Ryan Haines / Android Authority

Google yet unveiled its latest flagship smartphones aft months of leaks and teasers, chiefly by Google itself. The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro are iterative updates this time, but that’s not atrocious for a institution that’s been rather inconsistent with its devices. You get the expected upgrades to the processing bundle and cardinal improvements crossed the board, with the Pixel 7 Pro lasting retired arsenic the telephone to get if you privation it all.

The Pixel enactment is 1 of the year’s past releases, truthful if you’ve been waiting to bargain a telephone successful 2022, now’s a large clip to marque that decision. That means comparisons! The Pixel 7 Pro joins a competitory Android flagship space, with the Galaxy S22 Ultra 1 of the champion you tin get. How bash the latest and top from Samsung and Google stack against each other? Here’s a person look astatine the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra vs Google Pixel 7 Pro.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra vs Google Pixel 7 Pro

Design and display

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Refinement is the sanction of the crippled with the Pixel 7 Pro. It does capable to marque it distinguishable from its predecessor, with the caller metallic barroom with camera cutouts taking the spot of the achromatic camera visor of the Pixel 6 Pro. I liked the look of the second since it hid the cameras, but the metallic barroom of the 7 Pro makes it little flashy and much refined. Even though the barroom splits the backmost of the phone, Google decided to forego two-tone colors with the 7 Pro.

The Pixel 7 Pro looks and feels similar a flagship, with the metallic frame, Gorilla Glass Victus connected the beforehand and back, and a decent heft. And it looks much refined with the metallic bar. But without two-tone colors, the modular colorways — achromatic and achromatic — thin towards boring, with lone the Hazel enactment lasting out.

Turn to the front, and it’s much of the same, but fewer tin admit an Android telephone by looking astatine the beforehand anyway. The 6.7-inch Quad HD+ show gets immoderate upgrades, though. It’s 25% brighter than the Pixel 6 Pro and has a adaptable refresh complaint of 10Hz to 120Hz. It’s a bright, beauteous AMOLED screen, and we wouldn’t expect thing little from a 2022 flagship.

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On the different hand, we person the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Unlike its smaller siblings, the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus, the Ultra doesn’t support the plan from its predecessor. Instead, it goes backmost further, reminiscent of the discontinued Galaxy Note with its rectangular plan and curved sides. There are nary contour cuts oregon bars here, with the aggregate cameras dotting the apical near country connected an different plain back. Adding to its Note-like look is the built-in slot for the S Pen. Yes, the Ultra is the Note replacement radical person been hoping for a while, being a portion of the Galaxy S-series successful sanction only.

Like astir Samsung phones, the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s show doesn’t neglect to impress. The Quad HD+ Super AMOLED surface stands retired with its bright, vibrant colors, and the 120Hz adaptive refresh complaint makes everything accelerated and smooth.

The Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S22 Ultra are big, unwieldy phones that don’t connection the champion handling experience. The Samsung instrumentality is simply a interaction bigger courtesy of its somewhat larger display, but there’s nary noticeable quality successful size. You’re retired of luck if you were hoping for a smaller flagship, though. While the Pixel 7, the Galaxy S22, and S22 Plus are smaller, you’re besides compromising connected cardinal specs similar the camera, RAM, storage, artillery capacity, and more.

Hardware and cameras

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Google continues wherever it near disconnected with the Tensor program, with the caller Tensor G2 powering the Pixel 7 Pro. It offers little powerfulness depletion with mundane tasks similar video streaming, messaging, code recognition, and more. Google claims it’s 60% faster than its predecessor, but that’s apt not capable to instrumentality connected the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-toting Galaxy S22 Ultra successful presumption of axenic speed. Of course, some are flagship processors, truthful some phones tin easy grip thing you propulsion astatine them.

Helping the show is the 12GB of RAM you get with the Pixel 7 Pro. The Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with 8GB oregon 12GB RAM variants. Samsung besides offers much storage, starting astatine 128GB and going to 1TB. Meanwhile, the Pixel 7 Pro has 128GB oregon 256GB of storage.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the much almighty of the 2 devices.

The ample size of the 2 phones allows Samsung and Google to battalion ample 5,000mAh batteries into them. You get coagulated artillery beingness with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, with our reappraisal showing up to 6.5 hours of surface clip with a small much than a afloat time of use. We’ll person to trial the 7 Pro earlier making immoderate last decisions, but the low-power features of the Tensor G2 should assistance marque the telephone past beyond the awesome artillery beingness we saw with its predecessor. With the caller Extreme Battery Saver mode, Google says the Pixel 7 Pro tin past up to 72 hours.

Both phones travel with wireless charging and accelerated charging. But the Galaxy S22 Ultra gets the limb up present with 45W accelerated charging, portion Google’s 23W charging should springiness you 50% successful 30 minutes. Neither features the overmuch faster charging we’ve seen from Chinese OEMs, which should assistance with longevity.

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

Looking astatine the cameras, some phones instrumentality with the tried and tested, but with improvements that marque them adjacent better. The Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a 108MP superior camera, a 12MP ultra-wide unit, a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, and a 10MP periscope lens with 10x optical zoom. A 40MP front-facing camera makes for beauteous selfies and crisp video calls.

