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Home / Reviews / Smartphones / Google Pixel 7a review: all you really need

Google Pixel 7a review: all you really need

Significant upgrades for Google's most affordable Pixel phone

Stuff Verdict

Gains features missing from its predecessor, while staying fast, long-lasting and able to take a killer photo. The Pixel 7a is the mid-range Android phone to beat.

Fantastic still images for a mid-range phone

Performance punches above its price bracket

Slick design and strong build

Price bump over last year’s effort

Charging speeds remain behind rivals

Introduction

While not quite as big a steal as they used to be, the Pixel A-series still pretty much rules the mid-range smartphone roost, by regularly delivering some of the best camera image processing you can get from a phone without dropping serious cash on a flagship.

That was still the case for last year’s Pixel 6a , but it was in danger of being left behind in other areas – ones affordable alternatives were only too happy to deliver. The Google Pixel 7a feels like a return to status quo. Google has taken the best bits of its pricier Pixel 7 and diluted them, ever so slightly, to hit a more wallet-friendly price point.

The top-tier CPU remains; features like a high refresh rate screen and wireless charging make the cut for the first time; and the main camera gets an all-new, high pixel count sensor to maximise detail and low light performance. The price has climbed as a result – is there enough here to remain a value champion?

Review originally published May 10 2023

How we test smartphones

Every phone reviewed on Stuff is used as our main device throughout the testing process. We use industry standard benchmarks and tests, as well as our own years of experience, to judge general performance, battery life, display, sound and camera image quality. Manufacturers have no visibility on reviews before they appear online, and we never accept payment to feature products. Find out more about how we test and rate products .

Design & build: family resemblance

At first glance you might wonder whether Google has changed anything about the A-series’ design between generations, but get the Google Pixel 7a in your hand and it immediately feels like a classier handset than the outgoing 6a. The recycled aluminium frame now extends to the distinctive camera shelf at the rear of the phone, and is a near-perfect match for the pricier Pixel 7.

The shelf doesn’t stick out quite as far here, and the display bezels are slightly thicker. Power and volume keys at the side match the frame’s matte finish, too, instead of reusing the polished and shiny buttons seen on the Pixel 7. It’s not a whole lot smaller, either, so you’ll need to be paying close attention to tell which phone is which.

The rear is still made from polycarbonate (ie plastic) and still picks up fingerprints at an astonishing rate. They might be less noticeable on the Sea, Snow and Coral colours (the latter being exclusive to the Google Store) than my Charcoal review unit. IP67 water resistance makes a welcome return, and Gorilla Glass promises a degree of protection for the screen.

You get the choice of face and fingerprint unlocking, although only the latter can be used to authenticate banking apps and the like. Both were able to recognise me quickly, and the under-display fingerprint sensor is placed a sensible distance from the edge of the phone so you can reach it easily.

Screen & sound: up to speed

Screen size and resolution haven’t changed from last year, meaning the Google Pixel 7a gets a 2400×1080 OLED panel stretched across 6.1in. That’s refreshingly compact in a world where even affordable Android phones average 6.5in or larger.

The big upgrade is to refresh rate, which now tops out at 90Hz. It might not match 120Hz rivals like the Nothing Phone 1 for fluid motion, but is a big improvement on the Pixel 6a and its 60Hz display. You can’t force it on constantly, with Google dynamically switching between 60 and 90Hz based on what’s onscreen. It’s also disabled by default, needing a trip to the Settings menu to turn it on. But seeing how much smoother it makes every swipe and web page scroll feel, you’re going to want to take the minor hit to battery life.

Epic contrast and punchy colours are par for the course for an OLED panel, so the Pixel 7a duly delivers. Still images and videos have plenty of pop, while still staying true to life. The Natural colour preset dials things back a little if things seem oversaturated out of the box, but there’s no fine-grain control over temperature or tone. Still, it’s as sharp, saturated and well defined as any mid-range rival.

The screen is considerably brighter than the outgoing model, which already had a brightness boost mode that kicked in when you stepped outside. It’s not as retina-scorching as more expensive alternatives, but I had no trouble using it in bright sunshine, and viewing angles are great. The flat panel doesn’t have to content with light reflections like curved glass phones do, either.

Not much seems to have changed on the audio front, but that’s no bad thing: the Pixel 6a’s stereo speakers did a fine job for podcast listening or YouTube playback, and the 7a sounds just as clear. The down-firing driver and earpiece tweeter don’t have any real bass, but vocals are clear and there’s ample volume. Google would quite like to sell you a pair of Pixel Buds A-Series for personal listening, so you won’t find a 3.5mm headphone port here.

Cameras: effortless, excellent

Older A-series phones did plenty with their modest camera sensors, but the 7a follows in the footsteps of the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro with a 64MP main snapper. As well as a significantly higher pixel count than the Pixel 6a, the sensor is also physically larger, meaning it can capture a lot more light every time you press the shutter button. Pics are downsampled to 16MP, with Google’s consistently superb image processing algorithms then stepping in before you see the finished shot.

I was blown away by the amount of detail on show, with both close-ups and distance shots displaying fantastic clarity for the cash. And while it can’t deliver the natural depth of field that a flagship phone with a 1in sensor or physical lens aperture can, portraits do still show some pretty background blur. In some scenes you’d easily think photos were shot on hardware costing several times the price.

Google’s processing still leans towards heavier shadows and a more natural colour balance than either Samsung or Apple, who deliver a slightly punchier presentation, but dynamic range was consistently fantastic, exposure well judged and noise almost completely absent. Skin tones remain very well judged for the most part thanks to the firm’s Real Tone skin tone mapping, and autofocus was always quick to pick out my subjects. I did notice a few shots leaned more heavily towards red tones than I’d expect, though.

Night Sight kicks in automatically in very low light, and while it still needs a second or two of steady hands for the sharpest shots, detail is once again very impressive. Even without it, colours stay accurate and noise is kept to a minimum. It’s here where the gap between the 7a and the much more expensive competition widens, but not by as much as you’d think.

The main camera is backed up by a 13MP ultrawide lens, which misses out on the Macro Focus close-up abilities of the pricier Pixel 7 Pro. Colour balance, dynamic range and exposure are very closely matched, and it isn’t short on detail either. There’s some softening at the edges on account of lens correction, and low light performance isn’t quite as good, but it otherwise puts in an impressive showing that few similarly-priced rivals can match.

There’s no dedicated telephoto lens (hardly a surprise given the price), although Google’s Super Res zoom adds up to 8x magnification with impressive surface clarity. They don’t hold up quite as well under scrutiny, but are perfectly usable between 2x and 4x – a great showing for a mid-range phone.

Long exposure is a fun new addition to the A-series range, which (like the rest of the camera app) does most of the heavy lifting for you. There are no settings to tweak, just point, shoot and hold steady for a few seconds, even in bright light. It works best at night though, creating funky light trail effects with very little effort.

Selfie lovers will appreciate the front-facing camera’s resolution bump, up from 8MP in the Pixel 6a to 13MP here. The shots it takes are detailed, colourful and noise-free in good light, with only a slight softening once you step indoors. Finer facial details are captured and dynamic range is very respectable. It’ll also manage 4K video at 30fps, which is unheard of from the current crop of cut-price Chinese competition.

Performance & software: material gains

The Pixel 7a inherits its Tensor G2 CPU from its bigger brothers, meaning this mid-range phone has the firepower of a full-on flagship. Android feels perfectly peppy as a result, opening apps quickly and happily running two at once in split-screen. 8GB of RAM ensures it’s a better multitasker than the outgoing Pixel 6a, and Google’s bespoke Titan M2 chip handles hardware-level security. Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered phones costing twice as much still have it licked for raw performance, but unless you care deeply about benchmark scores you’re unlikely to care.

It handles games well too. Demanding gacha RPG Honkai: Star Rail defaults to mostly high settings, and ran with only a few minor hitches when transitioning between levels or battles got especially hectic. That’s a great showing for a mid-range phone, and means most 3D games available in the Play Store will run just fine. The Pixel 7a has zero issues playing simpler, 2D titles.

128GB of storage is about what I’d expect for the cash, although unlike some rivals Google won’t sell you a higher capacity model for more money. Buyers qualify for discounted Google One cloud storage, in case you find yourself running low on space.

The Pixel 7a dropped with Android 13 on board, but was naturally among the first in line for Android 14 once Google unleashed that version to the public. If you hate constantly refreshing that “check for updates” button, a Pixel remains your best bet. At least five years of security patches are planned, which is great if you’re shopping for a long-haul handset, and it’ll get semi-regular Feature Drops like the rest of the Pixel line-up.

There’s no pre-installed bloat, just a full selection of Google-made apps, and the interface is just as its maker intended: easy to navigate and a joy to customise, thanks to Material You theming which colour-codes app icons and UI elements to match your wallpaper. Recent additions like Google One VPN and Clear Calling, which automatically cuts out background noise during voice calls, are ready to use out of the box.

Battery life: day tripper

With a 4385mAh battery, the Pixel 7a squeezes in more cells than the Samsung Galaxy S23, which costs twice the price. That capacity also ever-so-slightly edges out the standard Pixel 7, but both phones have near-identical lifespans away from the mains.

Google’s 24 hour estimate felt a little optimistic to me, although that could be because the adaptive battery mode had yet to learn which apps I used most frequently. I still comfortably lasted all day in mixed use, taking lots of photos, watching a few Netflix shows, scrolling through social apps and streaming music to our Bluetooth headphones. You can usually hold off charging until the next morning, rather than plugging in at bedtime.

