Google Pixel 7a – First Impressions – Where familiar design meets upgrades

As you may have heard, there is a new Google Pixel phone, the Pixel 7a, which we have had for a few days now and whilst it is too early to give a full review, we thought it might be good to share our first impressions of the Google Pixel 7a.

Unboxing the device is, well, very much lacklustre, with the box having the device, a 1 meter USB-C to USB-C cable and the warranty booklet and Google links tip pamphlet. If you don’t have a 20W wall brick to plug the cable into, this is something you will need to consider buying outright when you purchase the device just as heads up. Google has stated that unlike the Pixel 6a, the Pixel 7a will support wireless charging.

Familiar design but still classy.

So as you know, the Pixel 6 brought in a new look which was further refined with last year’s Pixel 7 and 7 pro line up and the Pixel 7a certainly looks like a Pixel 7 in its similarities.

The design is similar to last year’s Google Pixel 7, with the Pixel 7a coming with a scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 6.1-inch front display, alongside a plastic, almost glass like back and aluminum metal sides all of which Google has said is made from 21% recycled plastic, metallic and glass therefore reducing the carbon footprint.

The 6.1-inch display supports a 90Hz refresh rate and the display is quite responsive and quite clear and bright for a lower refresh rate.

Under the hood, the Pixel 7a comes with a:

• Google Tensor G2 Processor – similar to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro
• 128GB storage – unable to be expanded via MicroSD card – so you will need additional cloud storage.
• 8GB RAM
• Supports Wireless Charging and 20W charging via cable
• Bluetooth version 5.2
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, tri-band, Wi-Fi Direct

Software wise, the Pixel 7a runs Android 13 right out of the box with Material You and I have to say I really like Material You as it enhances and improves from the original Google One and then Material design that we have become used to since the Pixel line up came out.

In terms of cameras, the rear camera set up is made up of a dual system which includes a 64MP main wide camera lens and a 13MP Ultra-wide lens whilst the front facing camera is a 13MP lens.

Performance so far

Performance wise, the Pixel 7a so far has been quite good, though take this with a grain of salt as it’s still early days into the review. The combination of the Google G2 Tensor chipset and the 8GB seems to keep performance going and going without any slow down or shuttering.

Here are just some teasers of the camera quality so far, with some pictures I have taken while testing out the device so far:

The software runs pretty damn smoothly, whilst the battery has been fine to last a full day again so far but that’s with some moderate to some high usage certain parts of the day. The rest of the review will take a deeper dive into this.

The Google Pixel 7a will go on sale from the Google Store alongside retail partners JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, Harvey Norman for $749 and will come in 3 colours – Charcoal, Sea and Snow.

We will be undertaking a full review which should be live over the next few weeks, so it will be worth keeping an eye out for this when it hits the site.