Pixel 7A Price Leaked: What Upgrades Can We Expect?

Google makes an affordable A series Pixel phone every year, which trims down some specifications from the vanilla Pixel. The Pixel 6A is already incredible value at 449$. Rumors now say the Pixel 7A will address the 6A’s key faults.

It frequently gets price cuts to as low as 349$, and you get near-flagship cameras with Google’s excellent software tuning.

For the Pixel 6A, the only significant cons are a 60Hz refresh rate, which makes daily operating slower, especially scrolling and general swiping. It also limits games to only 60 FPS. Another con is the Tensor chipset.

The first-gen Tensor wasn’t the best in performance or efficiency. The 60Hz 1080P display and Google’s software refinements make up for the inefficient chip on the 6A, but the performance could’ve been much better.

Assuming the specification leaks of the Pixel 7A are accurate, it fixes the speed issue with the Pixel 6A. The Pixel 7A could have a 90Hz refresh rate, much better than 60Hz at scrolling speeds and overall UI transitions.

The Pixel 7A also gets an upgrade to last year’s 5nm Tensor G2 SOC, but there’s no information on cooling. If you recall, the Pixel 4A 5G and Pixel 5A were both 449$ in price, and the specifications were nearly identical.

The Pixel 6A currently starts at 449$, too, and it was an upgrade in design from the Pixel 5A.

The Pixel 7A’s primary camera is said to get a much larger 64MP 1/1.3″ Sony IMX 787 sensor. It is weirdly slightly larger than the 1/1.31″ Samsung GN1 sensor on the Pixel 7 Pro.

Since the Pixel 7A is getting a much larger sensor than the Pixel 6A’s 12.2MP 1/2.55″ IMX 363 sensor. This means the 7A can also do the 2X sensor crop mechanism to zoom in two times.

Another major upgrade to the Pixel 7A is the front camera. It probably moves from a tiny 8MP sensor to the same 10.8MP front camera as the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. Another upgrade to the 7A is confusing, and that’s wireless charging.

The Pixel 6A doesn’t have it, but some leaks say the 7A will ship with 5W of wireless charging. Five Watts is useless and is nothing more than a gimmick since that’s ridiculously slow.

In other relatively minor upgrades, the RAM could go up to 8GB, and the front camera can finally shoot in 4K resolution. The color options for the Pixel 7A are Charcoal, Snow, Sea, and Coral.

The design has visibly thick bezels on the front and a prominent chin but a modern rear design that resembles the Pixel 7. All leaks point to the Pixel 7A coming out simultaneously as Android 14. This is at Google I/O on the 10th of May.

A report from 9To5Google mentions that the Pixel 7A will start at 499$, which is 50$ more than the 6A. This is 100$ cheaper than the regular Pixel 7, but the Pixel 7 occasionally drops to 500$, too, making this a weird price for the Pixel 7A.

A price jump looks evident with the number of changes. A new primary sensor, wireless charging, and a new front camera with a 90Hz screen. These require additional hardware costs, so it makes sense to see a price jump.

Google could increase the price of the Pixel 7 back to 599$ and not put it on sale again after the launch of the Pixel 7A.