Google launched the Pixel 8a, the company’s latest mid-range Pixel phone, recently as the successor to the Pixel 7a. This has a more rounded design, smaller screen, gets a 120Hz screen, latest Tensor G3 SoC, and matches the 7 years of updates with the Pixel 8. Is this a good upgrade to the Pixel 7a? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Display, Hardware and Design |
| Camera |
| Software, UI and Apps |
| Fingerprint sensor |
| Music player and Multimedia |
| SIM and Connectivity |
| Performance and Benchmarks |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- Pixel 8a in Obsidian colour
- USB-C to USB-C Cable (USB 2.0)
- Quick Start Guide
- Quick Switch Adaptor
- SIM Ejector Tool
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the Pixel 8a has a 6.1-inch Full HD+ OLED display with a pixel resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 431 PPI. The display is bright, and has HDR support. Outdoor visibility is good as well.
The phone has a 120Hz refresh rate display, compared to 90Hz in the Pixel 7a, and matches the Pixel 8. You can notice the high refresh rate, especially when you are scrolling through the UI and when gaming. It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and Netflix.
Under the display options, there are different options to adjust colours based on your preference. There is also a night light option that lets you reduce the display’s blue light emission, so it doesn’t cause eye strain when you are reading at night.
There is Dark mode and an always-on display option for the lock screen, but it doesn’t offer a lot of customization. It doesn’t have MEMC or DC Dimming option. The phone comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, compared to Gorilla Glass Victus protection in the Pixel 7.
The phone has a tiny centre punch-hole that houses an 13-megapixel camera, same as the Pixel 7a. Above the display, there is an earpiece on the top edge, which also doubles up as a secondary speaker.
The phone has an optical in-display fingerprint scanner which is present almost near the centre area, similar to Samsung. You can also notice a small bezel below the display, which is slight bigger than the bezels on the sides and the top.
Coming to the button placements, the power button and volume rockers are present on the right side. The single SIM slot is present on the left side, and the phone has eSIM support for the secondary SIM. The USB Type-C port, microphone and speaker grill are present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is present on the top. Since the sides have an aluminum frame, you can see the antenna bands, and it doesn’t attract fingerprints.
Compared to the glass back on the Pixel 8 series, the Pixel 8a still uses a plastic back, but this has a smooth matte finish that looks and feels good, and it doesn’t attract fingerprints, but it might get scratched easily.
In addition to the usual Obsidian and Porcelain colours, the phone comes in limited edition Aloe and Bay options in India.
The phone is 8.9mm thick, almost similar to the Pixel 7a, but weighs 188 grams, making it 5.5 grams lighter than the predecessor, even with a large 4492mAh battery. The phone has IP67 ratings for dust and water resistance compared to IP68 in the Pixel 8 series.
Camera
- 64MP rear camera with Sony IMX787 sensor, Quad PD Quad Bayer, f/1.89 aperture, OIS
- 13MP 120° Ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture, PDAF
- 13MP front camera with 95° ultra-wide lens, f/2.2 aperture
The camera UI is simple with options for night sight, portrait, camera, video, panorama, photo sphere and Google Lens. There is no expert or pro mode, but there is a RAW option, which you can enable from the advanced settings. Other features include, Astrophotography, Night Sight, Top Shot, Magic Eraser, Real Tone, Face Unblur, and Long Exposure mode. The Action Pan from the Pixel 8 series is missing.
Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well with brilliant dynamic range from both the cameras. After pixel binning, you get 64MP output from the main camera. For ultra-wide, you get 13MP output. It doesn’t have macro option. The 13MP front camera is good.
Even though the phone only has digital zoom up to 8X, the computation photography makes the image look clear. Edge detection is decent in portrait. Lowlight camera performance is also good, and the night sight helps in places where there is minimal light.
Check out the camera samples.
It can record videos at 4k resolution at 60 fps from main and 4K 30 fps with ultra-wide, and the front camera also gets 4k 30 fps options. You can also switch between the main and ultra-wide cameras when you record in 4K 30fps.
The main camera has standard, locked, active and cinematic pan stabilization options. Standard is enough for most cases, and the active mode uses the ultra-wide camera, and zoom in for better stabilization. It also has 120 (1/4) and 240 (1/8) fps options in 1080p. Video quality is good from both the front and rear cameras. Even though it has the same Tensor G3 chip from the Pixel 8, there is no HDR video option.
Software, UI and Apps
It runs Android 14 out of the box. The company has promised 7 Android OS updates, feature drops and security patches even in the Pixel 8a to match the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. You don’t get any bloatware.
