Google is finally launching a flagship phone in India. Yes, after many rumors and speculations, Google last week confirmed that the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 pro would indeed be introduced in India. Both the phones are set to be unveiled on October 6 alongside a few other Google products, including the next Pixel watch. The focus will be on the new Pixel phones. For reasons well-known, these will be Google’s first premium phones in India since 2018.
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That’s how long it has been. When the last Pixel flagship launched, foldable phones were just a concept, and we were yet to see a 5G phone in India. It’s not like Google has completely abandoned the Indian market. It launched a couple of phones in India – Pixel 4a in 2020 and Pixel 6a, only a few weeks ago. Both of these were pretty decent phones and were well received by the Pixel fans but didn’t completely justify Google’s ambitions or what it can achieve with all those resources at its disposal.
Now, that it is finally bringing its best to the country, there is a lot of excitement and optimism among smartphone enthusiasts. It clearly shows that there is still a place for a premium smartphone with good software support and consistent cameras in the Android world. This is despite a lot of other Android makers like Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Vivo taking giant leaps in these four years.
Knowing Google, there is one thing you can be sure of – it is going to come up with a good set of smartphones – which may not be very different from last year’s Pixel 6 series but will be, capable enough to take care of most desires.
Let’s be honest here, even in what might be remembered as the dullest phase for Google in India – it managed to impress a lot of buyers with the Pixel 4a and Pixel 6a. The latter has been making all the headlines over the past few days because of its reduced price, making it a great option for any smartphone user. That’s exactly what Google needs to be careful about with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.
Price them right
There is a lot of Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro prices doing the rounds on the internet. Most of them claim that these phones will cost more or less the same as the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, at least in the US. We don’t know yet. The only thing that’s a certainty right now is that these are going to be expensive phones. Regardless of what the internet says. Just look at the latest Google phones in India or any before that — all priced more than what most of us thought.
The market isn’t the most ideal right now either. If the global chip shortage, pandemic, and increased GST rates weren’t enough, the Indian rupee has hit a new low and has crossed the 81 per dollar mark. That’s one of the key reasons we saw such a massive gap between India and other countries in iPhone prices this year.
Not only the iPhones, but other premium phones have been getting expensive too. Samsung’s Galaxy S Series has crossed the Rs 1 lakh mark, while the Z Fold 4 starts at Rs 1.55 lakh. The current market situation is most likely to be reflected in the Pixel 7 pricing too. How much thought will decide if Google’s welcomed back with petals or raised eyebrows? The more the price, the more difficult Google may find to lure customers away from other brands.
What to expect?
Regardless of how Google prices its upcoming phones, they will be packed with the best possible hardware. The official renders reveal the back of the phone, suggesting that the Pixel 7 may come with a dual camera setup and the Pixel 7 Pro will get three cameras — just like their predecessors. Both the phones are expected to use the same 50-megapixel Isocell GN1 main camera sensors and 12-megapixel Sony IMX381 ultrawide shooters as the Pixel 6 line-up.
The front is unlikely to be changed as well. This means that the Pixel 7 will likely have up to a 90Hz refresh rate, while the Pro model would get a 120Hz refresh rate.
The significant change will be in the internals with the new Tensor processor officially referred to as the Tensor G2. The chip is said to be based on 4nm architecture and according to a benchmark test file accessed by developer Kuba Wojciechowski, will have two Cortex-X1 CPU cores. This suggests that it has the same octa-core CPU setup as the original chipset (2x Cortex-X1, 2x Cortex-A76, 4x Cortex-A55). The developer also claimed that the new chip has a Mali-G710 GPU, the same as the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 flagship processor. That’s an upgrade on the Mali-G78 graphics on the Tensor G1, at least on paper.
Other than this, the Wishlist would include brighter displays, better fingerprint sensors, faster-charging speeds, and more versatile cameras.
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