Meanwhile, the Pixel 7 Pro retains the cameras from its predecessor, with a 50MP superior shooter, a 12MP ultra-wide lens, and a 48MP telephoto lens with 4.8x optical zoom. Up beforehand is simply a 10.8MP portion to screen your selfie and Face Unlock needs.

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

The 2 phones person precise antithetic camera packages and takes connected representation processing. The Galaxy S22 Ultra has the Pixel 7 Pro bushed successful presumption of axenic numbers. However, Google relies connected AI representation processing to propulsion its photography capabilities to the adjacent level. There’s a crushed wherefore adjacent Google’s 12MP cameras from erstwhile Pixels were considered among the champion portion taking connected phones with overmuch higher megapixel counts. And now, with the numbers catching up to the software, things are adjacent better.

We see the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra the best telephone camera you tin get. We’ll person to hold for our reappraisal portion to marque a last decision, but we tin surely expect the Pixel 7 Pro to springiness it a tally for its wealth and mightiness adjacent displace it from the apical of the hill.

Price and colors

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra starts astatine $1,199, with 4 RAM and retention variants pushing the terms up to $1,599 for the top-of-the-line enactment with 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Google keeps the starting terms of the Pixel 7 Pro arsenic its predecessor, starting astatine $899 for 128GB of storage. You’ll request to ammunition retired an other $100 to treble the storage. 12GB of RAM is the lone enactment with the Pixel device.

The information that the Pixel 7 Pro is $300 cheaper than the equivalent variant (12GB/256GB) of the S22 Ultra is simply a monolithic vantage for the Google telephone and showcases Google’s committedness to the assertive pricing we’ve seen from the institution precocious with the Pixel 6 bid and the Pixel 6a.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra is disposable successful Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green, and Burgundy. You’ll besides get exclusives similar Graphite, Sky Blue, and the flashy Red colorway saved for purchases straight from Samsung. Meanwhile, Google plays it harmless with the Pixel 7 Pro with lone 3 colorways available. Options see Snow (white), Obsidian (black), and Hazel.

Google Pixel 7 Pro

Best Google camera • High-quality show • Big battery

The Pixel 7 Pro is the top-of-the-line telephone connected Google's roster.

The Google Pixel 7 Pro takes the champion features from the Pixel 6 Pro, and makes them adjacent better. Enjoy galore camera upgrades and immoderate amusive caller bundle tricks, each for the aforesaid outgo arsenic the last-gen Pixel phone.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

Ultra-premium physique prime • Gorgeous surface • Solid performance

Samsung has merged the Note and S bid into 1 device

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra pushes productivity, power, and photography to the utmost to fulfill those seeking a premium experience. It combines outstanding performance, a stunning design, and an S Pen successful 1 device.

Specs

Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Which should you buy?

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

We travel to the all-important question: Which should you buy? The Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Pixel 7 Pro are among the champion successful the Android world, but the 2 phones couldn’t beryllium much different. And that makes answering the question a full batch easier.

You’ll get beautiful, high-resolution, and accelerated refresh displays with both. The 2 besides person an IP68 standing for extortion from the elements, wireless charging, and ample batteries. But that’s wherever the commonalities end.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra volition beryllium the go-to for powerfulness users. While we person to trial the show of the Pixel 7 Pro, the Galaxy telephone volition apt person the borderline successful presumption of axenic speed. Granted, you won’t spot a noticeable quality successful the day-to-day. But getting a much almighty instrumentality is indispensable if you privation to clasp connected to it for a agelong time. The S22 Ultra besides offers much retention options, comes with an S Pen, and packs much features into its One UI software.

In a somewhat astonishing twist, you’ll get a amended bundle committedness with Samsung. The Galaxy S22 Ultra volition get the pursuing 4 Android versions and up to 5 years of information updates. The Pixel 7 Pro has the nonstop duration of information updates but 3 years of Android bundle updates. There’s the question of whether Android requires large yearly updates anymore, but it’s inactive bully to spot Samsung mounting the barroom successful a satellite wherever Apple supports phones that are 5 oregon much years old.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra mightiness beryllium the amended phone, but the Pixel 7 Pro's terms tips the scales successful its favor.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra beats the Pixel 7 Pro connected the spec expanse arsenic acold arsenic the camera setup goes. Of course, megapixel counts and the fig of cameras are meaningless if they don’t perform. The S22 Ultra does execute incredibly well, though. The Pixel 7 Pro won’t beryllium behind, relying connected AI smarts to compensate for immoderate perceived hardware shortcomings.

There’s besides the question of ecosystems. Samsung has an established ecosystem with years to refine its smartwatch series and wireless earphones, and everything works unneurotic similar a well-oiled machine. While Google is precocious to the party, it’s yet going the aforesaid way with the Pixel Watch and the Pixel Buds Pro. These are breathtaking first-party additions that radical person been clamoring for. But it mightiness beryllium a portion earlier they get to the level that Samsung has already set.

For astir buyers, the determination often comes down to price. And that’s wherever Google has Samsung bushed by a mile. A $300 quality is immense erstwhile you’re looking to bargain a flagship. Which yet makes the Pixel 7 Pro the amended buy. The Galaxy S22 Ultra is the champion prime for powerfulness users and anyone who misses the Note series. For everyone else, the Pixel 7 Pro is much than up to the challenge. And you get to prevention immoderate cash.