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Is your Pixel 7 camera rattling? Here’s what it means

Michael Allison
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Though Google’s Pixel cameras have some of the best capabilities you’ll find on a modern smartphone, they’re still not perfect. Some Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro owners are reporting rattling in and around their cameras. Reports have popped up on many social media sites, most notably Google’s support forums and Reddit.

For some people, it’s a potentially worrying thing to stumble across. Pick up your Pixel 7, shake the phone a bit, and there’s an audible rattle. What in the world is going on?

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The Pixel 7 rattle sound is normal

The Pixel 7 Pro's camera module.
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Camera rattle is a common feature of high-end smartphones as a result of their components. Google itself added a little note to the Pixel 6 Pro camera support article for concerned owners.

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Pixel 7 buyers have complained about the camera’s rattling noise since it launched last year. Many of them cite a camera rattle that becomes audible when you shake the phone and listen to the sound.

“I own a Pixel 7. The phone is new and I’ve only been using it for 5 days, 3 of which I’ve been carrying it around. I would like to say straightaway that the phone has not been bumped or dropped anywhere. When the phone shakes, something rattles around the camera, quite loudly. I’ve seen similar cases and they said it could be [optical image stabilization]. On the whole, the camera is working fine, but the rattling is annoying considering the price of the phone,” one complaining customer wrote on a Google Support forum. It’s something we’ve been able to reproduce on our Pixels as well.

Google says it’s not something to worry about. In a support article, the company noted: “Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro have a larger camera that uses additional components to focus quickly. If you shake the phone, the camera may make a slight rattling noise. This is normal and expected behavior. On Pixel 6, you may hear it on the main camera.”

Other phones have camera rattle, too

Why does Googles frame Crack? - Pixel 7 Pro Teardown!

For what it’s worth, all phones that feature cameras with OIS, autofocus, and other camera hardware will make the same rattling noise. This is the extra hardware that Google alludes to in the document above and is visible in the Jerry Rig Everything video linked above.

The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max once had a more extreme example of the camera rattling issue, albeit one that was caused by software and thus was resolved with a software update. In other words, should you hear a camera rattling noise from your smartphone without associated functionality issues, there’s no need to worry.

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