I've had the Pixel 7 I bought and Pixel 7 Pro Google sent me for several weeks now and
with holidays and sales coming up, you may be struggling with the decision on which phone
to purchase.
And while this video is not a full review of both of these devices, I've spent enough
time with both of them now to form an opinion on which one I think you should get.
So first, why would you go with the Pixel 7?
The main reason I think you would go for this phone is because it’s less expensive than
the 7 Pro at $599 US dollars and it comes in a smaller form factor compared to the Pro
with its 6.3 inch diagonal display compared to the Pro’s larger 6.7 inch display.
The 7 also comes with a matte metal finish if you think matte looks better or feels more
premium to you, and the 7 also has a version that doesn’t have 5mm wave, although the
cutout for 5mm 5G looks way better on the 7 Pro than it did on last year’s 6 Pro.
So those are some of the advantages going with the 7.
But what about the 7 Pro?
It's $300 US dollars more than the 7.
So what do you get?
The biggest difference between these two devices to me so far has been their screen quality.
he 7 Pro, like last year’s Pro model, has a 120 hz display compared to the 7’s 90
hz display, which still feels pretty fast.
The 7 Pro also gets you 100 nits more of peak brightness, maxing out at 1500 nits of peak
brightness, making the phone very readable in sunlight.
Unfortunately for the 7, Google has continued to use an inferior OLED displaywhere when
you look at a white screen on the phone, you’ll get these purple and green color refractions.
It is something you can certainly get used to or mostly eliminate by using dark mode
on the display, But if you end up reading a lot of black text on a white background,
it's going to be hard not to notice it.
The other huge upside to going with the 7 Pro is the telephoto lens.
It gives you an optical zoom of 5x and up to 30x zoom with Super Res zoom and the Super
Res Zoom this year with the Pro is actually pretty decent at 10x, while the 30x, you’re
not going to be creating really stunning photos, but say you encounter something like did on
a walk and want to share it with a friend, its decent enough for situations like that.
It certainly gives you a lot more flexibility compared to the 7’s 8x zoom and the 7 also
has no optical telephoto and typically, i always find telephoto cameras on smartphones
more useful than the ultra-wide cameras, but let me know what you think.
Do you prefer using the ultra-wide camera more often than a telephoto?
Let me know in the comments.
Another new mode you get this year by going with the 7 Pro is macro focus and this is
actually a very useful feature in my opinion.
I used this feature a ton on my iPhone 13 Pro last year taking photos of flowers, leaves,
other things out in nature, and overall, if you want the most versatility when it comes
to what kinds of photos you can take with your smartphone, the Pixel 7 Pro is the obvious
choice.
Also by going with the 7 Pro, you get 12 GB of RAM for even more performance headroom,
you get the option to configure the phone to 512 GB of storage though for me, when you
consider that you can back up your photos and videos to google photos, 256 GB of on-device
storage, for me at least, is typically fine.
And, lastly, you get a polished metal finish on the back camera bar which I think looks
really slick.
You know what else looks slick…mattresses.
Wow.
That was an attempt at a segue.
Helix sleep makes premium mattresses and betting that are customized to fit your needs and
shipped right to your door.
I've been sleeping on a helix mattress for the past few weeks now, and it's been great.
And part of the reason for that is I got the right mattress, thanks to Helix's sleep quiz,
which helped me match my unique body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress.
For me, that's one that's not too soft, not too hard, and can accommodate side sleeping
positions, with pressure relief.
Helix sleep made shipping and set up with their mattress easy.
They ship my mattress right to my door for free.
I opened up the box and rolled it on the bed, opened the plastic packaging and boom.
There was my new mattress.
After sleeping on it for several weeks, I've got no complaints.
The firmness is perfect for me as a side sleeper.
I felt very supported and that's been very comfortable, especially around the shoulder
region, they built in some pressure relief to the mattress and that's been noticeable
and good.
And I didn't plan on doing this but I got COVID right after I got this mattress.
So I was bedridden for at least the first few days when I got COVID and this is a very
comfortable mattress to be in bed for long periods of time.
For when you get a mattress from Helix sleep, you get a 100 night trial to make sure the
mattress you got is right for you and it comes with a 10-year warranty plus financing and
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I've been enjoying my slumber with a helix sleep mattress and I think you will too.
So, if you're looking for a new bed, check out Helix Sleep, Click on the link below or
go to Helixsleep.com/six months for up to $200 off your Helix sleep mattress.
Plus two free pillows.
All right, back to the phone.
So that's the 7 Pro.
Now, as a reminder compared to the 6 and 6 Pro from last year, this year's phones both
get two significant upgrades: Tensor G2 and face unlock Tensor 2 is Google’s latest
generation chip that enables on-device features like Face Unblur in Google Photos, better
transcribing features, Cinematic Mode for Video, and an upgrade to the recorder app.
Face Unlock has been missing from the pixel lineup ever since the Pixel 4 and 4 XL.
And i'm really excited that Google has brought it back for the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.
So far, unlocking my Pixels have been just as convenient as Face Unlock on other devices.
So which phone do i think you should buy?
In general, for most people, I think the Pixel 7 at $599 US dollars is a great deal, with
one giant exception though and that's the screen quality issues I mentioned earlier.
If you do a lot of reading on your phone or you don’t use dark mode a lot, the lower
quality OLED screen could become a bit annoying.
Unfortunately, it's just as noticeable as it was on the Pixel 6 for me last year and
i really wish that Google would just copy what Apple does here and not cheap out on
screen quality.
So if screen quality really matters to you, skip out on the 7, go for the 7 Pro and then
the other reasons to go for the 7 Pro are all of those awesome camera features we talked
about earlier.
And if you want a larger display size, for me, i'm almost always picking up the 7 Pro
over the seven that I bought because it just does the tasks that are more important to
me better even though I really like the size of the 7.
Now is the Pro worth $300 more?
For most people, no, probably not, but for me and others who want the best camera system
and a decent screen, then you really don’t have a choice and actually, when you compare
the 7 Pro to the other flagships it’s competing against like the iPhone 14 Pro and S22 Ultra,
$899 is a bit less than what those phones start at,
So when you take other flagship phones into account, the Pro actually looks like a pretty
great deal.
And I’ve left purchase links here in this video and in the description below if you’d
like to learn more about the 7 and 7 Pro and check their current price.
Hit that thumbs up button if you like this video and subscribe to the channel to see
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For 6 Months Later, I’m Josh Teder, thanks for watching.