Pixel 7 Pro teardown shows better cooling, cleaner layout than last year’s model
The Pixel 7 Pro innards (bottom) look a lot neater than those of the Pixel 6 Pro (top). The graphite thermal tape (the shiny black stuff on the Pixel 6, the matte black sticker on the Pixel 7) has a larger surface area over the hot parts of the Pixel 7. [credit: PBK Reviews / Ron Amadeo ]
The Pixel 7 is still on its way, but that isn't stopping the Internet from tearing it down already. In what's becoming a tradition, PBK Reviews is the first to rip apart the device, specifically the Pixel 7 Pro. Now we can do some fun comparisons between this teardown and last year's.
Just as it looks on the outside, the Pixel 7 Pro is pretty close to the Pixel 6 Pro, but you can spot some refinements. Google has done a much neater job with the graphite thermal tape this year. The Pixel 6 Pro had three different sections of thermal tape, but there's now one monolithic block of graphite covering the cameras, SoC, and battery.
On the Pixel 6, the graphite sticker had to be multiple parts because Google didn't want to cover up the mmWave antenna wire, which last year ran overtop of the battery. On the Pixel 7 Pro, the mmWave antenna cable is way longer and runs around the perimeter of the battery under the metal mid-frame. With no cable in the way, the thermal tape can have a way larger surface area overtop of the battery, camera, and SoC. Google removed some thermal tape that was previously close to the USB-C port, but with the process node reduction and more tape concentrated around the SoC, this should hopefully lead to a cooler phone.