The previous week has been one of many busiest I’ve ever had. I flew to Dallas, Texas, for a pal’s marriage ceremony, drove to Austin to go to an in-law, drove again for the marriage festivities, then flew again to New York, solely to move out to San Francisco the following day for Google I/O 2023. The excellent news is that the brand new Google Pixel 7A has been in my pocket all of the whereas, by means of each leg and layover, and it is by no means felt restricted in any deal-breaking approach. It is a $499 telephone, and it is simply extra proof that you just actually don’t need to spend much more than that to get a very good expertise as of late.
Is it the proper telephone? No. There are options lacking right here that some people would need. Additionally, battery life is simply OK, and the value has been hiked up $50 from last year’s model. To treatment this, Google is constant to promote final yr’s Pixel 6A at a lower cost—$349—although you’ll be able to routinely discover it for sale at $299. That telephone remains to be a very good purchase at both of these costs, however do you have to really feel the necessity to spend a bit extra, the Pixel 7A has nearly all the things you’d want.
The New Customary
The Pixel 7A mimics the design of the Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 collection that got here earlier than. It is clear and distinctive, and it is simple to identify in a sea of iPhones and Samsungs—good if you happen to need to really feel completely different. It is available in Charcoal (black), Sea (child blue), Snow (white), and Coral (orangey pink), the latter of which is unique to the Google Retailer. The blue is a little bit too faint for me—it typically appears to be like white—however the Coral is drop-dead attractive. I really like a flashy telephone.
The telephone’s body is manufactured from recycled aluminum, and the again is a plastic composite that under no circumstances feels low-cost. (It is also one much less spot for cracked glass in case you drop the telephone!) The entrance is made with Gorilla Glass 3, a product which is a number of years previous at this level and is not as scratch- and crack-resistant as fashionable formulations from Corning, the corporate that creates the hardened glass. Utilizing older Gorilla Glass is likely one of the simple methods to convey down the value of a handset. Protected to say, even when the again cannot crack as simply, it is price getting a case. This Pixel is IP67-rated for water and dirt resistance although, so a drop within the pool will not destroy it.
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
The 6.1-inch OLED display screen hasn’t proven any weaknesses, even after I stared at it whereas strolling in full solar (to not point out 94-degree warmth paired with disgusting ranges of humidity) in Austin. Is it as vibrant because the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G, the Pixel’s closest competitor? No, however I hardly ever needed to squint to learn the show. You are handled to a 90-Hz refresh rate as nicely, which suggests all the things from taking part in video games to scrolling Instagram feels extra fluid, because the display screen is outputting extra frames per second than conventional 60-Hz screens. It is a good perk.
Efficiency just isn’t a difficulty both. The Pixel 7A packs Google’s Tensor G2 chipset with 8 gigabytes of RAM, the exact same stack that powers its flagship Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Professional. I’ve by no means seen the 7A stutter in my time with the telephone. This chipset means you get entry to lots of the similar G2-specific software program options that debuted on the Pixel 7 collection, equivalent to Lengthy Publicity within the digital camera app and Photograph Unblur, which did successfully unblur some faces in my images of the dance ground on the marriage ceremony.
The Pixel 7A is likely one of the few sub-$500 telephones to function wi-fi charging, and it is about rattling time this began exhibiting up in cheaper telephones. It is a lot nicer to plop your telephone on a stand as a substitute of looking for a cable. That stated, the 7A does skip another niceties you may need appreciated to see, like a headphone jack, a microSD card slot, and a wall charger within the field (although you do get a USB-C to USB-C cable). The telephone can be restricted to 128 GB of inner storage; it would be good if Google took a web page from Motorola and started offering 256 gigs.
Google has lengthy had a lackluster in-display fingerprint sensor, and sadly the Pixel 7A follows that very same path. On my first day of use, I needed to put my thumb on the sensor a couple of occasions for it to unlock. It bought drastically higher over time, however I nonetheless wanted to be extra aware and deliberate about finger placement than I used to be on different telephones such because the aforementioned A54. It is simply not an awesome sensor.
