Pixel 7 Pro Review - 8 Months Later "I Love It But, I'm Disappointed"

I've gotten every generation of pixel phones. I was very excited for the 7 pro given the shortcomings I had with the 6 pro (very horrible cellular, disappointing battery life, prone to thermal protection scenarios)

I also go between google and samsung phones, most recently used an S23 ultra.

I had mostly stuck with pixels because of the camera, but to be honest, I feel like google has regressed still camera results since about the pixel 4/5 timeframe.

What I've noticed about my 7 pro, and I'm also disappointed with it, but different from the video, I did not keep using it in spite of the issues:

Battery life has been really bad. From 100% charge at 7:45am and using it for very basic usage on wifi during a working day without taxing apps like games or video chats, I will use it for up to 2.5h SOT and it will be down to 35% battery left after 12h. Wifi almost all the time, and I have cellular set to prefer LTE (no 5g). I use it incidentally throughout the day for MS Teams text chats, some outlook (limited), some text chats on discord, checking gmail, and (in the past) some reddit usage, and maybe 45 minutes of bluetooth audio streaming. That's it, and only 2.5h SOT with 35% battery left is awful.
I disagree with him re. screen brightness outdoors. Screen does not stay bright when outdoors for a significant amount of time. I was glad that google started using brighter displays, but for me it feels like after 30 seconds the screen brightness drops to the point of being difficult to read outdoors.
Cellular--while better than the 6 series, it's still not great. I'm not talking the difference between 500mbps and 900mbps, which is insignificant in terms of overall normal usage. I'm talking the difference between a stable and reliable cellular connection with no drops or lag in usage. Between my 7 pro and S23 ultra in the same location along a local 'main drag' area, and in many places my 7 pro will have an unstable cellular data experience and the S23 ultra has no issues. When my 7 pro disconnects from cellular, like in a parking structure, it takes quite some time to re-establish connection to cellular. My S23 ultra reconnects almost instantly.
Charging speed--I'm not asking for more than 25w charging, or even 65w or 100w like other phones (for example). But the throughout-battery-range charge speeds are too conservative and slow, especially when, in my experience with the 7 pro, it drains battery very fast and needs intermittent top-ups at times. Even on 18w USB-PD charging, my 7 pro charges much more slowly from the 40-100% range compared to my S23 ultra; to the point where it takes twice as long. This is frustrating and I wish google would at least make it an option to charge faster.
Front facing camera is bad. That's the best way to put it. So disappointing that google didn't maintain the auto-focus camera system on the pixel 3; the best front camera experience I've had on a phone.

I had a recent weekend trip for an outdoor wedding and was using my 7 pro at that time. Battery life was bad. I had to charge up from a battery pack in the middle of the day and it was frustrating. Also, being outdoors, I was taking reasonable shots and videos of the wedding and it was almost impossible to see the viewfinder because the screen brightness dropped due to temperatures. It wasn't hot outside; it was 68f and sunny with a bit of overcast/light clouds on occasion.

I have been using the S23 ultra since early May. I was pushed mostly because battery life on my 7 pro for a regular day was basically unusable without necessary interruptions to charge. Battery life is crazy better on the S23 ultra--with the same usage that takes my 7 pro down to 35% on a normal, basic, untaxing day, my S23 ultra is never below 70% battery for the same time/usage. Cellular performance is so much better as well. I also like many of samsung's software additions including but not limited to things like Modes & Routines, attention to sound settings (individual app volume settings, ability to route simultaneous sounds to different outputs), attention to video settings. Better video recording and audio recording quality. Samsung software experience is a polarizing topic, especially among pixel users, but overall it's never bothered me.

I continue to prefer the still camera results from google camera on a pixel, but the differences are much smaller now than in the past between google and samsung cameras. I also noticed that subject motion blur--something that I was always disappointed with samsung cameras--is better on the S23 ultra to the point where it doesn't really bother me in the context of whether to use a google or samsung phone.

And then there's other aspects--Samsung pays more attention to having an integrated ecosystem experience. What I mean by this--take the example of the video where he mentions nice features on the 7 pro like reverse wireless charging, and he sets the pixel buds on the back of the phone. He also has a pixel watch in many shots of the video, but google did not build in the proprietary charging protocol to reverse wireless charging on the 7 pro, so you can't use it to charge the pixel watch. With samsung they have built in support of charging galaxy watches with their battery share feature, so if you are going on a trip or something like that, you don't need to even worry about or think of bringing your watch charger. It's that sort of attention to the ecosystem that I think Samsung does a better job with than where google currently is. Google's devices don't feel very integrated outside of the industrial design and color schemes they chose.

