The two Android powerhouses, compared

The Google Pixel is in an interesting spot. It is technically the default Android phone because it is made by Google, but because Samsung has been making phones for so much longer, and has such a wider global reach, it is instead Galaxy phones that are considered the default Android phone in the eyes of many casual consumers. And so, every time a new Android flagship comes out, it has to be compared to the latest Samsung flagship. 

And that’s what we’re going to do here: compare the newly launched, excellent Pixel 7 Pro against still the “default” Android top dog, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. 

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Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Price and Availability

Both phones are on sale now. The Galaxy S22 Ultra is available in just about every country/market worldwide, while the Google Pixel 7 Pro is available in 17 countries — meaning the Pixel 7 Pro is unavailable in some markets, including very large ones like China.

In the U.S., the Pixel 7 Pro starts at $899 and the Galaxy S22 Ultra starts at $1,199, both are for the base 128GB storage variant. Pricing for all variants are:

• Google Pixel 7 Pro:
  • 12GB RAM, 128GB storage, $899
  • 12GB RAM, 256GB storage, $999
  • 12GB RAM, 512GB storage, $1,099
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra:
  • 12GB RAM, 12GB storage, $1,099
  • 12GB RAM, 256GB storage, $1,199
  • 12GB RAM, 512GB storage, $1,299

There are, however, often deals for both the Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S22 Ultra, so do check those out if you’re interested in either device.

Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Specifications

About this comparison: Samsung Hong Kong and Google provided me with review units of the Galaxy S22 Ultra and Pixel 7 Pro respectively. Neither Samsung nor Google had any input in this article.

Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Hardware and Design

In a sea of similar-looking phones, it’s great to be able to compare two devices that take opposing approaches to design. The Pixel 7 Pro is a curvy phone with rounded edges and corners, and a bulky camera module designed to stand out. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, meanwhile, is a boxy rectangle slab with no camera module or island — each individual lens just sits there on the phone’s back. 

Looks are subjective, so it’s up to you to decide which devices look better. Do keep in mind I got arguably the two most boring colors to review — both the Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S22 Ultra come in much livelier and flashier colors.

Objectively speaking, I can say the Pixel 7 Pro is the easier-to-hold phone because it’s lighter and has rounded edges. The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s hard corners do give the device “more” screen, and actively jabs into my palm.

Both devices are well built, with clicky buttons, excellent haptics, glass bodies protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, and IP68 water and dust resistance. Samsung advertises a form of stronger aluminum for its flagships named “Armor Aluminum,” while the Pixel 7 Pro just uses standard aluminum. Unless I drop both phones the same way on purpose (and nah, I’m not going to do that), it’s impossible for me to tell if Samsung’s aluminum is indeed stronger.

Displays

The Galaxy S22 Ultra screen is a bit larger at 6.8-inches to Pixel’s 6.7-inches, and those aforementioned boxy corners further add display real estate. While the Pixel 7 Pro’s display is going to look great to most people, technically speaking Samsung’s panel is superior. The S22 Ultra screen gets brighter (up to 1,800 nits peak brightness to the Pixel 7 Pro’s 1,500 nits); packs more pixels; and has a more versatile refresh rate that can get as low as 1Hz (the Pixel 7 Pro screen can only drop down to 10Hz). Other than the brightness difference, which is noticeable under harsh sunlight, the other display differences do not matter too much. Both screens look great.

Silicon

The Pixel 7 Pro runs on Google’s self-designed (but ironically made by Samsung) Tensor G2 chip, while the Galaxy S22 Ultra runs on either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or its own Exynos 2200 depending on the region. I have not tested the Exynos 2200, but my colleague Adam Conway has, and he found the Exynos 2200 to be a less-than-stellar chip.

For readers in the U.S., the chipset comparison will be closer, as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a capable silicon. Benchmark numbers are similar enough between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Tensor G — and to be honest, both chips run quite warm compared to the newer Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 or Apple’s A16 Bionic — but the Tensor G2 is designed to handle Google’s scary good machine learning algorithms, and this helps set the chip apart.

