The mid-range smartphone market is in a never-ending state of competition – you have a ton of brands and manufacturers each offering their own budget-friendly handsets, although these sometimes come with some compromises in terms of performance, camera, or build quality. With that in mind, Google has constantly tried its hand with mid-range Android phones, gaining relative success with the likes of the Pixel 3a, 4a, and last year’s Pixel 6a.
While it’s not perfect, Google’s new Pixel 7a aims to provide users with some compelling features to make their purchase worthwhile. Priced at £449 for buyers in the UK, the 7a features some notable upgrades from its predecessor, and brings it closer (in terms of specifications, at least) to the base-model Pixel 7, which was launched last year.
One thing that stands out the most with the new A-model is that it borrows a lot of design aesthetics from the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, such as the new metallic camera bar that replaces the all-black visor from the Pixel 6a. The phone also drops the thin plastic frame between the display and aluminium side rails, instead opting for a cleaner design around the frame of the phone. There’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the front, while the rest of the rear panel features a plastic design, not unlike the one found on the 6a.
The Pixel 7a also comes in four different colour variants this year, including your standard black and white versions, with the addition of new “Sea” and “Coral” colours, the latter of which is available exclusively on Google’s online store.
The display has received a slight performance boost this year – while it retains a compact 6.1-inch size like the 6a, the 7a’s OLED panel now features a 90Hz refresh rate, which will make for a smoother user experience. It’s something that fans have been clamouring for, especially given that competing devices from brands like Xiaomi feature high refresh rates at much lower prices. It also houses an in-display fingerprint sensor for biometrics.
Inside the phone is Google’s Tensor G2 chip, paired with the company’s Titan M2 chip for protection. This is backed by 8GB of RAM – another boost for performance – and 128GB of internal storage. The phone comes with a moderately-sized 4385 mAh battery, although it charges at a pretty slow 18W speed. One advantage though is that the phone will now support wireless charging, but again, don’t expect stellar charging speeds.
As with every Pixel phone, the highlight of the 7a is the camera setup, which now comes with a 64MP main lens with ƒ/1.89 aperture, paired with a 13 MP ultrawide camera with ƒ/2.2 aperture. The Pixel 7a will come with a lot of the camera features found on the flagship 7 series, including Astrophotography, Portrait mode, Real tone, and photo Unblur to name a few. Meanwhile, users can record video on the main camera with up to 4K resolution and either 60 or 30fps. Selfies and video calls are handled by a 13MP camera on the front display, which also doubles for Face unlock functionality.
The Pixel 7a is available now for £449, with a free bundle of Pixel Buds A-series.