Gaming takes a bigger toll on remaining juice, so play time should be rationed if you’re not going to be able to plug in for a while. Extreme battery saver can get you out of a pinch by pausing everything except critical apps, boosting standby time to as much as three days. Just don’t expect to use the phone for much more than calls or texts while it’s enabled.

Overall longevity falls behind battery champs like the more affordable Honor Magic 5 Lite , but stays on par with mid-range rivals that have bigger screens.

18W wired charging is what I’d call the bare minimum for a modern phone, and means you’re looking at multiple hours tethered to a plug socket to fully refuel the battery. Neither of the more expensive Pixels are much faster though, and none come with a power brick in the box, so you aren’t missing out by sticking with the 7a. Chinese alternatives like the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ remain leagues ahead here.

Wireless charging is a pleasant surprise, though, and something only found on the Nothing Phone 1 at this price point. It isn’t especially speedy at a mere 7.5W, but is still handy for a cable-free refill.

Google Pixel 7a verdict

With zippy performance, a battery that can go all day between top ups, and a pair of cameras that take superb photos for the cash, the Google Pixel 7a once again proves an A-series is almost all the phone an Android fan needs. That it now looks and feels like a pricier device, thanks to nicer materials and a higher refresh rate screen, only highlights the exceptional value. It comfortably outmuscles direct rivals like the Samsung Galaxy A54, and takes better pics than the slightly more affordable Nothing Phone 1.

A larger screen, marginally faster charging and a few extra camera modes are now all that separate it from the pricier Pixel 7. That might be bad news for Google’s bottom line, but is fantastic for customers – even with the price hike over the previous generation.

Unless you’re looking to spend almost double the cash on a flagship with even more versatile cameras, the Pixel 7a won’t leave you wanting for anything.

Stuff Says…

Score: 5 /5

Google Pixel 7a technical specifications

A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. As Deputy Editor, Tom keeps the website ticking along, jam-packed with the hottest gadget news and reviews.  When he's not on the road attending launch events, you can usually find him scouring the web for the latest news, to feed Stuff readers' insatiable appetite for tech.

Areas of expertise

Smartphones/tablets/computing, cameras, home cinema, automotive, virtual reality, gaming

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Google Pixel 7a review: Setting the (Real) Tone

Published on November 2, 2023

Google Pixel 7a

What we like, what we don't like.

Flagships might get all the attention, but smartphone battles are won and lost in the middle — er, mid-range. OEMs look for ways to close the gap on their premium offerings while still trying to hit approachable price points and balancing the cuts that must be made along the way. Google is no stranger to this, with its Pixel A series always landing among the best budget Android phones  you can buy, but what happens when it raises the bar to within $100 of its most complete flagship to date? Find out in our Google Pixel 7a review.

Update, November 2023: We’ve updated this Pixel 7a review to include details of the Android 14 update, new competition, and more.

Google Pixel 7a review: What you need to know

• Google Pixel 7a (8GB/128GB): $499 / £449 / €509 / CAD $599

Google launched the Pixel 7a in May 2023 as part of its annual Google I/O presentation. It landed as the cheapest member of the Pixel 7 family and the direct successor to the Pixel 6a just ten months after that phone’s launch, though it won’t be replacing it in Google’s lineup quite yet. Instead, the Pixel 7a will retail for $499 — a $50 bump over its predecessor’s launch price — with the Pixel 6a dropping to a budget-friendly $349.

Google’s ever-reliable mid-range offering follows its tried-and-true formula of pulling key features from its flagship cousins while cutting a few corners to keep the costs slightly lower. The gap is even tighter this year, though, as the Pixel 7a picks up more “premium” features like wireless charging, an extra 2GB of RAM, and Face Unlock.

Before we get to those added goodies, let’s start with the hardware. The Pixel 7a hasn’t changed much in size or materials, offering a 6.1-inch flat OLED panel made of Gorilla Glass 3. The display now has a smoother 90Hz refresh rate to go with the Full HD+ resolution (1,080 x 2,400), an upgrade from the previous 60Hz. Outside of the Gorilla Glass panel, the Pixel 7a features a tactile alloy frame and a 3D thermoformed composite back panel — regularly known as plastic. Regardless of the materials, the Pixel 7a has an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance.

Sticking to the small but mighty theme, the Pixel 7a offers the smallest battery of the Pixel 7 family and sacrifices a few milliamp hours compared to the Pixel 6a , dropping to 4,385mAh. It matches the Pixel 6a with 18W wired charging through the USB-C 3.2 port but adds 7.5W Qi wireless charging to the mix — a first for the Pixel A series. Google’s mid-ranger comes in a single configuration with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of fixed storage, and the Tensor G2 chipset under the hood — check out our Pixel 7a specs breakdown for more info and comparisons.

Like the premium Pixel 7 pair, the Pixel 7a now has a tactile alloy visor protecting its camera bar, which houses some of the phone’s most notable upgrades. Gone is the trusty 12.2MP primary and 12MP ultrawide duo of the Pixel 6a, with many, many megapixels in its place. The Pixel 7a combines a 64MP primary camera — the highest megapixel count of any Pixel camera to date — with a 13MP ultrawide camera and a 13MP punch-hole selfie camera on the front.

Slim, light packaging is the trend right now, and Google is playing it safe. The Pixel 7a comes bundled with a one-meter USB-C cable, Quick Switch Adapter, SIM ejector tool, and some simple paperwork in a small, white box.

Although the Pixel 7a brings meaningful improvements to key features, it faces tough competition. Samsung’s Galaxy A54 5G now has a slight edge on price and software support but doesn’t match the Pixel’s wireless charging or camera processing chops. The Apple iPhone SE (2022) is an option if you’re willing to consider iOS, too. However, like the Pixel 6a before it, Google’s most formidable competition comes from its own Pixel 7 and the newly-reduced Pixel 6a. The former costs just $100 more and gains a bigger battery, faster wireless charging, and more premium build materials, while the latter lets you walk away with a Pixel phone with an extra $150 still in your pocket.

The Google Pixel 7a launched for open sales on May 10 in over a dozen countries. It’s available in the US and Canada, as well as throughout Europe and Australia, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and India. Google’s mid-ranger is widely available in three colors: Snow, Charcoal, and Sea. There’s also a Google Store-exclusive Coral version, though it’s unavailable in Japan and India. We received both the Snow and Sea models, which can be seen pictured throughout this review.

Google Pixel 7a design: What’s changed since the Pixel 6a?

As Roger Daltry, singer of The Who, might say: “Meet the new design, same as the old design.” Google is well known for porting its flagship traits to the Pixel A series, so there’s very little surprise when you pick up the Pixel 7a for the first time. It’s kind of like a younger sibling who watches their big brothers and sisters head off to school and then tries to put on their clothes and act like one of the cool kids. The camera bar, the boxy design, and the comfortable alloy frame are all there, like they are on the Pixel 7, just a bit smaller and a bit less polished. Also, like the flagship models, the Pixel 7a comes in single-color finishes. It’s not a bad look — especially if you opt for Sea or Coral — but I’m still waiting for something really funky from Google like another two-tone “panda” Pixel.

One benefit to the phone’s almost-identical design to the Pixel 7 — a device I’ve tested extensively over the past few months— is that I could just about find all of the Pixel 7a’s buttons and ports with my eyes closed. Both the power key and the volume rocker reside on the right side of the alloy frame, but they’re mounted slightly lower, making them easier to reach when wielding the phone with one hand. The Pixel’s single SIM tray is the only scar on the left edge, while the bottom-mounted USB-C port is flanked by speakers and the microphone, as is tradition. Google brought back its 3D thermoformed composite for the rear panel, too. There’s not much reason to call it anything fancier than the plastic that it is, but it doesn’t feel cheap in the hand.

Google’s Geordie La Forge-esque camera bar also benefits from the updated design, taking on a look that’s almost indistinguishable from the Pixel 7 . The Pixel 7a’s two lenses peek out from an oval cutout on the otherwise alloy visor (which is set to stunning, get it?), joined only by the flash. Overall, it helps to minimize the appearance of the camera bar itself and probably stands up better than the previous glass should your Pixel take a tumble — but we highly recommend buying a Pixel 7a case either way. Even if you drop your phone, the camera bar is almost flat, sticking out no more than a millimeter from the rear plastic.

At first, it might look like Google kept the same 6.1-inch Full HD+ OLED panel from the Pixel 6a, too, but that’s not entirely true. Where the Pixel 6a came with a 60Hz refresh rate, the Pixel 7a now sports a faster 90Hz panel for smoother animations, and I could immediately tell the difference under my finger with a few swipes and scrolls. However, the Pixel 7a is locked to 60Hz out of the box, so you’ll have to head into the settings app to toggle the full rate. It’s not difficult — open the Display section and scroll down to Smooth Display — but it’s an odd default setting given the improved display. Otherwise, the Pixel 7a is still wrapped in noticeable bezels, though I can’t figure out if they’re thicker than the previous generation or if they stick out a bit more against the light blue frame on the Sea finish.

The long-overdue upgrade to a 90Hz refresh rate puts the Pixel 7a ahead of rivals like the iPhone SE (2022), but it still falls behind others like the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G with its 120Hz rate. Even Motorola’s budget crowd is getting in on the 120Hz game, with the Moto G Power 5G picking up a smooth panel. Google’s OLED is also made of the aging Gorilla Glass 3 grade from Corning, which lags behind Samsung’s more refined and durable Gorilla Glass 5 sandwich.

