Google is saving terrible photographers (like me) from ourselves.
I got to try out the new Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and Pixel Watch devices shortly after the Made By Google 2022 event. While there’s still a ton that I can’t judge about these new devices based on some brief testing with display units (like many of the Pixel 7 phones’ new AI features and all of the Pixel Watch’s health tracking features), the little bit I was able to try out left me hungry for more Pixel camera shenanigans.
New Pixels, a lot like the old Pixels
Let’s start with the part where I literally put my hands on both new Pixel phones. While I didn’t have either of the Pixel 6 models on hand for a direct comparison, the physical dimensions haven’t changed much.
The Pixel 7 Pro and 6 Pro have the exact same 6.7-inch display with a 1440p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The 7 Pro felt pretty sizable in my hands, though at 212g (compared to 210g on the Pixel 6 Pro) it’s not substantially heavier than last year’s model. I personally wouldn’t go for a phone that size, but hey, you do you.
The regular Pixel 7 actually cut some weight, coming in at 197g compared to the Pixel 6’s 207g weight. That may be the result of a very slight downsizing in the display, from 6.4-inches on the Pixel 6 to 6.3-inches on the Pixel 7. That’s a much more agreeable size in hand. Just like last year, the regular Pixel model’s display can only go up to 90Hz, though I gotta say in brief testing I didn’t really notice the difference in refresh rate.
As an iPhone SE owner stuck at 60Hz, I’m jealous either way.
Both Pixel 7 phones have received a new, metallic version of the horizontal “visor” camera array from last year. I dug this when the Pixel 7 leaked prior to the event and I dig it still after seeing it in person. The phones look like Geordi La Forge. That’s sick. Their backs also have a glassy finish that unfortunately smudges very easily when touched. Google also seems to have shied away from the two-tone look of the Pixel 6 (the area above the camera visor was a different color than the rest of the phone), which is a little bit of a bummer because it made the Pixels unique.
Still, I’m into the redesigns overall. The metallic texture on the camera bar looks more…mature somehow, at least to me.
Unblur my heart
It was difficult to test all of the new camera features on the Pixel 7 phones in a time-limited fashion (plus I can’t really test 30x telephoto zoom in a small event space), though a couple of the new computational features stood out. One of them is “Photo Unblur” a tool that, well, automagically unblurs photos that are a bit too fuzzy.
Just take a photo, select “Edit” in the photo’s menu, and unblurring it will be one of the first options you see on the screen. This worked incredibly well with one of the sample photos in the demo phone’s library.
Just adjust the slider along the bottom of the screen from zero to 100 to choose how much sharpening you want. Go to 100 and the photo looks like it was never blurry at all.
I will note that it doesn’t work 100 percent of the time. I took a blurry photo of my fingers before the camera could focus on them and the unblur function had a difficult time sharpening it. Even with the slider jacked all the way up to 100, there was nothing to be done about my grubby mitts.
I am going to spend so much time testing out the limits of this feature when I get the chance.
Fun with macro focus
The other new photo feature that caught my eye was the new macro focus feature on the Pixel 7 Pro. This is used for closing way in on objects like rain drops or the petals of flowers. Google helpfully had some fake plants on hand for testing and the resulting demo shot turned out super sharp.
I got that by physically placing the phone inside the plant about as far as I could with the 0.5x ultra-wide lens active, not by zooming in. The minute details of the flowers were highly visible, as you can see. This is another feature that I can’t wait to play with in the coming days.
Too early to tell with Pixel Watch
As for the Pixel Watch, it’s really difficult to judge the device without incorporating it into my daily life. It is a health/sleep/fitness tracker, after all. That said, there were a few details that are worth noting here.
The biggest takeaway is that the display itself (41mm in diameter) is pretty small. All of the different watch faces look great, but the settings menu (activated either by swiping down on the screen or pulling the watch crown towards you) could only fit six app icons on screen at once, with the rest awkwardly cut off at the corners because it’s a circular display instead of a square one like on the Apple Watch.
Maybe that’s something you get used to, but at first glance, it’s a little weird. It gives me concerns about how phone notifications will look on the display.
The good news is that attaching and detaching different Pixel Watch bands seems simple enough. There’s a big slot to insert the watch band into and an almost imperceptibly small button you hold down to detach the band. Easy!
Based on these first impressions, Google’s new Pixel device lineup largely seems to be exactly as advertised. The phones’ new designs are pretty much what we’ve known them to be since their initial unveiling in May at I/O. The macro focus and photo unblur features seem like the real deal, within reason. And while it’s tough to get a read on the Pixel Watch as a whole, there’s no denying it’s certainly a Google-powered smartwatch.
I mostly just can’t wait to see a bunch of Geordi La Forge-looking phones out in public once the Pixel 7 launches next week.
