When I reviewed the Google Pixel 6a a year ago, I had very few critiques about the device which offered a very similar experience to that of the 6/6 Pro at a much cheaper price point, with a few key shortcomings.
Google has now revealed the Pixel 7a, and it’s safe to say that the device is a big step-up, not only being in line with the Pixel 7 in certain areas, but actually going one better at a cheaper price point, to really blur the lines between flagship and mid-tier (if you can call it that) in the best way possible.
Firstly, let’s start with the display. The Pixel 7a once again has a 6.1″ AMOLED display but the big improvement this year is that it has a 90Hz refresh rate which is in line with the Google Pixel 7. This is a big improvement over the 60Hz display that in the 6a and really makes scrolling content a lot more enjoyable.
From a design point of view, the Pixel 7a follows in the foot steps of the 7 and 7 Pro with a much more premium design. It comes in Charcoal, Snow and Sea and rather than adopting a two tone design like last year, Google has now gone with a much more uniform design. Whilst there’s still no glass on the back (you’d be hard pressed to tell), there’s also metal buttons for the first time in an A-series device. The camera hump is also a lot less pronounced giving a nicer finish all-round.
There are a couple of really big inclusions on the Pixel 7a. In addition to under display finger print unlocking, there’s now face unlock which is basic in function, but works really well alongside the fingerprint unlocking to make sure that your phone is getting unlocked by one of the biometric unlocks.
Another big inclusion is wireless charging which has been added to the Google Pixel 7a. The wireless charging charges at a speed of 5 watts with wired charging now charging at 20 watts.
The Google Pixel 7a has a 64 megapixel wide camera, which is beyond what’s available in both the 7 and 7 Pro. It also provides super res zoom up to 8x with a 2x optical zoom. There’s also a 13 megapixel ultra wide zoom.
The photos produced by the 7a are excellent. They are crisp, full of colour and it’s honestly hard to take a bad photo using the 7a cameras. Paired with Google’s incredible photo syncing, it’s really a genuine joy to use and capture memories both around the house, and whilst traveling around.
Night Sight has been updated and is reported as being 2x as fast and sharp than what was in the previous model, and there’s also fantastic features such as Photo Unblur and Magic Eraser which I’ve gone on time and time again, and really just enhance the photo system within the camera.
The front camera has also been upgraded to 13 megapixels and similarly, provides a really crystal clear result and is great both when photographing indoors and outdoors in almost any lighting condition.
The Google Pixel 7a is powered by the same Google Tensor G2 processor as the 7 and 7 Pro, which means that zipping around apps is a super smooth experience, but it also means that the battery life is fairly impressive. I was easily able to see out the day using the 7a. Google rates the battery at 24 hours or up to 72 hours with Extreme Battery Saver turned on.
On the security front, it’s being powered by Titan M2, and all of the features such as VPN by Google, as well as clear security settings that let you control how you want your phone to operate are all there as well.
@shannongrixti The Google Pixel 7a has some incredible features at a fantastic price point #google #googlepixel #googlepixel7a #mobilephone #phone #googleio2023 #tech #techtock
Google’s entire software experience still really feels like the best of both worlds in terms of ease of use and customisation, with widgets being super easy to setup, and also aesthetically pleasing, but also providing enough depth with the information that you’ll be after, whether it be the weather, your appointments or what is trending on TikTok.
All-in-all, it’s really hard to fault the Google Pixel 7a both from a hardware and software point of view, particularly at the $749 price point that it’s hitting. It’s miles ahead of the Pixel 6a and you’ll be hard pressed to find a better phone at that same price.
