The Camera performance on Google’s Pixel smartphones has been one of the things that have stood out, always. We have used the recently released Google Pixel 7a for a month in order to provide you with a thorough and honest review. It has a starting price of roughly Rs. 44,000 in India, which is obviously on the high end. Let’s see how it did on our test bench in this Google Pixel 7a review.

Google Pixel 7a Review: Design and Display

Comparing the recently released Google Pixel 7a to the Pixel 6a, it appears to be more expensive. In essence, it is a less expensive Pixel 7 alternative. Visit this page to read its review of Google Pixel 7 if you haven’t already. Pixel 7a is surrounded by a metal frame on the sides. Essentially, it is 100% recycled metal that has been anodized. 

Although the phone features a Galastic back panel, an innovative material, we believe there is little difference. The rear panel has a glass-like texture, attracts fingerprints, and smudges easily. This time, the camera band appears more prominent and is made of metallic silver. The earlier iteration had an all-black band.

The new one feels nicer in the hand than the previous one did. This time, the phone is smaller; we don’t often see smaller phones these days, and we personally prefer this feature because it fits comfortably in the pocket.

At the bottom, there is a microphone, a USB Type C port, and a speaker grille. Note that the microphone described here resembles a grille rather than a hole. A power button and a volume rocker are provided on the right side of the frame. 

Additionally, a noise-cancelling microphone is mounted on the top, and the SIM card slot is located on the frame’s lift side. A single SIM card slot and eSIM support are both present on the SIM tray. The 3.5mm headphone jack is absent, though.

On the front, there is Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The chin is obvious, and the side bezels are very significant. But, it has a reliable in-display fingerprint sensor and face unlock.
A 6.1-inch full-HD+ OLED with HDR capability is featured on the Pixel 7A. The screen includes Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, as said, and a refresh rate of 90Hz. Although the phone’s peak brightness is not extremely great, it is sufficiently bright for the content to be seen outside during the day. 

Although the OLED screen makes the hues look good. The refresh rate of the screen is fixed at 90Hz and cannot be changed. The adaptive brightness sensor also performs average in this situation.

The multimedia experience is above average because of the stereo speakers’ loudness and decent quality.

Also Read: Pixel 7 Pro Review: Why you should get the phone

Google Pixel 7a Review: Performance and Cameras

The Google Tensor G2 SoC and Titan M2 security chip, along with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage, power the Google Pixel 7a.

The Pixel 7a comes pre-installed with Android 13 and the firm guarantees three years of software updates and five years of security updates. Additionally, Pixels are among the first smartphones to get the latest Android updates. The best feature of Pixel phones is their incredibly simple user interface. It is completely free of bloatware, has lightning-fast speed, and never lags. We loved it for that.

We engaged in Call of Duty and BGMI games. This phone performs well in games, as it should. The experience at first is really fluid and smooth, however after approximately 15 minutes the phone temperature will rise dramatically. The temperature in the AC room where the gaming test was conducted was set at 25 degrees. We wonder if you play video games outside in this sweltering weather, the phone won’t operate. At times it got really baking hot, which is unusual for a Pixel smartphone.

The heating problem causes the touch response to change. The heating problem causes a jerky gameplay experience, which as said, is so not Google smartphone.

Moving on, when it comes to camera performance, Pixel Phones are constantly rated as one of the best gadgets on our test bench. The Pixel 7a has a dual-camera system on the back. The system consists of a 13-megapixel ultra-wide lens and Sony’s 64-megapixel main sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS) capabilities. Additionally, a 13-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calls is there. The Pixel 7a’s front camera can record 4K video and features Super Res Zoom up to 8x. Additionally, the phone has tools like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur in Google Photos, and Real Tone technology, which correctly portrays your skin tone.

We captured some images using all possible settings and scenarios and we were happy with the results. Since it is also possible to record in 4K, it is a good choice for vlogging. There are plenty of other modes to look into. The camera interface is preconfigured at 1x, but one may change it to 0.5 for ultrawide and even 2x, but they are digital, not optical, zooms.

There is a Top Shot option that records a short video so you can get the desired shot you want.

We were quite impressed with the outcome in terms of picture quality for the primary lens photographs. It is comparable to how we genuinely see with our eyes because the sky, structure, and dynamic range are all so naturally appearing. The images are fairly true to life, with neither overly saturated nor underexposed colours. Rich colours and intricate textures are presented to the user.

There is a super-res mode option that allows you to zoom up to 8x without using an optical zoom lens while still getting 16-megapixel images. So processing-wise, Pixel 7a does a good job. Another benefit is that you may enhance your images with a variety of tools when you click “Edit” after snapping a picture, eliminating the need for additional editing software.

