Pixel 7 Pro review: Here’s where Google gets serious about its smartphones

Google is taking its Pixel line seriously. Not only did we just get the new Pixel watch, the first wearable that Google has put its own name to, but we also got the flagship Pixel 7 Pro.

You might expect it to be Google’s best phone to date, but remember the Pixel 5, which brought the line back to a mid-range competitor rather than pitching at the premium smartphone market. Google has found its groove, though, and the Pixel 7 Pro isn’t giving up any more ground.

Google has packed in a great camera, useful speech features and some artificial intelligence that will make your life a little easier. The Pixel 7 pro comes with the second generation of Google’s Tensor chip, and the Titan M2 security chip to keep everything safe.

In short, Google has thrown everything at the Pixel 7 Pro.

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The phone is sticking with the same premium look: polished aluminium, glass and bit of colour on the back. Like the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, it has the camera bar across the back, which houses the triple camera system. The raised bar has a metal look, and although it means the phone won’t sit flat on a surface, that seems to be the norm for most smartphones these days. Best to invest in a case, though, as there were a few near-misses here with the phone making a break for it off the desk. Shiny = slippery, unfortunately.

The camera may not be the sole reason for buying a smartphone, but it is certainly a huge consideration for many people. The Pixel 7 Pro has a triple lens system, with a 50-megapixel wide camera, 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 48-megapixel telephoto lens. The ultrawide camera will also work as a macro lens, so you can get right up close without things getting blurry — one to two inches to be exact.

If things do get blurry, though, it might be salvageable. The Pixel 7 Pro also includes a useful tool called Photo Unblur, which will take your blurry photos, apply a bit of magic and deliver you some remarkably clear shots. They don’t have to be taken on the Pixel 7 Pro either — I used it on scans of some old photos, and they did a great job. A lot will depend on the quality of the original image, though, with some photos getting a little too sharp in places.

Google has also added in cinematic blur for video, which gives you the bokeh effect on your video footage, and motion blur, which has two options: a long exposure or action pan.

SuperRes Zoom gets you as close as possible, zooming in up to 30x. I found it worked best at around 10x; after that, there was obvious grain in the image and some softening. However, regardless of the zoom level, it was easy to get a fix on your intended subject without the camera jumping around too much. That puts the Pixel 7 Pro ahead of some other smartphone cameras in this respect.

Night Sight has also been improved a little, and Google’s Real Tone settings for skin tones mean you will get a realistic portrait photo, rather than a washed-out or ashy look.

This time around, Google is concentrating on its artificial intelligence and machine learning. The Pixel 7 Pro wants to make your life a bit easier, and that includes when it comes to using it as, well, a phone for calling, texting and so on.

For example, if you get an audio message through the Google messages app, it will automatically transcribe it for you so you can read it — handy if you somewhere you can’t listen to a voice message. Calls can be automatically captioned too, with all the translation to text happening on the device.

There are other features included on the Pixel phone that are nice to have but of no use to Irish users just yet. The Direct My Call feature, for example, will only work with certain toll-free numbers, and all examples listed are in the US. On the off-chance that it does work here at some point, the system will show up the options — dial one for sales, two for existing customers, and so on — on the screen before you have to listen to them. It’s a useful feature, but unfortunately not one that is supported here just yet.

And of course, call quality is good, and with Google rolling out clear calling to filter out background noise, it should only improve.

The good The Pixel 7 Pro is another solid smartphone from Google that won’t cost the earth. At €899, it’s not the priciest flagship smartphone out there, but it doesn’t scrimp on features either. It works well as a phone — more important than you’d think — and the front-facing camera is good enough for video conferencing, selfies and so on. Google has also added some accessibility features, such as Guided Frame, which helps you to take selfies, using the Talkback feature on the Pixel.

Features such as Photo Unblur and SuperRes Zoom are nice, but the overall camera experience on the Pixel 7 Pro is good enough without them. Plus, Magic Eraser makes a return, so you can remove unwanted objects from your photos without needing a course in photo editing.

The not so good There is no option to expand storage, so it is on-board and cloud only. While you’ll get a certain amount of storage free as a trial, be prepared to put your hand in your pocket sooner or later. Some of the more useful call features are not yet available, or are US-only.

The rest Wireless charging is included, as you would expect. Google has also brought back face unlock for the Pixel, so you no longer have to depend on patterns or pins.

The verdict Google says it is serious about the Pixel line — and the Pixel 7 Pro backs that up. However, there is a lot of competition, and Google needs to stay ahead of the game.