A few weeks ago we offered you proof of the Google Pixel 6a , a smartphone that is still selling a lot as our rankings of the best-selling smartphones also testify , even more so now that it is at a super competitive price. What we couldn’t tell you, however, is that that rehearsal was above all with a view to then moving directly to the Google Pixel 7A and thus experiencing all the differences between the old and the new model by hand.
After more than two weeks I’m ready to tell you about this Pixel 7a which I consider a particular smartphone since it’s practically an improved Pixel 6a in everything, so much as to make it practically the twin brother of Google Pixel 7 with subtleties that make the difference such as quality of the assemblies, the bluetooth version, 5 grams in weight, 2mm in height, the cinema mode in the videos and little, very little else.
Net of these few differences, we find ourselves with a Pixel 7 that offers more but watch out for the price of Pixel 7A: the price list reads €509 for the 8/128GB version but since launch we can “discount” it by €99 considering that it is You can get the Google Pixel Buds A bundled.
INDEX
- DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION QUALITY
- DISPLAY, FINGERPRINT E FACE UNLOCK
- SOFTWARE
- DATA SHEET
- USER EXPERIENCE
- PHOTO AND VIDEO
- CONCLUSIONS
- PROS, CONS AND FINAL VOTE
CONSTRUCTION QUALITY AND DESIGN
Pixel 7A is a smartphone that from the first glance proves to be an upgrade compared to last year’s model and once touched by hand this sensation turns into actual reality. The design is not distorted but improved , for example maintaining the iconic Pixel Bar which goes from being in shiny plastic, subject to scratches, to recycled aluminum. Of course the rooms are now visible and no longer hidden by the black of the previous Pixel Bar but trust me that the effect, especially live, is successful. I also found the plastic of the back cover improved and less slippery even if in this gray color it retains many fingerprints. The only con I can point out is the weightbecause we go from the 178g of Pixel 6A to the almost 194g of 7A which are practically comparable to the 197g of Pixel 7, we no longer have that feeling of featherweight.
Just staying on the subject of colors, I remind you that this year there are four available: Black, White and Blue available in all sales channels and the exclusive Coral color, my favorite, only through the Google Store. Since we’re on the subject of colors, I tell you that the Buds A are also available in a new blue variant! Going back to the Pixel 7a, the smartphone is a little thicker than the 6a but the metal frame gives us much more satisfying feedback and the phone used without a cover has never given me the sensation of slipping between my hands , something that occasionally it happened with in 6A.
Delving into the equipment of the frame we discover that compared to Google Pixel 7 here we have two microphones instead of three while for the rest we have no differences: type c 3.2, lower main speaker, trolley for a physical sim (it is possible to use an eSIM in pairs) and key power button and volume rocker placed on the right side. I use the last two lines for a certification and resistance factor as the Pixel 7A is protected on the front by a Gorilla Glass 3, instead of the Pixel 7’s Victus, and has IP67 protection against the Pixel 7’s IP68.
Hardware
8
Quality Price
Google Pixel 7
BEST PRICE
€499
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Hardware
8
Quality Price
Google Pixel 7 Pro
BEST PRICE
€705
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DISPLAY, FACE UNLOCK AND FINGERPRINT
Google Pixel 7A finally inherits from Pixel 7 and 7 Pro the face unlock , much desired by Pixel 6A users since they are not very satisfied with the one with the fingerprint which, especially before the feature drop of March 2023, left much to be desired. If the face unlock works well even in adverse lighting conditions, even for the fingerprint sensor I have nothing to complain about: both my bold young fingers and those of my father, full of calluses, are recognized without problems even if that slow animation remains which often makes us think that the unlock is not happening correctly or that it takes longer than expected. To put even more stress on the fingerprint sensor, as you will see in the video review, we have also applied very thick tempered glassand with the switchable “screen protection mode” option the sensitivity remained the same, fine.
Once the Pixel 7A is unlocked, we find ourselves in front of a display much more similar to that of the 6a than that of the Pixel 7 with an area occupied by the screen of 84.3% and a measured peak brightness that stops at less than 1000 nits in automatic mode . Furthermore, just like the Pixel 6A, after a fairly prolonged time outdoors, the smartphone goes into energy protection by significantly lowering the brightness. This phenomenon just described is very frequent in current smartphones if you think that it happens to me every summer with the iPhone Pro and various top of the Android range but in the middle of spring it is much more rare for it to happen, we will update you on social networks as we get closer to summer .