While the Pixel 7a’s materials might not be cutting edge, especially given the $50 price increase, its feeling in hand is almost perfect. The alloy frame is slightly rounder than the previous Pixel 6a and bleeds into the plastic back almost seamlessly. It feels noticeably softer in the palm of my hand than the Galaxy A54 5G’s sharp transition from its plastic frame to the flat rear glass. There’s a slight heft to the Pixel 7a as well, which makes it feel a bit sturdier than either the Galaxy A54 5G or Pixel 6a. I wouldn’t call it hefty, just sturdy.

Before anyone complains, no, there is no headphone jack . No, there isn’t a microSD slot, and you can’t remove the battery. However, the Pixel 7a is IP67 rated, so you’ve got some reassurance against any water and dust damage.

Google Pixel 7a performance: Benchmarks and testing

Google infused its Pixel A series with an extra kick when it moved to its in-house Tensor silicon on the Pixel 6a. It brought improvements to image processing, adaptive charging, and all-around performance, even if we had concerns over how well the Tensor operated under heavy load. Google has now had an extra year to fine-tune its chipset, but how much improvement does the Tensor G2 bring?

I’ll be frank — the Pixel 7a doesn’t feel more powerful than its predecessor in practice. It doesn’t have to, though, since the Pixel 6a rarely stuttered or struggled with day-to-day tasks. I’ve still been able to cover my bases for regular use, including Nike Training Club workouts, social media scrolling to keep up with Google’s endless I/O announcements, and hours of Spotify streaming via Bluetooth while I’m running, driving, or writing. The Pixel 7a doesn’t lag through any of that; it just heats up instead.

While the Tensor G2 is a powerful chipset, it still hasn’t figured out its thermal management. I still run into some pretty intense heating issues, primarily when gaming. Although it’s my favorite little time-waster at the moment and it ran just fine in my tests, I’ve had to remove Warhammer 40,000 Tacticus from my Pixel 7a just for the sake of battery life. A half-hour of entertainment warmed my phone and drained my battery to the point where I considered how early was too early to toggle Battery Saver. It also seems like most of the Pixel 7a’s heat goes to its alloy frame rather than its plastic back, which quickly becomes too warm to hold comfortably, especially in direct sunlight.

Google’s Tensor G2 chipset may be a powerful upgrade over the previous mid-range Snapdragon chipset days, but it doesn’t bring blinding benchmark improvements over the original Tensor. Instead, the Pixel 7a lands almost directly next to its predecessor on our leaderboard for CPU results. Its Geekbench 6 single-core score is just 2% away from its predecessor, with multi-core performance landing just 3% apart. These gaps are small enough that they could easily flip if the tests were re-run on a cooler or warmer day.

Although the Pixel 7a doesn’t run laps around its predecessor, it keeps pace with Google’s flagship Pixel duo. It lands next to the Pixel 7 on the PCMark Work 3.0 score and the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark. The similarities make sense, given the almost identical configurations on both devices. Both our Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a came with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage, as well as the Tensor G2 chipset. The Pixel 7a follows a similar pattern over the Wild Life Stress Test, too, starting off strong before losing steam after five or six runs as the Tensor G2 warms up, though it’s far more consistent than Google’s 2021 flagship, the Pixel 6.

As mentioned above, the Google Pixel 7a carries 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in its only configuration. This is a boost of an extra 2GB of RAM, though we’d still like to see higher storage options for those that might want it. That additional RAM brings the Pixel 7a even closer to its flagship counterpart, as demonstrated above, and it never felt like the memory was inadequate for my needs as I don’t notice any apps closing too aggressively in the background. Google’s mid-ranger comes with upgraded Bluetooth connectivity in the form of 5.3, and most models support Wi-Fi 6E for fast local network connections (if you’re in India, Taiwan, or Singapore, you’re limited to Wi-Fi 6). Importantly, any modem issues left over from the previous generation have been remedied; I’ve had no problems taking calls or switching between Wi-Fi, LTE, and 5G.

Google Pixel 7a battery life and charging tests

One of our main knocks against the Google Pixel 6a was its struggle to make the most of its battery and charging setup. Google claimed that it was equipped for more than 24 hours of battery life, a mark that we struggled to hit without religious use of Battery Saver mode. The Pixel 7a didn’t have to clear a high bar to show improvement, but we still had our concerns about how the Tensor G2 would chew through a charge. Then, Google trimmed the battery capacity. The Pixel 7a dropped from a 4,410mAh cell to a 4,385mAh cell — not much, but every last milliamp hour counts.

I haven’t spent enough time with the Pixel 7a to form a complete picture; a week is barely long enough to create consistent usage patterns for Adaptive Battery to really kick in. However, the early returns aren’t encouraging. Google still claims its battery can power beyond the 24-hour mark, and I still can’t quite get it there. Granted, I toggled my display up to the 90Hz option, which chugs through a bit more juice, but you shouldn’t have to neuter your hardware experience to keep your phone alive until bedtime.

My usage of the Pixel 7a is no different than with any other phone when I test them for review — I bounce between social media, Spotify streaming, and light gaming throughout my day. During a typical workday with the Pixel 7a, this was just fine. I could make it to bedtime with maybe about 20% of a charge left over. On a more intense day, like one that included a roundtrip to Baltimore with Spotify streaming over Bluetooth the entire way, 20% would have been a dream. Instead, I toggled Battery Saver before I left the city and got home with just about 4% to spare. I pulled the Pixel 7a off its charger at about 8:00 AM that day and returned home around 10:00 PM, good for a modest 14 hours away from a charger.

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but Google’s Tensor chipset isn’t exactly cool under pressure. The Tensor G2 is no different, warming up when pushed by everything from YouTube Shorts to the camera app to being used outside on a sunny day. It means that once your battery starts to tick down, it plummets. I had to turn off the Pixel 7a’s battery percentage indicator to keep myself from stressing over how quickly the charge falls away.

Days with heavier usage led to shorter returns, especially if they included gaming. Some titles, like Candy Crush, were fine and didn’t fire up the Tensor too much, but others, like Genshin Impact or Warhammer 40,000 Tacticus, caused me to put the Pixel 7a down for a rest every half hour to let it cool down.

When you drain your Pixel 7a down to nothing — which will happen almost daily — you have an exciting new option to get it powered back up again: wireless charging. Yes, the Pixel 7a finally supports Qi wireless charging, a first for the series. Before you get too excited, it’s limited to just 7.5W. I know I just finished calling wireless charging an exciting new addition, but it’s a sore letdown in practice. I placed my Pixel 7a at 10% charge on a 10W Anker pad just after noon one Sunday, and it took more than four hours to get back to full strength. It’s a convenience, but not one I’m likely to use again. Hoping it’ll be faster if you have Google’s own Pixel Stand (2nd gen) on hand? Sorry, that’s still over three hours.

For those in a bit more of a hurry, the Pixel 7a also offers 18W wired charging, which matches the previous Pixel 6a. This was my preferred method for charging during my review period, though I typically tapped into the overnight Adaptive charging to hit 100% in time for my morning alarm. When I charged during the day to see how long it took, the Pixel 7a let me down. I hooked it to a compatible USB Power Delivery PPS charger (though you technically only need a regular Power Delivery plug to hit the max charging) and sat down. One full Chelsea FC match later (including halftime), it was finally full. I stopped my timer after a very disappointing two hours and two minutes and all but promised myself never to charge during the day again. The slowest part of the charging process is the last 25%, but even getting to 75% takes a full hour, so you’ll also want to make sure that you have a compatible charger for your Pixel 7a .

Google Pixel 7a camera review: Is it the best budget camera phone?

Google isn’t usually one to rock the boat with its camera hardware. It stuck to a reliable 12MP and 12.2MP (or sometimes 16MP) duo for years, keeping its Pixel A series cemented among the best budget camera phones . Those days are now over. They’re so over, in fact, that you won’t find a single 12MP camera on the Pixel 7a. Not one. Instead, there’s a brand-new 64MP sensor holding down the camera bar.

While the sizable megapixel bump might sound impressive, we all know that more megapixels don’t necessarily mean better snaps. The Pixel 7a turns to pixel binning to make the most of its 0.8μm pixels, which are smaller than the previous 1.4μm pixels on the 12.2MP primary camera. Google’s ultrawide shooter got a bump, too, rising from 12MP to 13MP and expanding to a 120-degree field of view.

What hasn’t changed is Google’s fire-and-forget camera app. There are still no manual controls to sink your teeth into — just select your shooting mode and tap away. Outside the usual Camera and Portrait options, Google’s Long Exposure and Night Sight features hold their own tabs along the bottom edge, with extras like Panorama and Lens hidden under Modes.

As was the case with the Pixel 6a, the Tensor chipset does a lot of the heavy lifting to keep the camera punching above its mid-range price tag. The upgraded primary sensor helps too, but the processor is the icing on top. The Tensor G2 is loaded with clever editing tricks like Magic Eraser and Real Tone, though it doesn’t introduce much in the way of new tricks. Of course, the existing features are second to none, as you’ll see in a few minutes, but I’ve noticed a gap between tapping the shutter button and getting your final image. You might spend a second or two watching your image process before it’s truly ready — not long, but it can feel like an eternity to ensure you got your shot. The Pixel 7a also picked up the Palm Timer feature from the June feature drop, which allows you to self-time shots using the palm of your hand.

