Google Pixel 8A first impressions: Dressed to impress

Google surprised everyone when it launched its Pixel 8A smartphone last week. Traditionally, Google has launched its A-series smartphone at its developers’ conference, that is, the Google I/O. But this year, the company took a slight detour from this trend by making the phone available to interested buyers the same day it announces its next-gen mobile operating system, that is, Android 15. More on that later.

Aside from the launch date, Google has remained true to its tradition by bringing some of the best features from last year’s flagship, Google Pixel 8 series, to the Pixel 8a. Here’s a specs-by-specs comparison for your reference:

Google Pixel 8A: Initial thoughts 

While it is too early to give a more thorough assessment of the Pixel 8a, here are a couple of points I do want to highlight:

Image: Shweta Ganjoo/Techlusive

– The Pixel 8a comes with a plastic body with an aluminum chassis. Despite having a plastic body, the Pixel 8a doesn’t look like a cheaper replica of the Pixel 8. The plastic back cover has a frosted glass appeal, which makes the overall phone look premium. Despite its good looks, it’s hard to ignore that phones like the OnePlus 12R and the Xiaomi 13 Pro Plus come with glass back despite costing a lot less than the 53K worth Pixel 8a.

– On the front, the Pixel 8a comes with an 120Hz OLED display, which is an upgrade from last year’s Pixel 7a smartphone that came with a 90Hz display. The screen is smooth and bright enough to view information even under the bright Delhi sun. However, I do wish that Google had made the bezels slimmer. Does having slightly bigger bezels make a difference in usage? No. Would it look better? Absolutely.

– The Pixel 8a is powered by the company’s most powerful Tensor G3 chipset and it has the same memory type as the Pixel 8. This means that it can handle almost anything you throw at it just as well as its 76K sibling. It also means that by spending Rs 52,999 you will get access to all the AI-powered features such as Best Take, Audio Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Magic Editor to name a few that the company ships with the Pixel 8 series.

– Lastly, the cameras. Anyone who has ever heard of Pixel phones is no stranger to Google’s computational prowess, which we get to see in its Pixel smartphones every year. It’s not about the number of cameras or the megapixels in a camera but about the algorithms that Google deploys to process the details captured by the cameras. In my initial assessment, I found Pixel 8a to be good in capturing shadows, reflections and details in both indoor lighting and outdoor lighting conditions. The colours too are pretty accurate. The selfie camera, on the other hand, is equally good at capturing all the details, but it tends to smoothen out the skin for a more ‘Instagram-worthy’ image.

That said, these are just our initial thoughts on the limited testing that we have done so far. Stay tuned for a more detailed review!