Pixel 7a First Impressions – The New Champion of Budget?

Pixel 7a First Impressions

Google has just announced the Pixel 7a, the latest in their “a” line of devices which aims to be the budget friendly of the Pixels that still maintains all the sleek Google magic that the Pixel line has become synonymous with. Their previous offering, the Pixel 6a, was exceptionally well received and wiped the floor when it came to value especially when it came to camera quality. So can the new 7a compete with its older sibling and does it cut the right corners of it’s more powerful cousin the Pixel 7? Here’s my first impressions of Google’s latest offering.

Tech Specs

• Display
  • Size – 6.1 inches
  • Resolution – 2400×1080 FHD OLED
  • Refresh Rate – 90Hz (60Hz default)
• OS – Android 13 (3 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates)
• Processor – Google Tensor G2
• RAM – 8GB
• Cameras
  • Wide – 64MP, 80° FOV 0.8 μm pixel width, ƒ/1.89 aperture, 8x Super Res Zoom
  • Ultrawide – 13MP, 120° FOV 1.12 μm pixel width, ƒ/2.2 aperture
  • Selfie – 13MP, 95° FOV, 1.12 μm pixel width, ƒ/2.2 aperture
• Storage – 128GB
• Resistance – IP67

Design

The Pixel lineup has a very consistent design language these days. All of the devices in the lineup follow the same design language as this guy from Star Trek. I personally quite like the design. It’s nothing stunningly different but it at least doesn’t copy the iPhone at every turn. It’s also plastic with aluminium rails but who cares at this point.

The colours are what I think is the main selling point for the Pixel design. Google has a love of pastels at the moment and I think they are a very trendy choice that makes their phones feel far more friendly than the shiny black glass bricks that we’re all used to. They’re currently offering the Pixel in Coral, Sea, Charcoal, and Snow. Or Red, Blue, Black and White as they’re more commonly known.

Features

The Pixel 6a really danced the line pretty well in terms of features to price ratio. Obviously when you’re making a budget phone you need to cut corners somewhere or you’d never turn a profit, the art is in knowing which corners are safe to cut. In most phones, the corners that get cut are the corners you can’t really put a value on. Things like wireless charging, camera quality and haptic feedback. There’s not really a metric for those types of things, they’re either there or they aren’t. Google seems to have avoided that trap somehow. The 7a has wireless charging, 90hz refresh rate, the same processor as its older cousin the 7. Is there anyting that this phone doesn’t do?

From a quick glance the only major thing that gives the game away is the plastic body that the device is sporting, but honestly at this point who cares what it’s made of as long as it’s not getting smashed to bits the first time I drop the thing.

Display

The Pixel lineup has always had good displays. Not best in class or anything but never anything to complain about. Display technology has become pretty consistent across the board these days with most people not even being able to tell the difference between an LED and an OLED. The Pixel 7a keeps with that trend with it’s 90Hz OLED display. It looks as you would expect of a 2023 smartphone display. The only mild gripe is the bezels which are a smidge larger than average but again nothing horrible to complain about.

Cameras

Cameras aren’t really even a first impression when it comes to Google devices these days. The company is getting so consistent that it’s just expected that the camera performance on a Google phone is going to be stellar. The cameras have always been the Pixel’s main selling point. Google has some photography magic baked into it’s software and it’s not holding anything back with the 7a. The only camera they’ve cut out is the telephoto, but tell me honestly when was the last time you zoomed into anything by like 3x? The only useful zoom lenses are these new “Space Zoom” type lenses that can zoom up to like 30x but even then their utility is limited. The rear camera even supports 4k 60fps recording.

Software

Google’s nice little software features are baked throughout the phone as per usual, with their nice little recording app that makes use of their new(ish) tensor processor, super well integrated google assistant, google photos exclusive editing options and Google’s own VPN.

Battery

The battery in the Pixel is 4300mAh. A little smaller than I would have liked but honestly this number barely means anything anymore. How a battery gets used is entirely down to software optimisation these days so lets just hope Google’s claim of an “Over 24-hour battery life” holds up as charging this device is kinda slow when you look at the competition.

Verdict

The 7a is looking like just as succesful of a device as the 6a. The same things that drew people to the 6a are all present on the 7a. The only competition Google really has right now for people that fancy this phone are themselves. The days of OnePlus and Xiaomi and Poco competing with Google seem to be almost completely gone. The Pixel 7 has been out for a while now and as such has seen quite a few drops in price. Similarly the older 6a has most of the features of it’s brother but even cheaper. Either way Google is going to be very happy to take your money.