The Same Phone You Love, Now With More AI

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When Google announced the Pixel 3a (and 3a XL) back in May of 2019, the whole tech world was taken aback by how great a sub $350 phone could be. It sported basically all of the same specs and features as its more expensive counterpart (at the time, Pixel 3 and 3 XL), but for about half the price.

Now, fast forward five years, and a few price increases later, we have the Pixel 8a. On paper, it looks incredible for $499. We’re talking a 6.1-inch 120Hz 2000nit display, Tensor G3 processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and, of course, the renowned Pixel camera. But what makes this an interesting phone is, the fact that the Pixel 8 exists. It is only $200 more (though it is often times on sale for only $50 more) and brings you all of these features, with a glass back, a better display, better cameras and slightly larger battery life. Which begs the question, which phone is stealing buyers from which?

In this review, we’re going to try and answer why both of these phones exist in 2024, and who each one is for. Also, why should you buy or shouldn’t you buy the Pixel 8a?

Google Pixel 8a Review: Hardware & Design

The design of the Google Pixel 8a is exactly what you would expect from Google. You can see from across the room that this is a Pixel phone. Complete with the camera bar on the back and slightly more rounded corners this time around, compared to the Pixel 7a. The Pixel 8a isn’t as boxy as the Pixel 7a and is even more curved than the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, which is rather interesting.

This time around, Google is offering it in two funky colors: Aloe and Bay. The Aloe color is what we have here, which is a bright green color, and honestly, it’s growing on me. Seeing all of the leaks and renders from Google, I wasn’t too sure about this color. But having it in hand, with the matching Google silicon case, it looks incredible. And it’s definitely fun to take photos of. The other color is the Bay blue color that debuted on the Pixel 8 Pro last year. I really like this color, and while I haven’t seen it in person yet, it does look to be a tad darker than the Bay on Pixel 8 Pro. This is likely due to the materials used in each phone.

The sides of the phone are somewhat color-matched, aluminum, and the buttons match, too. It’s a small thing, but I really like the look of that. Far more than the shiny rails of the Pixel 8 Pro. You might think the Pixel 8a is using plastic rails that are disguised to look like aluminum, but these have antenna lines, which makes these aluminum rails. Pretty nice to see on a $499 phone.

Perhaps my favorite part about the design of the Pixel 8a is the camera bar. I love this camera bar, but on the a-series, it’s even thinner. It’s not entirely flat, but much closer to being flat than the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro’s camera bars. Now the front has my least favorite design choice, and that’s the display. Google introduced some nice updates to the display this year, but it also introduced some very large bezels. Normally, the bezels don’t bother me, but on the Pixel 8a, they really bother me. On top of that, they aren’t symmetrical either, with the bottom bezel being thicker than the other three sides.

Google Pixel 8a Review: Display

As Google typically does, some of the upgrades from the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have made their way down to the Pixel 8a this year. New this year is a 120Hz refresh rate and the Actua display. That means you’re looking at a 2000 nit peak brightness or 1600 nit high brightness mode here. That’s really incredible to have on a phone at this price point. Especially when you take into account that the iPhone 15 costs $799 and is still using a 60Hz panel.

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What this means is, outside in the bright Summer Sun, I’ve been able to use this phone with absolutely no issues. There is some glare on the display, as you can see in the pictures throughout this review, but as far as actually being able to see the display, not a single problem. That’s not always the case with phones. But having this brighter display makes it worthwhile.

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The colors on this display are exactly what you’d expect from Google, stunning with a tiny bit of saturation. Not so much that the display looks inaccurate, but enough to really make the colors pop. I’ve used this phone to watch a ton of content over the past week on YouTube, Netflix, and elsewhere and have not had a single problem with it. This display is not quite as good as the Pixel 8 Pro, colors still seem to pop a bit more on that display. But Google does need to give you a reason to jump up to the Pixel 8 Pro after all.

Google Pixel 8a Review: Performance

Google is once again using the same processor in its Pixel 8a, as it used in the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. So, the performance is basically the same across all three models. The major difference here is that the Pixel 8 Pro uses 12GB of RAM while the other two have 8GB of RAM. Now Google did say that there are some differences in the Tensor G3 inside the Pixel 8a, compared to the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, but they are pretty small.