Android 14 brings several features such as updated customization picker, making it easier to switch between wallpapers and update what you want to see at a glance. You can now set custom lock screen shortcuts, like QR reader or the Google Home app, so you have quick, one-tap access to your most used controls directly from your Android lock screen.
You can choose from a set of new, curated lock screen templates for fonts, widgets, colors and formats that best match your style. These options also use AI to adjust your screen based on your situation.
The generative AI wallpapers use AI-generated text-to-image diffusion models will help you create wallpapers that match your vision. Android 14 also includes a monochromatic theme, but the all the icons doesn’t turn monochrome.
The Pixel 8 gets 8GB LPDDR5X of RAM. Out of 8GB RAM, you get 7.6GB of usable RAM, and about 3GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It doesn’t have memory extension or virtual RAM. Out of 128GB, you get about 109.6GB of free storage. It still has UFS 3.1 storage, same as the Pixel 8 Apart from the Google apps, it doesn’t have any third-party apps.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an in-display optical fingerprint sensor. Unlike most phones, it doesn’t immediately unlock the phone just by keeping your finger on the sensor, and takes at least a second. This was also present in the Pixel 8. There is also face unlock option.
Music Player and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default music player. It doesn’t have Dolby Atmos or any other custom audio features. Audio through the stereo speakers is clear and loud, and there is no distortion even at full volume. Audio through the headphones is good as well. The phone has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming apps. You also get HDR playback on Netflix, in addition to YouTube.
SIM and Connectivity
The Pixel 8a has single physical SIM and an eSIM support, so you can use it as a dual SIM phone. The phone has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with support for n1/2/3/5/7/8/12/20/26/28/38/40/41/66/75/76/77/78 bands, dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS + GLONASS and NFC support.
It also has USB OTG support. We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good, even though it is present on the top edge. Similar to the Pixel 8, I faced occasional 4G connectivity drops in some places. I also couldn’t get 5G to work all the time, since the phone was in 4G mode most of the time on Airtel. This might be due to the use of the same modem from the Pixel 8.
The Pixel 8a’s body SAR is 1.00W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.11/Kg which is almost similar to the Pixel 7a, and it well under the limit in India, which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
The Pixel 8a is powered by the new Google Tensor G3 SoC, same as the Pixel 8. It has 1x Cortex-X3 @ 2.91GHz; 4x Cortex-A715 @ 2.37GHz; and 4x Cortex-A510 @ 1.70GHz with Mali-G715 MP15 GPU and also has Titan M2 security chip. This uses Samsung’s 4nm process tech.
The performance is smooth without any lags. When you play graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact, or use the camera for a long time for recording videos, it gets hot quickly. It reached maximum 43º in our testing indoors in Wi-Fi, but this might vary outdoors in 4G or 5G. I did not receive an overheating warning on my Pixel 8a, but games throttle a lot when the phone gets hot. Even though the performance has improved, Google has not tried a way to fix the heating issue in the Tensor chips.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 57.3% which is just average. The temperature shot up from 31 to 43 degrees. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see, the Tensor G3 chip is decent, but it can’t compete with Qualcomm or MediaTek’s chips that are available in the phone in the price range.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 4492mAh (typical) built-in battery, which is slightly bigger than the 4385mAh in the Pixel 7a. It lasted for a day even with mixed use on 120Hz. I got over 4 and half hours of screen on time. With heavy use, it will last less than a day.
It has 18W PD fast charging, and takes close to an hour to charge to 50%, and over 2 hours for full charge. There is wireless charging support, but it maxes out at 7.5W, so it will take several hours to charge the phone.
Conclusion
Overall, the Pixel 8a is a decent upgrade to the Pixel 7a in terms of display refresh rate, and SoC. However, the Rs. 52,999 price tag is hard to justify since there are phones with powerful SoCs in the market in the range, and it still comes with 18W charging which is slow.
Google still offers Rs. 1,500 instant discount on HDFC Bank Cards and EMI as a part of limited-period offer. If you want to get the phone for the camera and the software support, you can wait for the price cut.
Alternatives
OnePlus 12R and iQOO 12 at a cheaper rate offers better display, faster SoC and faster charging. Google’s own Pixel 8 will be available at a cheaper rate during sale, and with card offers, it is still a good deal if you need a better camera with HDR video recording, glass back and faster wired and wireless charging support.
Pricing and availability
The Google Pixel 8a is priced at Rs. 52,999 (MRP) for the 128GB version and the 256GB version costs Rs. 59,999 (MRP). It is available from Flipkart.
Pros
- 7 OS software updates and security updates
- Reliable cameras
- Smooth performance
- IP67 ratings
- Wireless charging
Cons
- Gets heated quickly during intensive tasks
- 18W charging is super slow
- Priced on the higher side