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Google Pixel 7 Pro Price, Release Date, Features Revealed

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By Nick Hall - News

Published: 7 Oct 2022

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Google has officially thrown down the smartphone gauntlet, unveiling two new iterations of its popular Pixel smartphone. The new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are set to deliver improved voice and camera features while reintroducing a swathe of facial recognition technologies, but despite the updates, most fans have been left with one major question mark. Can the Alphabet Inc.-backed smartphone ever really compete with Samsung and Apple for smartphone supremacy? Judging by price alone, the answer could very well be ‘yes’.

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Google Pixel 7 Pro in Hazel | Image: Google

Arriving just weeks after Apple dropped its impressive, albeit not as jam-packed as expected iPhone 14, the new Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones reaffirm the technology company’s focus on getting the basics down pat. Last year’s Pixel release offered a first for lineup, with the device running on the in-house made and developed Tensor chip. Naturally, the 2022 edition sees an upgrade to the hardware, this time in the form of the new Google Tensor G2, an AI-led chip that works in tandem with the revamped Titan M2 chip, responsible for providing the phone’s on-device security.

While that might not mean a whole lot to most smartphone users, it does mark a significant step for Google’s in-house development growth. In a press release, Rory Charlston, head of ANZ device & services business at Google revealed that the addition of the new chip gives the production team the ability to enhance a number of key features, including voice capabilities and translation.

“With Google Tensor G2, we’ve improved almost every major subsystem in the chip, and we’ve designed them to work really well together to handle the nuanced and complex nature of our software and machine learning,” he said. “So your smartphone is even smarter, especially when it comes to understanding speech and language.”

Google Pixel 7 in Obsidian | Image: Google

Google Pixel 7 Design

Looking at the new design, it appears Google has kept things simple for the latest range of smartphones. Employing a distinctly minimalist style, the new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro bank screen real estate for their aesthetics, rather than additional notches and bezels. The Pixel 7 arrives with a 6.3-inch display and smaller bezels while the 7 Pro features a 6.7-inch immersive display, which comes on a polished aluminium frame. There’s not a whole lot to write home about in terms of design here, as the latest range are eerily similar to last year’s release visually, however, it’s nice to see some sense of fluidity across generations.

Google Pixel 7 in Lemongrass | Image: Google

Google Pixel 7 Camera Upgrades

One of the major upgrades Google is spruiking for this year is the camera evolution and it’s not hard to see why. The new smartphones have upped the resolution and the backing of Android 13 provides a fairly intuitive technology platform to base AI-enhanced photography features on. As a result, elements like Super Res Zoom have been upped to 8x on Pixel 7 and up to a whopping 30x on 7 Pro.

“You’ll be able to get sharp, quality images from a distance, so your friends will think you were courtside when you show them the pictures you took of your sports hero in action,” Charlston said. “We’ve also achieved optical quality similar to a dedicated 2x telephoto lens for Pixel 7 and a 10x telephoto lens for Pixel 7 Pro, so you have the flexibility to creatively frame your shot at multiple magnifications while maintaining high quality.”

The tech giant also revealed that the new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones have added a Macro Focus feature for close-up photography, introduced a 10-bit HDR format for videos and rejigged the Photo Unblur option to improve sub-par images. One interesting addition is the Guided Frame option, which provides audio guidance, high-contrast visual animations and haptic feedback for those who are blind or have low-vision to enable them to take accurate and high-quality selfies.

Google Pixel 7 Pro in Hazel | Image: Google

Google Pixel 7 Voice Updates

With communication at the heart of the lineup, Google has also bolstered some of the voice command and assistant options, particularly around text. Assistant voice typing is now available in French, Italian, Spanish, English, German and Japanese, and can now automatically suggest emojis that are relevant to your messages. Similarly, Pixel 7’s speech recognition technology now sees your phone transcribe voice messages on Google’s Messages app, so you can read them as soon as you receive them.

“Google’s smarts and intelligence is a big part of what makes a Pixel, a Pixel, and Pixel 7 is no different,” Charlston said. “For example, with features like Live Translate, you can interpret face-to-face conversations in 48 languages, chat in real-time and translate menus with your camera.”

Google Pixel 7 Pricing & Release Date

The Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 7 Pro release date has been confirmed for October 13 in Australia, however, pre-orders are already available. according to Charlston, the new smartphones will be available from that date at the Google Store, JB HI-FI, Telstra, Vodafone, Officeworks and Harvey Norman, and will arrive at Optus soon. The Google Pixel 7 is priced from AUD$999 and the Google Pixel 7 Pro is priced from AUD$1,299.

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Google Pixel 7 Pro in Snow | Image: Google

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