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Phones · Google Pixel

Google Pixel 7

68owners with an opinion
46%of verdicts positive
22/27positive/negative since 2024
1 yrslongest happy owner
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for reliability and ease of use; criticized for performance and software.

What owners wrote

Doesn’t like itOwned 2 years
I want an Android phone that doesn't break. My iPhone is a beast, but I hate using it, I'm too used to the Android interface (especially the keyboard, I can't believe how bad the keyboard is on iOS). But every Android phone I've ever had gets dinged up very easily and eventually falls apart. I bought an iPhone 15 and a Pixel 7 at the same time when I started a new job 2 years ago. I keep my work stuff on the iPhone. For the first year, I kept them in the same pocket and had them both everywhere with me. The Pixel within a few weeks was starting to look beat up. The iPhone still looks practically brand new. Just last night, I got home, pulled my Pixel out of my pocket, and found a crack near the corner of the screen. Now the screen is glitching out on the bottom 15% of the screen. I didn't drop it, I didn't bump into anything. Regular pocket pressure while sitting in my car must have bent it and it buckled. My wife has had similar experiences with Samsung phones. If it weren't for the lack of good browsers on iOS, I'd put up with the shitty keyboard.
Doesn’t like itOwned 2 years
Google really needs to improve the core offering of what a phone is supposed to provide instead of using half baked AI as a selling point. I have been using Pixel 7 for almost the past 2 years. But the amount of basic core issues are crazy. Recently,since the July update, every place where the phone cannot catch network signal, it shutdowns. And with the update, somehow i feel it cannot catch network signal as strongly. That is such a crazy thing. Last year, my friend got locked out of all his valuable pictures with Android 14 upgrade on Pixel 6. My experience of Google is so bad with hardware that it has finally pushed me towards buying an iPhone for the very first time in my life after having been exclusive with Android OS for over 10 years.
Likes it
Having both would be even better. My current Android phone (Pixel 7) has both Face Unlock and an on-screen fingerprint scanner. My previous phone (a OnePlus) had Face Unlock along with a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, which was even better. Unlocking a phone has never felt as effortless on my iPhones; after all these years, it continues to be a nuisance. Face ID is fine, but you have to hold the phone right in front of your face (and its angle sensitivity is far less forgiving than on my Android phones, where it recognizes you even at an angle--unlike the iPhone, where you practically have to hold it parallel to your face). Plus, there are countless situations where you cannot or do not want to pick up your phone from a table just to align it with your face. In those cases, I am forced to type in my passcode, whereas an on-screen fingerprint scanner would be a billion times more convenient. I am mostly baffled that such a "solved," trivial problem in the Android ecosystem continues to be a topic or a matter of "choice" on iPhones.
Neutral
Last night at 4:00 AM, my Pixel 7 woke me up with Zoom's native voice prompt "Recording in progress", with the green mic indicator active on screen. My phone was idle on my nightstand out of reach and no Bluetooth device was connected. No Zoom account signed in and no active meeting. I uninstalled the app immediately after taking the screenshot, so I don't have access to any logs. After waking up this morning I realized I shouldn't have uninstalled. Is there any way to get logs of what happened now? I don't know what caused this, but it got me more paranoid about what runs on my phone. Has anyone experienced anything similar?
Neutral
Might be cheaper than replacing the battery. Might want more storage. I have a Pixel 7 I'm still happy with other than 2 issues. Battery wear is starting to be noticeable. There's a loose cable or something that causes the screen to go to static sometimes. If I press firm on the bottom it's good again. With the cost of getting these issues repaired, I just started looking into getting a new phone instead.
Likes itStill going
It took me about an hour. I sat down, read the docs, installed it via the web installer, then spent the next 45 min deciding how I wanted to segment separate profiles for play services. Nowadays it seems a lot easier because there seems to be a separate profile isolater you can run in the main profile, which I would choose if I was installing today. The only hiccup I've had is that sometimes group messages don't send correctly and send individual messages to everyone, but I think that's because I'm on a secondary profile, and it only happens when the phone is receiving a bunch of messages all at once while I try to send to the same group. But I deny network access to my installed swype keyboard, so it may have something to do with that too. I've been running this for years, since the Pixel 7 came out, which I'm still using. I love it. I can confidently go through customs knowing that if they yank my phone during some weird checkpoint and try to celbrite it, I'm as secure as can be.
