The Pixel 7 should be on your Black Friday wishlist, if your holidays are like mine
When holidays are, shall we say, blurry
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
If your holidays are like mine, you need help. While I’d love to call on my family and loved ones over the holidays, more often than not I’m stuck with just my phone. When I think about the sort of help I need over the holidays, I’m glad thatGooglesent me aPixel 7to test, because it’s one of thebest Pixel phonesever, and should definitely be on your wishlist, especially withBlack Friday dealsfast approaching.
My holiday usually involves celebration, whether it’s parties at work or parties with friends: there will be feasting. I’d love to travel to see my family abroad, but if I can’t, I’ll make do with video calls in pajamas. We’ll unwrap presents and show off everything we got. In the end, we’ll be left with memories, maybe some soreness and fatigue, and the sales receipts to remind us of it all.
The Pixel 7 is a great phone to help me handle my holiday season, and if there’s a deal that bundles it withPixel Buds Proor gives me a nice discount, I’d tell my friends without hesitation that this is the phone to buy.
If your holiday is dark and blurry, like mine
The holidays are a great time to take photos of things in the dark. I’m already excited about venturing into New York City and checking out the decorations, the storefronts, and the (fellow) amazed interlopers, who flock to see it all. The Pixel 7 excels at low light photos, especially with complicated lighting situations, like bright strings of lights across a dark tree.
We can spare the children the details, but often during the holidays – for one reason or another – I find my vision rather blurry and my hands less coordinated than normal. Twin such an impairment with a spot of festive photography and sometimes, I don’t realize my camera is focused on the wrong spot, or not focused at all.
WithPhoto Unbluron the Pixel 7, I have a chance at redemption.Google Photoscan fix my lousy shots, and none shall be the wiser that I was in no condition to be the official photographer for the evening in the first place.
The real problem with blurry photos over the holidays is that the people in the photos are the people who are most important to me. I see them less frequently, maybe even just over those very holidays; once a year. In other words, I would really regret screwing up those shots.
The Pixel 7’s camera has a cool feature that recognizes and focuses on faces, like most great smartphone cameras. On the Pixel, though, the camera can recognize which faces are most important to you – based on your Photo library – and it will make doubly-sure that those people stay looking sharp.
If your holiday is partially in Dutch, like mine
My family doesn’t live in just one spot anymore. Some folks have moved abroad and married themselves into the native population. They have very tall children with sunshine-blond hair, and speak an entirely different language, most of the time. I love visiting them, and I especially love the spare bedroom I get to use instead of paying for a European hotel.
Unfortunately, I can’t visit all the time, or even much at all, recently. The selfie camera on the Pixel 7 is great, but this year I’m going to use a different camera for my video calls, because I’ll be keeping the Pixel for live translation between English and Dutch.
The Pixel 7 moves language translation to its Tensor G2 chip, meaning it should be much faster at translation than an equivalent Android phone. If all goes to plan, I’ll get a chance to try it out, in concert with my Pixel Buds Pro this holiday season.
If your holiday is about showing off presents, like mine
The Pixel 7 looks cool – it’s a phone you can show off. It isn’t a bland copy of thebest iPhonesor thebest Samsung phones, and it doesn’t look like any of the dozens ofcheap phonesthat clone the style of those leaders. When you show off your Pixel 7, you stand out.
The Lemongrass color is especially striking, but the overall look of the phone – with the camera band around the back – is very cool, without feeling too techy. The phone is smooth all the way around, with a nice screen and when you pass it around, people will undoubtedly spend a moment admiring it.
If you can grab a Pixel 7 as part of a Black Friday bundle with a pair of buds or aPixel Watch, all the better. ThePixel Watchisn’t the best-performing watch I’ve used, but it is very stylish and fun to show off. Google offered a bundle with a watch when it was pre-selling the Pixel 7 series. If that deal comes back around during Black Friday, I’d highly recommend it.
If your holiday leaves you in debt, like mine
Google priced the Pixel 7 phone just below the competition, so it costs less than a comparableiPhone 14orSamsung Galaxy S22. That means it’s already a great buy, but it’s still not what we’d call a bargain device. A Black Friday Pixel deal could push the phone closer towards that target range, however.
Google often releases a mid-year phone at a competitively-low price. This year, that was thePixel 6a:a phone that has many great Pixel-exclusive features – like Magic Eraser – but notallof them. As such, I’d still prefer the Pixel 7, for its Photo Unblur and other powerful Tensor G2-powered skills. Fingers crossed for a Black Friday offer – I’ll be keeping an eye out, you should too.
The Pixel 7 isn’t just one of thebest Android phonesyou can buy, it’s one of thebest phonesavailable right now, period. If your holiday sounds like it might be anything like mine, it may be the perfect companion for conversing with foreign relatives visiting from afar, unblurring shots filled twinkling lights and cheerful faces, and if you’re related to any fellow geeks, they just might enjoy toying with the new Pixel.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
Phil Berne is a preeminent voice in consumer electronics reviews, starting more than 20 years ago at eTown.com. Phil has written for Engadget, The Verge, PC Mag, Digital Trends, Slashgear, TechRadar, AndroidCentral, and was Editor-in-Chief of the sadly-defunct infoSync. Phil holds an entirely useful M.A. in Cultural Theory from Carnegie Mellon University. He sang in numerous college a cappella groups.
Phil did a stint at Samsung Mobile, leading reviews for the PR team and writing crisis communications until he left in 2017. He worked at an Apple Store near Boston, MA, at the height of iPod popularity. Phil is certified in Google AI Essentials. He has a High School English teaching license (and years of teaching experience) and is a Red Cross certified Lifeguard. His passion is the democratizing power of mobile technology. Before AI came along he was totally sure the next big thing would be something we wear on our faces.
Latest Google Pixel update includes surprise launch of Android 15’s best battery feature
The Pixel Phone app might soon let you respond to calls with AI messages
Lego will let you build Sir Ernest Shackleton’s iconic lost ship, the Endurance, in its next Icons set
