The Galaxy S23 will be the Android flagship in 2023, and the Pixel 7 will be one of the de facto Android phones until its successor arrives at the end of the year. Here’s what to expect from the Galaxy S23 vs. Pixel 7 faceoff.
GALAXY S23 VS. GOOGLE PIXEL 7: DESIGN AND DISPLAY
The Galaxy S23, at least based on some leaked renders, appears to have a slight design change. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like Samsung intends to bring the entire Galaxy S23 series together in terms of design language. This means that the alleged contour cut of the Galaxy S22 is out, replaced by a separate camera lens, like the one you see on the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Meanwhile, the Pixel 7 improves on the design direction of Google’s Pixel 6, which is launching in 2021. The distinctive camera strip is still there, spanning the width of the phone. This time it’s metal, which adds a touch of sophistication.
As for the display, we expect the Galaxy S23 to remain at 6.1 inches with an FHD+ resolution. The Galaxy S22 can bump its refresh rate up to 120Hz, but it’s clocked down to just 48MHz. Other competing phones can drop to 10Hz, or even 1Hz.
The Pixel 7 has a stunning 6.3-inch OLED display with FHD+ resolution and a 90Hz adaptive refresh rate. While it lacks the vibrant colors and insane brightness of the Galaxy S22, it maxed out at 926 nits in our tests, which was very noticeable in daylight.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S23 VS GOOGLE PIXEL 7: CAMERA
The real winner of this showdown will win in the camera department. Google holds the title of best Android camera phone. While Samsung has made some big strides in recent years, the Galaxy S22 still struggles to keep up with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. However, the Galaxy S23 Ultra may outshine Google.
Samsung may be keeping the triple camera setup it has had for a while. Rumors say we’ll see a 12MP primary sensor along with a 12MP ultrawide shooter and a 10MP telephoto lens. As for zoom, the Galaxy S22 has 3x optical capacity, so the Galaxy S23 will likely maintain that.
The latest rumors also claim that the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 will feature a new 12MP front-facing camera, which will be an upgrade from the previous 10MP sensor.
The Pixel 7 produces incredible results with its 50MP main sensor and 12MP ultrawide sensor. The phone takes stunning photos in most situations, letting the iPhone 14 shine. Google reserved the telephoto lens for the Pixel 7 Pro, but the Pixel 7 enjoys all the other computational photography tricks of its big brother.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S23 VS GOOGLE PIXEL 7: PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY LIFE
In terms of performance, we expect the Galaxy S23 to pack more horsepower than the Pixel 7. That’s because the Pixel’s Tensor G2 chipset trailed the Galaxy S22 and its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in synthetic benchmarks. With the Galaxy S23 almost certain to feature the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Google could fall further behind on performance.
The Pixel 7’s battery life didn’t wow us. In our custom test, in which we keep the phone constantly reloading webpages over a cellular connection, it returned a result of 7 hours and 17 minutes in adaptive refresh rate mode. Not that the Galaxy S22 was much better at 7 hours, 51 minutes. We expect to see at least ten hours in this test, so Samsung has a lot of room to improve on the Galaxy S23.
Rumors suggest that the battery capacity of the regular Galaxy S23 could increase to 3,885 mAh, while that of the Galaxy S23 Plus could increase to 4,700 mAh. If true, that should extend lifespan.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S23 VS GOOGLE PIXEL 7: SOFTWARE
Another important difference between the Galaxy S23 and Pixel 7 is software. Samsung’s One UI is a feature-rich version of Android, and the phone maker has greatly improved its software design and update schedule in recent years. One UI 5 based on Android 13 is solid, and that’s what the Galaxy S23 has out of the box.
The Pixel 7 runs Google’s vision for Android 13 and features the Material You theme engine. It’s relatively streamlined compared to One UI. Google packs in a lot of useful stuff, like the entire Call Suite, the photography stuff we mentioned earlier, and the music-playing identifier.
The Pixel 7 also gets Google‘s latest updates and security patches on day one. There are also quarterly feature drops, where Google introduces smaller feature sets outside of its annual Android release schedule.
We’re not going to say one is better than the other because that’s a matter of personal preference, but Samsung‘s current lead over Google comes down to the number of updates it promises. It promises four years of platform updates and five years of security patches, the best you can get on an Android phone.
>>>>>>>>>>>Phone Battery