Google Pixel 8a vs Pixel 7a: Should you save by choosing last year's mid-ranger?

• Best overall

  

  Google Pixel 8a

  The best midrange phone ever

  SoC

  Google Tensor G3

  Display

  6.1-inch OLED (1080x2400), 120Hz OLED, 2000 nits peak

  RAM

  8GB LPDDR5x

  Storage

  128GB/256GB UFS 3.1

  Battery

  4,492 mAh

  Google's new Pixel 8a features a redesigned chassis, an upgraded display, and a more powerful Tensor G3 chip. While that's great, the camera is still the same as last year's model and the charging speed is still slower than ideal. The Pixel 8a is still the best all-around phone you can get for $500, though.

  Pros & Cons

  • Redesigned exterior and pebble-shaped design look excellent
  • The display is brighter, and it's a noticeable difference
  • Tensor G3 brings better performance and new AI features

  • Camera hardware is unchanged from the Pixel 7a
  • Charging speed is still limited to 18W
  • There's more competition for mid-rangers this year, including the OnePlus 12R and even the older Pixel 7a

  $500 at Best Buy $500 at Google Store

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• Cheaper alternative

  

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  Google Pixel 7a

  Get most of the experience for less

  $400 $499 Save $99

  Brand

  Google

  SoC

  Tensor G2

  Display

  6.1-inch FHD+ gOLED @90Hz

  RAM

  8GB

  Although the Google Pixel 7a is about a year old, it's surprisingly similar to the new Pixel 8a. Specifically, the camera hardware is identical on both models, and photos turn out great using the Pixel 7a. While the Tensor G2 chip is far from perfect, you probably aren't buying a midrange phone if you care about the fastest performance.

  Pros & Cons

  • The boxy design and feel will be preferred by some
  • Same exact camera hardware as the newer Pixel 8a
  • Usually around $75 cheaper than the Pixel 8a, and it's only going lower

  • Less software support than the newer Pixel 8a
  • Fewer AI features and an aging Tensor G2 processor
  • Display isn't as bright as the Pixel 8a

  $499 at Amazon $400 at Best Buy $499 at Google Store

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The overlap between Google's budget A-series lineup of devices and its flagship offerings is greater than ever with the release of the Pixel 8a. It's the company's latest midrange phone that takes a lot of cues from the regular Pixel 8 and offers a few considerable upgrades compared to last year's Pixel 7a. However, Google's mid-rangers last far longer on the market than one year, as they often see price cuts that keep their value proposition intact.

After using the Pixel 8a and Pixel 7a side-by-side for the last week, I've discovered that the brand-new Pixel 8a is the better buy for most people. Currently, the Pixel 7a isn't discounted by enough to make the savings worth everything you give up by not going with the Pixel 8a. If the Pixel 7a gets an official price cut in the future, that could change. Let's break down the differences between the Pixel 8a and the Pixel 7a, and find out which one is the best phone for each kind of user.

Price, availability, and specs

Pixel 7a is in a weird place right now

Google released the Pixel 8a one week before Google I/O 2024, and it retails for the same $500 starting price as the Pixel 7a. The phone is now available, and it comes in four colors: Aloe, Bay, Obsidian, and Porcelain. The Pixel 8a comes with 128GB of storage by default, but can be upgraded to 256GB for an extra $60. If you need the extra storage, you'll be limited to the Obsidian colorway. You can buy the Pixel 8a from the Google Store, cellular carriers, and pretty much everywhere phones are sold in the U.S.

The weird part about the Pixel 8a launch is that the Pixel 7a didn't receive an official price cut. If you buy the Pixel 7a from the Google Store today, it'll cost $500 — the exact same price as the brand-new Pixel 8a. It's available on Amazon for $425, and you can get it at Best Buy for $400 with carrier activation at the time of writing. The Pixel 7a comes in four colors: Charcoal, Coral, Snow, and Sea. It's only available in a 128GB configuration, and the Coral colorway isn't available new anymore since it was a Google Store exclusive.

