• Google Pixel 7a
    Google Pixel 7a
    Pick for the camera

    The Pixel 7a offers flagship power in a compact body with that fabled Pixel camera. It offers great performance in this price bracket, but the display could be brighter.

  • galaxya54square2
    Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
    Pick for the display

    The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G offers a great display with 120Hz and plenty of brightness. There's decent performance and a reasonable camera too, but it's the display that really shines.

Over the years, mid-range phones have moved from being just above entry-level, to just below flagship. A few compromises here and there brings the price down, resulting in a middle tier of affordable devices that have plenty to offer.

The Pixel A models have all offered great performance for the price while Samsung's A Series are also amongst the top-selling devices from company. So how do the latest from both brands compare?

The Pixel 7a is latest from Google, announced in May 2023, while the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G was announced in March 2023.

Price, availability, specs

The Google Pixel 7a is available for $499 / £449 / €509 and was announced on 10 May at Google I/O. It's available in four colours, with the Coral being exclusive to the Google Store.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G was announced on 31 March 2023 in Europe and is available for $449 in the US on Samsung.com or £499 in the UK from Samsung.com.

Now follows the specs for respective phones, so you can see how they compare.


  • Google Pixel 7aSamsung Galaxy A54 5G
    SoCGoogle Tensor G2 Exynos 1380
    Display6.1-inch, FHD+, 90Hz, up to 1,000nits6.4-inch, Super AMOLED, Full HD+, 120Hz
    Battery4,385 mAh5000mAh
    Front camera13 MP13MP, f/2.2
    Dimensions152.4mm x 72.9mm x 9mm158.2 x 76.7 x 8.2mm, 202g
    IP RatingIP67IP67

Design and build

pixel7a15

The Google Pixel 7a follows the family design with a flattened back divided by the camera bar running across the top. It basically looks like a smaller version of the Pixel 7, and not too different to the Pixel 6a. The noticeable difference to the Pixel 7 is the slightly wider bezels around the display. It measures 72.9 x 152.4 x 9.0mm and weighs 193g.

The Pixel 7a comes in Charcoal, Snow, Sea and Coral colours and there's an IP67 protection rating on the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G has shifted design over the 2022 A53, and now looks like the Galaxy S models, with the camera lenses individually placed on the rear of the phone. It's finished in plastic, but it's still a quality feel to it. It also has an IP67 rating. It measures 158.2 x 76.7 x 8.2mm and weighs 202g, so it's a larger phone overall.

The Galaxy A54 5G comes in Awesome Lime, Awesome Black, Awesome Violet and Awesome White colours.

Display

samsung galaxy a54

There's a 6.1-inch OLED display on the Pixel 7a with a 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution and a refresh rate of 90Hz. As we mentioned, the bezels are a little on the thick side, while there's a punch hole camera top and centre for the selfie camera.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G has a larger display at 6.4-inches. It's an AMOLED panel as you'd expect from Samsung with a punchy 1000 nits. Compared to the Pixel 7a, Samsung's display is better, particularly in terms of that brightness. It has a 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution, so the Pixel 7a technically has a higher pixel density, but we'd say the Samsung display is still more appealing.

The Galaxy A54 also has a 120Hz refresh rate, so you get a larger display that's technically more capable from Samsung.

Hardware

The Google Pixel 7a runs on the Google Tensor 2 hardware, the same as the Pixel 7 Pro. That means it's flagship-grade power, only with 8GB RAM. That makes for snappy performance, perhaps warming a little under load as Tensor chips seem to do, but otherwise you're getting top-tier hardware at mid-range prices. There's 128GB of storage.

There's a 4385mAh battery, with 18W wired charging and 7.5W wireless charging. Neither are particularly fast in modern terms and that's not a huge battery for this size of device.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G is powered by the Exynos 1380 again with 8GB RAM. Both are 5nm hardware, but you can expect the Tensor G2 to be the more powerful and deliver a faster experience. Samsung, however, offers 128 and 256GB storage options, as well as support for microSD up to 1TB.

Samsung also has a larger 5000mAh battery with support for 25W wired charging, so again is likely to offer the better endurance of the two phones.

Camera

pixel 7a camera

Google's camera story is dominated by its computational photography, with clever features to make the camera work in just about all conditions, no matter what's happening. There's a dual camera setup with a 64-megapixel main and 13-megapixel ultrawide. On the front there's a 13-megapixel camera.

However it's the smarts that appeal to us - a solid night mode, great portrait performance from all cameras, Super Res Zoom to give you decent digital zoom, as well as good editing features like photo unblur.

Samsung offers a triple camera with a 50-megapixel main, 12-megapixel ultrawide and 5-megapixel macro, joined by a 32-megapixel front camera. Again there are plenty of features, but quite a different look to images, with Google tending to be more realistic and Samsung more saturated. The Pixel camera is highly praised though, so we suspect most will prefer the performance from the Pixel 7a.

Conclusions

The Google Pixel 7a is a little newer than the Samsung phone and has the advantage of being front of the queue when it comes to updates - as well as being free from the duplications that Samsung introduces. Besides the cleaner software experience it offers a stellar camera and flagship-grade power.

Google Pixel 7a
Google Pixel 7a
Pick for the camera
$444 $499 Save $55

The Pixel 7a is Google's latest mid-range phone. It succeeds the Pixel 6a, and sits alongside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, offering a number of great specs and features and bridging the gap even more between flagship and mid-range.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G is a little cheaper and has a better display, offering more space and better quality and brightness, making it more pleasurable to use day to day. The power isn't far off and the battery will likely beat most Pixel 7a users. So there are pros and cons on both sides of this argument.

Galaxy-A54-5G_Awesome-Violet_Front
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
Pick for the display

The display is really the thing that Samsung has stacked in its favour - as well as a range of interesting software tweaks if you're a fan of Samsung's take on Android. Otherwise, it's the camera that will attract people to the Pixel 7a, especially at this price.