Whilst talking about smartphone brands in the high-end flagship segment, Google’s name only finds a mention after the likes of Samsung and Apple. However, the Mountain View-based tech giant’s A-series phones, which are relatively more affordable, have gained significant attention, especially in India. I have with me the Google Pixel 7a, a successor to last year’s popular Pixel 6a (review).
A cursory glance at the spec sheet shows that the Pixel 7a is not all that different from the regular Pixel 7 (review). However, the new A series phone carries a sticker price of Rs 43,999, which is lower than what the Pixel 7 is currently retailing for. In this review, let’s find out if the Pixel 7a can be your daily driver and how different it as as compared to the regular Pixel 7.
Verdict
The differences between the Pixel 7a and Pixel 7 are minor and may not significantly affect the overall smartphone experience. The Pixel 7a offers all the core features of a Pixel phone such as excellent image processing and AI-based features, while costing less. It may be a good choice for those interested in Google’s premium smartphone experience, but not for those who covet powerful processing capabilities or fast charging speeds.
Design and display
The Pixel 7a’s build quality doesn’t feel too different from the Pixel 7. It uses a glass back with a glossy finish and matte-finished aluminum rails, similar to the Pixel 7. In fact, as far as dimensions go, there is basically no difference between the two. Even the camera visor on the back stretches from one end to the other, has a metallic finish, and houses two camera sensors along with a flash. Two of the three colour variants on the Pixel 7a, Charcoal and Snow, can also be found on the handset’s older sibling. It would be easy to mistake one phone for the other even for a seasoned smartphone enthusiast such as myself. In terms of protection, the Pixel 7a has an IP67 rating, as against the Pixel 7 that boasts a rating of IP68.
The Pixel 7a fits seamlessly between a small-sized mobile device and a larger phablet-style smartphone. Given its pocketable proportions, the handset slides easily into the pocket and doesn’t feel cumbersome to use with one hand. Google’s branding is prominently in the centre with a small ‘Made in Vietnam’ inscription at the bottom. The phone makes use of a dual-speaker setup with the earpiece doubling up for stereo output. Merely holding the phone gives an impression of luxury, and its appearance sets it apart from other smartphones, conveying a sense of uniqueness.
Display-wise the device has a 6.1-inch FHD+ panel of the OLED variety that can refresh at 90Hz. However, unlike the regular Pixel 7’s Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection, the 7a only has Gorilla Glass 3. Apart from that, the viewing metrics of the 7a remain identical to the Pixel 7. Things like browsing the web, scrolling through social media, and watching YouTube, have nearly the same visual appeal.
While the 7a does have HDR10 playback on OTT platforms like Netflix, I did find the dynamic range remained a bit lacking as compared to some other phones in the segment. However, again this is just mostly nitpicking as most users are likely to appreciate the 7a’s visual clarity, vibrant colours, and high contrast ratios. Google has not specified the brightness levels of the handset but my usage was unhindered outdoors. Finally, the phone does have a punch-hole up top for the selfie shooter, but the bezels that surround the panel are unapologetically large, especially the chin.
Cameras
If the Pixel phones are known most for anything, it is their image-taking prowess. While not harbouring the most impressive of camera hardware, Google’s background computational algorithms enhance the final shot to an extreme degree. The same is true for the Pixel 7a which has a 64MP primary shooter (higher resolution than the Pixel 7’s 50MP snapper) and a 13MP ultra-wide sensor. Again, it matters not what sensor is crammed into the back of the 7a. The final result, after having gone through Google’s AI wizardry, is what we are here for and boy does the handset deliver.
Talking first about daylight photography, the Pixel 7a manages to snap highly detailed images with rich and vibrant colours. I was particularly impressed at how well the Tensor G2 adjusts the dynamic range and exposure levels in its post-processing. Of course, each image goes through the same fine-tuning process which takes a few seconds and is not instantly available for preview after being clicked. However, the output is almost always well worth this wait. The sensor’s ability to shoot 64MP images is just marketing speak to get pixel-binned 16MP shots which benefit in detailing by combining four pixels into one. Long story short, the Pixel 7a shoots remarkably reliable, realistic, and dynamically rich snaps that are akin to the handset’s more expensive sibling.
Apart from the phone’s great point-and-shoot experience, the Pixel 7a has other camera tricks up its sleeve. While there is no telephoto sensor, the handset can still capture shots at 2X zoom with little to no hit on the details or colours. There’s the Long Exposure mode which works as advertised with a tasteful blur of fast-moving objects in the background while the subject remains perfectly in focus.
The portrait mode images are done just as well in terms of edge detection. However, these bokeh-style snaps only work with human subjects. Google is also claiming realistic skin tones with a Real Tone functionality baked into its image processing pipeline. I personally felt that the Pixel 7a slightly overprocessed darker skin tones but overall the effect is pleasing. Finally, there is the ultra wide-angle 13MP shooter which does a stellar job of spreading focus across the frame while also not warping the image at the edges.
