The BEST phone deal of Prime Day, according to our phone experts

We aren’t exactly hurting for smartphone deals this Prime Day, but as far as I’m concerned, none of them offer as much value for money as this superb Google Pixel 7a deal. By itself, the 7a was already very popular around the Expert Reviews water cooler – our Google Pixel 7a review adorned it with a five-star rating and our coveted Best Buy award – and if that’s all you got with this deal, I’d still consider it a bargain.

But that’s not all you’re getting. The Pixel 7a doesn’t normally include a charger, which is aimed at being better for the environment, but can be frustrating if you don’t have a suitable block waiting at home. Google has rectified that with this deal, bundling in a 30W charger at no extra cost, offering the whole package for just £399 (down from an average cost of £429).

As with all Prime Day discounts, this price is only for those with an active Amazon Prime membership. If you aren’t currently subscribed, you can still take advantage of the sale – just follow the link below to start a free 30-day trial.

To be clear, the Pixel 7a with a 30W charger bundle has been this cheap before, notably during the last Prime Day sale, but it’s still tied for the best deal you can get on what is, for my money, the top mid-range smartphone around.

I could waste time getting to the main point, but you already know that it’s going to be the cameras. A phone you can pick up for under £400 has absolutely no business taking photos that are this good. Colours, exposure balancing, dynamic range: all exquisite. Nature lovers will appreciate how many vibrant shades of green that the main lens can pluck from a summer tree, while those who take a lot of portrait shots will struggle to find better clarity and skin tone reproduction on any smartphone, regardless of price.

Interestingly enough, the lenses used here pack in more pixels than those used on the standard Pixel 7. I’m always wary about higher MP count, because that rarely tells the whole story, but it certainly doesn’t seem to hurt here. Importantly, the cameras match their resolution with exceptional light capture.

This translates over to Night Sight, which Google claims is 2x faster than on the Pixel 6a. I can’t argue with that; capturing low-light shots feels almost instantaneous, and the back-end enhancements take notably less time to complete the shot, as well.

The last thing I’ll say about the cameras – we will get to other parts of the phone, I promise – is that the software side of things has been expanded since the Pixel 6a, picking up the useful Photo Unblur feature from the flagships. In other words, the reasons to fork out more for the likes of the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro over the 7a are dwindling.

The cameras are undoubtedly the big-ticket feature of the Pixel 7a, and rightfully deserve a lot of attention, but I’ve still got plenty to say about the rest of the phone. For starters, good photos are worth very little without a beautiful display to show them on, and luckily, the Pixel 7a provides.

The 6.1in screen is an OLED panel, so black and contrast levels are as close to perfect as it gets, but what really stands out to me is the colours. I’ve never been one to dwell too much on slightly inaccurate shades, but the Pixel 7a nails colour reproduction so well, I can’t help but be impressed.

Finally, but still very important, is how well it performs. That display refreshes up to 90Hz, so scrolling feels more fluid than some 60Hz mid-range phones, but what really keeps the lights on bright is the Google Tensor G2 processor. This is the same chipset that’s found in the flagship Pixel 7, and thus delivers near-identical performance, for quite a bit less money. At a certain point, I lose interest in higher and higher performance numbers – once it meets my daily needs adequately, I’m satisfied – so this balance of price and performance is right in the pocket for me.

Wrapping this all up in a Prime Day bow, I’ll just say that we found the Google Pixel 7a to be terrific value for money at its retail price, so the fact that you can get it for less than £400 and have a 30W charger thrown in for free is very enticing indeed.

If you are set for a smartphone but still want to snatch up any and all deals that are going in the Prime Day sale, be sure to head over to our central Prime Day hub. There, we’ve gathered together all the top bargains across a range of categories, including headphones, TVs, kitchen appliances and more.