Last month, at a time when the internet was going wild with anticipation over Apple’s iPhones and smartwatches, Google announced that it would be holding its hardware-focused fall event on October 6. Now, after the demand for the iPhone 14 lineup failed to meet Apple’s expectations and the Cupertino-headquartered tech giant adjusted its production goals, Google launched a number of new products at its launch event.
Held in the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York City, the ‘Made by Google’ launch event saw the company lift the veil off the latest generation of its flagship smartphones – the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. It also marked Google’s official entry into the smartwatch segment (finally!) with the Pixel Watch.
What makes the release of the Pixel 7 series is not just that it is Google’s latest lineup of its flagship smartphones.
Instead, it is the fact that the Pixel series is making a comeback to the Indian market after a long time. The last time we saw the Pixel series in India was the release and sales of the Pixel 3 series. The Pixel 4, Pixel 5 and Pixel 6 never made their way to the Indian market, with the exceptions of the Pixel 4a (in 2020), and the Pixel 6a (this year).
Other devices to be unveiled at the event include the Pixel Watch, the new Pixel Buds, and the Pixel tablet.
Without further ado, let us delve deeper into the devices announced by the company at its fall event:
1. Pixel 7
The base model of the latest iteration of Google’s flagship smartphone, the Pixel 7 builds on the Pixel 6 and packs a new (and powerful) Tensor G2 chipset (which has a next-gen TPU for machine learning). It comes with support for both wired and wireless charging, longer battery life, and IP68 water resistance. To add to this, the base model also comes with a 6.3″ FHD+ display with 25% higher peak brightness, along with iP68 water resistance and support for both wired and wireless charging. The device will sport 72 hours of battery when using Extreme Battery Saver mode, along with 8GB RAM and two variants with 128GB and 256GB storage.
Running on Android 13, the Pixel 7 sports a camera setup that is not unlike the one offered by the Pixel 6. It comes with a 50MP main camera, a 12MP
ultrawide camera, as well as a 10.8MP front camera.
The Pixel 7 also sports a smarter AI that automatically suggests emojis when you are typing and transcribes audio messages in real-time. To add the cherry to the cake, the recorder app on Pixel 7 also get speaker labels. It also comes with 8GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage.
Google’s affordable handset starts at $599 (₹59,999 for India). Pre-orders for the Pixel 7 starts today.
2. Pixel 7 Pro
The Pro model of the Pixel 7 sports the Tensor G2 chip as well, along with larger storage in the form of 12GB RAM. The device also comes with a polished aluminum finish around the camera bump, Material You, and a 6.7″ QHD+ display with 25% higher peak brightness. It also has a variable refresh rate of between 10-120Hz, like last year’s Pixel 6 Pro. The Pro model comes with 12GB of RAM and 128, 256 or 512GB of storage.
Coming to cameras, we find that the device includes triple rear cameras, which include a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera with a 21% wider lens, and a 48MP telephoto camera, along with a 10.8MP front camera.
The device starts at $899 (₹84,999 for India), and pre-orders start today.
Both the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro come in light, pastel colors and a horizontal camera bar that runs from left to right on the top of the smartphone and has light colors, along with an under-display fingerprint scanner. The front camera on both devices power the Face Unlock feature. Both phones would later be the first smartphones to include VPNs by Google One. They also have 5 years of security upgrades as the company emphasises ‘protected computing,’ which will de-identify data, minimize data collection, and restrict data access.
According to Google, the new camera is a more inclusive one that includes improvements to Night Sight and one that will ensure that people with dark skin appear more natural in their photos. Pixel 7 also includes Photo Unblur (a feature that will fix blurry photos), Guided Frames (a feature that tells people where to position their phone and lets them take better pictures), and Cinematic Blur (a feature that will ensure video in Portrait style where the background is blurred but the subject is in sharp focus).
