At this year’s Made by Google event, there weren’t many surprises thanks to an abundance of leaks, but there’s still plenty to dig into. Google unveiled the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, a new Pixel Watch, and…a new Pixel Tablet. What? Yes, the Pixel Tablet still exists and it’s getting an upgrade, too.
Not to be outdone by Apple’s recent iPhone 14 event, Google’s Pixel 7 event showcased new features driven by the powerful second-generation Tensor chip, health and fitness tracking, and customization galore. With the latest announcements, Google is once again setting the bar high for Android phones (and even managed to get in a few digs at Apple).
Here’s what we saw:
Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro
The Pixel 7 has a 6.3-inch display, brought back facial recognition as an additional unlocking mechanism, and improved on AI-driven capabilities thanks to Google’s G2 Tensor chip. That includes visual menu options for dealing with automated call systems, voice-recognized emoji suggestions, and voice message transcription directly in Google’s Messages app.
New camera features include Photo Unblur for actually unblurring old photos, Guided Frame via voice assistant for people who are blind or low-vision, and Cinematic Blur which adds a sleek, shallow depth-of-field look to videos.
The Pixel 7 comes in three colorways: snow, obsidian, and a new, soothing pale green color called lemongrass. It starts at $599 and is available for preorder today.
Credit: Google
The Pixel 7 Pro has a 6.7-inch display, face unlock, the same G2 Tensor-driven text/speech features and camera mode updates as the Pixel 7. What really sets the 7 Pro apart from the 7 is the camera. The Pixel 7 Pro has a 30x telephoto lens paired with technology that makes even fully zoomed-in photos look crisp. The 7 Pro also has something called Macro Focus which allows you to take extreme close-ups with HDR+ quality for rich photo detail.
The Pixel 7 Pro comes in snow, obsidian, and hazel colorways, and starts at $899. It’s available for preorder today.
Credit: Google
Pixel Watch
Credit: Google
Falling in line with the current smartwatch/wearables trend, the Pixel Watch has new health tracking features which includes a heart rate sensor, ECG monitoring, and sleep tracking. It also comes with three months of YouTube premium and six months of Fitbit premium, so you can work out to your heart’s content, and then crash on the couch and watch TV.
The Pixel Watch starts at $349 for the WiFi-only model, and $399 for WiFi and LTE service. It’s available for preorder today.
Pixel Tablet
Credit: Google
Let’s hear it for the Pixel Tablet!
Sorry we forgot about you. The tablet won’t be out until 2023, so we didn’t get details on price or release date, but Google did share some details. The Pixel Tablet will have the same G2 Tensor chip that powers the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, and will work with a speaker dock that is also a charging station. The keynote focused on the Pixel Tablet’s versatility as a smart home manager and a creative tool, so we can probably expect features related to those capabilities when more information is announced next year.
