Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Pixel 7 vs Pixel 7a: What’s the difference?

Google revealed the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 in October 2022, and these devices were joined by the mid-range Pixel 7a after it was announced during Google I/O on 10 May.

The Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 devices succeed the excellent Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 6, bringing several updates in hardware, a refined design and some exciting new features, while the Pixel 7a succeeds the excellent Pixel 6a.

If you’re wondering what the differences are between the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 7 – and how the Pixel 7a compares to them, we have you covered. Here is how the Pixel 7 Pro, the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7a compare to help you work out which is the right Pixel phone for you.

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  Google / Pocket-lint

  Google Pixel 7 Pro

  The Pixel 7 Pro is more expensive than the Pixel 7, but it brings with it an extra camera sensor, larger battery, more RAM and a lovely curved display. If you have the budget, the Pro model is the one you want. It’s a brilliant device with plenty to love.

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  Google / Pocket-lint

  Google Pixel 7

  The Pixel 7 is an excellent device, and while you get some extra features on the Pro model, the Pixel 7 delivers a great experience, with a solid camera offering, battery life and plenty of power. It is definitely worth considering the Pixel 7a though.

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  Roland Quandt

  Google Pixel 7a

  The Pixel 7a is Google’s latest mid-range phone. It succeeds the Pixel 6a, and sits alongside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. It’s a superb device that offers many of the same features as the Pixel 7 but with a different – but still great – camera setup. If you want great value, this is it.

Price, availability and specs

The Google Pixel 7 starts at $599 in the US and £599 in the UK – the same as the Pixel 6, while the Pixel 7 Pro starts at $899 in the US and £849 in the UK – again the same as the Pixel 6 Pro. The Pixel 7a meanwhile, costs $499 in the US and £449 in the UK, putting it just under the Pixel 7, though nearly half the price of the Pixel 7 Pro.

The Pixel 7 Pro is therefore quite a bit more expensive than the standard Pixel 7 and therefore the Pixel 7a, though there are a number of reasons for that, which we will take you through below. You can see a brief rundown of the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 specs against the specs for the Pixel 7a below.

• 	Google Pixel 7 Pro	Google Pixel 7	Google Pixel 7a
  SoC	Google Tensor G2	Google Tensor S2	Tensor G2
  Display	6.7-inch, LTPO, Quad HD+, 120Hz, up to 1500nits	6.3-inch, Full HD+, 90Hz, up to 1400nits	6.1-inch OLED, Full HD+, 90Hz
  Battery	4500mAh, Fast charging, Wireless charging	4355mAh, Fast charging, Wireless charging	4385mAh, 18W fast charging, 7.5W wireless charging
  Operating System	Android	Android	Android
  Dimensions	162.9 x 76.6 x 8.9mm, 212g	155.6 x 73.2 x 8.7mm, 197g	152.4 x 72.9 x 9mm, 193g
  Colors	Snow, Obsidian, Hazel	Snow, Obsidian, Lemongrass	Charcoal, Snow, Sea, Coral
  IP Rating	IP68	IP68	IP67
  RAM and Storage	12GB / 128, 256, 512GB	8GB, 128/256GB	8GB / 128GB

Design

The Google Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 share a similar design, with both offering a camera housing on the rear that spans the width of the devices, just like the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The design has been refined since the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, but on the whole, it’s familiar and the Pixel 7a follows suit.

There’s a premium finish on both the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7, and both offer an IP68 water and dust resistance. The Pixel 7 Pro has a polished aluminium frame, while the Pixel 7 has a matte frame, though both offer Corning Gorilla Glass Victus cover glass and edgeless Corning Gorilla Glass Victus rears. The Pixel 7a takes cues from the Pixel 7, though it drops the IP rating slightly to IP67, like the Pixel 6a.

The Pixel 7 Pro is the larger and heavier of the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 devices, and it’s larger and heavier than the Pixel 7a too with the Pixel 7a the smallest in the range. The Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 both come in Snow (white) and Obsidian (black) colour options, with the third colour variant differing. The Pixel 7 comes in Lemongrass and the 7 Pro in Hazel. The Pixel 7a meanwhile, comes in Charcoal, Snow, Sea and Coral colour options with the first two being black and white and the third blue. The Coral option is only available through the Google Store. Unlike the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 6, the rear isn’t two-toned for the Pixel 7 or 7 Pro and it’s not for the Pixel 7a either.

On the front, both the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 7 have a punch hole camera at the top of their displays in the centre, though the Pixel 7 Pro has a slightly curved display, while the Pixel 7 offers a flat display. The Pixel 7a also has a flat display like the Pixel 7, whilst also offering a centralised punch hole camera at the top. Both the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro have under-display fingerprint sensors – which the Pixel 7a is also offers – and all come with Face Unlock, which is a new addition to the Pixel “a” range.

Display

The Google Pixel 7 Pro comes with a 6.7-inch LTPO OLED display with a refresh rate up to 120Hz. It offers a Quad HD+ resolution (3120 x 1440), which delivers a pixel density of 512ppi, which is the same as the Pixel 6 Pro.

The Pixel 7 has a 6.3-inch display, which is also an OLED panel, though not LTPO. It has a Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080) for a pixel density of 416ppi and there’s a 90Hz refresh rate.