As is often the case when I’m testing the best camera phones , I spent most of my time with the Pixel 7a’s 64MP primary sensor. I found that the 80-degree field of view fits just enough of a scene without any distortion around the edges, and it holds onto details nicely. Spring in Pennsylvania and Maryland means a break from the gray days of winter and plenty of blue and green hues for the Pixel to recreate. The Pixel 7a generally sticks to a lifelike color profile, nailing the murkiness of Baltimore’s harbor water and the cloud coverage over the Beacon Feeds mill on the bottom row. Other scenes, like the bottom side of the pagoda in Patterson Park, take on a bit more saturation, but not so much that it feels unnatural.

Google’s portrait detection is excellent, too. Some mid-range phones (looking at you, iPhone SE), struggle outside of human subjects, but the Pixel 7a had no such trouble. Yes, the bust in the bottom row is spot-on, but so are the binoculars and the farm sign, even though the latter is set against a similarly brown background. The bokeh is soft but not too soft, and the background colors are accurate, though the green shades might be a bit punchy.

The Pixel 7a’s 13MP ultrawide camera is slightly wider than the Pixel 6a’s, shifting from a 114-degree to a 120-degree field of view. You can fit a little more into your shots, giving the same pagoda seen above a bit more sense of scale. It stretches off a bit further into the sky, but there’s no noticeable change in color profile from the primary camera. I also relied on the ultrawide camera to fit the front of Baltimore’s Broadway Market into the frame, as the primary camera only stretched across about two-thirds of the building without me standing in the middle of the street. Unfortunately, the Pixel 7a doesn’t support macro mode from its ultrawide sensor, unlike the standard Pixel 7 .

Despite the Pixel 7a’s serious bump in megapixels, there’s no corresponding bump in zoom capability. It’s now capable of up to 8x zoom compared to the Pixel 6a’s 7x maximum, but the difference isn’t noticeable. The camera app offers three toggles for ultrawide (0.5x), standard (1x), and zoom (2x), with everything else demanding some careful pinching and squeezing. There’s no change in color recreation across the four samples below and Google’s software is doing a decent job without a dedicated telephoto lens, but the limits of digital zoom show as the finer details start to break down when you hit 4x zoom and get even worse at 8x. You can still make out the deck furniture and some of the roof details, but the Tensor G2 seems to be relying heavily on processing and sharpening, especially on the brick wall. I wouldn’t hesitate to post 1x or 2x images to social media, but I wouldn’t share my 8x zoom results if I could help it.

Night Sight kicks in early and often on the Pixel 7a, but it’s not a bad thing in my experience. It seldom opts for the full six-second timer, instead preferring three seconds, returning images that walk the line between ambient and well-lit. The image of Lancaster’s Central Market brings accurate colors to the brick walls while keeping just enough of a glow around the strings of lights. Likewise, the orange moped was on a darker street, but the Pixel 7a still recreated plenty of detail in the headlight and the window display in the background. Night Sight also works from ultrawide to 8x zoom, so you shouldn’t have to worry about capturing a scene.

As mentioned above, the Tensor G2 is the star of the Pixel 7a’s image-processing smarts, bringing back features like Magic Eraser, Face Unblur, and Long Exposure. I spent most of my time with Magic Eraser and Long Exposure, mainly because I prefer to spend my time on hikes before the weather gets too warm. Magic Eraser picked up a camouflage feature on the Pixel 6a, and it’s back for the Pixel 7a. It works well, as seen in the image below, but I still prefer the base Magic Eraser. Although Magic Eraser missed a tiny piece of the top of my water bottle, you’d hardly notice it unless you were looking for it, while the camouflaged water bottle is still easy to spot.

The Tensor’s Long Exposure option is excellent, too. It requires just two or three seconds of exposure to turn the image on the left into the image on the right, blurring the moving water while keeping trees and rocks tack-sharp. Long Exposure requires you to hold your Pixel 7a completely still, much like Night Sight, but I had no problems propping it on the side of a bridge for the image below.

As part of its overhaul, Google bumped its selfie camera from 8MP to 13MP. We didn’t have any complaints about the previous generation sensor, and there aren’t any new issues to report. Some clouds are washed out in the standard selfie, but key details like my face, clothing, and the close background are accurate. You can pick out several shades of green in the trees and bushes and countless tangled branches. Google’s portrait identification is spot on, too, accurately tracing my hair and the edges of my shirt while ignoring the wood railing behind me. The Pixel 7a even accounted for the bottom of my hair in spots where I couldn’t be sure if it was curls or rocks over my right shoulder.

There are a few video updates in store for the Pixel 7a, too. It now supports 4K recording at 30fps from the selfie and ultrawide lenses, while the primary sensor continues to reach a little higher with 4K at 60fps. Google’s selfie video upgrade is the main talking point here, as the Pixel 6a capped off with just 1080p resolution at 30fps. The Pixel 7a doesn’t support Cinematic Blur — video portrait mode — but it does support Cinematic Pan on both the primary and ultrawide cameras, though the ultrawide lens is limited to 1080p.

At the end of the day, the Pixel 7a’s camera setup is still one of its main selling points. It continues to milk every last ounce of quality out of its primary and ultrawide setup and now carries the most megapixels of any Pixel so far. The Tensor G2 processor imbues it with editing modes and processing smarts for days, even if it skips a few of the most advanced flagship features. For under $500, you can’t get a better camera phone than this.

In October 2023, Google rolled out a few changes to the Pixel camera app. It received a new UI that simplifies and streamlines the experience, whether selecting video or stills capture or scrolling to find the right setting.

You can also check out full-size versions of these camera samples (and many more) in this Google Drive folder . Want even more Pixel 7a snaps? Head over to our Pixel 7a camera shootout where we pit the phone against the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 6a.

Anything else?

• Haptics: Google has built a reputation for its impressive haptics over the years. However, good vibrations are never guaranteed in the budget tier. Thankfully, the Pixel 7a delivers a good buzz, whether you’re typing or just receiving a notification.
• Biometrics: The Pixel 6a restored a little faith in Google’s fingerprint reader in 2022 after the Pixel 6’s awful scanner, but I was still a little nervous while setting up the Pixel 7a. Thankfully, I haven’t noticed any issues with the sensor, which has been quick and accurate so far. The Pixel 7a also picked up Face Unlock, which you can see above. It’s software-based, so not as secure as Apple’s Face ID or Google’s Pixel 4-era iteration, but it saves time if you have messy hands and would rather skip the fingerprint sensor.
• Audio:  Google’s mid-range Pixel 7a offers stereo speakers, pairing its earpiece with a single down-firing unit. The duo is, to my ear, louder than it was on the Pixel 6a, easily filling a room at full volume. I found it easy to pick out different instruments from the two speakers, with songs like Jason Isbell’s Cast Iron Skillet taking on a basic spatial audio sound. Bass notes tend to struggle at high volumes, as is common on smartphones, but the sound is good enough that you don’t need a Bluetooth speaker while you take a shower. There’s still no headphone jack, but Bluetooth 5.3 LE offers reliable connectivity for speakers and headphones.
• Software:  The Google Pixel 7a ran on Android 13 for the duration of my testing, receiving one update shortly after arrival as part of the review program. Pixel UI remains one of my favorite Android skins, offering a light, simple appearance that’s stuffed to the brim with Tensor-powered features. Google’s Material You themes continue to improve, with color-matched icons that reach beyond the first-party apps of previous software versions. There aren’t many new wrinkles on the Pixel 7a because we’ve already experienced Android 13 on the Pixel 6 series and Pixel 7 series, but that also means you get a familiar bevy of conveniences like offline Google Assistant voice typing, Now Playing, Live Caption, and — perhaps best of all — no unwanted bloatware. The phone has since received its Android 14 update.
• 5G:  The Pixel 7a’s Tensor G2 chipset comes prepared for 5G networks, and I had no problems getting set up on Verizon’s network. That said, the unlocked model only comes equipped with sub-6GHz connectivity. You’ll have to shop directly from Verizon to tap into Big Red’s mmWave speeds, which will set you back an additional $50. It may not make much of a difference if you live outside of the US or even outside of a major US city.
• Connectivity:  Google’s Pixel 7a comes well-equipped with many of the latest connectivity standards, though your Wi-Fi options will vary by country. Buyers in the US, much of Europe, Australia, and Japan will have access to Wi-Fi 6E , while shoppers in Taiwan, Singapore, and India will have Wi-Fi 6 instead. All models carry Bluetooth 5.3 (with Bluetooth LE), NFC for Google Pay and Nearby Share support. Unfortunately, the Pixel 7a still skips out on ultra-wideband support (UWB), which won’t be much of an issue at launch, but may disappoint some folks if/when Google’s long-rumored AirTag rival hits the market.
• Updates:  Solid update commitments are slowly becoming the rule rather than the exception, and Google’s Pixel family is helping to lead the charge. The Pixel 7a promises five years of Pixel updates, which combines three years of Android version support with five years of security coverage. It’s not quite as good as Samsung’s four years of Android version support, but it will keep the Pixel 7a feeling fresh through 2026 or longer, and the promise of Feature Drops mean you’ll get new things to try out every now and again. The June Feature Drop brought a few new features first shown off at Google I/O, including emoji wallpapers, the palm timer in the camera, and improved Recorder labeling functions. October’s drop included new monochromatic theme options, new editing options for wallpapers and widgets on the lock screen, charging accessory notifications, and app streaming for Chromebook users.

Google Pixel 7a specs

Value and competition.