Speaking of technical specifications, the Pixel 7a offers us a 6.1 “FHD + OLED display with finally a 90Hz refresh rate and a true color depth model . There is support for HDR10 + and HEVC in third-party applications such as Netflix and ultimately count the panel of this 7A is nice to see.Within the settings we can only choose between two color presets: Adaptive or Natural and the difference between the two is not that remarkable, personally I have always preferred to keep the choice on adaptive colors .
SOFTWARE AND UPDATES
By hooking up to the display settings and the screenshots shown above, you will notice that the available software version is obviously Android 13: although Android 14 came out in its first beta form and we also talked about it recently, its official release is still far away. Google promises 5 years of Pixel updates or at least 5 years of security patch support plus quarterly feature drops that we have already had the opportunity to test with the latest proof of the Pixel 6A where a simple update has almost turned a phone upside down.The thing I appreciate about the Google A series is that they are not snubbed, on the contrary, they are treated on a par with the top-of-the-range Pixels, just what companies like Xiaomi, OnePlus, Motorola and so on are often asked.
The Pixel 7A does not have exclusive software functions but inherits all those that we have already started to know with other Google smartphones such as clear calling, the Summary showing weather and departure time for the airport in case we have a plane ticket in the wallet , transcription of voice messages, the automatic translator and many other goodies, while some such as the “smart” voice recorder, which recognizes and labels who is speaking, is still available only to those who use Pixels with US / English language.
DATA SHEET
- dimensioni: 152 x 72,9 x 9 mm
- weight: 193.5g
- display: OLED 6.1″ FHD, refresh rate 1-90Hz, aspect ratio 20:9, 429 PPI, high brightness mode,
HDR support, 24-bit full depth or 16 million colors
- Processor: Google Tensor G2
- security chip: Google Titan M2
- memory:
- 8GB of Samsung LPDDR5 RAM
- 128GB UFS 3.1 Micron
- connettività: 5G, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Type C 3.2, NFC
- security : in-display fingerprint sensor, 2D face unlock
- resistance: IP67, Gorilla Glass 3
- OS: Android 13
- cameras:
- front: 10.8MP
- posteriori:
- 64MP main OIS
- 13MP ultra wide angle
- charging: 18W cable/wireless
- Extreme Battery Saver for 72 hours of battery life
- colori: Cotton, Carbon, Arctic Blue
- prezzo: 509€
PERFORMANCE AND FUNCTIONALITY
Having come to talk about performance and hardware, it is impossible not to mention the transition from Tensor 1 to Tensor 2 which on paper should be a very important generational leap and instead in everyday life, now that Tensor 1 has been optimized after various and various updates, the difference it’s so glaring. Put Pixel 6a and 7a side by side, in opening social, shopping and multimedia apps such as Netflix or photoediting apps, the difference is minimal in the short term while when we go to stress the device over an extended time the 7a manages temperatures better and always remains fluid. In the gaming field the same is true, also because both smartphones have LPDDR5 ram and UFS 3.1 memories, just the Pixel 7A has 2 GB of ram which are still handy in the future.
Although the Google Tensor is pointed out as a top-of-the-range SOC, using it these days next to the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 I could not help but notice when the smartphone with Snap SOC was infinitely more responsive and heated much less, remaining fluid with just some loss of frames even after 1h 30min gaming sessions with games from the Honkai Star Rail series in maximum detail, a scenario where the Pixel 7A after about ten minutes starts losing frames and after about twenty it goes into thermal throttling. It’s clear that whoever buys a Google Pixel 7a doesn’t do it to play games but I can’t get the idea of a Pixel 8 with Snap processor or otherwise produced by TSMC instead of SAMSUNG out of my head, it would be a dream, especially for the autonomy !
AUTONOMY AND RECHARGE
Yes, because if the consumption of the Tensor in gaming use is negligible, being a use that 90% of those interested in this smartphone will not even consider, the consumption in standby and in social use certainly isn’t. Pixel 7 is a smartphone which, like its predecessor, thanks to its 4300mAh battery, allows us to reach 4h, maximum 4h30min of active screen in my most stressful weekly day, which I remember being 200km by car with constant cell changes, all the time in 5G, Android Auto Wireless with two hours of Maps and Apple Music for a consumption of about 600mb of data, lots of photos and videos and social use.
In the quietest day under WiFi with only social use I managed to arrive in the evening with 60% of remaining battery and just under 3h of active display, not too exciting numbers. Connecting to the first speech, I imagine this smartphone with a Snap 7+ Gen 2 and I imagine much lower consumption with at least 1h more display on a stress day and 2h on a more standard day. Fortunately, in standby consumption is much lower than that of the Pixel 6A.
