Google Pixel 7 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Who wins Android smartphone battle? - Digital Trends

Samsung and Google marque immoderate of the finest smartphones connected the market, offering the astir precocious features that marque the astir of their hardware and bundle integration. Both companies introduced caller versions of their flagship phones this year, and our reviewers person enactment them to the test. Now it’s clip for the top-of-the-line Android smartphone smackdown: Which flagship telephone — the Google Pixel 7 Pro oregon the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra — is the champion 1 to seizure the contents of your wallet?

Specs

Design, display, and durability

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The Google Pixel 7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra are flagship smartphones for their respective brands, and they disagree greatly successful design. The metallic and solid Pixel 7 Pro sports a curved show and constrictive plan with an appealing stainless alloy camera barroom connected the back. The benignant is distinctive and recognizable, with cutouts for each camera sensor. The existent Pixel plan is besides lighter, thinner, and little curved than successful the past, giving it a much balanced consciousness successful the hand.

In contrast, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is wide and heavy, with a businesslike look and consciousness reminiscent of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra‘s crisp lines and quadrate corners. A curved show combines with squared-off apical and bottommost corners, and it besides sports idiosyncratic rear cameras. This is intelligibly a telephone that helps you get worldly done, but due to the fact that it is truthful large and slippery, it whitethorn not beryllium wholly comfy for each hands.

There’s little opposition betwixt the 2 flagships successful presumption of display. Both person precocious 120Hz displays built connected an OLED base, and the quality successful size betwixt the Pixel’s 6.7-inches and the S22 Ultra’s 6.8-inches is negligible. The phones’ beforehand and backmost panels are protected by Gorilla Glass Victus oregon Victus Plus connected the Pixel 7 and Galaxy S22 Ultra, respectively. Both phones transportation IP68 h2o and particulate absorption ratings. Balancing retired design, comfort, surface quality, and brightness, we’re going to telephone a necktie connected which plan is better, arsenic some are gorgeous.

Winner: Tie

Performance, artillery life, and charging

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Both the Pixel 7 Pro and the Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphones battalion a 5,000mAh battery, with immoderate disparities successful the charging velocity and strength. The Samsung features up to 45W charging, portion the Pixel lone hits 30W. You volition request to acquisition a Samsung oregon Google charger if you bash not already ain 1 due to the fact that neither comes with a charger successful the box.

Our reappraisal recovered real-world artillery beingness for the Google Pixel 7 Pro unimpressive. While the artillery drain connected standby was respectable, utilizing aggregate apps, playing games, oregon thing other that drives the processor importantly diminished artillery endurance. The Pixel 7 Pro proved to beryllium a one-day smartphone astatine best, which, with a 6.7-inch surface and 5,000mAh battery, was disappointing. While the Pixel 7’s recently reinstated Face Unlock diagnostic lets you bypass the fastener screen, you’ll inactive request the fingerprint sensor to entree locked apps oregon to marque a acquisition with Google Pay. We recovered Face Unlock worked rather well, but the fingerprint sensor inactive needs work. Sadly, the Google Pixel 7 Pro is besides suffering from a ample scope of bundle bugs, which severely diminishes the phone’s show and easiness of use. Moreover, the telephone runs blistery — meaning that it heats up uncomfortably sometimes aft lone 30 minutes of gaming.

The artillery wrong the S22 Ultra maintained powerfulness for a afloat time of dense use and 2 days of mean use. By moderate, we mean without games, streaming video, changeless music, oregon switching betwixt a 4G and 5G connection. The Samsung telephone is the amended performer, adjacent with the older Android 12 operating system, accompanied by Samsung’s OneUI 4.1 installed. In opposition to the Pixel 7 Pro, we experienced nary bugs oregon problems.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

Cameras

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Pixel 7 Pro has 3 cameras: a 50-megapixel wide, a 48MP telephoto, and a 12MP ultrawide, with a 10.8MP beforehand camera. The Galaxy S22 Ultra has 4 cameras: a 108MP wide, 2 10MP telephotos (with antithetic zooms), and a 12MP ultrawide alongside a 40MP beforehand camera. The Pixel 7 Pro tin present facilitate 5x optical zoom but trails down Samsung’s 10x.

