There’s equal tension on who wins between Apple and Google similar to Marvel vs DC. Apple has consistently been one of the premium smartphone makers with a superb lineup and flamboyant performance whereas Google has matured enough to take on its flagship rivals like a pro over the years.
Google Pixel 7 dropped just some time ago and iPhone 13 is a year old but which one is worth buying? Let’s do some digging to find out which is the one you should consider buying. Of course, we tested both devices and won’t be biased glorifying a boo-boo made by either of them if any.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Pricing
If you are price sensitive, be assured that both devices fall in the same ballpark when it comes to pricing. The latest Google Pixel 7 with 8GB+128GB is available at INR 59,999/- at the time of writing this. Apparently, Google decided it’s best to keep a single variant, I don’t know why, but that’s there. On the other hand, there’s the iPhone 13 available at INR 64,900/- on the Apple India website.
It isn’t the final pricing since depending upon what offers you get and the exchange program, the pricing can differ widely but the above-mentioned were the base pricing at the time of writing this.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Design
Apple has always been a master when it comes to the design aspect. Although it is sometimes complicated to tell apart a few models, design is Apple’s strongest suit after performance and camera. Google doesn’t shy away from swaying its design as well and especially when the latest series received a design revamp.
Talking about iPhone 13, Apple hasn’t changed the design much when compared to the iPhone 12. The rear camera setup still has dual sensors although placed diagonally which shows the difference. iPhone 13 uses a flat aluminum frame just like the predecessor which is good since it enables users to hold the phone without dropping it. Moreover, the phone has an IP68 rating protecting it from water and dust damage for a long time.
The phone is a tad bit thicker making it difficult to snag an iPhone 12’s case with the phone so yeah, you will have to buy a new phone. On the front, you do get a smaller notch revealing more of the screen real estate so that’s a good thing if not great. There’s a power button, volume rockers on the left, a long key on the right; a lighting port, a speaker grille, and a mic at the bottom among others since it hasn’t been changed compared to the iPhone 12.
When it comes to the Google Pixel 7, you’ll still take some time to gauge the difference between the Pixel 6 and 7 since there’s a little less variation.
The flagship Android-powered smartphone has an aluminum band raised above the back panel housing the dual camera setup. The display is of course huge albeit with chunkier bezels compared to its Pro variant. The phone has an aluminum frame with a zirconia-blasted matte finish that looks good though.
Weight-wise, the phone feels like a dense piece of equipment, unlike Pixel 7 Pro where the weight is evenly spread. It will surely give iPhone 13 an advantage since it is compact and the weight is perfectly distributed making it obvious that using the phone for a long time won’t hurt your wrist.
There’s iP68 dust and water resistance onboard that ensures no matter what weather you use it in, the phone won’t budge which makes a lot of sense since you are investing a fortune buying it.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Display
About the specifications, Google Pixel 7 sports a 6.3” AMOLED 90Hz panel with 1080×2400 pixels resolution, AOD, HDR10+ support, and the capability to rock 1,400 nits of peak brightness on the panel. On the flip side, there’s the iPhone 13 with a 6.1” Super Retina XDR OLED HDR10 Dolby Vision panel with 1170×2532 pixels resolution, 460ppi density, and 1200 nits of peak brightness.
Speaking about Apple’s offering first, iPhone 13 is well-designed and there’s no doubt about it. Apart from that, the display is huge thanks to a reduced notch on top and equally sized bezels around the edges. The display has a 460ppi density which is perhaps more than that of Pixel 7 which is why the former looks crispier and brighter while the latter looks comparatively dull.
The Pixel 7, on the other hand, has a humongous display with a tiny punch-hole at the center. It has been improved in terms of brightness at the peak of 1,400 nits which is any day more than that of the iPhone 13. It is easy to view under direct sunlight but that goes for iPhone 13 as well.
However, you will find the iPhone 13 locked with a standard 60Hz refresh rate while the Pixel 7 has a 50% higher refresh rate at 90Hz. Although you won’t see much difference just like that but take a closer look and you will find 90Hz to have a better output than 60Hz.
iPhone 13’s display lits up at 1200 nits of peak brightness whereas it can dip as low as 1.7 nits. Apparently, I found out that the display offers accurate colors at all brightness levels which simply blew my mind. It goes without saying, iPhone 13 is a clear winner here, however, don’t assume that the Pixel 7’s display is not worth it because it is still the best in the Android sector.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Processor and Performance
Before diving into the performances, let’s go through the numbers first. Google Pixel 7 propels on its Samsung-made Google Tensor G2 SoC fabbed on a 5nm node with a tri-cluster architecture maxing at 2.85GHz frequency. There’s Mali-G710 MC10 GPUS, 8GB RAM, and up to 256GB UFS 3.1 storage.
