The Pixel 8a is officially here, after a flurry of leaks revealing everything from its specs to price. The phone brings a few hardware upgrades over the Pixel 7a such as the new Tensor G3 SoC, a faster 120Hz display, and a slightly bigger 4492mAh battery, all while maintaining the same starting price of $499.
Even better, the Pixel 8a gets the same seven years of software update support as the pricier Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. That’s C’est incroyable (just incredible) for a mid-range smartphone.
There are some subtle changes in terms of appearance too. Google has opted to trim down the squared-off edges of its predecessor to give 8a more rounded corners. Additionally, it’s now available in fresh new colors, Bay, Aloe, Porcelain, and Obsidian.
The phone’s core specs remain mostly the same. You’ll get a 6.1-inch OLED screen with 1080 x 2400 pixels resolution and Corning Glass Glass 3 protection. Though the screen now gets up to 40% brighter, reaching up to 2000 nits in peak brightness mode.
There is a 13MP camera on the front for selfies, while the back has a dual-camera setup consisting of a 64MP primary and a 13MP ultrawide lens. All the cameras can record 4K 30fps videos and the rear ones can also do 4K 60 fps.
AI is the biggest hype for consumer products this year, and the Pixel 8a is no expectation. It supports the new Circle to Search feature alongside the capability to run Google’s AI model, Gemini Nano on-device. And as expected, you get access to all the photo and video editing features that made their debut with Pixel 8, including Best Take and Magic Editor.
Other features include 8GB of LPDDR5x RAM paired with 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, an IP67 rating, wireless charging, an under-display fingerprint scanner, and stereo speakers for audio.