The Pixel 7a meanwhile, comes with a 6.1-inch OLED display and like the Pixel 7, it is not LTPO. It has a Full HD+ resolution at 2400 x 1080, which delivers a pixel density of 431ppi, and it’s has a refresh rate of 90Hz too, matching that of the Pixel 7.

This means the Pixel 7 Pro has a sharper display than the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a, and offers smoother scrolling too in theory, though you may not notice unless you had it side-by-side with the Pixel 7 or the Pixel 7a.

As mentioned, the Pixel 7 Pro has a slightly curved display, while the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a both have flat displays but HDR support is present on all three of the Pixel 7 models.

Hardware and specs

Both the Google Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 7 run on the next generation of the Google Tensor chip, which is called Google Tensor G2 and the Pixel 7a also runs this processor. The chip offers more power for photos, video, security and speech recognition. The Titan M2 security chip is also on board the Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a and all three devices offer five years of security updates.

The Pixel 7 Pro comes with 12GB of RAM, while both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a have 8GB of RAM, putting the 7 and 7a closer in line with each other than the Pixel 7 Pro. Storage options are 128GB and 256GB for the Pixel 7, while the Pixel 7 Pro adds a 512GB variant. The Pixel 7a meanwhile, only comes in a 128GB variant. Neither the Pixel 7 or 7 Pro offer microSD support for storage expansion and the Pixel 7a doesn’t either.

In terms of battery capacities, the Pixel 7 Pro offers a 5000mAh call again, like the Pixel 6 Pro, while the Pixel 7 has a 4355mAh battery under its hood. Both have fast charging on board, offering up to 50 per cent charge in 30 minutes, and they both have wireless charging and Battery Share, which is also known as reverse wireless charging. The Pixel 7a comes with a 4385mAh battery making it slightly larger than the Pixel 7, though only fractionally. It also has wireless charging for the first time in a Pixel “a” device.

Camera

Aside from physical size and a couple design details, the biggest difference between the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 7 is in their camera offerings and there are more differences in the Pixel 7a in this department too. The Pixel 7 Pro has a triple rear camera, while the Pixel 7 has a dual camera. The Pixel 7a also has a dual camera but it has a different make up to the Pixel 7.

The Pixel 7 Pro’s triple rear camera consists of a 48-megapixel telephoto lens (f/3.5, 0.7µm) with 5x optical zoom capabilities, a 50-megapixel main sensor (f/1.85, 1.2µm) with an 82-degree field of view and a 12-megapixel ultra wide sensor (f/2.2, 1.25µm) with a 125.8-degree field of view.

The Pixel 7’s camera has the same main sensor and ultra wide sensor as the Pixel 7 Pro, but it doesn’t offer the telephoto lens.

The Pixel 7a has a 64-megapixel main camera sensor and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide sensor. It’s worth mentioning that just because the megapixels are higher, that doesn’t automatically mean better so in our experience, the 7 Pro outperforms the Pixel 7a, despite having a lower resolution main sensor, though we were still impressed by the 7a’s offering.

The Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 devices have features including Motion Mode, Real Tone, Photo Unblur and Magic Eraser, as well as the company’s excellent Night Sight, and the Pixel 7a also offers these features so you’re getting a full Pixel experience across the range. The Pixel 7 Pro also offers Macro Focus and 30x high resolution zoom, while the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a don’t have the Macro Focus feature and their high resolution zoom tops out at 8x.

Both the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 7 have a 10.8-megapixel front camera (f/2.2, 1.22µm) with 4K video recording. The Pixel 7a has a 13-megapixel front camera, meaning it offers the highest resolution of the three Pixel devices, but as we mentioned with the main camera, this doesn’t automatically translate to best.

Conclusion

The Google Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a all have a similar design, with a couple of differences, including the rear camera, physical size and colour variation. The Pixel 7 Pro also offers a slightly curved display compared to the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a’s flat displays, as well as a sharper resolution, higher refresh rate, more RAM, more storage and a larger battery.

Google / Pocket-lint

Google Pixel 7 Pro

The Google Pixel 7 Pro is an excellent device, building on the foundation of the Pixel 6 Pro, but offering a more refined design, superb camera performance and clean software.

It is the camera offerings where the biggest difference between these devices is the most apparent between the Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a though. The Pixel 7 Pro offers a telephoto sensor and some extra camera features, like Macro focus and a higher resolution zoom compared to the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a.

The Pixel 7 Pro is the more expensive of these devices though, so the decision as to which is right for you will very much depend on what features are important to you and what you’re willing to pay for them. The Pixel 7 is a very capable device, but the Pixel 7 Pro brings those luxury extras and it’s the one to buy between these two models if you can justify the cost.

Google / Pocket-lint

Google Pixel 7a

The Pixel 7a is Google’s latest mid-range phone. It succeeds the Pixel 6a, and sits alongside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, though it offers many of the same specs as the Pixel 7, making it fantastic value.

If you’re on a budget, the Pixel 7a is a fantastic mid-ranger and the device we would recommend if the Pixel 7 Pro is out of your budget. While the Pixel 7 is a great device, it doesn’t really make sense to buy it over the Pixel 7a given how similar they are in their offerings and the savings you make by opting for the mid-range Pixel 7a.

Google / Pocket-lint

Google Pixel 7

The Google Pixel 7 misses off a couple of things compared to the 7 Pro, and with the 7a offering many of the same specs, you might be better opt for the Pixel 7a. That said, the Pixel 7 is a great device for its price.