AI, Android, and a custom Tensor chip – that’s Google’s formula for defining the Pixel experience. But compared to last year’s Pixel 6 series, which featured the first Google Tensor chip, there’s not much to see at this year’s Google Fall event.
Here’s a recap of the main content from the hardware launch
Pixel 7 Series: Another step forward for Google computational photography
With the almost non-existent secrecy coupled with the shift in publicity strategy, Google Pixel has long since entered a phase where the launch is not about hardware, but only about the experience.
Thanks to the TPU upgrade, Google said at the press conference that the same machine learning tasks on the Pixel 7/7 Pro run 60% faster and consume 20% less energy; in addition, as we mentioned in the fold, because the Pixel still has a lot of image processing pipeline work done in the GPU, so the Tensor G2 improvements also bring considerable support to the Pixel 7 series in terms of photo improvements.
This improvement is evident in telephoto shooting.
The Super Res Zoom algorithm (SRZ) introduced in the Pixel 3 era is used more frequently and more aggressively in the Pixel 7 Pro because of improvements in machine learning power and power consumption – but unlike the relatively harsh trigger conditions previously, the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro The SRZ algorithm is introduced at the 2x focal lengths that many people commonly use to crop full-quality images at 50 megapixels from the main camera, and with Tensor G2’s pipeline optimization, the entire Pixel 7 lineup can get better quality 12.5 megapixel, 2x zoom photos this way.
The Pixel 7 series is also more aggressive and efficient in blending images from ultra-wide angle and wide-angle lenses to get clearer facial photos. Google Photos has also opened up a new Photo Unblur feature for the Pixel 7 series, which uses Tensor G2’s machine learning algorithm to let users fix old photos that are blurry with a single click (similar to Samsung Photo Album’s “re-record” feature).
In addition to photography, the Pixel 7 Series has also taken advantage of GPU, TPU and ISP upgrades to complement its video capture capabilities. In addition to being able to generate Cinematic Blur with lower latency and less power consumption, and enabling voice enhancement at 4K60FPS, the Pixel 7 series also officially supports 10-bit HDR video recording based on the previous generation’s HDRnet algorithm.
Finally, Google Tensor G2 also brings additional enhancements to the Pixel 7 series beyond imaging capabilities, including Guided Frame for camera shots, extensive voice call assistance (such as faster visualization of voice button menu generation), support for natural language search emoji emojis during voice input, support for voice message conversion in the messaging app, and automatic speaker conversion for recorded content. text, automatic speaker tagging of recorded content, and more. As before, most of these features are not available for Simplified Chinese users.
The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro start at $599 and $899, respectively, the same price as their predecessors; the Pixel 7 is available in Citronella Green, Snowflake White and Obsidian Black, and the Pixel 7 Pro is available in Misty Gray, Snowflake White and Obsidian Black.