Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Google Pixel 7a vs Pixel 8a hands-on TEST | Is it ALREADY time to upgrade?”.
Google’S pixel a series is an easy and popular way to get most of a flagship experience at a fraction of a cost. Of course, the line has grown and changed over the years, swapping its rearm mounted fingerprint sensor and headphone jack for a camera bar and a tensor chip. But the same value proposition has remained now, there’s a new entry in town, the pixel 8A, but you might not quite be sure if it’s time to put in your pocket well, if you’re, considering a mid-range upgrade it’s time to compare the pixel 8A to its predecessor. The pixel 7A and see which one is right for you up. First, a look at the designs comparing any two recent Google pixel models is kind of like a game of Apples to Apples, but the pixel, 8A and pixel 7A.
Take it to a new extent. There’S only a few fractions of millimeters in length, width and height between them, and they almost feel exactly the same in hand. Honestly, if I didn’t have one in each hand and couldn’t tell the slight weight difference, I might not know which was which at first, however, the pixel 8A softer rounded Corners go a long way in making it actually feel smaller than its predecessor, even though they’re so Simp, similarly sized the rounded Corners are a little bit closer to those you’d find on the pixel 8 Pro and they actually make the phone feel smaller and look smaller to the naked eye. The pixel 8, a is also a hair lighter than its predecessor. Only about 5 G, so if you picked one or the other up, you might not notice it, but if you hold one in each hand, you are going to feel it just a tiny bit lighter outside of the change in shape. You could probably find your way around the pixel 7A or pixel 8A.
With your eyes closed, both share identical button layouts with with the volume and power buttons on the right side, a single nano SIM tray on the left and stereo speakers flanking the USBC port. On the bottom Edge, they both also share the same in display fingerprint reader and to my testing I can’t notice one as being any faster than the other, which is a relief. Even the color options across the two phones are pretty similar. The pixel 7A was introduced with three standard color options which were C charcoal and snow. Now the pixel 8A also arrived with three basic color options: Bay, obsidian and porcelain, which are also blue, black and white.
Of course, the pixel 7A also had a Google Store exclusive Coral colorway, which was a bright orange and now the pixel 8A swaps, that for an aloe colorway, which is a bright green, we actually have the C version of the pixel 7A and the bay version of The pixel 8A, so you can compare exactly how blue the two devices are. Honestly, I kind of lean towards the darker bay blue of the pixel 8A. It just feels a little bit punchier and a little bit more blue than the very, very soft blue of the C color on the pixel 7A.
I also prefer the pixel 8 A’s matte composite finish to the glossy composite on the 7A, which I can almost guarantee. Will pull out with fingerprints and smudges while the soft touch of the pixel 8A actually looks a lot like the pixel 8 Pro? So it’s going to come out, smudge free and you really don’t have to worry about wiping it off flipping around to the display. Google’S more recent pixel 8A has a few upgrades that make it just a little bit more worth your while, where the pixel 7A had a fixed, 90 HZ refresh rate, the new model actually goes from 60 to 120 Herz, provided you opt in from the settings menu That little adjustment can help it squeeze a little bit more life out of its battery and actually optimized to different tasks instead of just running one speed for everything.
Google’S new actual display is also significantly brighter than its predecessor topping out at 2,000 nits of peak brightness or 1,400 nits in HDR situations, they’re both made of corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, which is decent but is not really up to Snuff in 2024, especially when Rivals like Samsung are adding gorilla, glass, vicus plus to cheaper models like the Galaxy A35 5G. As far as durability, both pixels come with an IP67 rating against water and dust which is again good, but not topof. The line sticking with similarities, the pixel 7A and pixel 8A are pretty similar under the hood too, though, the ladder has the benefit of an extra year of Google’s Hardware development, you’ll get 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of Base storage on both models, but the Newer pixel 8, a picks up the tensor G3 in place of the tensor G2. It also has slightly more efficient, LP ddr5x Ram, which is going to be just that little bit quicker than the pixel 7A lpddr5, oh, and not to mention the fact that you can actually upgrade your storage capacity on the 8A, where the pixel 7A only comes with That 128 gig option. More importantly, though, the Google pixel 8A tensor G3 chipset gives it the main leg up over its predecessor, it’s more efficient and manages its thermals much better, which is something that we’ve been asking Google for. Ever since the original tensor chip dropped, the pixel 8A put up better bench marking scores across our entire range of tests, with the main Improvement coming in its graphics performance, both in the short term and long term. Of course, lab numbers only get you so far, but what it really means is the pixel 8A should be able to keep up if you’re trying to sit down for a long gaming session or you’re doing something else that relies heavily on the GPU. It should be able to keep up the performance for longer and you might not feel like it’s going to burn out of your hand. Another spot where the tensor G3 seems to pay off is in the pixel, 8 A’s battery and char charging setups. Although the batteries are very similarly sized only about 100 Mah hours between them, the pixel 8A easily outperformed the pixel 7A in our controlled drain testing in all sections, but one it was able to record 4K video longer Play that video back longer take more photos and Last longer in a simulated, Zoom call only coming up short against its predecessor in a long-term web browsing test and when the batteries did drain, both pixels have the same exact set of charging standards, but the pixel 8A actually charged is a little bit quicker. You’Re. Looking at 18 W wire charging on both pixels as well as 7 1/2 WT wireless charging, but the tensor G3 seems to keep its temperature down for just a little bit longer, allowing it to run at the highest charging speeds for just a few more minutes. Shaving precious seconds off of your final charging time. At this point, you might be kind of tired of hearing about how many different things the tensor G3 adds to the pixel 8A. But it’s kind of like the gift that keeps on giving it’s key to many of the upcoming feature drops and software features, as well as a crucial part of Google Go’s new long-term update commitment, Google’s AI Gemini model, for example, rolled out to the pixel 8. Pro. First, but has some features on their way to the rest of the pixel 8 series, which means that the pixel 8A is going to pick them up long before the pixel 7A gets a chance. It’S not to say that the previous pixel, a series model is without its AI features, though, as Google Assistant still lives in pretty much. Every corner of the device and circle to search has already made its way to the older pixel, but they’re also already on Pixel 8A right out of the box, so you’re not really getting much of a benefit from going with the older model.