Likes it
I think the Nexus 4 is still my favourite phone I've ever owned. Maybe it represents a period of techno-optimism I had, and how my relationship with phones have changed over the years. Now I despise my phone but am required to own it for my digital ID to pay taxes, receive work messages, etc. Sounds like I've been very lucky with my Pixel 4 and 7 that I haven't had any hardware issues while running GrapheneOS.
Likes it
Carrier-sold Pixels generally don't have "OEM-unlockable" bootloaders. Your best bet for now is to buy a new Pixel direct from Google, or a used one from eBay that the seller advertises as already having GrapheneOS on it (or otherwise guarantees that the bootloader is unlockable). These ones are worth a lot more than the ones that can only run Google/carrier Android. https://grapheneos.org/install/web#prerequisites I own two GrapheneOS Pixel 7 units, which should get any Google blob security updates (which GrapheneOS incorporates) through October 2027, and GrapheneOS may still support it with source updates after that. So in a year or so, I might get the GrapheneOS Motorola if it's available, or a later Pixel. (I never buy these new, since I don't want to carry a several hundred dollar phone when a 2 gen old one is still great, thanks to GrapheneOS.) https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705
Doesn’t like it
Interesting the first comment on the post suggesting a Android phone. Ironically I went the other way and switched to an iPhone because it did a better job of text than my pixel 6 or 7 due to spherical aberration scanning receipts and I got fed up. Then stuck with the ecosystem. I guess grass is just always greener on the other side from small compact cameras and optics on these devices. Best solution seemed to be 2x zoom with a bit of distance.
Neutral
Just tried it out with GrapheneOS on my Pixel 7 and the eBay app works fine. Generally I think the marketing of GraphenOS is interesting. They are usually positioned as the "Absolute security. No compromises." ROM, but in my personal experience, they are the "It must work. No compromises. Then make the rest as safe as possible"-option, given aspects like using the "real" Google Play Services (if desired), but sandboxed, instead of MicroG or unrestricted Google Play, which pretty much all other ROMs roll with.
Doesn’t like it
This UI is great but do you get this horrible thing where sometimes the browser is shows a white screen and you have to force stop the app? Happens all the time on the latest version for my Pixel 9a. And did on my Pixel 7 too before. It's really horrible and I can't pin down any rhythm or reason other than loosely seeming to happen more often when I'm in battery saver mode.
Likes it
> Apple is miles ahead of Android when it comes to phones and tablets Eh, I had to use a variety of iPhones for work recently, don't remember which models, from probably the last ~7 years though, and they really felt limited and frustrating on the software side. My already years old Pixel 7 feels miles ahead, and so did my Pixel 4a, even with the worse hardware of the latter. They just feel more capable. I've been a mac guy for work for at least 15 years though, now with an M4 on Sequoia, and definitely won't be buying anything else (windows for most gaming), but Tahoe is not looking promising.
Neutral
Speaking personally, I've never broken/damaged a phone. Since the Pixel 1 started requiring removal of the screen in order to swap the battery, 100% of my phone replacements have been because the battery isn't good anymore. (Granted, I would've gotten a new phone eventually regardless, when the old one stopped receiving security updates.) Currently trying to stretch a Pixel 7 until 2027.
Doesn’t like it
> Yes the 2D dimensions are as large as a normal modern phone but it’s hardly there otherwise. The 2D dimensions are literally the only thing I care about. I'm going to barely notice the weight difference. The actual thickness is a lie with the giant camera hump. What I do care about is whether I can operate it single-handedly: I want my thumb to reach the top of the screen (so I can drag down the notification bar and click nav stuff) while the bottom of the phone is resting on my pinky. I could easily do that on my Galaxy S III Mini, it was comfortable with my Moto G 2, it was just about doable with my Nokia 6.1 - and it is impossible with my Pixel 7. At no point did I I actively look for a larger phone: going for a larger model has always been an unavoidable compromise.