Google Pixel 7a Review: One Month Later

The Google Pixel 7a is a mid-range smartphone that offers a great balance of performance, and features, Priced at $467. it provides impressive specifications and a smooth stock Android experience. In this article, we will review the Pixel 7a after a month of usage, covering its upgrades compared to the Pixel 6a, conducting an in-depth camera test, and discussing other key features such as gaming performance, battery life, and the sleek stock Android experience. So, let’s dive in and explore what the Pixel 7a has to offer!

Read Also: Google Pixel 7a vs iPhone 14 Quick Comparison

Design

The design of the Pixel 7a is sleek and premium, with a compact form factor, the chunky bezels surrounding the screen may not be to everyone’s liking. The back of the phone features a plastic finish that looks stylish and feels solid. The metal frame adds durability, and the minimalist camera bump ensures the phone sits flat on surfaces. The Pixel 7a is available in standard white and black colors, but the subtle blue and vibrant coral options stand out. Its compact size makes it easy to handle, and the Gorilla Glass 3 protection ensures durability against scratches and accidental bumps. Additionally, pixel 7a is IP67 water and dust resistant, adding an extra layer of protection.

Software and Features

The Pixel 7a runs on Google’s slick stock Android 13 UI, offering a smooth and intuitive user experience, and software comes with a range of features that are unique to Google devices. The spam caller feature works seamlessly, allowing you to identify calls before answering them. The built-in VPN ensures privacy, and the Call Screen feature helps filter out unwanted calls. The Pixel 7a also offers fantastic audio tools such as live translation and transcription. While the pixel 7a customization options may not be as extensive as some other Android launchers, the overall software experience is top-notch. Google provides at least five years of security patching, and the Titan M2 Chip keeps your data secure.

Display and Audio

The Pixel 7a sports a 90Hz OLED display with a full HD Plus resolution, resulting in sharp and vibrant visuals. The HDR 10 support enhances contrast and colors, delivering an enjoyable viewing experience. Google Pixel 7a display brightness may be a concern on sunny days, as it can be challenging to view content even at maximum brightness levels. The dual-speaker setup provides decent audio quality, but it could benefit from being louder. Nevertheless, Bluetooth streaming works flawlessly, and the strong codec support ensures high-quality audio.

Performance and Gaming

The performance of the Pixel 7a is on par with the Pixel 7, thanks to the powerful Google Sim Tensor G2 chipset, which is manufactured in collaboration with Samsung. One question that often comes up is whether the Pixel 7a tends to get hot. The pixel 7a can get a bit warm at times, especially when used outdoors in direct sunlight. It seems that the Pixel 7a isn’t a big fan of sunshine, much like myself, a bold northerner with less melanin than a deep-sea squid. However, despite the occasional heating, I haven’t experienced any performance issues or slowdowns on the Pixel 7a. There have been no hard resets like what I’ve observed in previous Google flagship phone.

In fact, during the winter season, the Pixel 7a might even serve as a pleasant hand warmer if you happen to enjoy gaming in your spare time. Overall, the gaming performance of the Pixel 7a is commendable. Boosting the visuals will still provide a reasonably stable frame rate, although the phone may struggle a bit when there are multiple enemies on the screen at once. The screen is responsive, and Google’s gaming mode offers useful tools like notifications blocking. Moreover, the Pixel 7a supports Wi-Fi 6E and sub-6 5G, ensuring strong connectivity in most areas, even in Blighty. I found that my internet connection remained robust, except when I wandered into unusual dark spots.

Google Pixel 7a Battery Life

During the first week of using the Pixel 7a, one of the issues I encountered its battery life. With its compact 4385 milliamp-hour battery, it rarely lasted a full day of use. However, after a few days, the situation improved significantly, and now the Pixel 7a usually provides a full day’s usage on a single charge without any worries. That being said, there have been instances where I came uncomfortably close to draining the battery completely, especially when I was out catching the last train home or leaving the phone idle for an extended period.

On average, you can expect around five to six hours of screen-on time from a full charge, depending on the amount of music streaming, podcast listening, or other background activities. The battery drains quite rapidly when using power-intensive tasks such as Skype or Zoom, particularly when the cameras are in use. Additionally, while the 18-watt wired charging on the Pixel 7a may seem slow compared to some Chinese rivals, it’s worth mentioning that the phone does support wireless charging, which is still relatively rare to find at this price point.

Camera

The Pixel 7a boasts a fresh 64-megapixel Sony IMX 787 sensor, accompanied by a typical ultra-wide-angle shooter. The combination of this new hardware and Google’s image processing algorithms results in a solid camera performance in most situations. During my testing, I was generally pleased with the majority of my photos. The lens does a dependable job of focusing on the subject, even in challenging or messy scenes. The images captured by the Pixel 7a appear impressively lifelike, without excessive manipulation for an artificial look.

However, on sunny days, it’s necessary to be cautious to avoid lens flare. That said, the Pixel 7a handles harsh backlighting and captures blue skies with competence. The portrait shots produced by this phone are quite decent as well, capable of handling subjects with windswept hair or furry textures. In certain instances, ambient photos may appear slightly softer, and some textures and facial features can be overly smooth, and the colors are generally accurate, and as long as there isn’t too much movement, you can expect sharp enough results.

Indoor photography with the Pixel 7a captures plenty of fine details. The manual controls are limited to EV and contrast adjustments. If you desire more complex controls, you’ll need to explore alternative camera apps. Nonetheless, the on-screen sliders work exceptionally well, rescuing shots that may otherwise appear murky. This feature proves particularly useful in low-light situations, where the Pixel 7a still performs admirably. While strong lighting conditions may cause issues in nighttime scenarios, overall, the camera produces images with minimal noise and a reasonable amount of detail.

Moving on to the ultra-wide-angle shooter, which also features a 13-megapixel Sony IMX sensor, the photo quality remains consistent with the primary shooter. It produces natural tones, although it may not capture as much fine detail. Similar to the regular Pixel 7 and other devices in this price range, the Pixel 7a lacks a telephoto shooter. As a result, it’s limited to a mere eight times digital zoom. On the bright side, the Pixel 7a can record videos in up to 4K resolution, delivering sharp visuals and well-defined details under adequate lighting conditions. Even in low-light environments, the camera can still produce usable results, although focusing can occasionally be challenging in such situations. The stabilization during video recording is decent, offering smooth footage as long as there isn’t excessive movement. Audio capture at the ultra-HD level is also satisfactory, provided the environment is not too noisy and there isn’t much wind interference.

Lastly, the 13-megapixel front-facing camera, or “selfie snapper,” on the Pixel 7a is decent but falls within the realm of standard performance. It produces relatively soft and bland selfies, with the outcome highly dependent on lighting conditions. If you’re enthusiastic about sharing pictures of yourself online, you might find better options like the Galaxy A54 more appealing.

Final Thought

The Google Pixel 7a offers exceptional value for money with its combination of impressive specifications, stock Android experience, and a competitive price point. Despite a few minor drawbacks such as average battery life and limited camera zoom, the Pixel 7a delivers a reliable and enjoyable smartphone experience. If you’re looking mid-range smartphone that doesn’t compromise on performance and features, the Pixel 7a is a solid choice.

FAQs

89%

89%

Best Mid-range smartphone

The Google Pixel 7a proves to be a worthy contender in the mid-range smartphone segment. It offers a sleek design, smooth software experience, vibrant display, reliable performance, and capable cameras.

• Design

  10
• Software and Features

  8.9
• Display and Audio

  9
• Performance

  8.5
• Battery Life

  8
• Camera

  9
• User Ratings (1 Votes)
  7.8