There. Circling back to the update commitment, the pixel 8A is honestly tough to beat it has a whopping 7even years of updates, split across Android versions, feature drops and security patches, so it’ll be supported long after the pixel 7A has retired. It also launched with Android 14. Instead of the pixel 7 A’s Android 13, so it’s already ahead of the curve, even though the older device has received its Android 14 update. Moving on to the cameras, both the pixel 8A and pixel 7A are pretty evenly matched, at least when it comes to Hardware.
The two camera bars look almost identical, they’re equally thin and they actually pack the same pair of sensors on top of the matching Hardware. Our camera samples from each pixel are almost identical to both the pixel 8A and 7A captured plenty of impressive images. Almost identically matching colors in the bright red leaves, but also picking out just about perfect Edge detection in the portrait mode shot of the Statue of two children. The similarities unfortunately also mean that both pixel a series models start to struggle at the same time, which means, once you start to really zoom in they both tend to fall off pretty quickly. For example, both phones struggle with the 8X Zoom shot of the boat floating in the harbor.
Once you get all the way in, you can see that the text is noticeably blurry and the rocks that are behind the ship look pretty poorly generated. Granted. The pixel 8A is a little more color accurate, which might be another perk of the tensor G3 chip, but you’re still probably not going to publish this image anywhere. Interestingly, selfie camera performance is just a little bit different too, even though they share the same Hardware.
Once again, the details and colors May match, but the phone’s actually default to different Zoom lengths with the pixel 7A punching in a little bit closer in selfie mode. Software features are a much easier way to set the two mid-range pixels apart, although both options share several features like photo on blur Magic, Eraser, night sight and cinematic pan, there’s plenty of others that only are available on the pixel 8A, if you’re looking for Ultra HDR Best take or even audio Magic Eraser to clean up the background sounds in some of your videos. You have to go with the newer model, despite missing out on audio Magic Eraser.
The pixel 7A does support many of the same video recording features as the newer model. You can record in either 1080P or 4K resolution at up to 60 frames per second from either of the rear cameras or top out at 30 frames per second from the selfie camera. I will say that image stabilization looked quite a bit better on the pixel 8A.
So if you’re planning to shoot a lot of videos, you may want to lean that way, but because no part of choosing between the pixel, 8A and pixel 7A has to be easy. Both phones launched at the same $ 4.99 price point both are also readily available. Unlocked either through Google store or through big box, retailers like Amazon or Best Buy. There are, however, a few ways to use these matching prices to your advantage. Since the pixel 7A is a year older, it’s going to pick up deeper discounts more quickly, especially now that it’s competing with a newer model. Sure the pixel 8A will probably pick up the same discounts over time. But if you’re buying right now, you’re probably going to have better time grabbing the 7A, although if you think you need more than the 128 gabes of Base storage that the pixel 7A and 8A offer it really Narrows down your decision, since only the pixel 8A comes With an optional upgrade for 256 GB of storage, there’s your answer. It also limits your color choices too, since the extra storage is only available on the obsidian colorway and bumps the price to $ 559. So now that we’ve taken these two mid-range pixels from top to bottom, it’s time to decide which one is actually right for you and I can’t lie it’s a tough choice. If you already have the pixel 7A in your pocket, it’s tough to recommend upgrading. After just one year, when there’s so much in common between the two phones, they share the same charging, the same cameras and almost the same design, meaning that you’re probably spending an extra $ 500 for just a few more upgrades. However, if you’re looking to upgrade to a pixel for the first time or you’re, coming from a much older phone, it’s much easier to recommend the pixel 8A. Both phones start at the same exact price, which means that you can just look closely at the differences. Not only will the newer model be first in line for updates and receive updates longer, but different fine-tuning bits like the rounded corners and the softer back, make it much more comfortable to hold and use for hours on end sure you might be able to find a Pixel 7A at a Deeper Discount, while the pixel 8A is fresh and new, but those prices will balance out over time, making both models more attainable than their base price points and honestly, you’ll, probably just get more value over time out of the tensor G3 packing pixel Than its tensor G2 powered predecessor, .