Google Pixel 7-5G Android Phone – Unlocked Smartphone with Wide Angle Lens and 24-Hour Battery – 128GB – Snow

Opinion from a former iPhone user
Before into the Pixel 7, I have been using an iPhone12 mini for 2 years. And a Samsung Note 9 before that. Why I chose the iPhone12 mini? Because I wanted a real compact phone. And Why I bought the Pixel 7 now? Well, 1. I want better battery life. 2. I want bigger screen for games and for navigation. 3. IOS just bored me.
So, I got the Pixel 7 lemongrass 256g for 599$ and have been using it for a week now. And here are my opinions.
In short words, if you have been using Android and want an upgrade now, I really recommend Pixel 7, mainly because it gives you good software experience and decent camera at a very fair price.
Exterior & comfort:
The color lemon grass is special and I like it. The visor camera bump looks unique and kinda cool in my opinion. The rounded edge makes the phone comfortable to hold. HOWEVER, there are some cons. 1. The bump and the glass back make it awkward to place on any flat surface. 2. The bump is a huge dust collector. 3. Although the edge of the flat screen has a bit of curve, the transition to the metal frame is not good, which means the touch of the edge areas feels a bit cheap, definitely not comparable to Note 9. Overall, I think the look is unique but comes with some sacrifices, and the build quality is fairly good for the price.
Operating System:
This is the first time I use the so called “pure” Android. Compared to Samsung’s OneUI, the OS on Pixel 7 feels more like Apple’s iOS actually. It doesn’t have as many customization functions as OneUI and is simpler to use. Kinda like iOS, but in a different style, well, the kinda nerdy Google style. If you like it you like it. Some special Google AI features are cool, but should not be the only reason for anyone to buy this phone in my opinion. I haven’t experienced many bugs. Actually, only one when switching between bluetooth audio devices that really bothers me a bit. Overall, I like the system, and I think it is good for anyone but people who have only used iPhone before.
Camera:
Pixel has always been famous for its camera capabilities. I must say it is true on Pixel 7. It takes very decent photos no matter the light conditions, and the shoot experience is simple and natural. Is it as good or better as flagship phones like iPhone 14 pro? I don’t know, maybe not. But as someone who uses a dedicated camera for street photography, I think the camera on Pixel 7 is more than capable to take nice looking daily photos and capture those little moments into good memories. When it comes to video, it is also good, especially considering the price, but iPhone is better. And I mean iPhone 12 mini. So overall, the camera is very good.
Battery life:
Not much to say here since I don’t bother to do any “tests” and have no numbers. But based on my feeling, it is good, but not as good as I expected considering the battery capacity. It will last you a full day (8 hours) or more if you use it lightly. But it is no way a two-day or 1.5 day battery life.
Gaming:
Gaming is trash. At least for pubg mobile. It is probably due to software issue (not optimized for Tensor chip) rather than lack of raw performance. But if you play a lot of 3D mobile games, avoid this one.
Conclusion:
Decent phone for the price. Actually, even for the normal price ($100 more than what I spent), it is still more than decent. If you don’t want to spend that much on a phone (which is a terribly stupid trend in my opinion), this is the phone for you. Don’t look at iPhone SE, that thing is a joke.

