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While Tensor and AI was the main talking point around last year’s Pixels, this year the cameras might get more time in the spotlight.
Tensor’s ISP was an impressive step up from the Pixel Visual Core and Neural Core the preceded it and in my long-time testing of the Pixel 6 Pro I got more impressive images out of that phone compared to anything else I’d tested at the time, with dynamic range being a real highlight.
The 4x optical zoom was certainly useful, but talk of 5x magnification has me genuinely excited.
In terms of possible ‘one more thing(s)’ that Google could pull out of the bag at the end of today’s launch, while the company has a nasty habit of shelving products and services that don’t immediately exceed their high expectations, I secretly have my fingers crossed for a Google Daydream revival.
With Apple Glasses feeling more likely than ever, maybe Daydream was just ahead of its time, and maybe Tensor’s AI smarts have what it takes to make it a more viable experience.
Just me? OK.
One fresh leak that broke within the last few hours speaks to the performance the Tensor G2 chip inside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro is expected to deliver.
The Pixel 6 line’s original Google Tensor chipset lagged behind its equivalent Qualcomm and Apple silicon-powered rivals last year in terms of benchmarking scores and a leaked Geekbench 5 result shared by tipster Yogesh Brar suggest the same is true of the Tensor G2.
Google Pixel 7 Pro benchmark scoresGeekbenchSingle Core – 1068Multi Core – 3149Antutu V9 – 801116These scores are more or less close to Snapdragon 888/888+Tensor G2 is still behind flagship SoCs but will take lead in ISP & AI performanceExcited for Pixel 7 series?October 5, 2022
This doesn’t mean the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will be dead on arrival, far from it. Google purpose-built Tensor with its in-house ML (machine learning) models in mind, so while the results for raw processing power in benchmarking aps like Geekbench might place the G2 in the same space as last year’s Snapdragon 888/888 Plus, the company in confident in its own silicon’s ability to excel in an area that phones need to rely on more and more nowadays to succeed; AI computation.
That specs list – which was reportedly spotted on a Taiwanese mobile carrier’s website – also mentions several new camera modes. And that’s got us very excited.
Google has long been an expert at getting more from its phone cameras through innovative software smarts – just look at the Magic Eraser tool that arrived on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro for evidence of that.
New Pixel camera modes are therefore more interesting than they might otherwise seem, so the fact that Movie Motion Blur and Macro Focus are both teased in the specs leak is definitely worthy of mention.
It’s the latter that we’re really intrigued by, though – to the extent that we even think this Pixel 7 Pro feature will change phone cameras.
So, let’s start by talking about the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. What do we know about these phones? Not that much. What do we think we know about them? Lots!
That’s because there’s been a steady stream of leaks around these handsets over the past few weeks, to the extent that we are now fairly sure about plenty of the details.
The most recent leak, just a few days ago, came from a Google News Telegram channel and suggested the Pixel 7 Pro could be a contender for the title of best camera phone. The leak included what was supposedly a full specs list, and detailed that the Pixel 7 Pro would get a boost to 5x optical zoom, compared to the 4x on the Pixel 6 Pro, among other upgrades.
Hello, and welcome to TechRadar’s Google Pixel 7 event live blog. Over the next few hours, we’ll be rounding up all the last-minute leaks and rumors ahead of the event, and running through exactly what we already know (and don’t know) about the devices we’ll see today.
And then once the show gets going, we’ll be bringing you all of the big news, as it happens – so bookmark this page and check back regularly for the latest.