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Google has finally made the next Nexus Pixel phones official. Like last year, Google is offering the best of Android in two different sizes. This year the smaller option is every bit as good as the phablet. We like to compare new Android phones to the competition. For the Pixel, that means the Samsung Galaxy S7 and iPhone 7. Google wants to compete with high-end devices. Let’s see if they can do it.
Build Quality
Build quality is a big issue for the Pixel phones. In the past, Google has skimped in this area to get the price down. In the last few years, they have upped the build quality and the price has gone up with it. The Pixel boasts a premium design with premium materials. A lot of people will say it looks like an iPhone, which is true from the front, but the back paints a different picture.
The one area where Google sacrificed a bit in terms of build quality is water resistance. We’re at a time where it’s really inexcusable for a flagship phone to not come with water resistance. The iPhone 7 has it. The Galaxy S7 has it. Many other devices have it. You might not think it’s a big deal, but your opinion will quickly change if you drop your phone in a pool.
Display
These three devices have very similar display sizes. The iPhone 7 is the smallest at 4.7-inches, but that’s only 0.4-inches smaller than the Galaxy S7, which has the biggest display. The difference is negligible. Where they differ more is screen resolution.
The iPhone 7 has the lowest resolution, but it’s constantly praised for having a crisp and beautiful display. The Galaxy S7 has the highest resolution and also receives a lot of praise for having the best display on the market. The Pixel falls somewhere between those two. Frankly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with 1080p resolution on a 5-inch display. It will look fine and you might even save some battery life.
Camera
The camera is where Apple used to clean up in these comparisons. That hasn’t been the case in recent years. Samsung and even LG have stood out among the crowd with excellent cameras. The Galaxy S7 has the best camera on the market and the iPhone 7 isn’t far behind. Nexus devices have traditionally suffered in this area, but the Nexus 6P had a very good camera. How will the Pixel fare?
According to DxOMark, the Pixel has the best camera every made for a smartphone. They gave it a score of 89, which is the highest ever. That doesn’t automatically mean it’s the best camera in the world. DxOMark scores don’t always represent real-world results. A good example is the HTC 10 having a higher score than the LG G5. We’ll have to wait and see.
Performance
The Pixel is one of the first devices to come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor. It should offer some improvements over the Snapdragon 820, which can be found in nearly every other flagship phone from 2016. The iPhone 7 is powered by the Apple A10. It’s hard to compare performance from different platforms, but these devices should all have enough horsepower.
Battery life is much more spread out. The iPhone has a measly 1960mAh battery while the Galaxy S7 has a 3000mAh battery. We were not impressed with battery life on the Galaxy S7, which might not bode well for the 2770mAh battery in the Pixel. However, the 1080p display could provide a nice boost. Fewer pixels to push across the screen is easier on battery life.
Which phone is the best?
Now that we’ve compared these three devices, which one do you think is the best? Did Google do enough to compete with the big boys? Google wants the Pixel to be taken seriously. It appears they did enough on the spec sheet, but the real test will come with actually selling devices. That has been the thorn in the side of past Nexus devices. Will you be buying the Pixel?
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