The Google Pixel 8a Is an Almost Complete Do-Over of the Pixel 8

If you like affordable, stylish smartphones, you’ll like what the Google Pixel 8a is all about. Once again, Google’s mid-year mid-range offering is a revised reprise of the previous fall flagship. It comes in a batch of new colors, with most of the same camera and performance features, and it remains one of the cheapest ways to get Google AI in a freshly-baked device.

This year, Google’s big push for the Pixel 8a is that it can do everything the regular Pixels can do with the company’s new AI. Since the Pixel 8a has the same processor as its predecessors, it will have features like Circle to Search, Best Take, Magic Editor, and Call Assist.

Thankfully, the rumors were wrong, and the Pixel 8a still costs $500. You can pre-order the Pixel 8a today. It will ship by the time we’ve learned all about Google’s new things at next week’s Google I/O. Before you buy, here’s a bit about it. And remember to check out our full hands-on carousel of Google’s updated mid-range smartphone.

Pixel 8a: A perfect package

As you may have expected, the Pixel A-series has been the same game since the Pixel 3a launched five years ago, and the Pixel 8a looks almost precisely like the Pixel 8. It has rounded corners, is available in vibrant colorways like “Aloe” green and “Bay” blue, and has power and volume buttons on the right side. The weight of the Pixel 8a is about 6.8 ounces. It’s a few grams more dense than the Pixel 8, for whatever reason.

The Pixel 8a’s 6.1-inch display also looks like the flagship it represents. It is an Actua display with a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and up to 2,000 nits peak brightness in daylight. The screen does have HDR support. It’s made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and is scratch-resistant. It’s worth noting that unlike the Pixel 8, this is not a P-OLED, which features plastic, but a regular glass OLED.

The insides of the Pixel 8a are copy-and-paste with the Pixel 8. It runs on a Tensor G3 processor, which allows it to access all the Gemini AI features currently rolling out. Like the Pixel 8, only 8GB of memory is available for the device. If Google offers this configuration for its mid-tier, it would be nice to see Google bump up the Pixel 9 in memory capacity.

The Pixel 8a’s battery promises to be 15% better than the Pixel 7a’s—it’s about 4,492 mAh in the Pixel 8a and 4,385 mAh in its predecessor. The Pixel 8a has 18-watt charging and Qi wireless capabilities. Again, Google promises more than 24 hours of battery life, and considering that’s around what the Pixel 7a did last year, we’ll see if the Pixel 8a delivers on that extra percentage promise.

Pixel 8a: Buy it for the camera

The Pixel 8a did not copy and paste the Pixel 8’s camera hardware. The primary camera is a 64-MP wide-angle lens with an 80-degree field-of-view (FoV) and f/1.89 aperture. The Pixel 8a can shoot 4K video up to 60 frames per second. The secondary camera is a 13-MP ultra-wide lens with a 120-degree FoV, while the front camera is a 13-MP sensor with a 96.5-degree FoV.

Google confirmed these are the exact camera specifications as the Pixel 7a. At the very least, anyone who bought the Pixel 8 should know that the hardware in the mid-tier is different. The Pixel 8a also won’t offer “Pro” mode controls. Those remain exclusive to the flagships.

The Pixel A-series isn’t as high resolution as its flagship counterparts, but it does offer the best parts of Google’s photography at a price that isn’t exorbitant. The camera’s abilities are especially noticeable with nighttime photography, which lets you take a moody picture of a friend at night without it coming out pitch black. But it also means the phone will likely suffer from the same ailments as the smaller Pixel 8. Don’t buy this phone if you need to zoom in—actually, you’ll need to go up in price point if that’s something you need from a smartphone.

Pixel 8a: Coming May 14

You’d choose a Pixel A-series over mid-rangers from OnePlus and Samsung mainly because of Google’s algorithms. Buying this phone unlocks Magic Editor and Audio Magic Editor in Google Photos and gets you everything else.

The Google Pixel 8a costs $500 and will be available on May 14 at the Google Store and wherever you buy your smartphone. Check out our hands-on gallery to see more of the Pixel 8a.

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