Tested

Seven nation charmy

Google’s new flagship phone is ready to fight ’em all with its cannily improved specs

from £849 / go.stuff.tv/Pixel7Pro

■ Does the Pixel 7 Pro look familiar? It has the same glass and metal sandwich styling as its predecessor, but that distinctive camera shelf is now made from 100% recycled aluminium. The polished finish just loves fingerprints, though.

■ Those curved screen edges are less pronounced than last year, which keeps reflections in check. There’s still a high-resolution, HDR-friendly OLED panel underneath, with gloriously punchy colours and an adaptive refresh rate. Brightness has taken a big step up, to 1500 dazzling nits.

■ Google’s Tensor G2 brings two upgraded CPU cores and a new GPU, plus added machine-learning smarts. There’s enough grunt to run anything from the Play Store smoothly and split-screen multitasking works like a charm, although it remains a step behind the Qualcomm competition.

■ The cameras deliver ace snaps in all lighting conditions, with wide dynamic range, vivid colours and accurate exposure. The 50MP main sensor offers algorithmic extras like Face Unblur, rescuing shots that would be a smeary mess on other phones.

■ The 5000mAh battery will last you from breakfast to bedtime but not much more, and charging is a pedestrian 30W. Reverse charging is handy for topping up smaller gadgets if you’ve got juice to spare. The smile twist It’s not as secure as the fingerprint sensor but face-unlocking is super-speedy, and handy if you’re wearing gloves.

Tech specs

Screen 6.7in 3120x1440 120Hz OLED Processor Tensor G2 RAM 12GB OS Android 13 Storage 128/256/512GB Cameras 50+48+12MP rear, 10.8MP front Battery 5000mAh (USB-C, Qi) Dimensions 163x77x8.9mm, 212g ■ Slicky thump

There’s no 3.5mm headphone port (Google would rather sell you some Pixel Buds) and only one of the grilles at the bottom has a speaker behind it, but audio is beefy enough thanks to some help from the earpiece speaker. ■ Grew orchid

Super Res Zoom algorithms take the 48MP telephoto lens (normally good for 5x optical zoom) all the way up to 30x, with impressive results. Details are preserved and the preview thumbnail helps with framing.

STUFF SAYS Google plays it safe, but the Pixel 7 Pro improves in the right places HHHHH

Just enough improvement to secure another Google conquest Tom Morgan-Freelander

Streamlined styling, plentiful performance and dependable battery life make the Pixel 7 Pro another worthy Google flagship. It’s a minor upgrade over last year’s effort but does still impress on the photography front, with pin-sharp zoom and even snappier low-light shooting. The stock Android software is also sure to please purists, and Google gets a big thumbs-up from us for price-matching the old model.