Overall I'm disappointed with the 7 pro. Mostly because of the battery life. Google does need to re-invigorate the camera experience. They have challenges with their SOC and cellular modem choices and I'm disappointed that their first 'non-qualcomm' approach has been disappointing. When even samsung doesn't use their own SOC design and SOC manufacturing and opts for their competitor then you know there must be a reason, and plowing ahead despite that is a pretty poor decision.

Dissapointed was my experience with my pixel 1. My 4a is less so, but at least its cheap.
- That's basically what the Pixel 7 Pro is over the Pixel 7; it's just that it also comes with other extras, like another camera.
  Not sure why they only managed 14% extra battery in the 7 series though. It's the smallest jump from their smaller model vs the larger one except for the 6 series. Combine it with the more power hungry display on the Pro, and the already-inefficient chipset on both devices, and you just don't get the battery life that competitors get.

My Pixel 4a 3 years later: I love it, and I'm not disappointed

Pixel 5 here. This could be the last phone I ever need, if I could expect software support. Dreading the day I need to replace it
I considered buying the P3 or P4 because they're said to have the best cameras and battery performance, but the end of security updates after 2022 and 2023 respectively turned me off and I got a P6A instead. What are you going to do with your P4A after the support for it ends this year?
- Probably switch to LineageOS like I did on all my Nexus phones.
The pixel a series has always been great imo.
I loved my 4a, but damn it's fragile. I dropped it and had to replace it's screen three times. On the fourth broken screen, I upgraded to a Pixel 7. Yes, I had it in a (nice) case.
I love the 7, no complaints at all.
- First phone I've ever broken. Yeah I'd say there was a durability issue. Slippery AF too.
- I have a glass screen protector on mine and somehow I've never broken it. There have been many times when I dropped it and I swore that'd be it, but then I turn it over and there's not a scratch!
I loved my 3a and upgraded to the 6a last year, but it feels like a step backwards. The camera doesn't seem anywhere near as good? It's so heavy and clunky. No headphone jack. It's a bit faster maybe but the battery isn't as good as the 3a was when new and it overheats all the time.

Have thought about moving from Galaxy to Pixel lately...

I did this with the S21+ to the Pixel 7, and currently on a S23+ if that tells you anything. I'm not even a huge fan of what Samsung does, but the hardware works.
The Pixel 7 had such a great software experience when it worked, but the dropped calls and losing signal in areas where I previously had signal, was enough to get me to quit. Sadly, the rumors have the Pixel 8 using the same modem so I doubt it will be a better experience.
What model do you have? Its good chance it would be an upgrade. But I would wait until pixel 10 since that should use tsmc fabs by then.
- Galaxy S10. I went into a bit more detail here.
Nah, don't do it. Pixels are overrated and unreliable to say the least. I sold my Pixel 7 within 4 months because I couldn't stand the hardware and software issues- and before I sold it, I found myself using my 3 year-old S10e way more
- Can you tell me a little more about those issues?
I'd been a loyal Galaxy user since the S4.
But then I had such a terrible experience with the Fold3 (and Samsung support) let year that I finally decided to try the Pixel.
Happy to say I love my P7P, and won't be considering a change anytime soon.
- Foldable always looked like such a dumb gimmick that I'm surprised anyone was impressed enough to have let it last this long.

I just want the 7a with two micro SD slots. And not some crippled 1st gen spec slots. All the big phone makers just want to sell their crappy built in storage at a huge premium. Even with the larger storage size of the pro I could still easily fill it up with a lot of stuff but I hate transferring via usb cable when I could eject the card, fill it with music or movies or whatever, and still take the phone with me while I leave it to transfer.

Two micro SD slots? What phone ever supported that?
- I figure all they owe us an extra for all the phones I have had to put up with that didn't have one.

I love it and I'm not disappointed!

Battery is enough for MY entire day, I charge with an 18w brick so don't use super fast charging, the modem has improved a lot to the point I'm not worried about signal lost any more

Yeah when the pixel works well it REALLY works well. My issue has been standby on my pixel 7 pro has been poor to say the least

The Pixel 7 is literally one of the worst phone I've ever used. Very much like you said: HORRIBLE battery life AND front camera. Volcanic hot SOC and non-working biometric and buggy software made the battery even worse than it already was out of box.

I also purchased the S23U like you because it was so off-putting using that shitty Pixel - and it's an infinitely better phone, in every aspects.

Sorry I'm not the guy who created the video 😅. My gripe with the phone is it's inefficiency. I think I got lucky with no over heating.
Same. Had a P7 Pro for a couple of months and moved to an S23U as soon as it was released. Phenomenal phone.

I sadly have the sim card issue where mine destroys sim cards at every chance it gets and I have to go get a new one every so often. Otherwise though the phone has been fine.

What is the sim card issue? I have never heard about this before.
- It wears out the contacts on the sim card itself. After it starts doing that I have terrible signal issues.