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The Pixel 7 could be Google’s first-ever flagship smartphone sequel.

That would possibly appear to be a wierd factor to say about “model 7” of a smartphone, however prior to now, each flagship Pixel has switched producers or used a brand new design from yr to yr. This technique is the precise reverse of the one utilized by the bigger, extra critical {hardware} firms like Apple or Samsung, from which you’ll count on regular, iterative smartphone designs, with huge redesigns coming each few years. When you are scrambling to construct a smartphone from scratch yearly, it is laborious to do a lot in the best way of error correction, enhancements, or adjusting to buyer suggestions.

The Pixel 6 Pro was already one of the best Android telephone you might purchase, so Google did not need to do an excessive amount of to show in a very good smartphone this yr. All the essential bits from the Pixel 6 are right here, just like the category-leading price ticket, nice digital camera, and speedy, clear software program. But even with that stable base, Google did a very good job of fixing a few of our minor complaints concerning the Pixel 6. There’s no cause to improve in case you have a Pixel 6, however an precise “model 2” of Google’s flagship smartphone would possibly entice extra folks to strive the model.

Refining an already-great design

The finest a part of the Pixel 6 design, the digital camera bar, returns within the Pixel 7. Google’s digital camera bar stays one of the best rear digital camera design within the business because it accomplishes the purpose of constructing area for a digital camera lens whereas additionally being useful. The bar is a raised, horizontal stripe throughout the again of the telephone, permitting the machine to sit down on a desk with out rocking forwards and backwards (an unlucky facet impact of corner-mounted digital camera bumps). It’s an enormous enchancment over the standard wobbly smartphone. The digital camera bar additionally helps with grip should you stick an index finger below the ridge it makes throughout the again of a telephone. It’s tough to help a tool by a nook digital camera bump, however the huge, tactile ridge provides you another level of contact.

The Pixel 6’s digital camera bar was a large number of elements, although. The prime and backside edges have been aluminum, and a single strip of glass coated each lens. Google could not curve the glass across the left and proper sides, so the glass abruptly stopped and awkwardly switched to black plastic. The huge glass sheet was additionally a magnet for glare in some lighting circumstances. Light may enter the strip of glass from many angles and bounce round to clean out your photographs.

The Pixel 7 digital camera bar simplifies issues. A single piece of aluminum now makes up the telephone body, the perimeters, and the skin of the digital camera bar, with just one or two glass cutouts for the digital camera lenses. Glare points are lowered. The digital camera has not modified a lot, however a 5x telephoto lens (and 30x software program zoom) has been added.

Google made all of the incorrect selections in relation to differentiating the design of the Pixel 7 Pro and its little sibling, the Pixel 7, ensuing within the cheaper telephone having a greater total design. The Pixel 7 Pro makes use of a mirror end on the aluminum sides and digital camera bar. The end picks up fingerprints and highlights scratches, and my barely one-week-old overview unit’s digital camera bar is already scuffed up. The base-model Pixel 7 has a brushed, matte aluminum end, which hides scratches higher. The brushed aluminum seems to be higher, because it does not get coated in fingerprints, and it feels higher, with the matte aluminum sides offering a bit extra grip than the slick end of the Pro.

The base-model Pixel 7 additionally has a very flat display, whereas the Pixel 7 Pro has a curved show. Curved shows distort content material on the edges of the show, seize glare, and make unintentional touches simpler. They’re a marketing-driven anti-feature that producers ought to get rid of. The Pixel 7 Pro show is noticeably much less curved than the Pixel 6 Pro, however why not simply utterly unburden the person from this disagreeable design?

With a greater aluminum end and a flat display, the $600 Pixel 7 appears like a serious improve over the $900 Pixel 7 Pro, and it is what I’d select if I may get the bottom mannequin with a high-end, 120 Hz display. Google ought to toss the 7 Pro design and make two variations of the Pixel 7 as a result of not one of the “premium” design adjustments it made are value it. Every day, I decide up the Pixel 7 and am tempted to change from the Pro as a result of the skin design is a lot nicer.

Speaking of dangerous tendencies, let’s speak about mmWave. The worst a part of the Pixel 6 Pro design was an enormous plastic mmWave window on the highest fringe of the telephone. On my white model, it is an enormous white strip on the highest of the telephone, and it does not match the cream-colored again or the silver-colored aluminum band. The Pixel 7 Pro seems to be a lot better, lowering the cutout to a rounded, color-matched window that solely takes up about 40 % of the size of the highest. It’s an enormous enchancment.