MICROPHONES, SENSORS AND RECEPTION
Calling with the Pixel 7A is satisfying, forget the “you said I didn’t understand anything” even in full wind situations where, even if you don’t have the excellent cancellation of the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, your voice will still remain well defined. Of course, losing a microphone compared to the three flagship models is no small thing, but the Pixel 7A, as you can also hear in the video review, remains one of those few mid-range smartphones that you can take to a concert and not go home disappointed with everyone. videos with crackling sound .
The proximity and brightness sensors work very well and the reception is good although sometimes the switch between 4G and 5G is slower than others and on some sporadic occasions I had to activate and deactivate the airplane mode to force the switch, perhaps due to still immature software.
DOUBLE SPEAKER and DOLBY ATMOS
The Pixel 7a’s dual speaker is excellent, albeit nothing revolutionary, in line with the Pixel 7 and 6a in terms of quality, which in any case turns out to be an excellent result. We do not have Dolby Atmos or particular software functions to support it but everything is entrusted to the main speaker and the ear capsule which enriches the audio without however giving us balanced stereo audio or with particular functions such as delivering more or less power from one or the other speaker based on how we rotate the smartphone, a function currently seen only on the iPhone.
CAMERA
Defining the Google Pixel 7A a cameraphone could be a bit forced, considering the absence of a telephoto lens, an excellent selfie camera and sensors at the base with dimensions smaller than 1/1.5″, but you will know better than me by now how much Google you focus a lot on software and computational photography and in fact this 7a, just like 6a, performs real miracles by capturing shots often on par with Galaxy S23 and iPhone 14 Pro and which are infinitely better than mid-range smartphones such as Poco F5 and Redmi Note 12 which, even if they have been enriched with an optical stabilizer, lose a lot due to a meager and careless software 
PHOTOS WITH 2X DIGITAL, THE GOOGLE SUPERZOOM is FANTASTIC
Pixel 7a boasts a new main 64MP sensor, optically stabilized, which guarantees us excellent results in every usage scenario and with a 4 to 1 binning it guarantees us final 16 megapixel photos . At night, or in low light scenarios, the Pixel 7a does little worse than the Pixel 7 but the results, especially when viewed from the smartphone display, are superimposable. Even the 13 megapixel ultrawide has an edge over the canonical 8 megapixels that we are now used to seeing under €500.
The videos reach up to 4k / 60fps for the main sensor and 1080p / 60fps for the front camera where the Pixel 6A only stopped at 30fps. The video quality is excellent, not only through the stock app but also in applications such as Instagram or Snapchat which also integrate the possibility of interchanging the wide angle camera with the ultra wide angle one
CONCLUSIONS
Before drawing conclusions, let’s do a small summary, especially in relation to what has improved compared to the Pixel 6A: much more resistant and premium to the touch but heavier, improved display with 90Hz refresh rate, improved connectivity, improved SOC and 2GB of More RAM, improved main camera and selfie cam, slightly better battery, and now there’s wireless charging.
It goes without saying that this Pixel 7A, net of what has been highlighted, is an exceptional smartphone in the mid-range where for about two years almost no manufacturer has innovated and improved a product so much . The biggest limitation of this Pixel 7A, excluding a cable recharge that is too slow at 18W, is however precisely that with all these improvements it has become practically a Pixel 7 with however 2mm less height, 5 grams less weight, none cinematic mode in the videos and few, very few other differences. If today your question was “Marco do you recommend Pixel 7 or 7A?” my answer would be: “the one you pay the least!” and staying on the subject of prices,even if the Pixel 7A comes out at €509 in the 8/128GB version, I remind you that there is already a bundle with the Google Pixel Buds A, headphones with a commercial value of €99 that already lower the price towards those much more competitive €400 for such a product, looking forward to a drop in price in the coming months. And you? What do you think? Let us know below in the comments.
Bundle at launch: from 10 May to 22 May, with the purchase of one of the new Pixel 7a models on Amazon.it, the end customer will be able to receive in combination (at the suggested price of the smartphone only) one of the four Buds models at Series of your choice (including the new blue color variant)
STILL COMPACT IN SIZE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS ALMOST LIKE TOPS UPDATES AND SOFTWARE VIBRATION FEEDBACK
TOO SIMILAR TO THE PIXEL 7 RECHARGE 18W IN 2023
VOTE: 8
VIDEO
