Google Pixel 7a vs Vivo X300 Ultra

Google Pixel 7a

4,385mAh battery + Tensor G2 inefficiency = mediocre all-day life. 18W wired charging is slow. FIRST A-series Pixel to support wireless charging (7.5W Qi).

• 4,385mAh battery — small for a 2023 phone with a power-hungry Tensor G2 chip.
• Real-world: ~5 hours of SOT typical, all-day for moderate use but often needing a top-up by evening — most-flagged Pixel 7a complaint.
• 18W wired charging — slow by 2023 standards. 0-50% in ~30 min, full in ~1h30m.
• FIRST A-series Pixel with wireless charging — 7.5W Qi. Not flagship-fast but a meaningful feature add at $499.

Vivo X300 Ultra

Vivo grew the silicon-carbon cell 10% to 6,600mAh while keeping the body the same size. Real-world endurance is strong — ~16h active-use score, ~7h heavy screen-on, 13–14 hour days with charge to spare — and 100W wired refills it in under an hour, with 40W wireless.

• Vivo increased the battery by 10% to 6,600mAh despite the phone being practically the same size on paper.
• In our battery test it earned an active-use score of almost 16 hours; 100W charging took it 0–66% in 30 minutes and a full charge in 46 minutes, plus 40W wireless. A charger is in the box except in Europe.
• On the China version I'm finishing entire 13–14 hour days with 25–30% left; the global version keeps the 6,600mAh cell so battery life should comfortably last 12–13 hours of heavy use.
• Getting nearly 7 hours of screen-on time with very heavy usage from the 6,600mAh silicon-carbon unit, with 100W wired and 40W wireless charging support.
• After a 4-hour heavy-usage simulation the phone still had ~45% battery left, which is solid by today's standards, and 100W wired charging takes about 45 minutes to full.
• In a head-to-head charge race against the Oppo Find X9 Ultra (80W), the Vivo on 100W finished first at 50 minutes 20 seconds to the Oppo's 52:39.

Google Pixel 7a

$499 launch (now $250-400 used) — best mid-range Android of 2023, often called a better buy than the $599 Pixel 7. Apple Intelligence-style AI features at half the iPhone price.

• Launched at $499 (128GB base) — $50 over Pixel 6a, $100 below Pixel 7. Strong value despite the price hike.
• Now $250-400 used in 2026 with ~6 months of OS updates left — strong short-term value but limited support runway.
• vs Pixel 7 ($599): many reviewers prefer the 7a — smaller, cheaper, near-identical cameras. The Pixel 7's 90Hz vs 7a's 90Hz, similar everything.
• vs Samsung Galaxy A54 ($449): Pixel wins on cameras and software; A54 wins on battery (5000mAh), display brightness and microSD.
• Engadget: 'the best mid-range phone of 2023' — flagship Pixel cameras + AI for half the iPhone Pro price.

Vivo X300 Ultra

This is a deliberately niche, camera-first flagship: roughly €1,175 in China for 512GB, around £1,399 globally for the phone, and close to €2,600 for the full kit. For the people it's aimed at it draws some of the strongest praise of any 2026 phone; for everyone else, a cheaper X300 Pro or the Oppo Find X9 Ultra may make more sense.

• Last year's X200 Ultra was, in my opinion, one of the best smartphones of 2025 — and this is the best smartphone I've ever used, with the best camera application I've ever used, provided with zero script from Vivo.
• The cameras are nothing short of amazing — this is the best Android camera phone, with image quality better than anything from Samsung.
• The versatility here is just ridiculous — more like a phone in a camera than the other way around, a camera system built from the sum of its many parts.
• If you accept the 35mm main, are willing to tolerate AI processing in some scenes, and don't mind the front-camera stabilisation limits, this Vivo is an excellent choice.