However, two editing tools stand out as our favourites. The first is the Blur. You can manually apply the portrait mode effect to any image you choose. You have control over the depth, blur effect, and in and out-of-focus areas. When capturing portrait or long-exposure shots, we also noticed some oversharpening in the portraits, and the phone processes them a bit slowly.

Also Read: Sennheiser Profile USB Microphone Streaming Set review: Pro sound on a budget

Second, you may use various filters to add colour to the sky, essentially creating a colour transition.

Next up is the 13-megapixel ultra wide-angle sensor on the backup camera. Really, the production of the images is outstanding. In actuality, the photographs’ clarity, details, and colour are quite identical to those captured with the primary camera. Most other brands of smartphones have a softness when taking ultra-wide pictures, but the Pixel 7a impressed us. The ultra-wide images have substance, good details, and an edge rather than softness.
After that, we used Pixel 7a to shoot some portrait pictures. We must admit that the blur effect, the discernible depth, and the out-of-focus area are all quite natural-looking. The output resembles a DSLR in several ways. The majority of the time, edge detection is also good, but it is not always, particularly close to the hair.

The photo quality is once again excellent for selfies. Neither too warm nor too cool, the skin tone appears to be natural. So, if you’re considering the Pixel 7a for selfies, the results are excellent. However, as we already observed, edge detection is not very good when using the front camera to take portrait-style pictures. But one feature that we enjoy is that you have the choice of 1x or 0.7x when shooting pictures with the front camera, whether they are regular or portrait. You can snap extremely wide-angle selfies with this, and the group pictures will look great.

Another intriguing function of this smartphone is the long-exposure mode. You can capture handheld pictures without a tripod as long as you keep in mind that some subjects should be in motion and others should be still. If you use this tool wisely, it can be really helpful.
Regarding the low-light shooting, the Pixel 7a has a dedicated night mode called Night Sight that is by default enabled but may be changed in the settings. Even though there wasn’t much of a change, night sight somewhat increases saturation. The primary camera performs superbly overall in low light. However, if you take pictures with an ultra-wide angle, noise starts to show up.

Finally coming to the videos. Despite the fact that the Pixel 6a’s video performance was passable, we believe there has been a significant improvement with the Pixel 7a in this area. The stability is first and foremost considerably better given the cost. Whether it is regular or ultrawide, we believe this is one of the best video stabilisation results we have had from a phone in this market. 

Although you can capture videos in 4K at 60FPS with an ultra-wide angle, the standard 4K resolution has the best output for video stabilisation. It is important to keep in mind that both the standard mode and the ultra-wide angle have a lot of noise when recording video in low light. However, the video quality is excellent during the day.

In general, we enjoyed having a variety of video stabilisation options depending on the situation in which we are taking the video. However, the Google Pixel 7a camera is once again affected by the heating problem. While photographing outdoors, the device overheats. After only 15 to 20 minutes of capturing pictures and movies, the camera began to overheat and alerted us. As a result, several video samples were damaged, and the camera also stopped recording videos. Therefore, there is a really serious problem with this phone, especially now that we are in Delhi in June. If you make a vlog outside, it’s possible that you won’t be able to record after a short while. For short videos, it is a good device.

In terms of endurance, the Google Pixel 7a comes with a 4,385mAh battery. The device doesn’t come with a charger but allows 18W charging. So we utilised our 25W charger, but the charging process is really slow. Additionally, it has an average battery life of around a day on a full charge. We were expecting 6 to 7 hours of screen-on time, but we only received 4 to 5 hours.

Verdict

The Pixel phone’s key selling points are its cameras and the stock Android experience. We were quite pleased with the outcomes of the ultra-wide sensor. The output is excellent, the dynamic range is excellent, and even the colours have produced excellent results. It closely resembles the performance of the Pixel 7 camera. Overall, if you’re looking for a camera phone, especially one with good still photography, it’s a really good phone. It also produces pretty good videos, although there are some drawbacks that we’ve already discussed, including overheating issues during gaming and low-light videography.

Should you buy Pixel 7a or not?

The Pixel 7a costs Rs 44,000, so if you’re considering purchasing it right away, we advise you to hold off until the festival season that is right around the corner. You will be able to purchase it for about Rs 35,000 if you purchase it around Diwali. If you cannot wait, then go for it right away.

Google Pixel 7a Pros

• Improved design
• nice display
• excellent cameras

Google Pixel 7a Cons

• Slow charging
• Comes without a charger
• Overheating issue during gaming and while using the camera

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