Best Google Pixel 7a deals: Get up to £220 off and claim a pair of Pixel Buds A-Series for free (Image: GETTY • GOOGLE • EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS )
Looking for the best Pixel 7a deals? You’re in luck!
For a limited time, Google is bundling a pair of its Pixel Buds A-Series wireless earbuds (worth £99) with every Pixel 7a order at the moment. If you buy a SIM-free Pixel 7a from John Lewis, you’ll get the free ‘buds – which scored the full 5 stars in our Pixel Buds A-Series review – and an extra year of warranty at no extra charge.
That’s not the only brilliant deal around as EE has slashed £240 off the cost of its unlimited 5G data allowance when paired with the new Google handset. O2 is offering a free subscription to your choice of Disney+ or Prime Video with the Pixel 7a. And finally, you can get up to £220 off when you trade in your existing handset!
Google Pixel 7a – a follow-up to the popular Pixel 6a revealed almost exactly one year ago – was announced on May 10 during the search firm’s annual developer conference, known as Google I/O. For those who don’t know, the A-series is designed to offer some of the best features of Google’s Pixel devices to more people, thanks to the affordable price tag.
Priced at £449, the Pixel 7a is considerably cheaper than the Pixel 7 (£599) and Pixel 7 Pro (£849). However, it’s a little pricier than Pixel 6a, which cost £399 at launch last year. But despite the £400 difference in cost between the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7a, this diddy handset shares a lot of the same DNA.
For example, Pixel 7a is powered by the same Tensor G2 processor – with the dedicated Titan M2 security chip – as the flagship Pixel handsets. Google has paired that chipset with 8GB of RAM. As such, you can expect the same performance, battery life, and software tricks as the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.
Those software features include the ability to transcribe incoming voice messages, so you won’t need to hunt in your bag for a pair of earbuds when you receive a voice memo. Magic Eraser, which uses AI to remove unwanted people from the background of your photos in seconds, is also available on the Pixel 7a. Photo Unblur can automatically remove blurred features from fast-moving subjects – saving a photo that might otherwise be unusable.
When it comes to hardware, you’ll find a 6.1-inch OLED screen with a 90Hz high-refresh display for smooth system animations and fast-paced gaming on-the-go. The edge-to-edge screen is only broken by the small O-shaped opening for the front-facing camera for selfies and video calls. That 13-megapixel sensor also enables Face Unlock – a first for the affordable A-Series from Google.
Flip over the Pixel 7a, Google has fitted a dual rear-camera system, with a 64-megapixel main camera capable of shooting 4K Ultra HD video at 60 frames-per-second and a 13-megapixel Ultra-Wide Camera with a massive 120° field-of-view. The case, which is built from plastic unlike the toughened glass found on the back of the Pixel 7 and Pixle 7 Pro, is 100% recycled material.
Pixel 7a is available in four colours: Charcoal, Sea, Snow and Coral, although the latter is exclusive to the Google Store, so don’t expect to find that from your favourite mobile network.
For a limited time, order the Pixel 7a and you’ll receive a pair of Pixel Buds A-Series (worth £99.99) for free with your order. This offer applies regardless of where you purchase the Pixel 7a. So, you can purchase from the Google Store, as well as retailers including Amazon, John Lewis, and Very. The freebie is also bundled with a number of pay monthly deals too.
How much does Pixel 7a cost?
Google Pixel 7a costs £449. That’s £50 more expensive than the Pixel 6a – the more affordable twist on the flagship Pixel 6 Pro, released around a similar time last year. Interestingly, you can still buy the Pixel 6a, but now £100 less than Pixel 7a from Google.
For £449, Pixel 7a supports all flavours of 5G, including millimetre-wave, so you’ll be able to tap into the fastest download speeds available in the UK too. Of course, you’ll need a SIM-only deal that supports 5G (some networks charge extra for that).
Google will discount its brand-new Pixel 7a by up to £220 when you trade-in a phone. The discount is refunded to your purchase when you mail off your current handset in the pre-paid envelope. The total discount applied to your order is determined by the condition, manufacturer, and model of the phone.
When is Pixel 7a release date?
Google announced its new Pixel 7a during the opening keynote of its Google I/O developer conference, on May 10, 2023. The affordable handset was revealed alongside a brand-new tablet, dubbed Pixel Tablet, and a foldable phone, Pixel Fold.
