Google is leaving no stone unturned within the newest Tensor-powered chapter of its Pixel merchandise. Not solely has the corporate refreshed Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Professional, but it surely’s additionally introduced the Pixel Watch and extra particulars concerning the Pixel Pill. Whereas Google’s new flagship Pixel telephones and its first-ever smartwatch home top-of-the-line specs, that’s not what it’s banking on to promote them. As an alternative, it’s taking up Apple’s iPhone 14’s unmatched {hardware} by enjoying to its energy: software program.
The Made by Google occasion made one factor unequivocally clear: Google is aware of taking up the iPhone’s {hardware} is an uphill battle. Apple’s in-house silicon division has years on Google’s pretty nascent counterpart. Though Google’s Tensor processor was a hit on final 12 months’s Pixel 6, it’s nonetheless removed from catching as much as Apple’s A-series chips.
Google’s pitch for the Pixel 7 telephones, due to this fact, was in clear distinction to the one Apple made for the iPhone 14 final month. Not like Apple or some other cellphone maker, Google didn’t spend a lot time diving deep into the Pixel 7’s specs — it didn’t inform its viewers what the distinction ratio was of the display or the variety of transistors inside its new Tensor G2 chipset. No, as soon as it revealed a number of important bits of the telephones, reminiscent of their show sizes and the addition of Face Unlock, Google rapidly moved on to debate the experiences these upgrades allow and why they matter.
Versus placing up a chart pitting the Tensor G2 in opposition to the competitors, for instance, Google launched a spread of intelligent AI-backed options like the power to see the extension choices of a enterprise name proper in your display as an alternative of getting to take heed to them and slicing the noise out whenever you’re phoning somebody in a loud atmosphere.
The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Professional’s cameras have been equally uplifted via software program because of the Tensor G2’s further energy. They provide a bunch of latest choices that can come in useful in day-to-day use. You possibly can, for instance, scan your outdated polaroids and the Pixel 7 will unblur any blurred faces on them and repair different blemishes like lighting points. Plus, the Pixel 7 can neatly benefit from its a number of cameras to stop your shaking arms from affecting your zoomed-in photos and movies. A brand new accessibility software known as Guided Body will help visually impaired customers to angle their telephones appropriately to seize selfies with audio cues and haptic suggestions.
“Each Pixel system is designed to ship a stage of private intelligence that turns day-to-day issues into actually pleasant experiences,” Google wrote in a weblog publish.
The Pixel 7 and the iPhone 14’s taglines mirror this stark distinction in approaches. The previous focuses on what its specs ship on the finish of the day: “Merely Highly effective. Tremendous Useful,” whereas the latter is supposed to plainly spotlight the iterative soar in its show and battery sizes: “Huge and Greater.”
In fact, Google’s software program has been the cornerstone of the Pixel sequence since its inception. Nonetheless, the arrival of the Tensor chip has allowed Google to fine-tune the expertise for its in-house companies. And for the reason that Pixel 6 proved Google is not too far behind in efficiency — liberating up its silicon efforts from the infinite scrutiny — the corporate can tuck the {hardware} within the background and let its software program actually take middle stage.
In addition to, {hardware} supremacy has a ceiling and as evident from the iPhone 14 keynote, Apple can be operating out of concepts to promote its gadgets, turning to grand software program instruments like automobile crash detection to draw patrons. Excessive-end specs are just about now the default throughout the business, particularly within the premium flagship vary. Irrespective of the cellphone you choose up, you’ll get a display that’s vivid and sharp sufficient, a sufficiently quick chipset, all-day battery life, and extra.
The one place the place there’s room for competitors, it seems, is within the software program. Google is now capitalizing on this saturation in addition to its machine-learning prowess to place the Pixel 7 as a always evolving smartphone.
We’ve already witnessed this with earlier Pixels. Since 2019, Google has repeatedly introduced new skills to its outdated telephones — along with the newest mannequin — via an initiative known as “Function Drops.” The latest one in June of this 12 months was rolled out to the three-year-old Pixel 4. Apple, as compared, hardly ever broadcasts backward-compatible options no matter whether or not they’re hardware-dependent. For somebody spending $1,000 on a cellphone (the Pixel 7 Professional prices $899), Google’s software-first focus will not be solely extra attention-grabbing but in addition sensible as they’d count on it to final a number of years.
Google, in a variety of methods, breathed new life into its Pixel sequence final 12 months with the Tensor chip. The Pixel 7 is a extra refined iteration of that, and on paper it gives a super stability of software program and {hardware} at a extremely aggressive worth. Whether or not that’s sufficient to make Apple nervous stays to be seen, however Google is unquestionably going all-in because it despatched its largest Pixel order to suppliers. It reiterated its dedication to the Pixel lineup by including that Tensor “represents years of growth throughout Google and a long-term funding within the Pixel portfolio.”
