JOIN USGoogle Pixel 7a review: Mid-range phone with flagship camera hardware
Google earlier in the month launched the brand new mid-range premium smartphone Pixel 7a in India.
The latest Pixel 7a comes with a huge upgrade over the Pixel 6a in several aspects such as build quality, camera, processor, and battery capacity too, but the launch price is the same as its predecessor.
I have been using the Pixel 7a for more than a week and here are my thoughts on Google's latest new phone.
Design, build quality and display
As said in my first impression column, Google Pixel 7a takes inspiration from the premium Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. It is almost indistinguishable from the premium phone version. On the back, it has the familiar silver-hued metallic visor with a matte finish and it houses the primary dual-camera module and LED flash.
However, upon close inspection, you will notice the bump is slightly slimmer than we see in Pixel 7, which is good as the phone can slip in and out of the pocket with ease.
Considering the overall aspects, the look and build quality of Pixel 7a is much better than its predecessor. The new phone features an IP67 rating, which means the phone can repel dust and also sustain accidental falls in water up to three feet (one metre) for close to 30 minutes.
Add to that, the Pixel 7a features Corning Glass 3 shield on the display and on the back, it has a transparent cover made of 3D thermoformed composite, which is of really good quality, and exudes a premium glass-like hand feel.
As you can the cover photo, our review unit is a snow white model and it does a fantastic job of hiding the fingerprint impressions and smudges. You have up close to notice any stain as such.
By the way, Google also offers Sea (blue) and Charcoal (black) colours too. The former is said to be unique to Pixel 7a and looks prettiest among the lot.
It should be noted that Pixel 7a feature aluminum-based chassis and is 100 per cent recycled. The metal frame offers excellent stability to the structure of the phone to endure any accidental fall and protect internal hardware.
Add to that, Google says the Pixel 7a's retail package is made of 99 per cent plastic-free material.
The new Pixel 7a features stereo speakers, two at the base and one at the top (hidden) delivering good audio output. At the base, you will also find the Type-C (2nd Gen v3.2) port and cellular antenna bands. The latter is found even on all sides (three on the left & right sides and two at the top).
On the right, there is the power button on top of the volume rocker, and on the opposite side, you will find a SIM tray slot ( one nano SIM + supports eSIM) and on the top, there is lone microphone.
In total, there are two microphones that support noise suppression feature to deliver better voice and video call experience.
On the front, it sports a beautiful 6.1-inch full HD (1080x2400p) OLED display with a 20:9 aspect ratio. Pixel 7a supports 90Hz refresh rate, has pixel density 429 ppi (pixels per inch), Always-on display with At a Glance and Now Playing features. It also supports HDR and full 24-bit depth for 16 million colours.
In a few seconds of usage, one can know how much better the Pixel 7a is than the Pixel 6a. It is really smooth to surf the web and consume multimedia content. Also, the brightness is decent outdoors to read messages or emails without having squint eyes.
The in-display fingerprint sensor is good too, but advise users to keep the finger dry and clean or else the impression of a sweaty finger gets rejected more often than not. If you have enabled face unlock, then you don't have to worry at least in good light condition. In pitch darkness, it may not be as reliable as FaceID on iPhones.
Performance
Google Pixel 7a houses Google's latest Tensor G2 chipset we see in premium Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. In terms of day-to-day use, it works absolutely fine, but in the early days of usage, the phone used to get warmed up fast around the metal frame (top left side) while streaming content or while playing games, particularly outdoors.
We saw complaints on other Pixel phones too, which got updated to the May 2023 security update. Google acknowledged it and apparently updated the devices in the backend recently.
Now, the phone's thermal performance has greatly improved. Even while editing photos, the phone did not overheat much as before. However, the device, like its predecessor is not made for gaming enthusiasts.
For everything else, Pixel 7a works perfectly. It excels with proprietary Pixel Speech features such as Live Translate, Recorder Speaker Labels, Assistant Voice Typing, and Voice Messaging Transcription on the Messages app. These make the Pixel phones a perfect companion for journalists like, who have to most often times, take an interview, and its a tedious job to transcribe the audio. The Pixel phones make our work easy and save time to focus on other stories.
The Pixel 7a runs Android 13, which is as pure as it gets. There is no bloatware at all and I love it. With 128GB storage, you can install several more apps and store thousands of images of videos too.
It should be noted that Pixel 7a will get Android 14 later this year and is eligible to get Android OS support for up to May 2026 and a software security update to May 2028.
Add to that, Pixel 7a houses an advanced Tensor security core with Titan M2 security chip and Trusty (trusted execution environment). It offers Private Compute Core, Android System Intelligence, anti-phishing and anti-malware protection
And, the device is capable of doing automatic security checks and privacy controls with security and privacy settings. Users can also manually check what apps are using critical components of the phone such as the camera, microphone, and location and if they wish, they can disable that specific app.
