Google Pixel 7 vs Pixel 7 Pro

Google has two new phones designed to tempt anyone interested in excellent cameras, great software, or top-tier security, but while both the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro offer these things, they also have a lot of differences.

Those differences lead to dramatically different prices, with the standard Google Pixel 7 having little more than a mid-range price, while the Google Pixel 7 Pro is priced like a full-blown flagship. So you might be wondering whether the Pro is worth all the extra.

The answer to that really depends on what you want from your phone, but to help you decide we’ve compared these two handsets in full, and highlighted all the key differences.

Price

The Google Pixel 7 starts at £599 SIM-free or £33 per month on a contract with Three. That makes it slightly more expensive than most mid-range phones but still a lot more affordable than most high-end ones.

That also makes it a lot more affordable than the Pixel 7 Pro, which starts at £849 SIM-free or £41 on a Three contract. That’s a distinctly high-end price, and of course with both phones the price rises if you want more storage or greater allowances.

Design

At a glance the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro don’t look much different. They both have a tough Gorilla Glass Victus back, an aluminium frame, and a screen protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. They also both have the range’s iconic camera bar on the rear, and a single-lens punch-hole camera cut into the display. They both have an IP68 rating too, meaning both phones are resistant to water and dust.

However, there are a number of differences. For one thing, the dimensions and weights differ, with the Pixel 7 coming in at 155.6 x 73.2 x 8.7 and 197g, while the Pixel 7 Pro is 162.9 x 76.6 x 8.9 and 212g. The Pro model then is a bit larger and heavier.

The colours you can get these phones in also differ, with the standard Pixel 7 being available in Obsidian, Lemongrass, and Snow shades, while the Pixel 7 Pro comes in a choice of Obsidian, Snow or Hazel.

The camera bar also differs a bit – on the Pixel 7 it’s made of a matte aluminium, while the Pixel 7 Pro uses shinier polished aluminium. The bar on the Pro model also houses an extra lens.

Screen

The screens on these two phones are very different, as while they’re both AMOLED and support HDR10+, that’s where most of the similarities end.

The Google Pixel 7 has a 6.3-inch 1080 x 2400 screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, 416 pixels per inch, and a peak brightness of 1,400 nits.

The Pixel 7 Pro on the other hand has a 6.7-inch 1440 x 3120 screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, 512 pixels per inch, and a peak brightness of 1,500 nits.

So the Google Pixel 7 Pro’s display is bigger, higher resolution, higher refresh rate, and it can get slightly brighter. It’s an all-round better screen then, but the standard Pixel 7’s is still no slouch.

Power

Both the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro use the Google Tensor G2 chipset, so there’s no difference there. This is a moderately powerful chipset built specifically for these handsets – which isn’t something you can say about the chipsets used in most Android phones.

It’s not quite the fastest you’ll find in terms of raw power, but it really excels at machine learning and AI tasks, which help with things like photo processing, Google Assistant, translation and dictation.

There is a difference in the amounts of RAM offered in these phones though, with the Pixel 7 having 8GB while the Google Pixel 7 Pro has 12GB, so the latter is more powerful overall, and that extra RAM will particularly come in handy when jumping between a lot of different apps.

Cameras

These two phones have similar camera setups, but you get an extra lens in the case of the Pixel 7 Pro. Both phones have a 50MP f/1.9 primary camera, a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide one, and a 10.8MP f/2.2 front-facing camera, but the Pixel 7 Pro additionally has a 48MP f/3.5 telephoto snapper with 5x optical zoom.

So the Pro model is much better for zoom photography. It’s also better for macro shots, as it has a Macro Focus feature which lets you get incredibly close to subjects and pick out tiny details. That’s powered by its ultra-wide lens, which also has a wider field of view – 126 degrees rather than the Pixel 7’s 114 degrees.

So the Pixel 7 Pro’s camera setup is rather more versatile, but both phones promise an exceptional photography experience, backed up by superb modes, software and image processing.

Battery life, memory and connectivity

The Google Pixel 7 has a 4,355mAh battery and the Pixel 7 Pro has a 5,000mAh one, so the Pro’s battery is bigger, but it also has to power a larger, sharper screen. In practice, Google claims that both phones can last for over 24 hours between charges, or for up to 72 hours if using Extreme Battery Saver mode.

Both phones offer 30W wired charging and fast wireless charging, and both come with a choice of 128GB or 256GB of storage. Both phones also support 5G. So there’s no significant difference in this section.

Conclusion

The main upgrades offered by the Pixel 7 Pro in comparison to the standard Google Pixel 7 then include a larger, sharper screen with a higher refresh rate, a telephoto camera, a macro mode, and extra RAM.

It also has a larger battery, but as noted above the actual life might be similar, and while the design and available colours are a bit different, they’re not necessarily better – that’s subjective.

It’s a larger and more expensive phone than the standard Pixel 7, so you should consider whether you want the extra size and can justify the extra price.

Still, overall the Pixel 7 Pro is undoubtedly the better handset in a number of ways, but the Pixel 7 has a great assortment of specs too, and they’re coupled with a far more desirable price.