The iPhone 13 get’s Apple A15 Bionic chipset fabbed on a 5nm node with an hexa-core structured with a max 3.23GHz frequency. There’s 4-core Apple GPU, 4GB RAM, and up to 512GB NVMe storage. Now that you are aware of the specifications, let’s go through how it performs in real-world conditions.
Well, do I have to say it out loud? iPhone 13 is a clear winner when it comes to performance. Of course, Tensor G2 has AI prowess but A15 Bionic overturns the former with its performance prowess which isn’t up for dispute.
Apple A15 Bionic chipset is 15% faster than its predecessor. For context, it has faster compared to any chipset from Qualcomm or Snapdragon even in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 level even though the gap between the two is minimized but the latter has failed to outrun it.
I could play almost every game be it PUBG or Fortnite and others on my iPhone 13 without noticing any lag whatsoever. You can play these AAA games for as long as the battery dies up noticing a ting bit of degradation in the performance whereas Tensor G2 will reveal a much broader fluctuation in performance if you try something similar.
The iPhone 13 has 4GB of RAM which is half of what the Pixel 7 offers for sure. However, the way Apple manages its apps and processes is well-designed and orchestrated which means it doesn’t have to deal with much crap amidst lower RAM storage.
On the other hand, Android smartphones irrespective if it’s a Pixel 7 or Samsung Galaxy S22, will suffer from RAM issues at some point in time for sure. Moreover, you must know that Pixel 7 isn’t a high-performance device but rather a smart device with top-notch AI capability. It is the reason why it fails to overturn iPhone 13’s performance at every nook and corner.
We did GeekBench testing on both devices which shows a great difference between the two. iPhone 13 scores 1,727 and 4,645 points on single-core and multi-core tests which is way better than that of iPhone 12. The Google Pixel 7 was able to pull off 1,024 and 3,348 points on the same tests on Geekbench which goes around to show the gap in performance without any doubt.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Software
On the software side, we have Android 13 pre-installed on Pixel 7 whereas iPhone 13 got its hands on 15 with the latest update yanking it up to iOS 16. Well, there’s a classic case of Android vs iOS given the fact that the Pixel series uses stock Android versions and iOS is amongst the best and most optimized operating systems out there.
Talking about the two, iPhone 13 can deliver a consistent iOS experience with absolutely zero scopes for lags. Apple keeps a tab on the performance of its iPhones and rolls out updates now and then to fix minor and major bugs. iPhone 13 will get updates for years even though the Pixel 7 series has been promised three major Android OS upgrades and four years of security patches.
There are a few unique features of Android 13 including special call-handling functions, live caption, and transcription and not to forget that Android OS is still highly customized. Root it and you unlock countless possibilities even if you are a newbie while jailbreaking an iPhone would take some time and effort.
iOS is highly optimised for iPhones which means it can handle anything and everything you throw at it with ease. On the contrary, Android 13 onboard Pixel 7 does suffer episodes of the app crashing although on a rarity but it’s there. If software updates are something you are looking for, Pixel 7 should be the choice when compared to other Android phones. However, it flips when compared with iPhones since these are already getting updates for five years and that’s two years more than what Google promises on Pixel 7.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Camera
We will eventually have to talk about the cameras, right? The Pixel 7 gets a dual rear camera setup housing a 50MP PIS multi-directional PDAF with Laser AF and a 12MP ultrawide snapper. The front has a 10.8MP snapper. Next, we have iPhone 13 which shines away with a dual 12MP primary sensor-shift OIS with a 12MP ultrawide snapper wrapped on the back while the front has a 12MP shooter with SL 3D for depth sensing.
In this epic face-off, both Apple and Google have their strong points when it comes to the camera setup. Since the former has always been on top in terms of cameras and the latter improving with every iteration, it kind of feels like there’s a tie since one can handle a scene properly while the other can do other scenes.
For instance, night mode on Pixel is epic as it captures the best shots by blowing up artificial light using AI and the results are simply amazing. However, it even bumps up the darkest part of the photo filled with artificial light which feels ‘artificial’. On the flip side, Apple handles it properly without aggressively pushing in more light in the frame but rather opting to minimalize the usage of artificial fillers.
