The biggest A-series upgrade ever comes at a cost

• Google Pixel 7a
  

  Outstanding phone, outstanding price

  The Pixel 7a offers features we’ve never seen on an A-series Pixel before: 90Hz screen, wireless charging, and an all-new camera setup. The upgrades come at a price, though.

  
  Pros
  

  • 90Hz refresh rate screen
  • Wireless charging
  • Significantly better camera setup

• 
  

  Source: Google

  Google Pixel 6a
  

  Still the best budget phone

  The Pixel 6a has long been our favorite budget phone, and that remains true even with a new competitor in the market. What makes the 6a a great phone is still valid.

  
  Pros
  

  • Incredible bang for the buck

  
  Cons
  

  • No wireless charging
  • 60Hz screen only
  • Only 2 big Android updates left

The Google Pixel 6a was an instant hit when it first launched thanks to its excellent value, so the Google Pixel 7a has big boots to fill. For the most part, it delivers. The Pixel 7a is an incredible upgrade over its predecessor in many ways, finally offering some long-omitted features. The Pixel 7a is the first in its lineup to come with wireless charging and a display with a 90Hz refresh rate, and its processor, RAM, and storage are right on par with the more premium Pixel 7. That leaves the Pixel 7a in a somewhat awkward place, especially compared to its now even cheaper predecessor. Let’s dive into the comparison to see what exactly sets the two A-series phones apart and if they both deserve to be among the best budget phones out there.

Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Price, availability, and specs

The Google Pixel 7a is available from May 11, 2023, and it sets you back $500. That’s a $50 increase compared to the $450 that the Pixel 6a launched at in mid-2022, and it’s also incredibly close to the $600 Google Pixel 7, which is often on sale for $500 or less. The Pixel 7a’s price becomes even more questionable when we consider that Google has routinely sold the Pixel 6a for $300 on many occasions, with the company now permanently lowering the price to $350. That’s right: Google continues selling the Pixel 6a alongside the Pixel 7a, which makes the price difference between the two even clearer.

Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Design

It’s easy to tell the Pixel 7a and the Pixel 6a apart, even though they share the same general design language. The Pixel 6a is right in line with the Pixel 6 series, coming with a two-tone back with a darker color at the top of the camera array and a more pastel tone below. The camera array itself is also fully black and doesn’t blend into the aluminum frame as well as the Pixel 7a’s does. Speaking of the Pixel 7a: Like the Pixel 7 series, it comes with a single-tone back that offers the same color below and at the top of the camera array. In contrast to the Pixel 6a, it offers a frame that’s color-matched to the rest of the phone rather than plain old black for all colorways.

The Pixel 7a is also ever-so-slightly bigger than the Pixel 6a, with a screen that’s 0.1 inches bigger. It’s also slightly heavier than the Pixel 6a at 193.5g rather than 178g, a difference that you will probably only notice when holding the phone over longer periods of time or when you hold them in each hand. Overall, the Pixel 7a is still lighter than many flagship phones which are usually bigger and made out of more premium materials like glass or ceramic. That’s right: Like the Pixel 6a, the Pixel 7a still has a plastic back. Personally, I’m a fan since it means it’s more resistant to shattering when you drop it, which will inevitably happen at some point. That’s why you should get a great case for the Pixel 7a when you do choose it.

If you ask me, the Pixel 7a looks and feels more refined than the Pixel 6a, something that I’ve also found to be true when comparing the regular Pixel 7 and Pixel 6.

Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Display

While it was possible to unlock 90Hz on some Pixel 6a units, this was never a feature that Google intended to ship with last year’s top budget phone. This is different with the Pixel 7a, which optionally offers 90Hz on its screen, something that you have to manually enable in settings after unboxing your phone. Other than that, the screens on the two phones are similar. The Pixel 6a comes with a 1080 x 2400 6.1-inch OLED while the Pixel 7a offers a small upgrade to a slightly bigger 6.2-inch OLED. Like the Pixel 7, the Pixel 7a’s screen is readable in bright sunlight, but there are phones out there that get significantly brighter.

Both phones have significant bezels on all sides with an even bigger one at the bottom, especially when you compare them to the Pixel 7 or Google Pixel 7 Pro. Once you start using either the Pixel 6a or the Pixel 7a in everyday life, this isn’t something you’ll notice much in any case.

Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Software

While both the Pixel 7a and the Pixel 6a run Android 13 with the trusty Pixel skin slapped on top, you’re in for one extra software upgrade on the Pixel 7a. The Pixel 6a shipped with Android 12 at launch, meaning it will only get upgraded to Android 15 and only receive security patches until 2027. The Pixel 7a ships with Android 13 out of the box and will be updated to Android 16. Google also promises five years of security patches for it, so you’re good until 2028.

The Pixel 7a also has a few new software tricks on offer that haven’t made it to the Pixel 6a yet. Most notably, it supports face unlock in addition to its in-display fingerprint scanner, making it easier to unlock it. That said, the Pixel 7a’s fingerprint scanner is significantly better than the Pixel 6a’s in my testing, so you might not even need to rely on face unlock if you don’t prefer it.

