Google Pixel 7a vs iPhone SE

Comparing the Google Pixel 7a and iPhone SE allows us to see how Google and Apple approach low-cost smartphones differently. More importantly, if you don’t want to spend more than $500 on your next phone, it can help you choose which one to purchase.

The iPhone SE 2022 most definitely satisfies the criteria for a cheap phone. Since it is the least expensive of the best iPhones, you won’t get some of the high-end features found on the iPhone 14 (and you won’t get the iPhone 14 Pro’s more advanced features either). Nevertheless, you can still find a phone with a single rear camera that takes some pretty good pictures. A still powerful chipset enables the iPhone SE to outperform many of the best Android smartphones available, which is even more impressive.

A year after the launch of the iPhone SE, Google’s Pixel 7a is available, and it has a few high-end features of its own, starting with AI-powered features supported by the phone’s Tensor G2 chipset. Additionally, the Pixel 7a offers superb photography on its own, and Google has also included a few high-end features you wouldn’t anticipate finding in a device that costs less than $500.

When we side-by-side compared these inexpensive devices, which phone caught our attention? Here is how our battle between the Google Pixel 7a and iPhone SE played out.

Specs:

Price:

The Pixel 7a is $50 more expensive than the Pixel 6a when it was released last year, costing $499. Google still kept the price below $500, but the price difference between its midrange product and the iPhone SE has grown due to the increase. The base SE model from Apple costs $429, which is $70 less than the Pixel 7a.

However, price disparities can be deceptive. Only 64GB of storage is included with that $429 iPhone SE. You will need to spend an additional $50 to match the 128GB found in the Pixel 7a. Therefore, you only save $20 compared to the Pixel 7a’s price to purchase a comparable iPhone SE.

Similar to how the best iPhone SE deals can reduce the price there, Pixel 7a deals can lower the cost of Google’s phone. In the end, the iPhone has a slight price advantage, though it’s not as significant as you might think.

Design:

When you compare the Pixel 7a and iPhone SE side by side, it’s a tale of two designs. The Pixel 7a sports a horizontal camera bar that spans the back of the device, giving it the same appearance as recent Google flagships. In fact, it would be difficult to tell a Pixel 7a from a Pixel 7 from a distance, but once you picked up both phones, the Pixel 7a’s plastic back would be obvious.

The best way to sum up the design of the iPhone SE is to say that Apple is embracing a vintage aesthetic. The SE resembles the iPhone 8 from 2017. This results in a 4.7-inch screen with large bezels at the top and bottom but no display notch. To put it mildly, this method of phone design is outdated.

The iPhone SE, which uses glass that is almost as durable as the Ceramic Shield glass found on more expensive iPhones, can at least claim to be more durable than the Pixel 7a. On its low-cost phone, Google uses the dated Gorilla Glass 3. Both phones claim to be IP67 water resistant, meaning they can withstand being submerged in water.

The iPhone SE is not only smaller and lighter than the Pixel 7a, but it also weighs almost 2 ounces less. However, the Pixel 7a has more color options than the iPhone SE, which only comes in [Product] Red, white, or black. There are black and white (or charcoal and snow) Pixel 7a models available, but Google also offers coral and light blue.

Display:

The Pixel 7a offers a 6.1-inch panel compared to the 4.7-inch iPhone SE screen, so there is a clear difference in screen size. In contrast to the Pixel 7a’s OLED panel, the iPhone also has an LCD screen.

However, when the Pixel 7a is in Natural mode, colors are remarkably similar. Only marginally more of the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts are captured by the iPhone SE. A greater portion of those gamuts is captured when the Pixel 6a is in adaptive mode. Additionally, it has better color accuracy in Adaptive, with a Delta-E rating of 0.05 as opposed to 0.21% for the iPhone SE. (Numbers nearer zero are preferable.)

When it comes to displays, the Pixel 7a has two advantages over the iPhone SE. First off, according to a light meter, it is brighter, reaching a maximum of 931 nits. The maximum brightness on the iPhone is 596 nits. The iPhone SE is limited to 60Hz, while the Pixel 7a supports a faster refresh rate of 90Hz. As a result, Google’s phone can now offer smoother scrolling when necessary.

Cameras:

The iPhone SE’s design isn’t the only thing that harkens back to a previous era; the phone’s camera configuration also does, with a single 12MP rear camera to meet all of your photographic needs. Apple’s phone holds its own thanks to some pretty potent photo processing, but it is unquestionably at a hardware disadvantage.

Google appears to be moving in the opposite direction, despite the fact that, like Apple, its camera phones stand out for their powerful computational photography capabilities. However, Google also includes a main camera and an ultrawide lens in its low-cost phone.