The low-light photography on the device is equally impressive, to say the least. In conditions with some amount of ambient lighting, the photos that are churned out have ample detail. Noise levels in the night sky are smoothened out in a way that the landscape below remains unblemished. The Pixel 7a is also capable of capturing images that reveal more details than what is visible to the naked eye, even in extremely low lighting conditions. As for the selfies, the images from the front-facing camera are nothing out of the ordinary in terms of background lighting and skin tones. However, the sensor does capture a healthy amount of facial detail. Overall, from my time with the phone, it is clear that if you are a casual smartphone photography enthusiast, then the Pixel 7a will not disappoint.
Performance and software
The smartphone is powered by the same custom Tensor G2 SoC that Google introduced on its flagship Pixel 7 lineup. By no means is the device a performance fiend and I think the company does not intend it to be as well. However, the G2 is tuned to optimise the background machine learning and computational chops that Pixel phones have become so adept at in recent times.
The Pixel 7a will not find the best refuge in benchmark numbers. Geekbench 5 outright refused to download or sideload on the device. Antutu V9 returned a score of 717,397 and on the CPU Throttle test the device maintained just 58 percent of its peak performance. Heavy-duty gaming is also not the best with the phone’s graphical output being limited. CoD: Mobile did run on 60fps for about 60 minutes but the phone started getting unreasonably hot after that, leading to frame drops.
However, for my everyday usage, task like accessing Google’s suite of apps, social media browsing, viewing OTT content, and in general just switching between multiple apps, posed little to no problems. The phone does have 8GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM which helps in this regard along with 128GB UFS 3.1 of storage. Unfortunately, there is no way to expand the latter since there’s no microSD card slot. Google does offer 100GB of cloud storage with the Pixel 7a but it will be free only for the first three months.
The phone does have 5G connectivity, but only for sub-6GHz channels. I used the phone on Jio’s Noida circle without any issues of call drops or poor data speeds. Apart from that the phone has a decent-sounding stereo speaker setup although I feel that the volume levels could do with an increase. Authentication-wise the phone uses an in-display fingerprint reader of the optical variety and also a facial recognition system.
Software is also an important aspect of the Pixel experience and the 7a packs in everything Google has to offer. The device, of course, ships with Android 13 out of the box, in the typical clean and stock style that Google offers. The only default apps you will find pre-installed are the ones made by the company. Google also is providing five years of security updates on the phone, which is a year more than what Samsung offers on its flagship devices.
The meat of Google’s capabilities is in the tools it provides for a better user experience than almost any Android phone on the market. This includes the phone’s ability to transcribe conversations seamlessly. The Pixel 7a even recognises different voices and labels the dialogue accordingly. For the time being, this feature works only with US English. I also tried the Clear Calling toggle, which uses AI to remove any background interference at the receiver’s end. The difference was noticeable with the feature turned on but not as significant as I had expected. Google Assistant shines brightly on the Pixel 7a and lends a helping hand with things like At a Glance, which puts your reminders, events, flight schedule, etc on the home screen automatically for easier visibility. There is also the unblur feature that does a satisfactory job of bringing shaky photos back in focus.
Battery
The Pixel 7a actually has about the same battery capacity as the Pixel 7 at 4,385mAh but it charges just a bit slower at 18W. In terms of the overall battery life, the 7a lasts about six hours on a full charge, which I find more than acceptable for its size. Of course, this doesn’t entail any extreme GPU activity, which is likely to drain the battery rapidly. Juicing up the phone takes some time, two hours to be exact, and when you see competitor handsets topping up in less than 30 minutes, the Pixel 7a’s charging can feel quite slow.
Final verdict
If there’s one thing that has become abundantly clear it’s that the Pixel 7a is not that different from the regular Pixel 7. Differences lie only in the screen protection upfront, the resolution of the images snapped, the IP rating, and the lack of a 256GB storage variant. I feel that for most users such differences can become negligible when talking about the smartphone experience as a whole.
Both the Pixel 7a and Pixel 7 share the fundamental aspects of a Pixel phone, including outstanding image processing, AI-driven features, a lively display, and decent battery life. While the Pixel 7 is currently priced at Rs 49,999 on Flipkart, the Pixel 7a is available at a more affordable price of Rs 43,999, making it an attractive option for those seeking a top-notch smartphone experience from Google.
Of course, the Pixel 7a misses out on powerful processing capabilities, and its charging speeds are none too great compared to other contemporaries like the OnePlus 11R. All things considered, if you are in the market for quality point-and-shoot photography and a superlative Android experience, then the Pixel 7a would be the way to go.
Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5
Pros:
- Top-notch photography
- Refined, bloat-free UI
- Decent battery life
- Good display
Cons:
- Performance can feel lacking
- Slow charging speeds
- Comes only in 128GB storage
The post Google Pixel 7a review: a flagship-killing camera champ first appeared on 91mobiles.com.
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