Google Pixel 7 Pro vs. Apple iPhone 14 Pro

The Pixel 7 Pro is Google’s smartphone analog to the iPhone 14 Pro for those who prefer the Android operating system to Apple’s iOS. Like Apple’s iterative design approach to upgrading its smartphones, Google’s new flagship smartphone range stays consistent with its own previous models in overall appearance and features but provides under-the-hood improvements to entice customers to purchase, upgrade, or switch. Both companies are vying for your hard-earned dollars and promise the best smartphone experience, so let’s see what they have to offer.

Specs

Design, display, and durability

Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro is a flat hunk of gorgeous squared-off stainless steel and glass that is famously minimalist, elegant, and simple. The Ceramic Shield covering the screen provides excellent protection and works alongside an IP68 water-resistance rating for durability.

At 6.1 inches, the always-on iPhone 14 Pro model feels balanced and usable with one hand, even at 71mm wide and 7.8mm thick. It can feel slippery if used without a case, but who does that any more? It’s available in black, silver, gold, and deep purple.

With the Pixel 7 Pro, Google presents a sleek, sophisticated exterior featuring a matte aluminum frame and glass back anchored by a compact, horizontal modern camera bar. With its diminutive bezels and slightly rounded corners in a choice of Obsidian, Snow, or Hazel colors, the visual effect is stunning.

The scratch-resistant 6.7-inch display is made with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. There’s no irritating notch or Dynamic Island or anything analogous to the iPhone’s built-in interface. For the Pixel, there’s only an unobtrusive hole-punch camera.

The Pixel 7 Pro does have the iPhone beat in screen resolution, with 1440 x 3120 pixels or 512 pixels per inch, compared with the iPhone 14 Pro’s 2556 x 1179 pixels at 460 pixels per inch. One could make the case, however, that the difference in screen size between the Pixel’s 6.7-inch glass slab and the iPhone’s smaller 6.1-inch screen accounts for the overall effect of that disparity. Going strictly by the numbers gives the Pixel 7 Pro the edge. Durability-wise, the Pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro both benefit from an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

Winner: Google Pixel 7 Pro

Performance, battery life, and charging

In terms of pure specs, with the Pixel 7 Pro’s 5000 mAh vs. the iPhone 14 Pro’s 3200 mAh battery, the Google Pixel 7 Pro beats the pants off its opponent. But, hold the phone. When it comes to battery life, numbers simply do not tell the whole story. With the iPhone, iOS has been optimized by the processor to maximize battery conservation and consumption so that it rates and lasts as long as any other premium phone per designated interval — including the Pixel 7 Pro.

The only edge that the Pixel’s 5000 mAh battery may have over its main competitor is charging interval — and even that is doubtful. The Pixel features 30W fast charging as opposed to iPhone’s 20W fast charging. In addition, the Pixel has an adaptive battery (which learns which apps you use most often), while its Extreme Battery Saver mode gives you battery life for up to 72 hours — up from the normal 24 hours. We found in testing that even with Apple’s 20-watt charging block, the battery charges to 50% in about 30 minutes, which is exactly the same time span Google quotes for the Pixel 7 Pro. We’re going to reserve judgment for when we can actually test the Pixel, so in the meantime, based on stated specs and actual usage, we call a tie.

Winner: Tie

Cameras

Apple and Google both pride themselves on having the best smartphone cameras on the market, and considering that many people purchase a smartphone based on camera features, this is a critical metric.

Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro features a new 48-megapixel main camera with an f/1.78 aperture. It also has a 12MP ultrawide camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 12MP telephoto camera with an f/2.8 aperture. The device employs Apple’s new Photonic Engine for image processing, alongside Deep Fusion and Smart HDR 4. In addition, the iPhone 14 Pro supports night mode portraits, macro shooting, and the ProRAW image format. The iPhone 14 Pro also benefits from a new 12MP, f/1.9 aperture selfie cam with autofocus. These camera improvements come on top of already stellar photo specs from previous iPhone models, including 4K and ProRes video, HDR, Macro, and Slo-Mo video recording, stabilized timelapse, and more.

The photo and video quality of the Pixel 7 Pro camera also promise outstanding results via a large 50MP main sensor with a ƒ/1.85 aperture that focuses on detail and does justice to low-light shots. It also has a 12MP Ultrawide lens with an ƒ/2.2 aperture, a 48MP (telephoto) with an ƒ/3.5 aperture, and a 10.8MP front camera with an ƒ/2.2 aperture. There’s also a 5x optical zoom and Super Res Zoom up to 30x. The Cinematic Blur feature takes your videos to Hollywood. Real Tone keeps skin tones real for day shots as well as Night Sight and Portrait mode. The Photo Unblur feature improves focus-challenged images. If your vision isn’t so hot, check out the Pixel’s Guided Frame mode that helps people take better selfies via audio and haptics.

Both sets of cameras have many similar features, and ,judging by the specs, there may not be a whole lot of difference in photo or video results. Right now, without images from the Pixel to compare, we’re going to give the iPhone’s known superlative camera the benefit of the doubt.

Winner: iPhone 14 Pro

Software and updates

Another year, another phone, another operating system update for iPhone and Android smartphones. With the iPhone 14 range, Apple pairs the newest iOS 16, which adds plenty of new capabilities such as customizable lock screens, additional options for iMessage texts, and haptic keyboard feedback, running on the Apple A16 Bionic processor. For the high-end iPhone 14 Pro (and Pro Max) the brand-new Dynamic Island feature profoundly changes the way users interact with the phone by transforming the despised top notch.

For Google, its new Pixel 7 Pro ships with Android 13, which features more customization for Material You, a Now Playing lock screen widget, new app permissions, and more. Android 13 is also improving for larger devices with new drag-and-drop functionality for certain apps, an updated taskbar, a more intuitive split-screen, and updated Google apps. Android runs on the Google Tensor G2 processor specifically built for the Pixel with Google’s machine learning and speech recognition plus 12GB of RAM. It promises to deliver more speed, efficiency, and security.

Winner: Tie

Special features

Apple announced two new headliner features that are critical for safety: Emergency SOS via satellite, which is coming in November, and car crash detection. Both can save lives. With Emergency SOS via satellite, if you get in a jam, you can call for help via text message from obscure places where there is no cellular service. The software walks you through how to connect to existing satellites and will funnel short messages to emergency responders.

Crash detection automatically calls for emergency assistance if you get into a car accident. Android users have had accident detection apps for years, but now, Apple has built the feature into the operating system.

Another special Apple feature is the absence of a SIM card. The iPhone 14 Pro accepts only eSIM. The Pixel accepts Dual SIM tech — either a Single Nano SIM or SIM.

Google’s Pixel 7 is touted as extremely secure and private, thanks to the Google Tensor G2 and its companion Titan M2 security chip. The Pixel uses both Face Unlock and Fingerprint Unlock to allow access to the contents of your phone. That said, Apple is famous for its long-time security cred despite Face ID now being the preferred method of unlocking an iPhone.

We give this round to Apple for its new emergency communication and auto protection features.

Winner: iPhone 14 Pro

Price and availability

Overall winner: iPhone 14 Pro