Google even improved the setup from previous Pixel A phones for the Pixel 7a so that the primary camera now uses a 64MP sensor. The remaining rear cameras on Google’s phone are a 13MP ultrawide angle camera.

Performance:

Even though Google would contend that it is not attempting to compete with Apple phones in terms of raw performance, comparing the Pixel 7a and iPhone SE in terms of benchmarks is as close to a no contest as you can get. The Tensor G2 chip, which drives the Pixel 7a, is more concerned with the silicon’s Tensor Processing Unit and the potential for on-device machine learning. Since Tensor is all about the AI-driven experiences it can enable, we’ll go into more detail about that in the section on software.

However, the iPhone SE, which uses the same A15 Bionic chipset as the iPhone 13 lineup, is now left in charge of the Pixel 7a. (The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus use the same A15 Bionic chip, but it has an extra graphics core in them.) Even though Google’s Pixel 7 flagships’ silicon is used in the Pixel 7a, the iPhone SE’s older A15 chip can still outperform both.

The Geekbench 5 multicore test result for the iPhone SE is 4,482, which is 46% higher than the Pixel 7a’s 3,065 scores. On 3DMark’s Wild Life Unlimited graphics test, the difference is less obvious, but the iPhone SE still easily outperformed the Pixel 7a, which only managed to achieve a score of 41.1 frames per second. The iPhone SE outperformed the Pixel 7a by nearly 30 seconds when transcoding a video on both phones using Adobe Premiere Rush.

The Pixel 7a isn’t a performance slouch, but playing graphically demanding games causes it to noticeably warm up. But in every measurable way, the iPhone SE easily outperforms it.

Battery Life and Charging:

Because of its diminutive size, the iPhone SE doesn’t have much room for a large battery. However, teardowns show that Apple is using a 1,624 mAh battery in its most affordable model. Our iPhone SE battery test result confirms that even the power-efficient A15 Bionic will struggle to get much life out of that. When we used Apple’s phone to continuously browse the internet over cellular service, it lasted for 9 hours and 5 minutes before losing power. Compared to the typical smartphone, that is about 50 minutes less.

The Pixel 7a performs noticeably better on our battery test thanks to its 4,385 mAh battery. It finished 10 hours and 5 minutes sooner than the average smartphone and outlasted the iPhone by an hour. The Pixel 7a’s display was at that point set to a 60Hz refresh rate, the same as the iPhone SE’s display. The Pixel 7a will be tested with an adaptive refresh rate enabled; typically, this feature is more power-hungry and will have a negative impact on battery life.

Both phones charge relatively slowly. While the iPhone SE can charge at 20W, the Pixel 7a supports 18W wired charging speeds. The iPhone no longer has an advantage over other low-cost smartphones thanks to the addition of wireless charging support in the Pixel 7a.

Software & Special Features:

Because Apple provides extensive software support for its phones, any iPhone would typically have a significant software advantage over an Android device. The iPhone SE 2022 will be able to support whatever version of iOS Apple releases in 2027 because iPhones typically receive five years of software support. Only three Android OS updates are available for the Pixel 7a, and one of them, Android 14, won’t be available until this year.

However, this is where the Tensor G2 chipset inside the Pixel 7a really shines through in terms of the experiences it powers. The Pixel 7a, like the Pixel 7 before it, is capable of a number of features not found on other smartphones, including Apple’s devices.

The Pixel 7a’s Photo Unblur feature makes use of AI to sharpen up photos where someone’s face is a little blurry. Even photos taken by other devices, such as the iPhone SE, are compatible with the feature. A level of intelligence not provided by Siri on the iPhone is added by features like Speaker Labels in the Pixel’s Recorder app and Direct My Call, which provides an on-screen menu of phone directories for 800 numbers.

You can affordably enter the outstanding iOS ecosystem with the iPhone SE. Even so, the Tensor-powered features that Pixel 7a owners can access are slightly more impressive.

Verdict:

The A15 Bionic silicon in the iPhone SE had better performance. Because the Pixel 7a would outperform Apple’s least expensive phone without the superior performance provided by that chipset, not to mention the photo processing features it supports. As it stands, Google’s device won the Google Pixel 7a vs. iPhone SE matchup convincingly rather than decisively.

The iPhone SE remains one of the top budget smartphones due to its affordable price, strong processor, and outstanding camera. But there is still room for improvement given the outdated design and poor battery life.

The Pixel 7a is a superior smartphone. We appreciate the fact that it is under $500 and still has a fast-refreshing display, wireless charging, and the same Tensor chipset as Google’s current flagship. Though the Pixel 7a adds a lot more to the story, Google’s smartphones are still worth considering because of their excellent cameras.

Read more: Google Pixel 8 Pro Tipped to Get Inbuilt Thermometer