Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The Pixel 8a is here…but WHY?”.
Google just launched the pixel 8A, a $ 500 smartphone that shares a lot of features with the pixel 8, which launched in October last year. The question is why why does this phone exist? I want to break down what I think is going on here, but before we do that, I want to do a quick rundown of what’s new in the pixel 8A this year, as opposed to last year, just looking at the pixel 8 a you can tell that. It’S designed a little bit differently when compared to the pixel 7A, there’s a lot more callbacks to the pixel 8 series with this year’s design. However, overall, it’s pretty much the same. It’S basically the same weight same size got the same size display and it comes in a lot of the same colors.
There is one new color this year, which is called Alo, which is this funky green color, but other than that. It’S pretty much the same as the pixel 7A. The display is the biggest difference between the pixel 8A and the pixel 7A overall, it’s the same Dimension 6.1 in and it’s the same resolution, which is 1080p, but it goes up to 120 HZ this year. A big jump from the 90 htz of last year.
It also gets to a brightness of 2,000 nits, which is significantly brighter than the 500 nits we saw from the pixel 7A last year. The internals of the pixel 8A also get an upgrade most notably the tensor G3 chipset is here this year, as opposed to the tensor G2 in last year’s phone. The battery size also goes up by about 100 milliamp hours, and you now have a 256 gab option. As opposed to only having 128 GB option last year, that’s a nice touch considering the pixel 8A does not have expandable storage so getting that extra storage tier might be worth it. Finally, there are some significant changes with software this year. The big thing, obviously, is that it comes with Android 14 out of the box instead of Android 13 like last year, and it’s getting the full 7-year upgrade pledge that Google gave to the pixel 8 series. That means you’re going to get seven years of Android upgrades.
Seven years of pixel feature drops and 7 years of security updates for the pixel 8A. This is going to make it a good investment if you keep your phone for a really long time, you’re also going to get some cool software features surrounding Gemini Nano. That’S right! The pixel 8A will support Gemini Nano features, just like the pixel 8 and the pixel 8 Pro. Unfortunately, just like the pixel 8 Gemini. Nano will only work on the 8A by manually, activating it through developer options, and this isn’t here yet you’re going to have to wait until a pixel feature drop.
That comes later. It’S going to activate it for both the pixel 8 and the pixel 8A. Meanwhile, Gemini Nano already works, fine on the pixel 8 Pro other than the things that I’ve just described. Everything about the pixel 8A is the same as the pixel 7A, which includes camera Hardware.
That’S right! There are no upgrades this year in the camera hardware department from the pixel 7A to the pixel 8A. That’S a little disappointing, but the pixel 7A was a decent camera for the price. So we’re not going to complain too much about that.
The thing that’s most notable here, though, is that the pixel 8A is astoundingly close to the pixel 8, really when it comes right down to it. The pixel 8A is just a pixel 8, with slightly weaker camera, specs and a plastic back. That’S really the only notable differences between the two phones.
This begs the the question: why does a pixel 8A need to be here when the pixel 8 already exists and does everything that the pixel 8A does, but better for only a little bit more money? Now I know what you’re thinking the pixel 8’s starting price is $ 6.99, but it’s very rarely $ 699. Today, while I’m shooting this video, I easily found the pixel 8 on Amazon for $ 549. That’S just $ 50 more than the pixel 8 A’s list price of $ 4.99. So why would anyone buy the pixel 8A when the pixel 8 is so easy to get for just a little bit more money. Remember, spending that extra $ 50 is going to get you a much better camera system and a more premium feeling device, not to mention every other feature that the pixel 8A already has you’re, also going to get an ltpo display. So you’re going to be able to go from 1 htz to 120 HZ and all stops in between, rather than with the pixel 8A, which only goes to 60 HZ or 120 HZ. Also, the pixel 8A is isn’t really that inexpensive at $ 500. It’S pretty close to premium phone territory with the pixel 6 and the pixel 7 from the previous years. Those phones started at $ 5.99. So really, this phone is just $ 100, cheaper than the starting flagships from previous years.
This kind of goes against the whole idea of what the pixel a series is supposed to be remember way back in the day when the first pixel, a phones came out like the 3A and the 3A XL, they were incredibly cheap, like $ 300 cheap, while still Offering a lot of the same specs that the more expensive pixels offered, so those phones made a ton of sense. It was an easy sell. Hey do you want most of the features that come with a pixel device but want to spend about half as much money? Here’S a pixel a now, the pixel 8A is so close in price. That, once again, it just doesn’t make sense.
You might as well just upgrade and get the main series phone. It’S possible that the pixel 8A is just a stop top gap between what Google has been doing previously with the pixel line and what we expected to do later this year with the launch of the pixel9 series, I’ve already talked a ton about the pixel9 series, so I’M not going to go too deep into it here. I’Ll leave some links to videos down in the description if you want to catch up, but basically we expect Google to launch three phones in the pixel9 series. There will be the pixel 9, which will be about the same size as the pixel 8 and offer similar features.
Then the pixel 9 Pro, which will be about the same size as the pixel 9, but offer a lot of the features that we saw on the pixel 8 Pro last year and then the pixel 9 Pro XL, which would be the biggest and baddest of them. All with this lineup, the pixel 88a, and especially a pixel 9A, doesn’t really need to be around. We expect that vanilla pixel9 to be the designated entry point to the pixel ecoystem.
This is the same way that Apple does it with iPhone, so it makes perfect sense. In other words, the pixel 8A might be the last of its kind. It’S totally feasible that next year there won’t be a pixel 9A, and if there is an Aeries device, it would probably go back to the a series Roots, meaning much cheaper phones for people who want to be in the pixel ecosystem.
But, for whatever reason, don’t want to spend as much money as they need to to get the mainline pixel. Of course, we won’t really know what Google’s plans are until we see the pixel 9 series launch – and we get into this time next year – to see what it plans to do with the next a series phone. Until then we’re just going to have to wait, but for now I can’t really see recommending the pixel 8A to anyone. If you really want a pixel, then you should just wait until the pixel 8 is on sale for the 550 price that we already found it at or if you can wait a little bit longer wait till the pixel 9 comes out, because that will obviously be Better than the pixel 8, and certainly much better than the pixel 8A, I don’t want to get too ahead of myself here, though, because we haven’t put the pixel 8A through our traditional review process and during that we’re going to have to find out all about like Battery life, how good the camera is, how fast the processor is and etc etc.
Until we do that, I don’t want to say you shouldn’t buy this phone, but at the same time, on paper it doesn’t really make much sense to buy this phone, especially when that pixel 8 exists and can be bought for almost the same price. But I want to know what you think jump down into the comments and be sure to tell us all about what you think about the pixel 8A and whether or not you think it’s a good deal when the pixel 8 can be bought for about the same Price in the meantime, I will see you in the next article .