Are you in the market for a good mid-range phone right now and can’t decide whether to get last year’s Samsung Galaxy A54 5G or wait for the all-new Galaxy A35 5G to make its US commercial debut “in the coming weeks”? Have you considered the Motorola Edge (2023)? What about the surprisingly affordable OnePlus 12R high-ender?
What do companies do when they’re preparing to unveil a new phone? They start offering old models at substantial discounts to try to maintain their appeal. At 125 bucks less than usual, the unlocked Pixel 7a with 5G support for all US carriers is certainly as appealing as ever… or maybe even more so.
Of course, this is far from an unprecedented price cut, which doesn’t make it feel any less special. The last time we saw this exact deal at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy was a little over a month ago, and we once again expect the $125 discount to go away relatively soon.
That means you probably don’t have a lot of time to carefully weigh the strengths and weaknesses of a super-affordable Google phone with stock Android, stellar software support, solid Tensor G2 processing power, a reasonably sharp and smooth 90Hz 6.1-inch OLED display, and highly capable 64 and 13MP rear-facing cameras.
Normally priced at $499 in a single 128GB storage variant, the Pixel 7a is currently a lot cheaper than the likes of the OnePlus 12R and Samsung Galaxy S23 FE while still costing a little more than the Motorola Edge (2023), which looks amazing at first glance but is unlikely to keep you satisfied on the software update front in the long run.
Bottom line, what you’re looking at here is an absolute value champion that we don’t expect to see discounted to a lower price than this anytime soon. Not even after the Pixel 8a goes on sale in May.
