Google’s newest phone, the Pixel 8a, is the continuation of their A-series, a semi-affordable version of the previous year’s Pixel phone release. For most years, the new A-series phone has landed at a mid-year point that felt appropriate to keep Pixel phones in everyone’s mind and give Google a little hardware sales boost before they could reveal their next high-end phones. For this year, I’ve got to be honest, this one is hitting differently because the Pixel 9 is set to shake-up Google’s phone line-up.
I’ve spent several weeks now with the Pixel 8a in an on-again, off-again fashion, testing on daily adventures and trying to make it work as my daily. The phone itself is pretty easy to adopt, because it does a lot right without much fuss, but there’s been this ongoing thought about the imminent Pixel 9 future with every moment I’ve tested it. Why? Because the Pixel 9 is heavily-rumored to be launching as a 3-tiered phone line.
That means a cheaper Pixel 9, plus two Pixel 9 Pro devices (small and big options), all of which are expected to see an impressive redesign that will immediately make this Pixel 8a feel old and have us questioning where its place in the equation should lie. So there’s a lot to think about with the Pixel 8a, even if it is only a $500 phone. Let’s talk about it and then come back to whether or not it’s a phone to consider.
. The Pixel 8a is a great size for a phone. It pretty closely matches the Pixel 8 without the massive camera hum.
