If you’ve been following the progression of Google’s Pixel line of smartphones, you’ll know how it goes: first there is the flagship device announcement, the top-of-the-line device that comes with an equally top-of-the-range price. Then, a few months later, the budget device follows, offering fewer features but a lower price tag. Over time, those devices have increasingly punched above the weight of their price tag.
In this case, it’s the turn of the Pixel 7a. Google’s new smartphone doesn’t make any great leaps in terms of design. The camera bar is back, similar to the Pixel 7, and the whole look is broadly similar to what we’ve come to expect from Google’s smartphone range.
The display clocks in at 6.1 inches, with a refresh rate of up to 90Hz. While it‘s not as smooth as the scrolling on a 120Hz display – usually the more expensive end of the smartphone market – it is noticeably better when the higher rate is enabled. The higher refresh rate is disabled by default though; you’ll have to dig around in the settings to find it.
The device comes with 8GB of RAM, so the device can handle switching between apps and tasks easily.
Google has also used its Tensor G2 and Titan M2 security chips in the phone to help beef up security for 7a users.
There are other security features too. The fingerprint reader will eliminate the need for a password in most cases. Face unlock, another security feature that is often ditched from the lower-spec smartphones, works well for the most part, only struggling in the worst lighting conditions.
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The Tensor G2 chip set is the same one that is included in the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, bringing some advanced photography features to the budget phone. You get Magic Eraser, which makes retouching photos to remove unwanted distractions in a couple of taps on the screen. The camouflage option is also good for disguising things in photos without any major skills in photo editing.
Pixel 7a users will also have the opportunity to unblur photographs that are in their library, not necessarily taken on an Pixel device. This could transform your entire photo library for the better, cleaning up those slightly fuzzy photos in your library that you thought were beyond help. It’s not a magic bullet – some photos will look a little too sharp in places – but it did rescue a few images that were just ever so slightly, noticeably out of focus.
If you want to use the Pixel 7a as your go-to camera, it does a good job, with a dual-lens camera and a decent front-facing camera with a 13 megapixel resolution.
It comes with Night Sight to deal with low-light images, which works well to brighten up images in less than ideal conditions. There is some softening of the image but nothing too detrimental to the end result.
Like the rest of the Pixel range, the 7a has Real Tone for more accurate representations of skin tone in photos, and Super Res Zoom for close up portraits.
Long exposure makes its debut appearance on the 7a too, so you can get those motion blur effects without having to download a separate app.
All this can take a toll on the battery, but the 7a has a 4400mAh battery that will easily last more than a full day without needing to be topped up.
Good
The Pixel 7a is yet another decent smartphone from Google. The inclusion of the Tensor G2 chip brings advanced features, such as the ability to unblur photos and speech recognition
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It also has extras that budget phones often ditch, such as wireless charging, which isn’t necessarily an essential but is convenient.
And it looks more expensive than you would expect, fitting in nicely with the rest of the Pixel line.
Bad
The new Pixel 7a is more expensive than its predecessor, to the tune of €50.
No expandable storage, so what you see is what you get – and what you get to fill up rapidly. Cloud storage is one way to ease the burden, with new customers getting free access to Google One for a few months before the fees kick in.
Everything else
The Pixel 7a is IP67-rated, which will give you a bit of protection when you need it. Corning Gorilla Glass on the front makes it a bit more resistant to bumps and breaks, but to breakage it is not immune. Invest in a case if you want to keep your phone scuff-free.
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It’s not just about physical durability and security though; the Pixel 7a guarantees at least five years of security updates, longer than most people hang on to a smartphone. That will make sure your phone is safe from threats and that software vulnerabilities are patched for the phone’s life cycle.
Verdict
A refined addition to the budget-friendly Pixel line-up.