GeekBench scores on the Pixel 7 Pro (left) and S22 Ultra (right).

Battery and other hardware bits

Both phones pack a 5,000 mAh battery, but in my testing, the Pixel 7 Pro has better battery life, as it can comfortably go a full 13-15 hour day for me (finishing with double-digit battery percentage still) while the Galaxy S22 Ultra will give me some battery anxiety after hour 13 or so as the battery bar dips below 10%.

Charging can be done wired or wirelessly for both. The Galaxy S22 Ultra charges faster wired (45W) than the Pixel 7 Pro (30W), but the latter can top up wirelessly faster. Either way, these phones charge slowly compared to the OnePlus and Xiaomi phones I’ve been testing.

Each phone packs stereo speakers, but I find the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s acoustics to sound better — fuller and louder. Both phones pack in-display fingerprint scanners, but Samsung’s ultrasonic scanner from Qualcomm is faster and more discreet than the optical solution from Goodix which flashes a light through the screen to scan our digits.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra packs one final hardware bonus — the S-Pen. To be honest, I very rarely use the stylus, so I don’t consider this a major advantage for the S22 Ultra. But there are definitely those who swear by the S-Pen, and ultimately, it’s a freebie bonus, as Samsung doesn’t charge extra for the S-Pen, nor does it get in the way when not in use. I’ll talk about S-Pen functionality more in the software section.

Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Cameras

For years, Samsung and Google took opposing approaches to mobile photography. Google was all about computational photography, believing its software smarts were great enough to overcome outdated hardware (Google didn’t explicitly say this, but it used the same aging sensor for four generations of Pixels from Pixel 2 to 5). Samsung, meanwhile, had chased the latest hardware tech and gaudy numbers — more megapixels, larger sensors, and more lenses.

Both companies have scaled back the one-sided approach in the last couple of years and took a step in each other’s direction. Google upgraded the Pixel camera hardware with last year’s Pixel 6 series and even adopted the pixel-binning and Periscope camera technology that Samsung helped pioneer. Samsung, meanwhile, began marketing its computational photography more, and in fact, didn’t really change the camera hardware from Galaxy S21 Ultra to S22 Ultra.

This has resulted in excellent camera systems in each phone, but the original approaches from each brand are still entrenched in the photography experience. The Pixel 7 Pro’s excellent images are usually the result of clever software smarts, such as a camera that preemptively collects image information in low-light scenes to prepare for a night mode image. While Samsung’s most impressive camera features are still hardware driven, like the jaw-droppingly good zoom lens.

Main camera

Starting with the main camera: both main cameras have similar image sensor size (1/1.31-inch for the Pixel 7 Pro; 1/1.33-inch for the S22 Ultra), but the Pixel 7 Pro’s GN1 sensor is a 50MP shooter which uses four-in-one pixel binning to produce a 12.5MP shot, while the S22 Ultra’s 108MP lens uses 9-in-1 binning for a 12MP shot.

Looking at these photos in scaled-down sizes, they look very similar. Both Google and Samsung share similar color science philosophies, opting to dial up contrast slightly and giving images a cooler color temperature (as opposed to Apple’s overly warm colors).

If I zoom into the actual photo size and examine it, however, the Pixel’s images are consistently sharper and more detailed. This is more noticeable during the day.

HDR is on point for both cameras, with each phone able to correctly expose the view out the window while keeping the shadowed indoor areas still somewhat visible. Lesser smartphone cameras from even a couple of years ago would either blow out the window view or leave the indoor plants in complete darkness.

Ultra-wide

The ultra-wide battle is very close during the day, with Samsung’s shots producing slightly superior dynamic range during the day shot of the bookstore, but at night, the S22 Ultra’s ultra-wide image looks very soft on details. Ultra-wide hardware at this stage will usually suffer in low light conditions due to the much smaller image sensors, but the Pixel’s night mode was able to somewhat keep the shot looking respectable.

