Google's New Pixel 8A Is Here In An Eye-Catching New Color With A Price To Match
Each year, Google releases a budget version of its latest flagship Pixel phones and we finally have the specs for this year's Pixel 8a, which follows up the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. The latter two phones have been some of the most celebrated in the history of Google's bespoke smartphone lineup, with SlashGear's Pixel 8 Pro review giving it a stunning score of 9/10. It's safe to say there are high expectations for the Pixel 8a, and it seems to meet them—at least on paper.
The Pixel 8a gets a hardware redesign to round out its corners but keeps the iconic camera visor from its older siblings. It boasts a 120Hz, 1080x2400 OLED display with 430 PPI and Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Flip it over to find a dual camera array with a 64 MP Quad PD wide angle lens and a 13 MP ultrawide lens. The selfie camera, meanwhile, is 13 MP. Of course, all the cameras get Google's computational photography magic, which is what has traditionally made Pixels such great camera phones. It's all powered by a Tensor G3 chip—the same as those found in the regular Pixel 8 and 8 Pro—along with 8 GB of LPDDR5x RAM to keep things chugging smoothly along. Google claims the 4492 mAh battery will keep the 8a powered for a full 24 hours.
Those specs are pretty close to the flagship Pixels the Pixel 8a is undercutting. Although we expect the 8a to have a plastic back rather than the matte glass of the more expensive Pixels, that's a minor sacrifice since the 8a costs half the price of the 8 Pro at only $499. It goes on pre-order May 7 and hits shelves May 14.
Can the Pixel 8a stand out from the crowd?
The Pixel 8a appears to be a substantial design refresh for Google's oft-praised line of budget phones, and it's a fantastic value at $499, but in a world where it will compete against Samsung's budget Galaxy A series, cheap phones from the likes of Motorola and OnePlus, or even slightly pricier phones like the Galaxy S24, can the Pixel 8a stand out from the crowd? The answer probably depends on what consumers value in a phone.
The Pixel 7a, which also retailed for a buck shy of $500, was celebrated by many reviewers, which was not surprising. Chris Burns reviewed the Pixel 7a for SlashGear and found that it had a great camera—which is by now expected of any Pixel phone—solid battery life, and nice-to-haves like a 90Hz display and wireless charging. However, the Pixel 8a is bumping up most of those specs, including a much faster 120Hz display, a slightly larger battery, and a new processor. With all of those improvements, the 8a is frankly an absolute steal at the same $499.
In fact, the real appeal of a Pixel a-series phone is that you're getting most of the same functionality as the more expensive phones, just with a couple of downgrades most people won't miss. Instead of glass, you're getting a plastic back, but most people put a case on their phone, so that doesn't matter. What you're still getting is a great screen, an even greater camera, and even a flagship processor (proving that Google's Tensor program is paying off in some measure). With the Pixel Fold 2 rumored to launch alongside the 8a, the latter will once again be the bang for your buck phone in Google's lineup.