Just a heads up, the Pixel 7a’s price fell to $399 on Amazon US (MSRP is $499 but it also used to retail for around $450), which makes it very interesting given that the phone came out in May this year, meaning that there will be guaranteed updates until May 2028.
If you want to upgrade to a recent Pixel but can’t afford to overspend on a Pixel 8, you might want to check that one out, or maybe even some of the used ones on Ebay as people wanting to upgrade to the Pixel 8 are selling their old phones: https://lemmy.world/post/6515996
Can vouch for all three of these products. I prefer the pro buds and find they are worthy for the extra battery alone (received the series-a as a promo with the 7a and use them for running.)
As to the phone, I find it is a steal at that price. Upgraded to Android 14 last week and had it rooted and just the way I like things on day one. I understand it works well with grapheneOS if privacy is one’s jam. The functionality itself is very snappy and the device does basically everything that the new models do short of some (imo minor) hardware bells and whistles.
Given the relative repairability and ~5 more years of official support; this model is maybe the least enshittified piece of hardware I’ve bought since the Steam Deck.
Fingerprint reader is Garbo though. It works better wearing a blue nitrile glove than bare hand too for who knows.
Coming from a traditional reader, I was ready to agree with you. Honestly though the in screen reader has been so smooth as to be invisible to me. Android 14 now reports individual figures for use with Tasker and the functionally is as seamless and snappy as it was with the classic FP reader.
I have a P7a and the fingerprint scanner works just fine. I haven’t had any issues until now, except the few times where the scanner is not recognizing my fingerprints if my fingers are either wet or a bit dirty but that’s normal.
I find dry and wet with anything other than my own sweat doesn’t work very well. Mysteriously blue nitrile glove works 99% of the time, only with registered prints. Same results with and without screen protectors. I did come from a OnePlus 5 which had a separate from screen print reader so my expectations may be off. Or my skin is fucked.