Pixel 7 vs iPhone 14 : Which flagship to buy for Holiday Sale 2022?

iPhone 14 or Pixel 7 the better buy for holiday sale (image by Google and Apple)
iPhone 14 or Pixel 7 the better buy for holiday sale (image by Google and Apple)

Holiday Sale festive discounts are upon us and quite a few flagship phones are available for holiday shoppers to buy. In the ever-saturating and inflating smartphone market, more and more people are thinking twice before the annual upgrades of their flagship mobiles. This is partly due to the fact that these products are seeing extremely incremental updates in features and performance.

This is why most OEMs are trying to attract customers with value offerings whose prices haven’t climbed to a thousand dollars. Holiday Sale is the perfect opportunity for both buyers and sellers.

The two phones that will last you easily for a good couple of years, while not being ridiculously expensive, are the Pixel 7 and iPhone 14. These two smartphones offer a flagship experience at a relatively affordable price, while also offering good support and longevity for three to five years.

So, which of these two affordable flagships should one prioritize for the Holiday Sale? Thankfully, at least this time, the devil isn’t in the details and it all boils down to individual preferences. Let’s see why.


Pixel 7 or iPhone 14 for the Holiday Sale?

Both of these offer peak software experience in their respective ecosystems

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Apple provides software support like no other OEM. Updates and patches are delivered on day one to every single compatible device. It is a testimony to their support commitment that even the iPhone 6S Plus, which launched with iOS 9, got iOS 15 six years later down the line. Similarly, it is logical to assume that the iPhone 14 could receive at least five years of updates from Apple, if not more.

It is praise-worthy that an Apple purchase today could last you till the Holiday Sale of 2027. With iOS 16, the company has also added a lot of long overdue features like lock screen customization, an always-on display, and a focus mode to ensure you are not disturbed by unneeded notifications.

There is also a seamless integration of iPhones with other Apple devices. For example, a call on your iPhone can be easily received on your MacBook or iPad. Taking out your phone is not necessary.

Despite its intuitiveness, iOS still lacks a centralized file manager, a reliable notification management system, and USB-C support for charging. If you can look past these, the iPhone could be a great upgrade this Holiday Sale.

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Similar to Apple, Google has opted to keep it clean, simple, and minimal. The proverbial stock Android experience has seen its popularity rise since the Nexus line of phones because a lot of users were tired of bloatware and advertisement-riddled UI.

The modern Pixel UI is extremely smart with AI-based features like call screening integration and feels as smooth and fluid to use as an iOS device. For Android purists, the device does look like an attractive buy for the Holiday Sale.

Google has also opted to tailor-make its processors so that the hardware and the software can be better optimized together. Unsurprisingly, this optimization shows well on their Pixel devices and its UI feels responsive and smooth in day-to-day operations. With Pixel 7, you are also guaranteed to receive at least three years of OS updates and five years of security updates.

However, it is not all great even on the Pixel. Users desiring a seamless ecosystem for their device would be disappointed to know that what Apple has completed building is but a mere start on Google’s end. It will take a few years for Google to achieve seamless consistency in the ecosystem that Apple has dominated for years.

If a well-rounded, easy-to-use device, which can be seamlessly integrated into its ecosystem, is a requirement, the iPhone will serve one well as it makes a compelling case for this Holiday Sale.

For people who prefer more flexibility, more features in the UI, a smarter assistant, and excellent PC compatibility, the Pixel 7 is the obvious choice for Holiday Sale over the iPhone 14.


The iPhone 14 has a faster hardware setup while Pixel 7 is smarter

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Apple opted to go for last year’s A15 bionic in their latest flagship, and still managed to be the fastest smartphone chip in the industry. This speaks volumes about Apple silicon. If you are a heavy user who constantly engages in photo editing, video editing, taking long 4K videos, and needs maximum frames in the game, the iPhone 14 is the obvious choice.

The A15 bionic is more than capable of beating every single task with ease and still has the power to spare. Google too has opted for its homegrown silicon, the Tensor G2, which may not break benchmarking records, but is by far the smartest processor ever in a flagship.

With the power of machine learning and AI, the Tensor enables Pixel 7 to have incredible voice typing accuracy and call screening features.

Pixel 7 is capable of better post-processing in photos as well. The Tensor chip gives Google an edge in assistant capabilities as well. Google Assistant is indeed the smarter of the two.

Siri on the iPhone 14 feels limited compared to Google's assistant on Pixel 7, which favors the Pixel for the Holiday Sale.

In general, both the iPhone 14 and Pixel 7 have OLED displays that are bright and clear, but the latter offers more brightness. The two phones also offer IP 68 dust and water resistance. Unfortunately, the former only offers a 60 Hz refresh rate, while the Google phone has a 90 Hz screen. There are more storage options on the iPhone with 512 GB of internal storage available.


You can’t go wrong with either camera but the iPhone is better all around

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Pixel 7’s cameras are undoubtedly great at taking pictures, but not in all kinds of lighting conditions. Similarly, the iPhone 14 wins some categories in photography and loses some, but the reason why it is the superior go-to system is thanks to its videography skills.

Compared to Pixel 7, the iPhone 14 takes better daylight shots where the colors seem more natural and vibrant, while the former has a slight blue tint. Conversely, the night shots and low light shots look better and more detailed with higher sharpness on the Google phone.

When it comes to videos, the iPhone is still the king in terms of detail, color, and sharpness. Both of these phones are capable of recording at 4K resolution with a maximum frame rate of 60 FPS. By no means does this mean that Pixel has poor videography skills, but that the iPhone is simply a more reliable choice to get for the Holiday Sale.


Battery life is better on the iPhone 14 but the Pixel 7 is not far behind

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Apple has done an excellent job of optimizing its phones. Thanks to that, the battery life is magnificent. Pixel 7 has gained significantly from last year’s Pixel 6 series in terms of endurance. Both of these phones can easily last an entire average day of usage.

For Holiday Sale, if the requirement is maximum possible battery endurance, you can easily rely on the iPhone 14 to last you a day or more. Shoppers inclined towards the Android OS would be happy to know that Pixel's adaptive battery feature may improve the battery life of the phone as the device understands the usage patterns.

iPhone 14 advantages over Pixel 7

  • Longer software support
  • Better videography capabilities
  • Longer battery endurance
  • A more powerful processor
  • Sharper screen

Pixel 7 advantages over iPhone 14

  • Smarter phone overall
  • AI and machine learning features are not a gimmick
  • Smoother display with 90 Hz
  • Far cheaper
  • A better and more advanced voice assistant

Conclusion

If it were possible to definitively recommend a device without factoring in a particular use case, the iPhone 14 would be a more balanced recommendation for this Holiday Sale. It makes even more sense for people who are already inside Apple’s ecosystem.

However, for people who strictly want a no-nonsense Android device that just works and provides longevity, it is a great idea to go with the Pixel.

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Edited by Sohan Dasgupta
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