Google launched the Pixel 7 series on October 7 in India — the first flagships from the company to come to the country after four years. The launch allowed me some hands-on time with both the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro, and I have thoughts.

The devices come in three colour options with Snow (white) and Obsidian (black) being common to both, and Lemongrass (yellowish green) for the Pixel 7 and Hazel (a sage green) for the Pixel 7 Pro. The Hazel is one of the neatest colours on smartphones this year.

Both phones are wrapped in Gorilla Glass Victus — front and back — with aluminium on the sides for the 7, and stainless steel on the 7 Pro. The design is almost identical to the Pixel 6 series with only the camera visor being seamless metal this time instead of plain blacked-out glass. The design of the new Pixel is something that makes it stand out in the crowd. You know when you see a Pixel 7, even from far away.

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On the front, the devices have, hands down, among brightest and sharpest screens on a smartphone. Pixel 7 Pro’s LTPO display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz is smooth as butter and the curved edges — slightless less so than last year's Pixel 6 Pro — make the experience even better. The Pixel 7, on the other hand, only has a refresh rate of 90 Hz on a flat screen, which is not bad by any means, but it will be hard to go back to it once you hold the Pixel 7 Pro, let’s just put it that way.

Moving back to the cameras, they are Pixel quality, getting better with every generation. Both smartphones also house a 50MP wide-angle lens as the main shooter in the rear camera setup along with a 12MP ultrawide lens. The Pixel 7 Pro, however, has an extra 48MP telephoto sensor for better optical zoom. The zoom on the Pixel works similar to that on the iPhone 14 by cropping the 50MP image. And the results are good, even when zooming in at 30x.

The unblur feature for sharpening blurred photos is an absolute standout — something that I see a lot of people using. It can be used on any photo that you might have on your device and is not restricted to only Pixel 7 images.

Looking at the specs, the Pro model is not very different from the base Pixel 7. It has a bigger, better screen with an added camera and a bigger battery — which isn’t much (4,400mAh on the Pixel 7 and 5,000mAh on the Pixel 7 Pro). The price difference between the two, however, is Rs 25,000.

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Google also announced various new software upgrades that this Pixel series will see. Like auto-transcription for voice notes on Google messages. But for a country like India where Rich Communication Services or RCS is equivalent to iMessage, and most people anyway resort to WhatsApp as their primary texting platform, how much of it would be useful? Not to mention that most people do not necessarily talk in English, so that’s another hurdle that Google might have to cross someday, in India.

The Pixel 7 is the second generation to have a Google Tensor chip. Now the company has the option to optimise both the hardware and the silicon to its needs, and with the new Pixel watch Pixel Tablet, it is clear that “ecosystem” is something that Google has a bigger picture in mind for the future. The question is, how will things pan out for the company, more so in India where the flagship smartphone sector has been dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung?

Keep checking this space for a detailed review of the devices, which will be out before you know it.

Both smartphones are available on Flipkart for pre-order. They go on sale on Friday, October 13. The Pixel 7 retails for Rs 59,999 and the Pixel 7 Pro costs Rs 84,999.

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