Unlike the two other gadgets revealed during the presentation, Pixel 7a was available to buy immediately. With the UK release date set for May 10, customers could place an order for the handset as soon as the curtain fell on the presentation. For a limited time, orders for the Pixel 7a arrive with a pair of Pixel Buds A-Series (worth £99) for free.
Pixel 7a is rated IP67, which means it can withstand an accidental bath in one-metre of fresh water (Image: GOOGLE)
What’s new in Pixel 7a?
There are plenty of exciting new features with the Pixel 7a, but we’ve decided to highlight just five of the new additions to this all-new affordable smartphone.
1) Pixel 7a is the most durable A-Series handset that Google has ever built. If you’re afflicted with chronic butter-fingers, the toughened Gorilla Glass should shield the screen and camera module from unexpected dents and cracks. The handset is rated IP67 to shield against dust and immersion in one metre of water – so an accidental bath in the toilet or a spilled G&T can be shaken off without issue.
2) Get 24-hours of battery life, thanks to the clever Adaptive Battery feature, which leverages AI to learn your favourite apps – so that it never wastes crucial battery life on the ones you don’t use. If that’s not enough, the custom-designed Tensor G2 system-on-a-chip also enables Extreme Battery Saver, which extends the battery life up to 72-hours (although some features will be restricted to maximum its lifespan)
3) No headphones? No problem. When you receive a voice message within Google Messages – the default chat app installed on your Pixel 7a – you’ll be able to tap the View Transcript button to see a transcription of the voice memo in seconds. If you don’t want to send a voice message back to your recipient but can’t be bothered to type, the Google Assistant offers advanced dictation. It can even understand system commands like “send”, “clear”, and the name of hundreds of emoji to spruce up your texts.
4) The Pixel 7a camera is designed to work with all skin tones. Google trained its algorithms with a dataset of 10,000 portraits of people with colour to improve its camera’s ability to tune for all skin tones, even in noisy, low-light situations. Dubbed Real Tone, this isn’t a feature that you’ll need to enable from deep within an obscure settings menu, it’s baked into every decision the Pixel camera software makes, ensuring that people of colour are rendered authentically in all photos and videos.
5) Pixel 7a offers both Face Unlock, which uses the selfie camera to verify that you’re the one trying to unlock the phone, as well as Fingerprint Unlock, which uses an in-screen sensor to check your unique fingerprint. This flexibility means that you’ll always be able to quickly unlock your phone without the hassle of typing in a PIN, even when you’re wearing winter gloves (Face Unlock) or sunglasses and a face mask (Fingerprint Unlock)
Best Pixel 7a deals
Pixel 7a is available to buy SIM-free from a number of the most popular online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores.
What does “SIM-free” mean?
When you purchase a phone “SIM-free”, it means that you’re buying the handset outright and not as part of a pay monthly contract, where you pay off the cost of the hardware and your calls, texts, and 5G data in equal monthly repayments.
SIM-free smartphones can be used with your existing SIM contract, or paired with a new SIM-only deal.
As well as the Google Store, which offers an exclusive Coral colourway, you can buy the Pixel 7a from Amazon UK, John Lewis, Currys, and Very, to name just a few.
There are a number of reasons why you might pick one of these stores over another.
For example, Prime members will be able to order from Amazon UK and receive next-day delivery at no extra cost (same-day delivery is available in some parts of the UK). Meanwhile, Pixel 7a owners will enjoy an extra one-year hardware warranty when purchasing from John Lewis.
While Amazon Prime is undeniably fast, it still can’t quite beat Currys, which offers collection at your nearest branch within hours of placing an order. And those who want to make the Pixel 7a as affordable as possible should check out the monthly payment plans available from Very.
No matter where you order from, you’ll be able to claim a pair of Pixel Buds A-Series (worth £99) to use with your new Pixel 7a.
If you’d rather purchase the Pixel 7a on a new contract, there are a number of pay monthly deals available at the moment. Pixel 7a is being stocked by EE, Vodafone, and O2. Unfortunately, there’s no word on whether Virgin Mobile, Sky Mobile, or Three will be offering the latest affordable handset from Google in the future.
To make it easier to compare the latest pay monthly Pixel 7a deals, we’ve only selected pay monthly plans with between 20-30GB of 5G data each month. For more people, that will be more than enough to stream Spotify playlists, watch a handful of videos on YouTube, scroll through Instagram and Facebook, make an occasional video call on WhatsApp, and back-up your latest photos to the cloud while away from Wi-Fi. Of course, some will need more (or less) monthly data, but we felt this was a good middle-ground that should make comparisons between mobile networks easier.