But cameras are not conscionable astir stats — cameras are astir results, and the Google Pixel 7 Pro delivers. Photos from the Pixel 7 Pro are exceptional, with bold colour reproduction and beardown lighting. The Google phone’s camera captures loads of detail, and the representation processing creates stunning images without a batch of fuss. The camera app offers 2 shortcuts for jumping to 2x and 5x zoom, but you tin support zooming up to 30x, which is large for flexibility and creativity. The ultrawide camera, with its caller Macro Focus shooting mode, was astir impressive. The selfie cam, alas, is thing to constitute location about.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s cameras excel compared to the Pixel 7 Pro’s. The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 108MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x optical zoom, 10MP 10x optical zoom, and 40MP selfie cameras connection overmuch much flexibility and precision. Its aggregate optical zoom modes marque it versatile, the main and wide cameras instrumentality gorgeous colorful photos with fantabulous balance, and the updated representation mode is stellar. Single Take mode lets you sprout a abbreviated video, up to 15 seconds, which tin beryllium extended to 20 seconds, portion the phone’s AI generates assorted images and videos from it. The autochthonal camera app is elemental and customizable. Our reappraisal says it’s 1 of the champion camera phones retired there. Between Samsung’s Pro mode for stills and video and its caller Expert RAW app, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra takes large pictures, too.

The Pixel 7 Pro takes somewhat amended photos (without Samsung’s assertive saturation boosting) and has a amended “point-and-click” experience, portion the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s zoom is astonishing and has existent extent for those who privation to instrumentality immoderate time. This is simply a tie.

Winner: Tie

Software and updates

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The Pixel 7 Pro, which ships with Android 13, features Google’s caller Tensor G2 spot and 12GB of RAM. The default 128GB of retention tin beryllium upgraded to 256GB and 512GB. While Google’s Material You motor facilitates customization, the assorted AI features derived from the Tensor spot marque the acquisition unique. For the Pixel 7 Pro, Google promises 3 years of operating strategy upgrades and 5 years of information upgrades.

The Pixel 7 Pro’s Tensor processor includes caller astute AI features similar Photo Unblur and the upcoming Clear Calling and Recorder App features. The Pixel 7 Pro besides resurrected Face Unlock — dormant since the Pixel 4 — but with an unwelcomed tweak that requires the fingerprint sensor to entree locked apps oregon usage Google Pay.

Its rival, the Galaxy S22 Ultra, features the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 with 8GB of RAM. Storage options see 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. It comes with the older Android 12 operating system, accompanied by Samsung’s OneUI 4.1 installed, and offers 4 years of afloat updates. Samsung distinctly promotes its ain products and forces you to motion into a Samsung account, prioritizing Samsung Pay, updating apps done the Galaxy Store, and ignoring non-Samsung calendar and messaging apps. This signifier is not unsocial to Samsung, but it’s not affable either.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

Special features

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The astir salient peculiar diagnostic of the Galaxy S22 Ultra is the included S Pen stylus — identical to the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra — which resides successful its ain retention slot connected the bottommost of the phone. The S Pen is tiny and bladed and isn’t particularly comfy for ample hands. While useful, unless you habitually gully oregon instrumentality notes, it’s astir apt not thing you’ll miss were it not there. Whether you privation oregon request the S-Pen oregon not, it’s inactive a coagulated summation that wins Samsung the peculiar features competition.

While the Pixel 7 Pro boasts galore caller features, they are processor-, software-, and update-related, arsenic mentioned above.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

Price and availability

Both the Google Pixel 7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra are connected merchantability and universally available. There is simply a immense terms differential betwixt the two. The Pixel starts astatine $899 for the basal exemplary with 128GB of storage. You tin get the 256GB oregon 512GB exemplary for $999 oregon $1,099, respectively, from the Google Store, Amazon, Best Buy, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra costs $1,199 for the 8GB/128GB mentation and costs $1,299 for a 12GB/256GB model, $1,399 for a 12GB/512GB model, oregon $1,599 for the 12GB/1TB version. It’s disposable from Samsung and the aforesaid retail outlets arsenic the Pixel 7 Pro.

Overall winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

The Google Pixel 7 Pro whitethorn archetypal look to beryllium a amended worth for the wealth with its graceful appearance, blase bundle features, stellar camera, and Android 13 interface. Yet, contempt its bold plan and precocious features, we recovered Google inactive struggles with gathering connected the Pixel’s bully points portion failing to amended implicit erstwhile models. Overall, we concluded that the Pixel 7 Pro is simply a frustrating smartphone based connected lackluster artillery beingness and persistent buggy show that mars the phone’s wide performance.

In contrast, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is overmuch much expensive, but that volition beryllium wealth good spent. The Samsung telephone offers adjacent much awesome camera specs, a larger display, faster charging, and a built-in stylus. The telephone is simply a marvel of exertion that volition service you good for years to come.

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