The Pixel A series has always been a top pick for its value. Google kept the price locked at $449 for a few years while adding more and more flagship features, bringing its entries closer and closer to the flagship range. Now, the Pixel 7a finds itself in an increasingly tricky spot. It offers a few upgrades on top of the existing Pixel 6a but comes bogged down with a $50 price bump. I don’t think $499 is necessarily asking too much for what the Pixel 7a offers, yet I struggle to call it a slam dunk in the face of a very competitive overall market.

Some of the best Pixel 7a alternatives come from within its own family. Google is keeping its previous Pixel A entry on the market for the first time, giving the Pixel 6a ( $314 at Amazon ) a nice price cut for those who might not need wireless charging or care about the faster refresh rate display. At just $349, the Pixel 6a offers more than enough to entice you into saving money, pairing the original Tensor chip with a slightly older camera setup and bringing back a version of the Sage colorway we loved from the Pixel 5. It definitely feels a little more compromised in daily use compared to the more fully-featured Pixel 7a, but you won’t find Google’s powerful image processing at a better price.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to spend a little extra money, the Pixel 7 ( $545 at Amazon ) is just $100 more expensive, and it’s a steal. For your money, you get a larger display, improved materials (Gorilla Glass Victus on both sides), and faster charging, both wired and wireless. The Pixel 7 shares the same Tensor G2 chipset, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of base storage, but it’s hard to argue with the extra polish and more expansive camera features. Yes, the Pixel 7 is a little tougher to use with one hand, but it’s also frequently on sale, which makes the gap even tighter and harder to ignore.

Now that the Pixel 8 ( $699 at Amazon ) is official, it’s also worth consideration. It improves on almost every aspect of the Pixel 7 but does demand a $100 premium. This makes it much pricier than the Pixel 7a, so if you’re on the fence, it might be worth waiting for the Pixel 8a to debut before committing.

Google’s top competition from outside its own walls comes from the other famous A series: Samsung’s Galaxy A series. The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G ( $379.5 at Amazon ) beat the Pixel 7a to market, carrying its own unique set of tweaks and upgrades. Like the Pixel 7a, Samsung has moved its premium mid-ranger closer to its flagship lineup. The Galaxy A54 5G now looks and feels like a Samsung Galaxy S23 device, only with Gorilla Glass 5 and a plastic frame instead of Gorilla Glass Victus and Armor Aluminum. Samsung also trimmed a camera from its $450 competitor, axing its depth camera to bring its appearance closer to that of a flagship device. Unlike the Pixel 7a, however, Samsung’s in-house Exynos 1380 chipset doesn’t have the same performance headroom, and the sluggish 4K/30fps video cap ensures the Pixel 7a is a better-balanced camera phone.

Motorola has perhaps the widest array of Android competitors scattered around the Pixel 7a’s price point, but the most logical competitor is the Moto G 5G (2022) ( $189 at Amazon ). It’s a straightforward mid-ranger without extra perks like the stylus on the Moto G Stylus 5G ( $239.99 at Amazon ), but while it matches the Pixel 7a with a 90Hz refresh rate, you’ll have to make too many concessions regarding update support, video recording quality, even slower charging, and a dim screen. Here’s hoping the 2023 model can up its game.

If you’re willing to try iOS, Apple’s iPhone SE (2022) ( $429 at Amazon ) remains the most comparable option. It now has more of an advantage in pricing, but the Pixel 7a comes out on top throughout the hardware and software experience. Apple’s A15 Bionic blazes through everything you put in front of it, but you have to be comfortable using the tiniest display on the market — a badly dated 4.7-inch, 720p LCD panel. The iPhone SE (2022) carries just one rear camera, which isn’t tuned for portrait mode beyond human subjects and carries just 12MP for you to work with. On the bright side, Apple offers software updates longer than just about anyone, meaning that the iPhone SE (2022) will probably receive support well after the Pixel 7a’s five years of Pixel Updates have run out.

If you’re shopping outside the US, you have even more options. The Nothing Phone 1 ( £399.99 at Amazon ) is an eye-catching pick — literally — thanks to the rear Glyph Interface and its iPhone-like design. Other global options include the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus ( $350 at Amazon ), with its blistering 120W charging and 200MP primary camera, or the Poco F5 Pro ( $460.2 at AliExpress ), which offers a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset and up to 12GB of RAM without putting too much hurt on your wallet.

Should you buy the Pixel 7a?

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Pixel 7a is Google’s most polished, most complete mid-range offering to date. It pairs a form factor that melts comfortably into one hand with a Tensor G2 processor that’s so smart I didn’t want to put it down (at least until it got too hot). Google even introduced tangible upgrades like a 64MP primary camera, 90Hz refresh rate, and wireless charging — all three firsts for the Pixel A series. It’s up to its ears in features that make life more convenient, and yet I’m not sure that the Pixel 7a goes far enough.

Where Google’s previous $449 price point was good enough to paper over some of its cracks, the Pixel 7a now demands a full $500, sitting just a Benjamin shy of the flagship-tier Pixel 7. It asks you to tolerate 18W wired charging that sticks you at an outlet for at least two hours or more than three with the all-new wireless support. While the Tensor G2 is still a brilliant chipset ready to do your thinking for you, it’s also a thermal hog, requiring that you carefully balance your entertainment with enough relaxation to keep the Pixel 7a cool.

The real kicker is that the Google Pixel 7a is sandwiched between two close relatives in terms of price, both of which arguably offer better bang for your buck. And yet, at the same time, it’s an easy winner over mid-range rivals from Apple, Samsung, and Motorola thanks to its combination of smarts and style. At the end of the day, the Pixel 7a is like a middle child that gets forgotten while it’s at home but still shines as one of the most popular kids in school. Those kids exist, right?

Google Pixel 7a review: FAQ

Yes, the Pixel 7a supports Qi wireless charging at up to 7.5W.

The Pixel 7a comes with an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance, though it’s not truly waterproof.

No, the Pixel 7a comes with a USB-C cable and a Quick Switch Adapter, but no charger.

Yes, the Pixel 7a comes with both a single nano-SIM tray and support for eSIM.

No, the Pixel 7a offers 128GB of fixed storage without a microSD slot. You’ll have to use cloud storage if you want to save additional photos and files.

No, the Pixel 7a comes with a 6.1-inch display, which is smaller than the Pixel 7’s 6.3-inch display.

Google Pixel 7a review: Almost no reason to buy any other phone

The full google experience for a lot less money..

Android Central Verdict

The Pixel 7a might be the best Pixel Google has ever built. The price-to-performance ratio is off the charts good and the camera is better than ever thanks to a huge camera hardware upgrade. Unless you need better battery life or like to zoom beyond 5x, there's no reason to spend your $500 elsewhere.

Top-tier camera

Best build and haptics in its class

90Hz AMOLED display

Incredible Tensor G2 performance

Pixel features and updates

Great price

Some battery life issues

Only 5W wireless charging

Portrait mode cut-outs are still a bit sloppy

Why you can trust Android Central Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

• Price and availability
• Display and design
• Performance and battery
• Competition
• Should you buy it?

Last year, Google redefined what a Pixel A series device looked and felt like. The Pixel 6a was gorgeous and featured the same great Tensor processor as the more expensive Pixel 6 series, but it had to cut back a few things to ensure it met the $450 price tag.

This year, the Pixel 7a increases the price by $50 but addresses almost all the shortcomings of last year's model. It's got a 90Hz display, wireless charging support, a better fingerprint sensor, a faster processor with more features, and the biggest camera hardware upgrade ever for a Pixel A-series phone.

It's the new king of best cheap Android phones and it's hard to argue with any reason to spend more than $500 on a new phone this year — and a great Pixel 7a deal might make it even less — but it also isn't without at least one notable negative point.

During the review period, I ran into a few strange bugs with the front-facing camera that caused a lot of power drain. I've reported the bug to Google but, until then, using Face Unlock or Face Detect for Auto-Rotate features causes an inordinate power drain. Based on our lab tests and experience after disabling these features, though, the battery should be enough to get most people through more than a full day.

Google Pixel 7a: Price and availability

The Google Pixel 7a is available to order from Google and all of your favorite electronics stores, as well as a smattering of carriers for $499 USD / $599 CAD. The Pixel 7a is available in a total of 17 countries including:

• Netherlands

In the tiny box, you'll find the Pixel 7a alongside a USB-C to USB-C cable, a USB-A to USB-C adapter, a SIM tray eject tool, and the usual set of pamphlets. The Pixel 7a does not include a charger but supports up to 18W USB-PD charging speeds and 5W Qi wireless charging.

As usual, there's a slew of great Pixel 7a cases to get — you'll definitely want one since this phone is so slippery — and the best Pixel 7a screen protectors will keep that screen looking brand new for the life of the phone.

Google Pixel 7a: Display and design

The back might be plastic but the metal frame and camera bar will fool you into thinking this phone is more expensive than it is. The OLED Display is bright and beautiful — 200 nits brighter than the Pixel 6a — and it offers a smooth 90Hz experience.

PWM-sensitive folks should beware that the 240Hz rate is the same across the entire Pixel line.

If you thought the picture above was of the more expensive Google Pixel 7 , you probably wouldn't be alone. Everything about the Pixel 7a looks nearly identical to its more expensive counterpart down to the metal camera bar on the back and the in-display fingerprint sensor on the front.

