Pixel 7 Pro battery life could be terrible outdoors as the display allegedly consumes 50% more power at 1000 nits brightness than the Galaxy S22 Plus

Google released the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro on October 6 for US$599 and US$899 respectively. While not huge refreshes, both phones pack solid upgrades. Although both smartphones have garnered stellar reviews across the board, the battery life is proving to be a point of contention. XDA Developers now reports that the Pixel 7 Pro’s display might be consuming significantly more power than competing flagships, resulting in elevated battery drain.

Corroborated by Android Police, one of XDA’s editors noticed the battery of his Pixel 7 Pro drop by 10% in 15 minutes outside once the screen brightness shot up. Upon asking his colleagues, the reporter found that others had also experienced increased battery consumption under similar conditions. While it is normal for the battery drain to go up with the brightness of the display, XDA's tests show that the Pixel 7 Pro display consumes much more power than other phones at high brightness levels.

Testing four different Pixel 7 Pros, XDA reports that the phone draws 3.5 W to 4 W when the display is set to 600 nits. As a comparison, the Pixel 6 Pro consumes 2.9 W while the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra drains 2 W. Moreover, it takes Pixel 6 Pro 800 nits to start drawing 4 W, 200 nits more than the Pixel 7 Pro.

Pushing the brightness to 1000 nits sees the Pixel 7 Pro’s power consumption ramp up to 6 W, 50% more than the Galaxy S22 Plus which consumes 4 W.

While we can’t vouch for the validity of XDA’s power drain figures for the Pixel 7 Pro until we can test the phone ourselves, the numbers are certainly concerning. If true, Google needs to push out an update as the abnormal display power usage can eat up any efficiency gains that the company has made in its latest phones.

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