The new year has only just begun, but there is already information and speculation about the upcoming Pixel 7 smartphones. Although these are not expected before October 2022, the first leaks for the Pixel 6 smartphones were also made at this time last year. In this article, we summarize everything that is known so far about the new Google smartphones.
Nobody will seriously doubt that Google will launch the Pixel 7 smartphones this year, so both their existence and the first leaks can be taken very seriously. At the current stage, the smartphones are likely to be still under development internally and not yet fully finalized. The specifications can probably change fundamentally until the beginning of spring, while afterward only detailed adjustments are possible.
This means that nothing has yet been set in stone and that the company’s plans that have been leaked so far could still be stopped or adapted. So do not rely on the information and just take this article as a first inspiration in which direction the Pixel smartphones could go this year. It will probably only be a few weeks before the first details leak out for official reasons.
Pixel 7 & Pixel 7 Pro
It can be assumed that there will be two Pixel flagships again this year. The “Pixel 6” and “Pixel 6 Pro” systems introduced last year should be retained for future generations. The probability of a Pixel 7 and a Pixel 7 Pro is very high. A third variant seems to me to be ruled out because there will be offshoots like 6a or the fold.
Pixel 6 Design
With the Pixel 6 devices, Google has created a completely new design language for their own smartphones that not only stands out from many competitors but is also fit for the future. You can move the front camera under the display without any problems, you can accommodate additional components on the back and even bring the fingerprint sensor back to the back. All of this would be possible without changing the design.
So there is no reason to overturn this design. It is very likely that the sixth-generation Pixel 7 smartphones will look very similar and rely on similar features. The main distinction is more likely to be seen in accents and perhaps a different color scheme.
Under-Display Camera
The front camera has long since found its way into the display of practically all smartphones from a certain price range and can be found in the hole punch “hole” in the display. This is an acceptable solution for stretching the display over the entire surface of the device, but not the end of the flagpole. There have long been smartphones on the market where the front camera is placed under the display so that it is no longer visible at all.
Google has now also patented such a design and should use it in the future. Whether this will already be the case with the Pixel 7 will depend on whether you can guarantee an acceptably high image quality with the camera and the display. The patent describes ways to do just that.
Tensor
Tensor has come to stay and certainly not a flash in the pan. Anything else using the Tensor processor in the Pixel 7 smartphones would be a big surprise. A lot has to happen or the components cause big problems that you would switch back to Qualcomm again. But: As I said, nothing is set in stone yet. A few months ago there was already information about a tensor in the Pixel 7.
More
Powerful camera It is no surprise that Google is adding more cameras – because that is the case every year. For pixel 7 of last year was in the summer known that Google uses a more powerful sensor that even more power can squeeze. If you consider that Apple is also rumored to be adding up to a lot this fall and will offer up to 48MP (MP is not everything, of course), then that also seems quite realistic for the Pixel 7.
At this point, I simply forecast that we will see the first render images based on leaked information in the next month and that many technical details about the new smartphone will appear with the first or second Android 13 pre-release at the latest.