And while it still uses the same style plastic back as the Pixel 6a did last year, the metal frame and camera bar housing did enough to convince me that this year's model felt more solid and better built than last year's. Not that I had much of an issue with the 6a's build quality at all but these little extras go a long way to making a cheaper phone feel more premium.

If I had to make one complaint about the redesigned build, it's that the plastic back is an absolute dust and fingerprint magnet. The amount of time I had to spend cleaning off the phone and then subsequently erasing smudges and dust specks in Photoshop felt almost unreal.

This thing will find any trace of dust anywhere on the planet and suck it right to its casing. Thankfully, the cases from Google will make you forget all about how the phone looks on its own and likely never want to go back to using the phone naked again.

The incredibly bright and vibrant one you see in the photos is Google's coral color which ranges between a salmon or azalea color in sunlight to an almost traffic cone orange in some types of fluorescent light. It's not too dissimilar from the Pixel 4's "Oh So Orange" colorway except that it completely surrounds the phone with lovely soft, grippy padding.

And trust me when I say you're probably going to drop this phone if you try to use it naked. Google swapped the slightly grippier side rails of the 6a to a smoother, duller metal that's as slippery as it gets. The edges of the display and corners of the camera bar are also very flat and nearly sharp to the touch, so a case helps round those out substantially.

But all the other pieces of the puzzle are chef's kiss good. Google's haptics are the best in the business and it's not even remotely close. The in-display fingerprint sensor is actually good and really, truly works. That's quite the opposite of the 6 series and, at least for me, much, much better than any in-display ultrasonic sensor Samsung uses on its phones.

You're probably going to drop this phone if you try to use it naked. It's very slippery.

Even the display has improved from one generation to the next. At nearly 200 nits brighter — according to testing done by Android Central's parent company, Future — this AMOLED display is incredibly easy to see outdoors and gets nice and dim in the dark.

Oh, and let's not forget the fact that Google addressed one of the biggest issues we had with the Pixel 6a: the display refresh rate. At 90Hz, the Pixel 7a's display is buttery smooth and feels great all around, even if the "Smooth Display" option isn't enabled out of the box.

The Pixel 7a's 90Hz display addresses one of our key complaints about the Pixel 6a.

Google is using an AMOLED display with PWM dimming which, unfortunately, makes me quite sick when using auto brightness. Unfortunately for me — and anyone else who suffers from PWM sensitivity — most modern AMOLED-powered phones use a relatively low-frequency PWM dimming frequency.

This means the display controls the "brightness" by flashing itself on and off several times per second. Most people don't perceive this flashing and aren't affected but folks who do — like myself — develop headaches and nausea when this happens.

Google Pixel 7a: Performance and battery life

This is the best-performing phone in its price range, offering flagship-level performance for $500. Battery life is good but some bugs caused it to be artificially worse for us.

As you might expect, the Google Pixel 7a got the upgraded Tensor G2 processor from the Pixel 7 series — the same processor that powers the upcoming Google Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet, in fact. As we saw with the Pixel 7, performance is great for everyday tasks and apps but it's not as fast for gaming as some of the top-end Qualcomm processors.

Of course, this isn't being sold as a top-end phone, so let's compare it to the Pixel 6a to see the improvement — and the Galaxy A54 5G to see what it's currently up against.

If performance is your top priority and you don't want to spend more than $500 on a phone, the Pixel 7a is the phone to get.

On the benchmark side of things, the Pixel 7a is roughly 10% faster than the Pixel 6a in Geekbench tests while most other benchmarks — 3DMark, CrossMark, Web XPRT — show nearly identical performance between the two generations. Things really improved in Basemark with the Pixel 7a showing a 46% improvement over the 6a.

The Pixel 7a far outperformed the Galaxy A54 5G in every benchmark that Future Labs ran. Future is Android Central's parent company and runs standardized lab tests on every device we review.

More specifically, the Pixel 7a was 23% faster than the Galaxy A54 5G in Geekbench 6, 31% faster in CrossMark, more than twice as fast in 3DMark, and an unbelievable 300% faster in Basemark's Vulkan tests.

In short, if performance is your top priority and you don't want to spend more than $500 on a phone, the Pixel 7a is the phone to get.

Remember that this chip is technically a flagship-tier chipset and you're almost assuredly not going to see another company use this grade of chip on a mid-range phone.

Titles like Genshin Impact — one of the best Android games and, by far, one of the most beautiful — can be played on the highest settings but don't expect 60FPS from this chip. You'll want to dial the settings back a bit for that.

Games like Fortnite didn't yet officially support the 7a during my testing so it was limited to 30FPS. I'll have to test that later and update this review with the results, but, I expect nothing short of great performance.

The 90Hz display didn't seem to impact battery life much for me. The added smoothness was worth any small hit.

With that boost in performance — plus the jump to a 90Hz display — comes a hit to battery life. In short, the battery life on the Pixel 7a has been anything but great for me but, thankfully, I'm pretty sure it's because of a software bug and not some underlying hardware issue.

From what I can tell, my problems were mostly solved by turning off Face Unlock and Face Detection during auto-rotate features. I've submitted a bug report to Google so that these can be fixed but, for the time being, I'd advise not using these features if you want all-day battery life.

Out of the box, the Pixel 7a's display runs at 60Hz, most likely in an effort to get most people the best battery life. You can opt for 90Hz by jumping into display options and selecting "smooth display" to enable 90Hz. In my testing, however, this didn't affect battery life in any meaningful way.

Battery life has a chance to be epic but some bugs caused it to be less than optimal for me.

Theoretically, the Pixel 7a has substantially better battery life than the 6a despite having a slightly smaller battery. Future Labs shows over 3 hours better battery life than the 6a which is an incredible efficiency improvement by any measure, although that metric was achieved by keeping the display at 60Hz.

Google packed Qi wireless charging into the 7a — a feature that was missing from the 6a — although it's only 5W so it's best for keeping your battery from draining rather than power-charging it in short order.

The 7a also only supports up to 18W wired charging via a USB C charger which is fine enough but not considered "fast" these days. You'll find a 20W charger will get to 43% in half an hour. It'll take well over an hour and a half to charge to full.

Google Pixel 7a: Software

The Pixel experience is the same on the 7a as on any other Pixel phone, for better or worse. Exclusive features like Call Screening, Photo Unblur, and regular Pixel Feature Drops are very enticing, and 5 years of guaranteed updates make this one hard to pass up.

Plus, free VPN by Google One means this is one of the most secure phones on the market no matter what Wi-Fi you're connected to.

Like any Pixel phone, the Pixel 7a ships with the latest version of Android and is guaranteed to see support for the next 5 years. Pixel owners can expect regular Pixel Feature Drops that add new features and fun things every few months, and you can always be the first to test out the latest version of Android months before any other phone.

With Tensor G2, Google upped the ante with on-device machine learning and includes exclusive features like Photo Unblur and Call Screening , two features that are truly difficult to live without once you get used to using them.

Plus, the instant voice-to-text on GBoard using Tensor is almost addictive to use. It's amazing how much faster and more accurate Google's voice transcription is, and the processor can even do real-time translation of foreign languages on the off chance you find yourself needing the feature on vacation.

Not only that, but Google is including VPN by Google One for free for all Pixel 7a users regardless if they are Google One subscribers. This important service helps mask your internet traffic by encrypting it when you're on a public Wi-Fi hotspot, ensuring that would-be hackers can't steal your data.

Check this page to make sure your country is eligible for VPN by Google One.

The At a Glance widget is constantly seeing improvements and additions. My favorite recent one is the ability to stop an alarm that's going off on any Nest Hub display or speaker in your home via the widget on your phone's home screen.

Really just beautiful product integration by Google Teams. I can't tell you how many cups of tea this has saved me from over-steeping when I go downstairs, start working, and forget I even set a timer to begin with.

Google also promises 5 years of Pixel Updates with the phone, matching the best update policies available on Android.

And while I love most of Google's Pixel UI in Android, the one thing that still irks me is the nearly useless Overview UI. Swiping left and right on the gesture navigation bar on the bottom is great but sometimes I want to navigate back a little further than the most recent apps.

Google's Recent Apps UI is still just as awful as it was since it was introduced in Android 9 Pie.

Companies like Samsung offer apps like Good Lock to allow users to customize the UI the way they'd like but Google doesn't offer anything similar. What you're stuck with is this useless "multitasking" UI — pictured above — that only shows one app at a time.

How am I supposed to quickly navigate between several apps if I have to scroll through giant thumbnails of each one? It's just not efficient or effective and we've been dealing with this awful UI since Android 9 Pie. Google, please, please rethink this one.

Google Pixel 7a: Cameras

The Pixel 7a matches the Pixel 7's camera quality in almost every area thanks to a huge sensor resolution upgrade and the same Tensor G2 processor inside. Unless you need more than 5x zoom or the nifty Motion Modes of the Pixel 7/Pro, this is the best camera you'll find anywhere.

What would a Pixel review be without gushing about how good the camera is? Not a Pixel review, that's for sure.

As is the case with basically every Pixel phone in existence, you're going to be hard-pressed to find any other phone in this price range that takes pictures this good. That's even more the case this year as Google has upgraded the camera sensors on the Pixel 7a for the first time in the history of Pixel A-series phones.

That tired old 12MP sensor has been swapped out for a shiny new 64MP one and boy, oh boy has it ever made a huge difference. Last year, I was impressed with the fact that the Pixel 6a tended to take as good of — or sometimes better — pictures than the Pixel 6 despite having a much lower resolution sensor.