As far as the connectivity is concerned, it supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax, dual bands: 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz, HE80, MIMO), Bluetooth v5.3 + LE, BT Diversity, NFC (Near Field Communication) and Google Cast.
And, the retail box comes with a one-metre USB-C to USB-C cable (USB 2.0) and a quick switch adaptor along with a guide booklet and SIM tray removal tool.
The Pixel 7a supports 5G services offered by both Reliance Jio and Airtel in India.
As far as the battery life is concerned, it is very subjective, as it depends on the user's behavior. If you are user, who just answer calls, do messaging on WhatsApp and other apps, surf the internet for news, and doom scroll on social media platforms, the device can easily last a day. However, if you stream a lot of multimedia content on cellular data (via SIM), the battery drains a little faster compared to a Wi-Fi connection.
Read more | Android: Tips on how to ensure device's battery life lasts a full day
It has a 4,385mAh capacity. And, in extreme battery saver mode, Pixel 7a can last up to 72 hours and it should be noted all apps working in the background will be killed to conserve the battery life.
The device is capped to a maximum charging speed of up to 18W and it also supports wireless charging too, a first for the Pixel A series phone. It takes around 105 minutes (1:45 hours) to fully charge from zero to 100 per cent.
Photography
Pixel 7a boasts a dual-camera module-- main 64MP Quad PD Quad Bayer wide camera (0.8 μm pixel width, ƒ/1.89 aperture, 80-degree field of view, 1/1.73-inch image sensor size, Super Res Zoom up to 8x) + 13 MP ultrawide camera (1.12 μm pixel width, ƒ/2.2 aperture, 120-degree FoV, Lens correction, Autofocus with dual pixel phase detection), OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation), EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation) with LED flash on the back.
The Pixel 7a truly lives up to the expectations. It takes amazing photos with vibrant and rich colours of the subject particularly flowers are captured really.
Even the faces of the humans too, are as real as we perceive through our eyes and the credit goes to the Real Tone feature of Pixel phones.
The close-up shots perfectly store the minute details and you won't find any smudge in the photo.
In the portrait mode too, Pixel 7a aces with a fantastic bokeh-blur effect in the back and there are tools to adjust the depth of field, and works smoothly.
With Night Sight mode, the Pixel 7a again excels in low-light conditions. Super Resolution (8X) works like a charm and ensures photos despite the zoom-in effect, the subjects look sharper compared to photos taken on other branded phones.
I love the Pixel phone's special features such as Magic Eraser, Long Exposure, Face Unblur, and Photo Unblur. They work like a charm and smoothly without any lag-ness thanks to Tensor G2 silicon.
The ultra-wide angle photo mode does justice by capturing the vast area of the agriculture field pretty well in the frame.
The Pixel 7a also supports several more value-added features such as Photo Unblur, Magic Eraser, Long Exposure, Real Tone, Face Unblur, Panorama, Manual white balancing, Locked Folder, Top Shot, Portrait Mode, Portrait Light, Motion Auto Focus, Frequent Faces, Dual exposure controls, Live HDR+.
Add to that, the new Google phone supports the Cinematic Pan feature, Slo-mo video support up to 240 FPS, 4K timelapse with stabilization, Astrophotography timelapse, Optical image stabilization, Fused video stabilization, 4K Cinematic Pan video stabilization, 4K locked video stabilization, 1080p active video stabilization and Digital zoom up to 5x.
On the front, it houses 13MP (1.12 μm pixel width, ƒ/2.2, Fixed focus, and 95-degree ultrawide FoV). It takes brilliant selfies and works great with video calling too, provided, there is a stable internet connection.
As far as the videos are concerned, the primary dual camera on the back supports up to 4K at 30/60 fps (frames per second). They are decent and stable, on par with its peer in the sub-Rs 45,000 class. Even the front camera too can achieve a similar feat but is limited to 30 fps.
Final thoughts
The new Pixel 7a delivers great in terms of photography and day-to-day use. It has pure Android OS with just Google's core apps offering a refreshing clean user interface. However, this phone won't appeal the extreme gamers, as it tends to get warmed up, a bit faster when outdoors. But, after the update, the thermal performance has improved.
This is the best affordable alternative to the Pixel 7, which costs 10,000 bucks more than the former. Google has managed to cut corners with the right components and features of the Pixel 7a and be able to deliver the decent performance we seek from a premium mid-range phone.
However, if you are planning to trade in your old phone for a new Pixel phone and have extra cash to splurge, I advise getting the premium Pixel 7 model, as it has better thermal performance and has a bit more camera tricks (such as Action Pan and more) up it sleeves to get best photos in the low light and the device has a bigger display and sturdier build quality too.
The Pixel 7a is available in 8GB RAM + 128GB storage configuration for Rs 43,999 (MRP) and it can be bought for less through special offers.
The company's official e-commerce partner Flipkart is offering lucrative deals through partner bank cards and exchange deals is available up to Rs 35,000 discount.
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