• 	Google Pixel 8a	Google Pixel 7a
  SoC	Google Tensor G3	Tensor G2
  Display	6.1-inch OLED (1080x2400), 120Hz OLED, 2000 nits peak	6.1-inch FHD+ gOLED @90Hz
  RAM	8GB LPDDR5x	8GB
  Storage	128GB/256GB UFS 3.1	128GB
  Rear camera	64MP Quad PD, f/1.89, 13MP UW	64MP primary, 13MP ultra-wide
  Front camera	13MP f/2.2	13MP
  Battery	4,492 mAh	4,385mAh
  Charge speed	18W wired, 7.5 wireless	18W wired, 7.5W wireless
  Ports	USB-C port	USB Type-C
  Dimensions	5.98 x 2.86 x 0.35in(152.1mm x 72.7mm x 8.9mm)	6 x 2.87 x 0.35 inches (152.4 x 72.9 x 9mm)
  Weight	6.6Oz (188g)	6.8oz (193g)
  IP Rating	IP67	IP67
  Security	Titan M2	In-display fingerprint sensor, Face Unlock

Design

To each their own, but I think the Pixel 8a feels better in the hand

At first glance, the Pixel 8a and the Pixel 7a both look like the regular flagships of their respective model years. The Pixel 7a has a more angular look that matches the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, while the Pixel 8a has a pebble-shaped and curved design that matches the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. Some people might prefer the boxy form factor of the Pixel 7a, but I think it feels outdated. The Pixel 8a feels more modern with its curvy chassis, a trend that is in style right now. The pebble-shaped design of the Pixel 8a has a functional component, too — it makes the phone easier to hold comfortably and slightly cuts down the device's overall footprint. Sharp rounded corners aside, the Pixel 8a is roughly the same size as the Pixel 7a, and both phones pack 6.1-inch displays.

There are some other differences to keep in mind, like how the Pixel 8a has a matte plastic back while the Pixel 7a has a glossy plastic back. Again, this is up to personal preference, but I strongly prefer the frosted texture of the Pixel 8a to that of the Pixel 7a. The camera bar is slightly taller on the Pixel 8a than the Pixel 7a, although it has the same thickness on both models. Otherwise, a lot is the same between the devices. Things like the speaker, microphone, antenna bands, and SIM card slot are all in the same general spots on both the Pixel 8a and the Pixel 7a.

As far as durability is concerned, the Pixel 8a and Pixel 7a both have an IP67 water and dust-resistance rating. If you accidentally drop the phones into shallow water, they should be fine. The official IP67 rating is given to phones that can withstand submersion in one meter of water for a half hour. However, the Pixel 8a and Pixel 7a are far from waterproof.

Winner: Google Pixel 8a

Display

The Pixel 8a is noticeably brighter, and it's a big upgrade

Google has been steadily improving the displays on its midrange phones, and that continues with the release of the Pixel 8a. Both the Pixel 8a and the Pixel 7a have 6.1-inch OLED display panels with a resolution of 1080x2400. But that hardly tells the whole story. The Pixel 7a has a display with a 90Hz refresh rate, while the Pixel 8a got the bump to 120Hz this year. That firmly puts it in flagship territory, even if it doesn't variate at the same degree of precision as higher-priced phones.

However, the bigger upgrade might actually have come in the Pixel 8a's supported brightness. During my time using the Pixel 7a, I was shocked at how difficult it was to see the display at full brightness in direct sunlight. The Pixel 7a has a peak brightness of 1,200 nits, which sounds like a lot until you actually use it. Google upgraded the Pixel 8a panel to support 1,400 nits while playing HDR content and a peak brightness of 2,000 nits. That makes it noticeably brighter than the Pixel 7a, and that's something you can even see in the images above.

Winner: Google Pixel 8a

Performance

Both are probably fine, but Tensor G3 is better

For better or for worse, Google includes the same processor on its cheapest phones as its most expensive ones. That's the Tensor G2 on the Pixel 7a and the Tensor G3 on the Pixel 8a. At the $500 price point, I don't think you're able to be too picky about the system-on-a-chip that powers a midrange phone. However, there are a few things to know about the differences between the Tensor G2 and G3 chips. The biggest one is that the Tensor G2 has a tendency to overheat, and it can thermal throttle more than other processors. I didn't experience any thermal issues on my Pixel 8a review unit with the newer Tensor G3 processor, but I did get to try another at Google I/O 2024 that seemed to run much hotter than mine, so your results may vary.

To get a gauge of the actual performance of these two devices, I ran Geekbench 6 on both devices running Android 14:

At least in benchmarks, the Pixel 8a is twice as fast as the Pixel 7a. Both phones should handle day-to-day tasks just fine, but the Pixel 8a's extra performance could come in handy years down the road as the smartphone ages. Battery life will last all day on each device, but the Pixel 8a does have a slightly larger battery capacity of 4,492 mAh. Unfortunately, charging is really slow on the Pixel 8a and the Pixel 7a, which are both limited to 18W wired speeds. Wirelessly, they charge even slower.