Zoom

The Pixel 7 Pro has a single zoom lens that offers 5x optical zoom, while Samsung packs two zoom lenses for optical 3x and 10x zoom. But Google uses software smarts to produce a 10x zoom that is close enough to optical too. Essentially, the Pixel 7 Pro will take advantage of its pixel-dense 48MP Periscope zoom lens and crop into the middle portion to produce a 12MP 10x zoom shot. Google will also apply its computational photography algorithms to further clean up the shot. It works quite well, but ultimately, there’s no beating having an optical Periscope lens, as Samsung’s 10x zoom is a tad more detailed. If we go further to 20x zoom and beyond, the S22 Ultra’s lead widens.

Portrait shots

The S22 Ultra having an extra zoom lens also comes into play for portraits. Samsung’s phone can snap portraits with either the main camera or the 3x telephoto lens, the latter is an ideal focal length for portraits. The Pixel 7 Pro’s zoom lens, at 5x, is far too long a zoom for portraits, so the phone snaps portraits with the main camera and does a digital crop. This gives the S22 Ultra’s portrait mode more versatility.

While edge detection are both great, I think the S22 Ultra’s portraits brighten up the face a bit too much. At least for my East Asian friends’ skin tones, I think the Pixel 7 Pro does a better job.

Selfies

Selfies are fine from either phone. Generally, I prefer the Pixel’s more natural approach than Samsung’s, which tends to smooth out my skin a bit too much. The S22 Ultra’s selfie camera has a wider field of view for those who want to fit more into the frame.

Video performance is about equal for both phones too. The Galaxy S22 Ultra can shoot up to 8k resolution while the Pixel 7 Pro maxes out at 4k, but the latter is the more ideal resolution anyway. Stabilization and dynamic range are very even in the 4k/30 footage below.

Google Pixel  7 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Software and Performance

A big reason some consumers choose the Pixel over other Android phones is because, as the Google phone, it gets day-one updates, while other Android phone makers take weeks if not months before pushing out updates. Right now, the Pixel 7 Pro is running on Android 13 while the Galaxy S22 Ultra is still on Android 12. This means the S22 Ultra is missing some new Android 13 features like requiring newly installed apps to ask for permission before sending notifications or assigning specific languages to certain apps.

Samsung DeX

However, Samsung’s OneUI brings plenty of noteworthy software features that Google’s plain Android doesn’t offer. For example, OneUI has a more robust and versatile multi-tasking system, as the phone can open apps not just in a split-screen view, but also in resizable floating windows. Samsung also offers DeX for its flagship devices, which outputs a desktop-like UI to an external monitor.

The Pixel has its share of exclusive software features too, such as “Now Playing,” which actively identifies songs playing near the phone, or “Direct My Call,” which allows a user to navigate a business’s phone menu visually on the Pixel screen.

The S22 Ultra has additional software features for the S-Pen stylus, including allowing the S-Pen to be used as a Bluetooth remote for the camera, and translating text by hovering the stylus over foreign words.

General performance

As mentioned earlier, both phones’ silicon are capable and the devices zip around speedily without issues. As a phone for fun, I prefer the Pixel 7 Pro because of its more comfortable in-hand feel and smoother UI, but the S22 Ultra is a more practical work device, with more multi-tasking options, including Samsung DeX.

The gaming or media consumption experience on both phones is fine, though the S22 Ultra’s superior speakers, a brighter display that has a bit more real estate.

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

If you’re keeping score, I think the Pixel 7 Pro has a more comfortable in-hand feel, but the Galaxy S22 Ultra has a slightly better screen. The Pixel 7 Pro and S22 Ultra’s main cameras are very close, but Google’s phone has a better ultra-wide while the S22 Ultra has a better zoom. The Pixel 7 Pro software is more visually appealing and has some intelligent features, but the S22 Ultra’s software is more versatile and allows me to do more.

It’s a very close call, but because there’s a $200 price difference, that means the Pixel 7 Pro is the more appealing device — provided the Pixel is on sale where you are. Samsung’s far wider reach and retail presence can’t be denied, but if you live somewhere in which you can get the Pixel, it’s a better value than the S22 Ultra. Unless you really need the S-Pen.