After 4a and 6a, now is the time for 7a to shine!
Though, is it still in early beta and apparently very few models seem to be affected and there isn’t any word of system update to nuke the battery life on this model. But it goes to show that Google is treating the A series really badly.
Right, so which phone should I buy second hand that has a great camera and doesn’t cost the earth?
I had a 4A, currently I have a 6A, and I was going to get a 7A but apparently that’s a bad idea too. Fuck’s sake.
One that’s not an A? I buy all of mine used and they’re very reasonably priced.
I’ve not checked the sizing but I thought the whole point was that the A variants were smaller? My 6A is already much larger than I’d like. I’m not trying to watch movies on these damn things! 😂
a series are just "budget"models, they’re not smaller AFAIK.
You want one even smaller than that?! That size was perfect for me. The 8 which I have now is smaller, and I have more trouble on the keyboard because it’s narrower.
You may want to specifically look at phones marketed as being small. Personally I use GSMArena to compare specs: https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=11037&idPhone2=11229
There really are no options for people who want smaller phones. I thought the size of the 4a was perfect, wasn’t happy when I had to “upgrade” to the 6a. My upgrade path at this point is the Fairphone line and those are even bigger. Life is hard for those with small hands or elastic-band pants. (seriously my phone is constantly pulling out my ass crack cuz of how big it is in my pocket.)
The 4A was about the upper limit of what I like - switching to the 6A has been a royal pain in the arse!
A small phone I can get a good grip on - bigger phones feel like a balancing act during use.
Yes…?
I want to be able to hold it in one hand and use it properly, like I could with my iPhone 3GS. If I need a bigger device, which I often do, I grab a laptop. If I want a big screen I use my home theatre. If I want handheld gaming I grab my Steam Deck. My point is, I’m not a luddite who feels that smartphones aren’t useful - I was an early adopter (Shout outs to Symbian Series 60!) but I’m finding the recent generations of devices to be cumbersome. They’re massive in my pocket, I need two hands to use them, they’re much easier for me to fumble and drop, and using them strains the tendons in my little finger as I try to stabilise an ungainly lump.
It frustrates me no end that phones just get bigger and bigger. Having the option is great, no complaints there, but could there be something that suits me too?
The issue I’ve had there is that their cameras are generally rubbish, unfortunately.
Pixel 7 is around $160-180 used right now, that might be a nicer option than the 7a.
Alternatively do the 7a and get a free new battery from Google if it pans out that way…
A 7A. Just replace the battery.
Don’t. It’s a horrible overheating piece of crap. I literally cannot shoot more than about 3 minutes of video with the flash turned on (at 1080p, not 4k, and not encoding as hevc either). The phone overheats and turns off the flash.
Keeping the phone in my pocket, out of direct sunlight in my car? I see the “3d buildings have been disabled because your phone needs to cool down” every single day. And I live in Malta; in the summer it’s a 20 minute trip, at most.
And even then, the battery life sucks anyway.
Android 16 is buggy af too, though that’s not specific to the 7a.
I don’t have any issues with our pro8 or 7a 🤷♂️
bully for you :)
Could the same not be said for the 6A?