I'm comfortable with saying that the Pixel 7a takes just as good of photos as the Pixel 7 in most situations and that even includes low light.

Google upped its game with the Pixel 7 and, true to expectations, the 7a is yet another upgrade. In my testing, the Pixel 7's camera still came ever so slightly ahead but I really had to nitpick to tell the difference. I'm comfortable with saying that the Pixel 7a takes just as good of photos as the Pixel 7 in most situations and that even includes low light.

Thanks to the newer Tensor G2 that powers the phone, the Pixel 7a takes night shots twice as fast as the Pixel 6a. Combine that with the new sensor and you have shots that look notably better in every single measurement, all while taking half as long to capture the shot.

It's quite literally everything I could have asked for in a camera upgrade from Google and surpassed my expectations in almost every way.

In most situations, the Pixel 7a blows away the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G's camera quality.

In most situations, the Pixel 7a blows away the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G's camera quality. From daytime to nighttime, Google continuously wins in detail and exposure in any kind of shot.

It's clear the company has worked to improve its algorithm to ensure that a higher-megapixel camera sensor does perform as inconsistently as it did when the Pixel 6 debuted.

Zoom detail was a bit disappointing but, given the lack of a telephoto lens, that shouldn't be too surprising. But the only reasons I held any kind of elevated expectations for zoom detail were twofold.

Zoom detail is better than the Galaxy A54 5G but not substantially so.

One, this is a higher-resolution sensor. I don't think I have to explain my thoughts there. Two, Google spent quite a bit of space in the review literature talking about Super Res Zoom and how good it was.

If I'm being fair, it's better than what's offered on the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G but only marginally and it's very situationally dependent. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to claim this is heads and tails better, by any means.

I only had two real problems with the Pixel 7a's camera quality. First, was with the white balance. In several situations, the 7a's camera tended to hedge on the green side of things for white balance. Any time something brown or black was prominently in the frame — like the inside of a barbeque grill or a wooden table — the phone tended to make the photo a little too green for its own good.

Second, Google still seems to struggle with nailing the cut-outs in portrait mode. Samsung does this a lot better and it feels a bit strange given how good Google's AI-powered people identification is in Google Photos. It'll certainly give you great shots every now and then but it's far too inconsistent for my liking.

Google didn't include Motion Modes once again on the A-series despite sharing the same processor and having a higher-resolution sensor.

And while nearly everything in the camera app is identical to the pricier Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, there's still no option to use the Motion mode from those phones. Last year, Google said the smaller 12MP sensor was the reason they didn't include Motion mode but, this year, that's clearly not the case.

Of course, Google has to have reasons to shift customers to a more expensive model if they want a certain feature. The Pixel 7a's sensor might be higher-resolution than the 50MP main sensor on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro but it's actually a physically smaller sensor.

This doesn't seem to have much of a negative effect on real-world performance but a physically larger sensor can allow the phone to capture more detail and have a more pleasing bokeh.

The 7a's video quality is better than what Samsung offers on the Galaxy A54 5G, particularly when it comes to more accurate white balance.

Video recording was also improved generation-to-generation, with the front-facing camera gaining the ability to record in 4K quality. Overall, the video quality of this phone is better than what Samsung offers on the Galaxy A54 5G, particularly when it comes to more accurate white balance.

Google Pixel 7a: The competition

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G is the nearest competitor to the Pixel 7a and it comes in at $50 cheaper. While you'll gain a plethora of Samsung features and excellent compatibility with Samsung's wider ecosystem, the A54 5G has a worse camera and much worse overall performance. On the bright side, the phone offers better battery life than what I experienced with the Pixel 7a.

If you're still looking for a great Pixel phone and don't like the new $500 price point of the 7a, you could always opt for a Pixel 6a. Great Pixel 6a deals will get you the phone for almost half the cost of a new 7a and you'll still get great Pixel features from the first-generation Tensor processor, the same great 12MP camera people have loved for years on older Pixel phones and a gorgeous design that fits the Pixel 6 line.

Google Pixel 7a: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if:

• You want the best performance on a mid-range budget.
• You want the best cameras on a mid-range budget.
• You want a phone that'll be supported for the next 5 years.

You shouldn't buy this if:

• You need epic battery life.
• You must have a camera telephoto lens.

It's hard to argue with Google's latest A-series Pixel. It completely eliminates the need for the smaller Pixel 7 as you'll find the camera is just as good and the battery life is identical. While it's got a slightly cheaper-feeling plastic back, you're probably going to keep it in a case, anyway.

Google upgraded the camera over the Pixel 6a, representing the biggest camera upgrade — both hardware and in quality — of any A-series phone. Really, unless you need to regularly zoom in more than 5x, there's no reason to even spend the extra money to get the Pixel 7 Pro, either.

The price-to-performance ratio of the 7a is without parallel and the 7a represents the absolute best deal you'll find in the Android world right now. I just wish the battery life were a little bit better because, if that were the case, this would be the perfect phone for the price.

The Pixel 7a might just be the best Pixel phone Google ever built, with an incredible camera, Tensor G2 performance, and all the bells and whistles of a mainline Pixel phone at just $500. Why spend more? We don't know, either.

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Sometimes the best phone for you has everything you need and nothing more. 

Pixel A-Series phones are built for users who want great performance at a great price, but may not need the full capability of a flagship phone. The new Google Pixel 7a has just the right balance of features and price with the same access to Google’s most helpful features that you get in Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. You may not need a pro-level triple rear camera system that allows you to zoom up to 30x – perhaps Pixel 7a’s zoom (up to 8x) is just right for you. 

Just like Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a is powered by Google Tensor G2 for fast performance. Pixel 7a also has many of the best camera features Pixel has to offer, including Photo Unblur , 1 Magic Eraser , 2 and Night Sight , as well as the highest-rated security features 3 to keep you and your online activity protected. You’ll also have Google Assistant voice typing and Live Translate . 4 And just like the flagship phones, your Pixel 7a will adapt to you, accommodating the different ways we use our phones. 

Some Pixel Superfans are so passionate about their A-Series phones that they wouldn’t buy anything else. We asked a few of them why they stick with the A-Series.

“For me, it boils down to affordability and features,” says Estanislado Danielle Castro, who has owned Pixel 3a, 4a, and now 6a phones. “I’m a mom, so although I’d love to have a high-end feature-loaded phone like the Pixel 7 Pro, my family’s needs will always come first. I’m loyal to my Google phones because they’ve proved to be reliable and I always feel like even with the A-Series, I get access to extra features. Features that as a mom, help me to stay on top of things with my family, help me to capture high-quality photos and videos of special moments, and features that make me feel connected to the world. The phones feel solid, they look great, and they’re reliable. And I love showing off the ‘G’ on the back of my phone and telling people why it’s such an awesome product!”

For the Meiman household, the A-Series has become the family go-to phone. “I had the original Pixel and loved it,” says mom Kate Meiman. “Turned out that I loved my 4a as much as my first Pixel. It took gorgeous pictures, was the same familiar size, was quick. My husband then got the 5a because I never stopped talking about how great mine was, and then we were both evangelists for Pixel. It takes amazing photos of our kids, is quick and reliable, super easy to use, and it just works! No bloat, no lagging, no issues. We both upgraded to the 6a when it came out because the deal was so great, and we’re still loving our A-Series. I’m so glad that the incredible quality at this price point allows me to stay with the Pixel lineup.”

“For me, the A-Series is all about how it fits in the pocket,” says outdoor enthusiast Warren Anderson. “I bought and tried the Pixel 4 XL when it came out thinking I would enjoy the bigger phone, but after a month, bought the 4a instead to go back to the smaller form factor I prefer. Climbing in and out of a lifted Jeep, the bigger phone would fall out of my pocket. I need my pockets for multiple things and don’t enjoy such a big phone taking up all that room. I don’t scroll all day so battery life is amazing. I don’t need the large screen in my pocket, and honestly the camera and all the other features are great. It’s really not a compromise on performance or functionality and fits my life.And, I can throw the Google Pixel Buds A-Series in the ears when heading out for a walk, and it’s a great package for everyday carry."

“The A-Series is convenient for myself as someone who loves the latest tech from Google but is on a tight budget due to grad school,” says student Tekhira Francis. “I use my 6a for everything from making calls to attending and recording work meetings, and of course taking photos. It’s honestly a powerhouse despite the lower price range. It’s also a plus that it’s smaller because I have such tiny hands.”

Requires Google Photos app. May not work on all image elements.

Maximum resolution and field of view with RAW image files setting turned on. Setting is turned off by default. See g.co/pixel/photoediting for more information.

Based on third-party global research firm report. Evaluation considered features that may not be available in all countries. See goo.gle/mobilesecurity2022 for more information.

Not available in all languages or countries. Not available on all media or apps. See g.co/pixel/livetranslate for more information. Translation may not be instantaneous.

Google Pixel 7a — 5 reasons to buy and 2 reasons to skip

Now that Google has unveiled its phones, here's what we think of the Pixel 7a

• Reasons to buy
• Reasons to skip

After months of rumors, the Google Pixel 7a has arrived, making its debut this week at Google I/O 2023 . Now that the new phone is here — and that we've had the chance to test it for our Pixel 7a review — we can more definitively say whether or not you should buy Google 's latest midrange phone.

That's a decision you may find yourself needing to make sooner rather than later. The Pixel 7a is already available to buy and Pixel 7a deals are starting to emerge. So it's time to figure out if this is a phone you should buy or skip.

