The Google Pixel 7 vs. the Samsung Galaxy S22 pits the two best Android phones against each other to find out which flagship is the better deal. Like many face-offs between the best phones, this battle is largely down to camera performance and what kind of performance you’re looking for in a smartphone.
The Pixel 7 has a tough competition with the Galaxy S22. The Galaxy S22 has some photo features of its own as well as a dedicated telephoto lens that the Pixel 7 doesn’t offer. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 system-on-chip delivers the performance expected from leading Android smartphones. Here’s our Google Pixel 7 versus the Samsung Galaxy S22.
Google Pixel 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S22: Price and availability
One of the big selling points of the Pixel 7 is that it offers flagship features at a lower price than competing devices. The Pixel 7 starts at $599/£599/AU$999 for the 128GB model; bumping up the storage to 256GB raises the price to $699. That’s still less than what Samsung is charging for the Galaxy S22 – which starts at $799 / £769 / AU$1,249 for the 128GB version of the phone. You can upgrade to the 256GB S22 for an additional $50.
As you might expect, it offers the Pixel 7, but Google Fi also comes with a Galaxy S22 version optimized to run on its network. In other words, anywhere you can find one device, you’re likely to find another.
Google Pixel 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S22: Design
For the Pixel 7, Google is sticking with the unique look introduced with the Pixel 6, with a landscape camera bar that spans the width of the device. This time, though, the camera strip looks sleeker because it’s made of aluminum with a matte finish. The Pixel 7 uses a solid color—black, white, or the subtle lime green sold as lemongrass.
In contrast, Samsung has stacked the rear cameras vertically in the top left corner of the S22’s back. The camera array stands out, but blends seamlessly into the side of the phone. Samsung offers more color options – in addition to black and white, the phone is also available in green, pink gold, and purple.
Since the Pixel 7 has a larger 6.3-inch display than the 6.1-inch Galaxy S22, Google’s phone is taller and wider. The rear camera bar also makes it more prominent, though the Pixel 7 is less likely to wobble when you put each phone on its back.
Google Pixel 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S22: Display
One of the goals of the Pixel 7 update, Google says, is to increase the brightness of the phone’s screen. It has a peak brightness of 926 nits. That’s bright enough to be viewed outside, though you may need to crank up the Pixel 7’s display brightness for better visibility.
When we turned on HDR for the S22’s 6.1-inch OLED panel, though, our light meter recorded 1,152 nits.
The Pixel 7 does have a size advantage, though, clocking in at 6.3 inches compared to the Galaxy S22’s 6.1 inches. So with Google’s phone, the viewing experience is more immersive.
Otherwise, the displays are evenly matched, capturing nearly equal percentages of the sRGB and DCI-P3 color spectrum. The Galaxy S22 reproduced these colors more accurately, with a Delta-E rating of 0.22 in natural mode, compared with 0.28 for the Pixel 7.
A key difference between the two phones is the refresh rate. While the Pixel 7 was able to tweak its refresh rate to 90Hz, the Galaxy S22 does it better, as on-screen activity would benefit from smoother scrolling or more immersive graphics.
Google Pixel 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S22: Performance
While the Pixel 7’s performance isn’t inferior, Google didn’t look for speed demons when designing the Tensor G2 chipset. As before, it supports Pixel-exclusive machine learning capabilities—features we’ll discuss in the software section below.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that powers the Galaxy S22 takes a different approach, with both the CPU and GPU getting attention. So it’s no surprise that the Galaxy S22 tops the benchmark comparisons. The Galaxy S22 has higher single- and multi-core scores than the Pixel 7 in Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance. The S22 also beat the Pixel 7’s 40 fps average at 60 frames per second on the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited graphics performance test.
Google Pixel 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S22: Battery life and charging
The Galaxy S22 uses a 3,700 mAh power pack, while the Pixel 7 opts for a 4,355 mAh battery. Neither phone can earn a spot on our best phone battery life list.
In testing, the Galaxy S22 lasted 7 hours and 51 minutes, about 2 hours behind the average smartphone result. Still, that’s half an hour better than the Pixel 7’s 7:21 result.
Neither phone comes with a charger, but the Pixel 7 can support faster 30W wired charging with a compatible charger. The Galaxy S22 is capped at 25W, as it misses out on the faster 45W charging speeds enjoyed by other Galaxy S22 models.
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