While they're both great phones, only one comes out on top. And it's not even close.

The Google Pixel 7 comes to market as an iterative upgrade to the Pixel 6, bringing subtle design improvements and internals that claim greater efficiency.

If you're buying a new mid-range phone, the Pixel offers a lot of bang for the buck at $599. At the same time, if you aren't loyal to Android, Apple's iPhone 14 is also comparable, primarily due to its non-pro branding.

So, to help you make an informed decision, we've compared the newest base models from Apple and Google below.

Both devices ship with a familiar design. While the iPhone 14 is near-identical to the iPhone 13, the Pixel 7 introduces refinements, making it look simple and mature. They also retain their glass-sandwich builds, meaning neither device should feel subpar in your hands.

Diving into individual details, on the Pixel 7, the matte aluminum frame and glossy glass back have colors that contrast pretty well, giving it an attractive dual-tone look. The anodized aluminum even wraps around the camera lens, eliminating the fingerprint-y mess the Pixel 6 series had become for few. The Pixel 7 is available in three colors: Obsidian, Snow, and Lemongrass.

The iPhone 14 looks identical to the iPhone 13, keeping its matte aluminum rails and glossy glass back. The shades between the two materials are also a close match. Here, the cameras are surrounded by a matte glass surface, bringing some character to the rather plain back glass. It's available in five colors: Midnight, Starlight, Blue, Red, and Purple.

Both phones are compact by today's standards, but the Pixel 7 is likely to feel more comfortable due to its curved edges. The iPhone's squared edges will feel better when in a case, as you might feel some discomfort when using the phone without one. Speaking from experience, I think that the squared edges feel fine and aren't that uncomfortable, but your mileage might vary.

Button placement on the two devices is another difference you'll notice. The iPhone places its power button on the right, and its volume rockers and physical mute switch are on the left. The Pixel keeps all buttons—power and volume—on the right, making it slightly trickier to take screenshots.

Flip around the devices, and you'll see they both feature flat glass displays—the Pixel with a 6.3-inch panel and the iPhone with a 6.1-inch notched one. We'll delve into their exact specifications, but when it comes to endurance, Pixel 7 features Gorilla Glass Victus protection on its front and back. On the other hand, iPhone has Ceramic Shield—developed with Corning—and an undisclosed rating for its back glass.

While Google does ship the bigger display, more differences here deserve attention. First up, the panel on Pixel 7 has an adaptive 90Hz refresh rate which will make applications and scrolling across the UI feel a lot smoother. The iPhone sticks to the standard 60Hz, but it does have more pixels per inch and a higher resolution (1170x2532). Pixel 7's display has a standard FHD+ (1080x2400) resolution.

If you want to know why these stats matter, feel free to read our overview of refresh rates.

In terms of brightness, Google's Pixel 7 can deliver a peak brightness of up to 1,400 nits for its always-on display, which is 200 nits higher than what the iPhone 14 offers. But that doesn't mean the Pixel 7's display is better because when viewing HDR content, the Pixel 7 can only output a maximum of 1,000 nits whereas the iPhone 14 can still go up to 1,200 nits.

Under normal use, the iPhone 14 can deliver 800 nits, but the Pixel 7 doesn't have an official rating. However, Google claims a 25% brighter panel, which does indicate that 800 might be the standard. That said, it's worth noting that the iPhone 14 doesn't feature an always-on display like the Pixel 7—Apple reserved it for the higher-end iPhone 14 Pro.

Powering the Pixel 7 is the Google Tensor G2 processor. According to the information released, the processor does include some new cores, but the overarching theme for its performance is increased efficiency with more smarts.

In comparison, the iPhone 14 packs 2021's A15 Bionic, as Apple reserved the A16 chip for the iPhone 14 Pro models. Regardless, the A15 still aces the performance and efficiency component, though Google's TPU might have the advantage in terms of machine learning use cases.

The core makeup of Tensor G2 places it right next to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 in terms of CPU performance. And the A15 Bionic is known to outdo this processor by a significant margin. However, you probably won't notice the performance difference under real-world use.

Google's Pixel 7 ships with 8GB of RAM, while the iPhone 14 comes with 6GB, but this doesn't matter much as iOS is much better at managing system memory. Internal storage also differs slightly, with the Pixel 7 coming in 128GB and 256GB sizes, whereas Apple offers 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage options. We've broken down the exact cost for them below.

Both Pixel 7 and iPhone 14 feature camera hardware similar to their predecessors. The Pixel 7's dual camera setup includes a 50MP wide camera and 12MP ultrawide. On the other hand, iPhone 14's dual camera setup uses a 12MP sensor for its wide and ultrawide shooters. The front camera on Pixel uses a 10.8MP sensor, whereas the iPhone uses a 12MP sensor here too!

Google's Pixel 7 comes with many new software-based camera features, some of which have been available on iPhone for over a year now and others that make it unique. Cinematic Blur, Photo Unblur, and improvements to Real Tone are the most significant.

Apple's iPhone 14, on the other hand, introduces Action Mode and the new Photonic Engine. The former is a stabilized video recording mode, while the latter is a new pipeline for image processing.

Lastly, we'll compare their batteries. iPhone 14 comes with a 3,279mAh cell compared to the Pixel 7's 4,355mAh unit. Many reviews have indicated the iPhone can last an entire day on a single charge with relative ease.

It's hard to comment on Pixel 7's endurance since we haven't tested the device yet. Still, if we look at the performance of its predecessor and consider the improvements Google says it has made, the device shouldn't have issues lasting a day.

As for charging, both phones claim that they can fast charge up to 50% capacity in about 30 minutes. However, you'll need a 30W adapter to fast charge the Pixel 7, whereas a 20W is good enough for the iPhone 14. But don't fret, as using any of the best USB-C chargers on the market should meet the requirements.

Both phones also support Qi wireless charging—7.5W on the iPhone 14 and 12W on the Pixel 7. Using the second-generation Pixel Stand will provide 20W of power to the Pixel, and using the MagSafe wireless charger will deliver 15W charging speeds to the iPhone.

When we look at the specifications on paper, the Pixel 7 offers a lot more value when compared to iPhone 14. Yes, the devices belong to different platforms and ecosystems, but if we leave the subjective aspect out of the picture, the Pixel comes out on top in quite a few ways.

Its display is smoother, its camera is better on paper, and it comes with more storage for a lower investment. In addition, its processing power might not be at the top, but it is good enough to maintain an above-par experience.

Now, if cost is a factor that does affect your decision, then we'd suggest looking into the iPhone 13. The device starts at $699 and offers almost the same feature set as iPhone 14. Yes, it won't have every new capability and might receive fewer software updates, but it does cover many of the same bases.

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