Based on our time with the Pixel 7a, we think Google's made a phone worth grabbing, thanks to features such as a 90Hz display and more robust cameras than what the Pixel 6a offered. Just the same, there are some omissions that might put some people off Google's new midrange phone.

With that said, here's why you should buy the Pixel 7a — and why you might want to skip this particular model.

Reasons to buy the Google Pixel 7a

A tensor g2 chip.

Just like Apple and the iPhone SE , Google has a habit of equipping its midrange Pixel models with the same chipset found in its flagships. That's what happened with last year's Pixel 6a , which runs on the same Tensor G1 silicon introduced with the Pixel 6 . And now Google's pulled off the same feat with the Pixel 7a.

That means the Pixel 7a has gotten the Tensor G2 chipset found in last fall's Pixel 7 release. That's a big step forward for Google's midrange phone. For starters, the G2 is a better performing chip than its predecessor, though raw performance has never been the full story with Google's Tensor chips. Nevertheless, the Pixel 7a easily outperforms the Samsung Galaxy A54 , its closest competitor for the title of best cheap phone .

But rather than performance, the star here is the Tensor Processing Unit, which uses machine learning to power the kinds of smart features you don't find on other phones. In the Pixel 7's case, that's meant a Photo Unblur tool that cleans up the faces of people in photos, even ones shot by other phones. You also get real-time translation and transcription features and call management tools that help you navigate wait times and phone directories. 

All those Tensor G2-powered capabilities are available on the Pixel 7a, meaning that Google plans to bring the best elements of its flagship device to a much cheaper phone.

A better camera

There's been nothing wrong with the cameras on previous Pixel A models, as the Pixel 6a ranks among the best camera phones we've tested. But Google's won these kudos with a 12.2MP main camera on the more recent midrange Pixels, and that can be somewhat limiting.

So we think it's good news that the main camera got an upgrade to a 64MP sensor, as had been rumored. The Pixel 7a's main sensor also happens to be larger than the one on the Pixel 6a, letting in more light. Combine that with the Pixel's well-established reputation for superior photo processing and you could have quite the camera phone on your hands in the form of the Pixel 7a.

In our head-to-head comparisons with the Galaxy A54 and iPhone Se, the Pixel 7a tended to emphasize dark colors, which sometimes meant those other cameras produced more striking pictures. But we like the Pixel 7a's night photo capabilities and its portrait mode remains a top feature.

A faster-refreshing display

Fast display refresh rates aren't reserved for the most expensive flagships anymore. (Well, they are still at Apple, but that company does things its own way.) These days, you're likely to come across a cheap Android phone that, despite its low-price tag, and still scale up their refresh rate when you're going to benefit from capabilities like fast-scrolling.

The Galaxy A54, a competitor to the Pixel 7a, already offers a 120Hz refresh rate, as do many Android phones you can find for even less. The Pixel 7a doesn't match that, but it does have a 90Hz display, so you will enjoy smoother scrolling to some extent — certainly it's a better experience than the Pixel 6a and its 60Hz panel. The fast-refreshing screen on the Pixel 7a is another valuable feature being added to a more attractively priced phone.

Wireless charging

Google has removed one other thing that its Pixel A phones can't do, and that's charge wirelessly. Since the introduction of the Pixel 3a, the lack of wireless charging has been one of the noteworthy differences between Google's budget phone and its flagships. That distinction is over.

Is wireless charging a make-or-break feature? Probably not. But it's pretty convenient being able to top off your phone's battery without having to search for a USB-C cable to do it, and we'll be glad to see such a capability added to a sub-$500 phone. It's also something the Galaxy A54 can't do.

Better than expected battery life

If you read an earlier version of this article, you may remember that we were concerned about the Pixel 7a's battery life, given the Pixel 6a's struggles at lasting a long time on a charge. Now that we've tested the phone, we can confirm that some of our concerns have been addressed — the Pixel 7a lasts longer on a charger than its predecessor.

Specifically, in our battery test, in which phones surf the web over cellular until they run out of power, the Pixel 7a lasted 10 hours and 5 minutes, which beats the average smartphone. It's also some 3.5 hours better than the Pixel 6a's time on that same test.

There's a caveat to that number — we got it with the fast-refresh rate turned off. We're still awaiting test results when the Pixel 7a's 90Hz display is active. But this is definitely progress on Google's part.

Reasons to skip the Google Pixel 7a

Limited android updates.

One of Apple's big edges in smartphones comes from the fact that it controls both the hardware and software. As a result, iPhones get iOS updates at the same time — not staggered like Android phones can be — and that software support runs for years and years.

Buy a Pixel and at least you can expect Android updates as they become available. The problem is, that you just don't get that many Android updates — Google's current policy calls for three major Android upgrades for its Pixel phones, and that's not changing with the Pixel 7a. Contrast that with Samsung, which guarantees four updates. It also extends that policy to its midrange models so a phone like the Galaxy A54 is still going to be able to run the latest version of Android a year longer than the Pixel 7a.

A higher price

Other than cameras, the biggest selling point for the Pixel A has been the phone's low cost. Unfortunately, you're paying more for this phone than you did for the Pizel 6a, even if the $499 / AU$749 Pixel 7a is still under that $500 ceiling.

A $50 price hike may not sound like much in the greater scheme of things, but at a time when prices are going up all around us, that may be too much for some people to swallow. It doesn't help that the Galaxy A54 kept the $449 price tag of its predecessor, giving budget-minded Android shoppers a lower-cost alternative to the Pixel 7a.

Pixel 7a outlook

We're quite impressed with the Pixel 7a now that we've had a chance to try it, and we'd certainly recommend it over the Pixel 7, which has many of the same features but costs more. (See our Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 7 comparison for more.) A Galaxy A54 comparison is a closer call, though.

If you want the most premium phone you can get for less than $500 in the US, the Pixel 7a is the right choice, given its support for wireless charging and its unique Tensor-powered experiences. But if price is paramount to you, the Galaxy A54 costs much less while having a faster refreshing screen and cameras that match up well with the Pixel 7a's.

It's definitely a tough decision, but at least budget phone shoppers now have one more great choice to pick from in the form of the Pixel 7a.

More from Tom's Guide

• Google I/O 2023 live blog: Pixel Fold, Pixel 7a, Pixel Tablet and all the big AI news
• Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 7: The biggest expected differences
• Google search AI upgrade just revealed before Google I/O 2023

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Here at Tom’s Guide our expert editors are committed to bringing you the best news, reviews and guides to help you stay informed and ahead of the curve!

Philip Michaels is a Managing Editor at Tom's Guide. He's been covering personal technology since 1999 and was in the building when Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone for the first time. He's been evaluating smartphones since that first iPhone debuted in 2007, and he's been following phone carriers and smartphone plans since 2015. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics, old movies and proper butchery techniques. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.

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Google Pixel 7a: Built to perform, packed with value

10 May, 2023

[[read-time]] min read

Meet Google Pixel 7a , our latest A-Series phone that delivers all the helpfulness of Google at a fantastic value. It’s built with our Google Tensor G2 chip, making it faster, more efficient and more secure.

It’s packed with many of the must-have features of our premium phones that are now available on an A-series phone for the first time — like Face Unlock, 8GB of RAM, a 90Hz display and wireless charging. Pixel 7a provides the core Pixel experience, and will be available in India on Flipkart from 11th May onwards at a launch price of ₹39,999 (MRP ₹43,999).

A sleek design you know and love

Pixel 7a has the same familiar design as Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, with its iconic Pixel camera bar and smooth, sculpted surfaces. Featuring an all-new midframe architecture, Pixel 7a is our most durable A-series yet, equipped to handle drops and tumbles. And to support Pixel's continued commitment to sustainability, the aluminum housing is made with 100% recycled content.

It also has all the Pixel Speech features powered by Tensor G2, like Live Translate, Recorder Speaker Labels, Assistant Voice Typing, and Voice Messaging Transcription on the Messages app.

A fully upgraded camera system

Pixel 7a’s camera system has been completely upgraded to bring amazing camera features to more people. The phone’s main upgraded camera features a 72% larger sensor than Pixel 6a. Plus, it has an all-new 13-megapixel ultrawide lens, so you can capture more in your shots. Night Sight is also twice as fast as on Pixel 6a.

You’ll even be able to capture 4K video with the new 13-megapixel front camera. And for the first time on an A-series, Pixel 7a has Long Exposure, which can capture texture and energy in shots of things like waterfalls. To top it all off, thanks to Tensor G2, Pixel 7a includes Super Res Zoom up to 8x to give you sharp, high-quality images so you’ll never miss a detail when taking photos from further away.

Image of Super Res Zoom at 2x (left), and Long Exposure mode (right)

You’ll also get all of the photography experiences that make Pixel, Pixel — like Magic Eraser and Photo Unblur in Google Photos. And as always, your Pixel’s camera includes Real Tone technology, so your skin tone is accurately represented.

Serving Pixel users across the country

We continue to look for ways to enhance the Pixel experience for our users across the country. In collaboration with F1 Info Solutions we have also launched 28 multi-brand stores where Pixel owners can walk in to get support for their devices. This is spread across 27 cities in India ( Store locator .) At these centers, users can get their device diagnosed, get simple issues resolved, or obtain information about the features of their device. If their device needs a physical repair, the center will securely pack it and ship it for servicing, after which they will communicate with the user until their device is repaired and returned to them at the center.

Get yours today

Pixel 7a will be available starting today on Flipkart at a launch price of ₹39,999 inclusive of offers (MRP ₹43,999).

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