel 7 Pro macro samples

Focusing, in general, was a bit of an issue with both Pixel 7 Phones. All the cameras on the Pixel 7 Pro would occasionally struggle to focus on the subject even if it was right in the middle of the frame. The 5x telephoto was particularly egregious, and not only struggled to focus if the subject was closer to the lens but was also painfully slow to focus. Get within a few feet of the subject and the phone won't even let you use the telephoto camera and instead switches to a 5x digital zoom on the main camera. All the cameras worked best when the subject was far away and within the same focusing plane.

Finally, there's the video capture. All three cameras on the Pixel 7 Pro (and two on the Pixel 7) support recording in 4K up to 60fps. While 4K supports all features, changing from the default 30fps to 60fps will disable some features like HDR and speech enhancement.

Video quality from the main camera was identical on both phones, with good color reproduction and detail. Image stabilization was also excellent. The two ultra-wide cameras also offered very similar image quality apart from the different field of view. The only issue with these videos is the rather large amount of noise in them, which was especially noticeable in the shadows on the two ultra-wide cameras.

The video from the 5x telephoto was not really usable while in motion. The image had a lot of jitter and the lens would suddenly pan around the frame, making the footage unwatchable. If you are recording with this lens, make sure the subject is far away and the camera is stable.

The phone also has four different image stabilization modes. The standard mode is the one used for all samples here and is designed for everyday use. Locked mode does a 2x crop and locks on to a far-away subject. Active uses the ultra-wide camera for more aggressive stabilization. And finally, Cinematic Pan makes it easy to shoot smooth panning shots and saves the video in 2x slow motion without audio.