In addition to that, the Pixel 7a also shares a few quality-of-life features that Google first introduced to the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. In the image editing department, you can use Photo Unblur to save shots that might otherwise be too blurry to use. When you charge your phone overnight next to your bed, you can also use the Pixel 7a’s cough and snore detection, which might help you spot undiscovered health problems.

Other than that, both the Pixel 7a and Pixel 6a rely offer Google’s usual suite of great features, like the At a Glance widget on the home and lock screens that proactively give you updates about calendar events and more, automatic song recognition in the background, transcriptions and speaker labels in Google Recorder, and so much more. The big advantage of both phones is also that they come with little to no bloatware or duplicate apps, as Google is the only company adding software to them — which you can’t say for other Android manufacturers.

Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Performance

The Google Pixel 7a comes with Google’s custom Tensor G2 chipset while the Pixel 6a uses the first-generation Tensor. In everyday life testing, I don’t notice much of a difference between the two, but on heavier workloads like when navigating in Google Maps or when taking tons of photos and videos, you do notice that the Pixel 7a has an edge. The same is true with excessive multitasking. The Pixel 7a has 8GB of RAM while the Pixel 6a only offers 6GB, which may not be a problem now, but it may become too little a few years down the road. The Pixel 6a also gets just a tad hotter under load than the Pixel 7a, but really, both phones are among the toastier compared to the competition.

While it has never been an issue for me, many people also report tons of connectivity problems with the first-generation Tensor chip that is used across the whole Pixel 6 lineup. This problem is much less pronounced with the Tensor G2 that’s in the Pixel 7a, but if you live in an area with chronically bad mobile connectivity, you might be better off with a phone that has a Snapdragon processor.

Right now, the Pixel 6a is fine for almost all workloads you can throw at it, but if you’re in for the long haul and would like to keep your phone for a long time, I recommend going with the Pixel 7a for that added performance and connectivity overhead.

Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Battery life

The Pixel 7a has a slightly smaller battery than the Pixel 6a, with 4,385mAh pitted against 4,410mAh. In everyday life, this should barely make a difference, though. The Pixel 7a’s screen may have a higher refresh rate, but its processor is also more efficient, so you shouldn’t notice much of a difference.

Like all Pixel phones, the Pixel 6a and 7a aren’t battery champions. On normal usage without gaming and with a good connection, you should easily make it through a full day from morning to bedtime, but there isn’t much overhead. Both the Pixel 7a and the 6a only support 18W of fast charging, which isn’t really fast anymore in a world where other phones routinely change at 50W or higher.

A big advantage of the Pixel 7a is that it finally supports wireless charging. If you love the convenience of just putting down your phone on a charging pad without worrying about plugging in a cable, you’ll love that this feature is now finally available in the Pixel A-series, only four generations later.

Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Cameras

Pixel phones have always been known for their great cameras, and the Pixel 6a still takes good photos. You do notice that its hardware is getting older, though, especially compared to newer flagship phones out there. The Pixel 6a only has a 12.2MP primary camera, the same one that was already used in the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a, paired with a 12MP ultrawide. The Pixel 7a represents a gigantic leap in this department, offering a 64MP primary and a much improved ultrawide with 13MP and a 120° FoV — in numbers, this is even surpassing the Pixel 7.

In practice, you’ll notice a difference straight away. Both the 6a and the 7a offer the signature Pixel photo look, but with the Pixel 7a, you can crop much further in before you lose quality, detail, and sharpness. This becomes even clearer when you use zoom. While the Pixel 6a is capped at a maximum of 7x, the Pixel 7a can go up to 8x and even surpasses the Pixel 7 in sharpness at this level.

Pixel 7a’s new ultrawide camera vs. Pixel 6a’s

The new ultrawide camera is also a wonderful addition, allowing a much wider field of view. On paper, the difference between 114° and 120° may seem small, but you get a lot more room to play with in the viewfinder and on resulting photos.

Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Regular zoom level on waterfall and highest zoom level on tower

The Pixel 7a is also leaps and bounds better at night photography, though you’ll have to check out our full review for more details and samples. Basically, the Pixel 7a is twice as fast at capturing and computing images in dark environments, right on par with the camera improvements that Google also introduced to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro when they first launched.

Google Pixel 7a vs. Pixel 6a: Which is right for you?

The Pixel 7a is the biggest upgrade in the Pixel A-series since its inception, and it finally brings some long-awaited features to Google’s budget phones. Wireless charging has become a key convenience feature that takes the hassle out of charging, and being able to unlock your phone with your face is also a quality-of-life win. The 90Hz screen is the icing on top, making doom-scrolling sessions feel almost pleasant. All these upgrades come at a cost, quite literally: At $500, the Pixel 7a is the most expensive Pixel budget phone ever.

The Pixel 6a may be the weaker phone all around, but it has one trump up its sleeve: its price. The Pixel 7a is almost as expensive as the Pixel 7, but the Pixel 6a can now be had for $350, $100 less than the price it launched at a year ago. This makes it the budget pick, and it will likely continue to be my go-to recommendation for people looking to spend as little as possible on a great smartphone experience. The Pixel 6a is still a great product that doesn’t get obsolete in Google’s lineup just because it has a successor, which is a first in Google’s smartphone portfolio.