Apart from that, iPhone 13 is among the best cameras when shooting videos. Al you get are 4K shots at 60 frames with OIS and more. Pixel 7 does it too although iPhone 13 does it better. Next up, iPhone 13 is comparatively faster when taking grabs while Pixel 7 lags a tad bit.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Battery
Specs-wise, you get a 3,240mAh battery onboard iPhone 13 paired alongside 23W unofficial max fast charging, USB Power Delivery 2.0, MagSafe at 15W wireless, and 7.5W Qi wireless charging tech. On the other hand, the Google Pixel 7 offers 30W fast charging, 20W wireless charging, reverse wireless charging, and support for USB Power Delivery 3.0.
Apple is a clear winner in this case as instead of taking a few mAh off the battery like Pixel 7, Apple added it on the iPhone 13 when compared to the predecessor. This translates into higher SoT, more hours of video playback and music, and much more.
Pixel 7 does have a large battery, however, with no improvement over the battery with a ting bit of efficiency brought by G2 SoC, the phone performs average and nothing out of the ordinary. There’s 30W fast charging tech but we were able to get 23W charging only and the phone takes considerably two hours to juice up.
Apple iPhone 13, on the other hand, has shown at least a 15% improvement in performance be it better playback duration or support for extended hours. Apple hasn’t changed the charging mechanism so you’ll still get 23W unofficial charging speeds on wired and 15W on MagSafe that will take you from zero to 100% in 1:46 hours and 2:19 hours respectively. I would still say the iPhone 13 has won this round for sure.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Other Features
If you ask me about all the other specifications that both the phones have, I’ll say Pixel 7 has more to offer but is necessarily not the best in all aspects. It gives you access to Wi-Fi 6e tri-band, Bluetooth v5.2 (w/ aptX HD, LE, A2DP), dual-band GPS (A-GPS, BDS, QZSS, GALILEO, and GLONASS), NFC, USB Type-C 3.2, a stereo speaker setup, a UD fingerprint plus face unlock, barometer, single Nano-SIM/e-SIM 5G support among others.
On the other hand, iPhone 13 offers dual-band Wi-Fi 6, NFC, lightning USB 2.0, stereo speaker setup, GPS (without dual-band support), and has both single SIM and Dual SIM 5G support depending upon where you are buying it. Apple has UWB support that lets it connect with devices like Apple AirTag helping you find lost items and more with relative ease.
Apple has been tagged with practices of using the lightning port for ages whereas the world has moved to USB-C ports. Although there are attempts to universalize Apple’s approach, the iPhone 13 sticks to lightning so you will have to stick to it too if you are buying it. Apart from that, having higher bands of support for GPS ensures you have better reception and triangulation of your location which is something Pixel does best.
Pixel 6 was tagged with a slow fingerprint scanner but it has been improved on Pixel 7. The tech giant even added a full-fledged face unlock on Pixel 7 for faster unlock. However, we both know that Apple’s facial recognition is the best, however, Apple hasn’t added a fingerprint scanner so you are stuck with face unlock only.
Both the models here have a stereo speaker setup, however, iPhone 13 does get an edge as the audio quality is finer than Pixel 7. The latter can get louder but that’s about it, the former has a better speaker setup so that’s the thing.
Google Pixel 7 vs Apple iPhone 13: Verdict
What’s at the end of a review? A verdict perhaps and viola, it’s here.
Google Pixel 7 outperforms its predecessors, however, Google should’ve gone for a flagship processor since it will compete against the likes of Apple A15/A16 Bionic chipset, Snapdragon 8Gen1, 8+Gen1, and 8Gen2 among others. iPhone 13 stands true to its status with the best performance, the best display, interestingly better battery life (again, I didn’t say higher but better because Pixel 7 has a higher battery life), and an amazing camera setup. If you recall, both the phones actually met a tie in camera performance and there’s no doubt about it.
So, the question is, which one should you buy? Well, the answer is subjective. First, you will ask if you want to switch from the Android to the iOS ecosystem because each one is broad and unique. Apart from that, getting an iPhone repaired is amongst the most expensive in smartphones although you do retain most of its value once you decide to trade it. The Pixel 7 is on top of the Android smartphones (along with the S22 series) with years of upgrades which means you can use it for half a decade before switching the phone per your choice. It’s you who finally have to choose a side.
