One year after its Pixel 6 Pro, Google is launching its new premium smartphone, the Pixels 7 Pro.
Weighted with a new chip called Tensor G2 and software improvements, the terminal is clearly progressing in photo and video.
And good news: in an inflationary economic context, its price remains unchanged compared to that of its elder.
After Apple and its new iPhone 14, it's Google's turn to take the spotlight.
The manufacturer is launching its Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro this Thursday, October 13.
These two new smartphones notably promise significant improvements in their photo and video quality.
To verify this,
20 Minutes
was able to test the 7 Pro, the price of which does not change compared to the Pixel 6 Pro launched a year ago.
Progress at the same price
From 899 euros (in its 128 GB version), the same price as the Pixel 6 Pro launched just a year ago.
No doubt in an attempt to gain market share, Google does not increase the price of its Pixel 7 Pro and ignores the shortage of components, parity with the dollar, transport costs, the geopolitical context... The more advanced 6.7-inch screen, IP68 device is offered at no additional cost.
What Apple does for its iPhine 14 in the United States, but not in Europe.
The new smartphones from the Apple firm see their prices jump by 110 euros (iPhone 14), 170 euros (iPhone 14 Pro) and 220 euros (iPhone Pro Max).
So much for the preamble.
More for the same price?
Yes, because as we have seen, the Pixel 7 Pro does better than its predecessor.
Especially in photos*.
An anti-blur filter
If we find the famous “Magic eraser” of the 6 Pro to remove a person or an annoying object on an image (with guaranteed success almost every time), Google introduces this time the Anti-Blur function.
As its name suggests, it considerably improves the sharpness of an image whose displayed blur would be anything but artistic.
Here, the Pixel 7 Pro combines software processing, the computing power of its new Tensor G2 in-house chip, but also
machine learning
.
We tested this function several times, on slightly missed portraits.
Let it be said, there is not necessarily a miracle to be expected, but it is true that the gain in sharpness is quite obvious and saves a photo whose blur would be too pronounced.
The good news is that you can also apply this Anti-Blur to photos that were not taken by the smartphone.
Just upload them to the Google Photos app and then apply the magic filter to them.
Macro photography thinks big
The Pixel 7 Pro's ultra-wide-angle lens now features autofocus.
The key is the possibility of taking quite dazzling macro photos.
To do this, you must select “.5x” and get as close as possible to your subject, as long as the focus can be achieved.
This is a function that we find more and more on high-end smartphones, such as the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, but also FindX 5 Pro from Oppo or Galaxy S22 from Samsung.
The results we obtained during our test flatter the retina.
Even if the level of detail of a real macro lens mounted on a hybrid or reflex camera is not there, there is something to be seduced.
A super-resolution zoom that amazes
The most impressive improvement comes from the zoom.
Now 5x optical (compared to 4x for the Pixel 6 pro), and up to 30x digital (compared to 20x previously), the new Pixel knows how to get closer to its subject like no other.
It is thus possible to gradually switch from ultra wide-angle (0.5x) to Super Res Zoom (or 30x super-resolution zoom) and to obtain quite astonishing results, as these photos published by Google show.
Various tests have enabled us to make the same observation…
Even if, at the strongest deployment of its digital zoom, the Pixel 7 Pro does not produce hyper-sharp photos (we see for example that the contours of buildings are smoothed by software processing, we lose all depth…), this improvement widens the range of possibilities for taking photos outdoors, in nature, and especially when travelling.
We now know that up to 15x, or even 20x, the photo taken will be quite acceptable for a non-expert eye.
Some bridge
cameras
don't do any better.
The video goes to the cinema
The video** is not left out.
A Cinematic mode makes its appearance.
When filming, this allows you to focus on part of the image on the fly, as shown in our “Tik Tech” video which illustrates this article.
On the screen, all you have to do is put your index finger on a person or an object that you want to keep sharp so that the rest of the image is automatically blurred.
This is the equivalent of the Bokeh effect (or "Artistic blur behind the subject") that we now know well for Portrait photos.
Introduced on video by Apple on its iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max in 2021, Google's Cinematic mode seems more responsive to us, with no real latency between the moment you press on part of the image and the rest of the image. picture blurs.
There remains a great opportunity to very significantly improve your videos, to give them a cinematic cachet, by modifying the depth of field at any time and obtaining beautiful effects.
Be careful not to abuse it, however.
Google has often hammered it: it is neither the number nor the sensitivity of the on-board sensors that makes it possible to produce good images, but the computing power and the software capacity that we develop behind.
Undoubtedly, this new Pixel 7 Pro brings new proof of this and we can here salute the know-how of the manufacturer who is trying to ride on the success of its Pixels 6.
Six years after its first Pixels, Google must now make its products better known, long confined to releases in certain countries only, and without the marketing power of an Apple or a Samsung.
The manufacturer seems to want to change strategy and want to play in the big leagues.
Technically, the Pixel 7 Pro no longer poses as a simple challenger to the behemoths of the iPhone 14 and Galaxy S 22, but as a true rival at an ultra-competitive price.
* 50 megapixel rear sensors (wide angle / f1.85); 12 megapixels (ultra wide angle/f/2.2); 48 megapixels (telephoto/f/3.5). 10.8 megapixel (f/2.2) front sensor.
** Front and rear video recording up to 4K at 60fps.
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