Winner: Google Pixel 8a

Cameras

Absolutely identical performance between the two models

For what it's worth, the camera system is one of the few areas of the Pixel 8a that is completely unchanged from the Pixel 7a. That isn't exactly surprising, since the Pixel 7a received a big camera hardware upgrade last year and significant camera upgrades rarely come to Google's mid-rangers in back-to-back years. The main camera uses a 64MP, f/1.9 sensor with a 1/1.7-inch sensor size on both models. It's a smaller camera sensor than you'd find on a flagship like the Pixel 8 Pro, but it's still a cut above the other mid-rangers. As such, the absence of an upgrade in the camera doesn't doom the Pixel 8a. The secondary camera is a 13MP ultrawide, but it's not that impressive, and you should really stick to the main sensor on both phones for the best performance.

However, the fact that there are zero hardware upgrades on the Pixel 8a creates an interesting situation for buyers. If you're interested in buying a midrange Pixel phone for the camera, there isn't any tangible benefit to going with the Pixel 8a over the Pixel 7a. I think everything else you get with the Pixel 8a makes it well worth the extra ~$75 you pay for it. But for those that care about a good midrange camera and nothing else, you can get the same camera hardware in the Pixel 8a by buying a discounted Pixel 7a.

For reference, here are some camera samples from the Pixel 8a and Pixel 7a. In the gallery below, the first image in each series was captured by the Pixel 7a, and the second was captured by the Pixel 8a. They were all taken at the exact same time under the exact same conditions, and you can see the results:

Google has long found a way to make the most out of unchanged camera hardware with advanced computational photography. But in the case of the Pixel 8a, there doesn't seem to be much going on in software to make photos noticeably different from those captured with the Pixel 7a. As you can see in the camera samples above, photos taken with the Pixel 7a and Pixel 8a look nearly identical in most situations. Occasionally, the Pixel 8a would produce an image that was slightly brighter and warmer than the one produced by the Pixel 7a. However, I'm not sure that the brightness and color changes made by the Pixel 8a are actually true to life. The Pixel 7a's muted color temperature was closer to what I was seeing in real life than the Pixel 8a.

Winner: Tie

Software

More different than you would probably expect

During my testing, the Pixel 8a and Pixel 7a were both equipped with the latest Android 14. However, the holistic view of software on these two devices paints a different picture. The Pixel 7a is only guaranteed to get Android version updates through May 2026, and security updates for two years after that. By comparison, the Pixel 8a will get Android updates, feature drops, and security updates for seven years. Support for this device will end after 2030, which is impressive. We don't know what the Pixel 8a would look like running an Android version in 2030, but it clearly has the advantage in terms of software support.

While we're talking about the Pixel 8a, it has another software advantage over the Pixel 7a: AI features. While some AI features have made their way to the Pixel 7a via software updates — like Circle to Search — some have remained exclusive to the Pixel 8 series. The Pixel 8a has these features, including Magic Editor, Best Take, and Audio Magic Eraser. Here's a look at what Magic Editor can do using AI on the Pixel 8a:

Not everyone needs these AI features, but if you do want them, get the Pixel 8a. The Tensor G3 chip will make running on-device AI a lot easier, and you'll have a better chance of getting cloud-based AI features on your Pixel 8a than on the Pixel 7a.

Winner: Google Pixel 8a

Which one should you buy?

Though it would be easy to recommend the Pixel 7a at its new discounted price of around $425 at third-party retailers, I'm actually going to say the opposite. The Pixel 8a is a fantastic phone for $500, and it has a surprising number of upgrades over the Pixel 7a. The display is now a flagship panel with 120Hz support and higher supported brightness levels, and that might be the biggest day-to-day improvement. On the design side of things, the new chassis looks and feels better than the Pixel 7a. There are also new software features, AI tools, and a Tensor G3 chip on the inside. All those year-over-year changes make me recommend the Pixel 8a over the Pixel 7a for most people.

There's still a case to be made for buying the Pixel 7a in 2024, though, especially if getting a good camera is your top priority. It doesn't include some of the Pixel 8a's new upgrades, but it covers all the bases. You still get a 90Hz display, the same exact camera hardware, and a premium build. To really sweeten the deal, the Pixel 7a needs a proper price cut from Google. I'd like to see the Pixel 7a priced at $400 or less, and if (or more likely, when) that happens, it'll become one of the best value phones you can buy.