In our usage, we noticed that the performance was largely the same. It performed well enough for a $499 smartphone, but Tensor is still somewhat slow compared to other chipsets in smartphones this year. However, at this price, you can kind of forgive it. We also did not notice it overheating much. So maybe that issue is fixed now as almost every other Tensor-powered Pixel was overheating.

The Benchmarks

Unfortunately, since we are using the Pixel 8a ahead of its official release, some of the benchmark apps that we normally use are not available to download on the Pixel 8a. But we will be updating this review later on with that data once we are able to run those benchmarks. This includes Geekbench and 3D Mark.

However, some of the other benchmarks and thermals that we typically run on phones are available. The first one is with Capcut. With this test, we load in the same 60-second video into Capcut and then export it at 1080p and 30 fps. We then time how long it takes to export, most phones are under 20 seconds, including the Pixel 8a, which was able to do the export in 16.57 seconds. That was, surprisingly, far faster than the Pixel 8 Pro did the same test last fall, which was around 40 seconds. So maybe Google was right in saying that there are some changes made to the chipset here. Not to mention, Google has also had more time with the chipset to optimize hardware now.

The Thermals

An important part of any phone is definitely the thermals. And in our testing, the Pixel 8a actually performed quite well. There are four tests that we run for thermals, and obviously the 3D Mark test we can’t run yet since we can’t download the app. But that will come later on.

The tests we were able to do included playing Genshin Impact for an hour, at the highest settings and max brightness. After an hour, we tested the temperature, and it was 93.4 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s actually about five degrees cooler than the Pixel 8 Pro.

The next test is actually a two-part test. Essentially we are using the camera to record video at 4K60 for 10 minutes, checking the temperature at 5 minutes and again at 10 minutes. Typically recording at 4K60 can really heat up the phone, so this is a good test to check out the thermals. The Pixel 8a was at 87.9 degrees Fahrenheit at 5 minutes, and 92.1 degrees Fahrenheit at 10 minutes. Those are some pretty good readings actually.

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These results really make me think that the plastic backside of the Pixel 8a mixed with some optimization of the Tensor G3 since its launch last fall, has really helped with thermals on the Pixel 8a. Considering the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro both use glass backs, which does make it tougher for heat to dissipate. Overall, a pretty good showing for the Pixel 8a here.

Google Pixel 8a Review: Battery Life & Charging

For the last couple of years, really since Google switched to Tensor chipsets, the battery life on Pixel phones hasn’t been that great. Before Tensor, Pixel had pretty good battery life. But, when Google switched to Tensor, other chip makers like Qualcomm moved over to TSMC which provided some incredible battery gains. Whereas the Pixel has continued to have essentially the same battery life.

That said, the Pixel 8a should be able to get you through a day. During the review process, I would unplug the Pixel 8a around 7AM, and by the time I go to bed around 11PM, it was still around 25-30%. That was with around 6 hours of screen on time. It’s decent, but not the best.

As far as charging goes, that’s where things really look bleak. Google is gatekeeping the charging speed on the Pixel 8a, since it is rated at 18W wired and 7.5W wireless. That’s pretty slow, even compared to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, which use the same processor and can do 30W and 15W. That makes the battery life of the Pixel 8a even slower since it is going to take close to two hours to fully charge the phone.

Benchmarks

As we do with the performance of each phone, we also have benchmarks for battery life and charging. These are quite simple. For battery life, we charge to 100% overnight, to make sure it is fully charged completely. Then play the same 24-hour YouTube video as we do on every phone. We keep the phone at 100% brightness, and run it down to about 1%, so we can track how long it lasted. Our testing showed that the battery lasted 14 hours and 30 minutes. That’s quite low actually, and one of the lowest times we’ve had since doing this test over the past year.

For charging, we start a timer after we plug it into an appropriate charger after the video test mentioned above. And record how long it took. We also use a USB-C cable that shows us the charging speed, to make sure it is charging properly. If there is a charger in the box, we’ll use that for this test. But as you probably know, the Pixel 8a does not come with a charger in the box. So just a regular 30W charger will do the trick. In our testing it was able to fully charge in just under two hours.