Better Value than a Galaxy S23
I’m coming off a Galaxy S10 and before that an LG G6. I’ve also purchased Samsung A51 and S20 FE’s for my parents. To get the negatives out of way. Side or rear mounted finger print sensors are so much more consistent. Samsung also provides a lot of applications that can be pretty nice like their SoundAssistant app where I can change how the volume button increments/decrements.
Using the Firefox app, I can do screenshots that scroll the page on the Samsungs while on this Pixel Mozilla needs to update their app to implement the Google API to support scrolling screenshots and there are probably other apps that I would be able to do scrolling+stitched screenshots on the Samsungs but not this Pixel. There are other things like more options in the long press context menus that make doing things faster on the Samsung compared to the Google Pixels.
Default launcher on the Pixel has this full width data/weather/info widget that you can’t remove. It only takes up a little less than a third of the width of the screen. It is a waste of space. If I need the date, I just swipe open the notification menu. Weather, I used the Google weather widget on my Samsung Galaxy but the smallest one that takes up like 2 horizontal app icon widths so I can fit 2 more icons on the row. The button to clear all in the task switcher, you have to swipe all the way to left end rather than just having it always there as a lower row under the application windows. Annoying
Every default launcher these days do gestures for going back and opening the app/multitasking switcher. I’ve tried for years and always go back to enabling the bottom menu with the back, home, and task switcher buttons.
Gaming and emulation performance on the Qualcomm based Samsungs are a lot better. Samsung provides 1 more year of support compared to Google. Honestly almost everything is better with a Samsung phone than a Pixel. But they are expensive. If I do get into phone games and emulation more though, I’ll probably go back to a Qualcomm based Samsung device unless the future AMD GPU Exynos Tensor have drivers as mature and with application developer support like Qualcomm chipsets do.
Outside of all that, aesthetically it looks really nice. They made the buttons in the notification menu way bigger (slower to use than the industrial looking small icons in the Samsung default launcher). Only fits 4 quick actions before having to swipe down fully to get 8 quick actions – swipe left/right for more. For some reason google combined the wi-fi and mobile networks toggle into one so you have to click it, then click the radio button to turn off the wi-fi. Some of the notification collapsing into applications make some app notification utilities more annoying to use to
The fingerprint reader. You may have to redo your fingerprints a couple times to get it well responsive. It’s good for me now. Still fails far more often than my previous phones. End up having to use pattern unlock.
Google lens is nice. Fast to get to do the camera point at stuff and it translates. Could already do that with the Google Translate app on any phone. I’m happy with the battery life. I know it’s better on the S23. I’ve gotten used to this 6.3″ disaplay. Not sure if I’d prefer a 6.1″ display. Phone is real smooth besides games. Tried DraStic, Citra, and Tower of Fantasy. Tower of Fantasy performance is not great. DraStic and Citra have surprisingly crashed on me.
I was thinking I would hype this phone up compared to Samsung phones but it hasn’t worked out that way. The main thing is really the aesthetics of the phone. I suppose the camera is nice and faster but I have Sony A7III and for photos compositions matter more than gear. I’m not blown away by camera performance compared to a S10E or what I see from people with iPhones and newer Galaxy phones. Low light performance is definitely miles of an upgrade over an S10E. Still, photography is all about composition and lighting and what you do in Darktable/Lightroom.
I miss the 3.5mm port. I use bluetooth in the car for a different device so I needed 3.5mm adapter to connect audio to my car. At home my bluetooth audio is a class D amplifier and over ear Sony noice cancelling headphones. Sometimes I’m laying down and just want to put on some 3.5mm earbuds. I need another USB-C to 3.5mm adapter so I don’t have to keep remembering to carry the one in my car everywhere. I don’t think I’ll get over the loss of 3.5mm jacks because of how much audio equipment I have. I’m never buying those Google Airpod knockoffs nor the Samsung ones.
After having this phone for a month and then writing this review, I don’t notice the visual UI aesthetics anymore. It’s not truly a plus for me anymore. I’ve gotten over it. It’s a good phone but Samsung does an extra year of major OS and security updates over Google. The Google Tensor is already not as good as Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 let alone the 8 Gen 2. I can wait one year and potentially buy the 1 year old Galaxy phone with a better chipset for the price of a new Pixel. Buying this 256GB version for $600 when the Samsung S23 was going for $800 is nice though
Wanted to overall positive with the review. Still really good phone because modern phones are all overall hit all the basics – even the cheap phones. If the future Tensor processors with AMD GPUs aren’t competitive with Samsungs in gaming/emulation support, the only reason I’d be buying a Pixel is the price.

Por este precio no existe mejor teléfono, es fluido ya que es android prácticamente puro, excelentes materiales, y una gran cámara.

This phone is and excellent phone. I feel most cell phones are a bit overpriced, however that is what one must pay I guess .. it has excellent battery life and a boat load of features..the camera takes amazing pics ! and so far I have nothing bad to say about the phone except the finger print reader sometimes wont read my finger prints.. passcode back up..lol.. would definitely purchase again if I had to.