Google Pixel 7A First Impressions | Secrets & Surprises of 2023’s Hottest Smartphone!
Transcript
Marc Aflalo:
Well, it was just announced at Google’s IO and we’ve got it in our hands. This video is our first impressions at the unboxing of the Pixel 7A from Google.
Hey everyone, welcome to another Year of Tech Report video. I am Marc Aflalo. And today, as I mentioned, we’re going hands-on with the highly anticipated Google Pixel 7A, and I’ve got it in my hands right here.
In this video, we’re going to actually unbox and show you what’s inside the packaging, and we’re going to go hands on with what I think are the top features of this new device. Let’s start with that quick unboxing and take a look at the actual hardware itself.
In front of me, I have the brand new Pixel 7A from Google. Well, let’s take a look at the box itself. We’ve got, of course, the Pixel 7A, very familiar packaging, as you would find with any Google device. With the phone right there on the front, and the naming on the side.
Of course, on the back you could see over here, this is the Pixel 7A, 5G, 6.1 in screen, 128 gigs. And inside, the Google Pixel 7A in this charcoal color. Put the phone down for a second. Inside the box you’ll find the USB C to C cable right there, wrapped up nicely in a bow. They still come with a USB type A to C adapter, not sure why they’re still including that.
Inside this little box over here, you’ve got the SIM card removal tool, and then on the inside we’ve got a couple little disclaimers, a little link here to get the full detailed user manual. So let’s take the box and put it to the side, and let’s take a look at the phone itself.
You’ve got a nice kind of brushed aluminum design around the actual sides itself. There’s the 5.8 inch screen, really thin bezzle around the edges with a little hole punch in the top of the screen itself. It fits nicely in a single hand, it’s not an an oversized phone. On the right side, you’ve got your sleep wake button, you’ve got your volume rocker up and down. And then on the left side of the phone, or depending on what side you’re actually holding it, you could see you’ve got your SIM card tray on that left side as well.
And the camera system on the back has two cameras and a flash module, and that brushed aluminum over the glossy glass back. Lending itself from the original Pixel, that’s how it sets itself apart. And of course, when you look at the edges of the phone, you’ve got a nice brushed aluminum design around the edges, with a little bit of roundness in the corners. But mostly a rectangular design when it comes to the look and feel of this actual phone.
On the bottom, your USB type C. You’ve got our speakers and our microphone, of course. It’s got that 5.8 inch screen that’s super, super bright so you can see this outdoors in sunlight of course. And always on display as well on this, and this one isn’t set up just yet.
Okay, you’ve seen the hardware, but let’s talk about the actual design and the price here. Because first off, the Pixel 7A is not only high-performance, but it’s also super affordable starting at just 499 US.
Now it’s available in four colors, this one’s charcoal. They’ve got sea, snow, and coral, and that’s the one that’s a Google store exclusive.
Durability wise, Google’s made the Pixel 7A one of their most durable, A-series phones. That is an IP 67 water and dust resistance, scratch resistant Corning, Gorilla Glass three, and a build that uses recycled materials.
Inside the device itself is Google’s latest G2 Tensor processor, which provides advanced machine learning, speech recognition, and all the AI capabilities that make the Pixel 7A more fast, and more efficient, and more secure than previous models.
On the back, we’ve got that dual rear camera system that is powered by the Tensor G2 Advanced Imaging Processing. You’ve got Night Sight, Magic Eraser, which lets you get rid of things in the background. Real Tone to see the real tone of different skin tones, and long exposure features that make sure every shot is absolutely beautiful.
Now, there’s a super-res zoom that lets you capture a whole lot more from really, really far away. So when you actually zoom in, it helps stabilize that image in a way that wasn’t able to do before, of course, powered by that new processor.
Long Exposure means you can get really creative with different things that are moving. Photo Unblur helps you unblur photos that, I don’t know, maybe you didn’t take yourself. There’s Guided Frame, which helps keep yourself in the actual frame. And of course Night Sight is there and even better, faster and shorter. Which means you used to have to hold it up for a full three seconds, now it’s a lot faster. You could actually shorten that wait time when you’re trying to get really cool photos at night.
Battery life and wireless charging. Well, it’s got wireless charging. It’s got the adaptive battery, which means the Pixel 7A can actually last over 24 hours on a single charge. Now, in extreme battery saver mode, that could actually be extended up to 72 hours. Plus, the Pixel 7A charges wirelessly with any Pixel stand or a G-wireless certified device.
Now, one of the things we alluded to with that Tensor G2 chip is it also features the Titan M2 security chip, which means this is a top-rated Google device. You’ve got face unlock, fingerprint unlock. You’ve got Google’s One VPN service to help you protect your personal information and all your online activities. So this is a very secure device.
And let’s not forget AI assistance. Google’s AI assistance makes this phone, and other Pixel devices, way more helpful. Couple new features include call assist at a glance, voice message transcription, and even assistant voice typing. And I’ve got to tell you about a couple of those features right now, because they are new to the 7A.
Let’s start with speaker names. Using the Google Recorder app, it can now actually identify different people speaking. So that when you look back at that transcript afterwards, you can actually tell when there’s been a change in the actual dialogue.
You can then change the speaker label afterwards if you want to update the spelling and didn’t get it correctly. Now, this is only available in US English right now. But of course, we’ll be rolling out to other languages down the road.
Direct My Call is a cool new feature that lets you see pressable menu options before they’re even spoken when you call eligible toll-free numbers. For example, when you call Home Depot and they say, press one for this, press two for this, you can actually see those on the screen. And by tapping them, it’ll actually press that number for you. That’s pretty cool.
Clear calling is a new feature that enhances the other person on the phone call. So if you’re speaking to someone who’s in a concert, noisy environment, lots of wind, maybe they’re in their car, you can actually enable the setting under sounds and vibration, and it’s going to actually cleaning things up for the other side of the conversation to make you hear it a lot better.
There’s voice message transcription, which allows you to read your audio messages, assistant voice typing to use your voice to type, and even edit and send messages, and a whole lot more that will be unveiled when of course we get back from Google IO.
Of course, the last thing I want to mention about this device is regular feature drops. The 7A, just like every other Google Pixel device, gives you that vanilla Android experience. Which means when a new feature is going to drop, it’s going to drop and come to these devices first. So make sure you keep your phone updated, over time you’re going to get those new features before anybody else does and get to go hands on with some beta features if you opt in as well.
The Pixel 7A comes to three months of YouTube premium and Google One, which gives you ad-free YouTube offline playback, a hundred gigs of storage and automatic phone backup, and of course, you are part of the made for Google ecosystem. It’s designed to work seamlessly with other Google devices and services that are going to make your day a whole lot easier.
That wraps up our top features of the new Google Pixel 7A. Of course, if you’ve got something that you want us to go hands-on with, do let us know in the comments down below. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel if you’re not already subscribed. We’re going to bring you new videos like this, and new information after Google IO finishes in Mountain View, California.
Thanks for watching. We’re going to catch you on our next video.