Google Pixel 8a Review: Software

With the Pixel 8a, you’re getting Android 14 out of the box. As expected, you will get Android 15 on the Pixel 8a by the end of the year. And as a Pixel, it will be among the first to get Android 15. Similar to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, the Pixel 8a is going to get 7 years of updates, security updates and feature drops. That’s pretty incredible for a phone at this price point. Since so many others are lucky to get a single update, never mind updates for seven years.

The software on the Pixel 8a is basically what you’d expect from Google. Including a slew of great AI features, like the Generative AI wallpapers. Now, this is not available on the phone out of the box. However, you should have an update waiting for you, which does bring in this feature. It works just like it does on the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 series, where you give it a few options and it will generate a couple of wallpapers that you can use.

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Some of Google’s popular AI Camera features are also available on the Pixel 8a, including Magic Editor. But we’ll talk more about that a bit later.

The software on this phone is pretty good. The Pixel Experience is still one of my favorite software experiences on Android right now, and it works so well on the Pixel 8a’s hardware.

Google Pixel 8a Review: Camera

Last year, Google upgraded the cameras pretty hugely on the Pixel 7a. So this year, we were not expecting large camera upgrades, at least on the hardware. And that’s true. Google stuck with the 64-megapixel primary camera, and a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera. Now that primary camera does sound like it might be better than the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, since those sport a 50-megapixel primary camera, but that’s not entirely accurate. On the Pixel 7a and Pixel 8a, the 64-megapixel camera is actually a smaller camera, than what the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro has. So the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro is able to get more details in each image, versus the Pixel 8a.

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However, if you put pictures taken with the Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 8a side-by-side, you likely wouldn’t notice the difference. Why is that? It’s simple, Google’s computational photography. That is how Google has been able to produce such great pictures without the latest and greatest camera sensors like what Samsung, Vivo and OPPO might be using.

Now, let’s talk about the camera quality on this phone. I’ve taken this phone out to take photos over the past week that I’ve been working on reviewing it, and it takes great Pixel pictures. There’s not much to be disappointed with here other than the lack of Zoom. Below, you’ll see a number of pictures that were taken with the Pixel 8a. Portraits look great, as you’d expect from a Pixel, and so do normal pictures as well as close-ups. There’s no macro mode here, but you can get sort of macro-style pictures from this phone.

Now let’s talk about some of the other software on the Pixel 8a, including Magic Editor. This is a feature that Google debuted with the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro last year. Basically, it’s using generative AI to change the way your picture looks. It can change the sky, add or remove clouds, it can also make your portrait look more like a portrait with more bokeh in the background. Among many other things.

Best Take, which also debuted on the Pixel 8 series last fall, has come to the Pixel 8a. Basically, what this does is it takes burst shots of a group of people, and lets you change the faces of people after the picture is taken. So if someone is always blinking or not smiling when the picture is taken, you can fix that pretty easily here.

Finally, my last favorite feature for the camera is Audio Magic Eraser. If you’ve ever been in a busy city and wanted to take a video, you’ve likely heard plenty of road noise and other noises you might not want in your video. With Audio Magic Eraser, the Pixel 8a can remove that for you. That includes car noise, wind, and construction noises. You can also remove voices, or enhance voices too.

The camera experience on the Pixel 8a is actually really good, and I’d say it’s probably the best of any phone in this price range.

Should you buy the Google Pixel 8a?

Normally, if I’m looking at just the Pixel 8a and phones in its price range, it should be a no-brainer that the Pixel 8a is a must-buy. But where the Pixel 8 exists, and is constantly on sale, that makes the recommendation to buy the Pixel 8a a bit tougher. Typically, the Pixel 8 can be found for around $549 (MSRP is $699 though). And for that $50 more, you’re getting a glass build, better cameras, a better display, and slightly better battery life.

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You should buy the Google Pixel 8a if:

  • You want a good phone that doesn’t cost a lot
  • You want a Pixel phone that’s under $500
  • You want a small phone that doesn’t suck.

You should not buy the Google Pixel 8a if:

  • You have a Pixel 7a or later Pixel phone.
  • You need incredible battery life
  • You need a camera with decent zoom capabilities

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