By Mahesh de Andrado

Last week, Google had its “Made by Google” launch event where the tech giant showcased the latest in their lineup of smart devices. As expected,, this was the debut of the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, along with a yet to be spoken of device.. So let’s take a look at them, shall we?

The new Pixel 7 is here

Starting things off were the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Powered by the second generation Tensor, called the Tensor G2, the Pixel 7 packs a mostly flat 6.3-inch, FHD+ 90hz OLED display with 8GB of RAM and upto 256GB of (non-expandable) storage. There’s a new 50MP primary sensor on the rear coupled with a 12MP Ultrawide lens. In terms of video, you’re looking at (pun intended) 4K60fps on both lenses. But be warned that shooting at 4K will obviously eat into your storage.  The front shooter has been upgraded to a 11MP.

Powering all this is a 4355mAh battery that supports upto 30W wired charging via USB Type C, and 23W wireless charging. The phone will ship with Android 13 with support for 3 years of software/android updates. The Pixel 7 also now comes with support for face unlock (which weirdly enough, was absent from the Pixel 6). All the other goodies that one would expect from a Pixel Smartphone such as regular updates, unlimited photo storage on Google Photos and AI enhancements for images snapped are also present. In terms of pricing, the Google Pixel 7 can be yours for $599.

Say Hello to its bigger brother, the Pixel 7 Pro

Kicking things up a notch, the Google Pixel 7 Pro takes everything from the Pixel 7 and bumps it up quite a bit. It’s the same Tensor G2 chip though, so performance should be identical. There’s a larger 6.7-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED display, 12GB of RAM and upto half a terabyte of storage. It sports the same primary rear camera along with a 12MP ultrawide and a 48MP telephoto lens that has a 5x Optical Zoom, as well as the same 11MP front facing camera as its smaller sibling which also supports Face Unlock.

The company’s Super Res Zoom technology allows the 50PM camera to shoot at 2x zoom,  basically cropping down to a 12.5MP image down the center. This coupled with the AI on the Tensor G2 means much better zoomed photos. Added to that, the Pixel 7 Pro is able to achieve high-quality zoom from anywhere between 2.5x-4.9x by combining images from the main and telephoto lenses. At 5x, the telephoto lens kicks in. The Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 also bring a new tool called “Photo Unblur”. As the name suggests, it uses machine learning and AI to unblur not only photos you take from the Pixel 7 Pro/7 but basically any image in your Google Photos library. So if you have any blurred photos, the Pixel 7 lineup can lend you a helping hand in unblurring them.

The battery is upgraded to a 5,000mAh and again supports upto 30W wired charging, and 23W wireless charging. If you’re looking to get your hands on a Pixel 6 Pro, it will cost you $899.

The Pixel Watch: It’s like a Fitbit on Steroids

It’s been a long time coming, but Google finally unveiled their own smartwatch. Granted this is after the likes of Samsung, and other Wear OS devices, as well as the elephant in the room; the Apple Watch, which was first launched almost 7 years ago. Can Google catch up to the race in time (pun intended)? Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Talking about the Pixel Watch, it’s definitely a good looking watch. It sports a circular glass design with an always on display that is protected by Gorilla Glass 5. So it can handle a few small bumps and scratches. The body of the Pixel watch is composed of stainless steel, adding to the premium look of it and making it look more like a regular wrist watch as opposed to a smartwatch. The watch is also water resistant upto 50 meters, and comes with a variety of band styles to choose from. These include lightweight sports bands, breathable woven bands and even metal bands for an extra touch of class.

Being a hybrid between a Fitbit and a Wear OS smartwatch, you can bet your dollar that the Pixel Watch is jam packed with sensors. There’s a heart rate sensor on the back and you can also use the watch to take ECG readings. Oddly enough there’s no blood oxygenation capabilities here, but the hardware is already in place. So we can expect that to be enabled in a software update once the device launches on the 13th of October.  Being a Pixel device, obviously the Pixel Watch will run Android Wear. In this case, Google Wear OS 3.5. The added benefit (or not, I’ll get to that in a moment) is the integration of Fitbit features into the Pixel Watch, since Google acquired Fitbit in 2021. But here lies some of the quirks. For example, while Wear OS features such as setting up watch faces, app notifications etc can be done via the Wear OS app, monitoring your health stats and sleep have to be done via the Fitbit app.

According to Google, the Pixel Watch is for people who want Fitbit’s health tracking coupled with additional smartwatch features not present on a Fitbit such as LTE connectivity and Google Play Store apps. If you purchase a Pixel Watch, you will also get  six months of free Fitbit Premium. After that, it will be a $10 monthly subscription. Google also claims that the Pixel Watch can go up to 24 hours on a single charge. Considering it’s an Android Wear device, this is acceptable, seeing as the Apple Watch 8 only gets around 18 hours when not in low power mode. But if you want extra battery life, you could try turning some features off or running the watch in battery saver mode (but that also defeats the purpose of the watch, so that’s up to you). The Pixel Watch is priced at $$350 for the Wi-Fi and GPS model, and $400 for the LTE model.

Google also teased the Pixel Tablet, which is rumored to arrive in 2023. While nothing much is known about it, Google did say that it can be used both as a tablet as well as a Google Nest Hub. The tablet can be placed on a magnetic charging dock, and when docked, can display photos and act as a smart home controller.

Will you be getting your hands on a Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro? Or perhaps a Pixel Watch? Or are you waiting for the Pixel Tablet? We would love to hear your thoughts.

 

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