The Pixel 4a has been one of the most teased devices to date, and potential owners have been waiting for quite some time for Google to make the handset officially official. And now the day has finally arrived.
Google has announced the Pixel 4a, the company's newest smartphone in the Pixel family. It is also one of the cheapest, designed to offer all that Google brings to the table with its Pixel smartphones, including a great camera, Google Assistant, and much more in a package that won't break the bank. The Pixel 4a is available to pre-order beginning today, It launches on August 20, 2020.
The Pixel 4a brings a sleek design to the Pixel lineup, featuring a 5.81-inch FHD+ display with a punch-hole cutout in the top-left corner for the front-facing camera. It supports 443 pixels per inch, a 1080x2340 resolution, and it's OLED. It also supports high dynamic range (HDR) content. There is a USB-C port on the bottom of the phone for wired charging, and the Pixel 4a takes advantage of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor. That's coupled with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage. The battery measures in at 3140mAh, which Google says should last the future owner all day.
That single camera on the back is a 12-megapixel shooter, which features autofocus and dual pixel phase detection. It's capable of recording video up to 1080p HD at 30, 60, or 120 FPS, or at 720p resolution at 30, 60, or 240 FPS. The front-facing camera is an 8MP option which features an f/2.0 aperture and fixed focus.
There are physical buttons on the sides for Power and volume control, and Google is throwing in a 3.5mm headphone jack for good measure as well. The handset features support for Bluetooth 5.1, 2.4GH and 5GHz Wi-Fi, and it comes in the Just Black color. Google is not offering any additional colors at the time of unveiling.
Interestingly, the Pixel 4a is running the latest version of Android 10 out of the box, but Google also says that the handset will be getting the minimum three years of software updates and security updates after launch.
As mentioned above, the Pixel 4a isn't meant to offer all of the latest and greatest features, even for a Pixel smartphone. It shaves some features in an effort to trim the price tag, which Google managed to whittle down to just $349. The handset will go on sale from Google's online store, Best Buy, Amazon, and other retailers on August 20. It will also be availalbe from Google Fi, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular beginning on that date.
That's not all, though! Google also confirmed that this fall the company will showcase two additional handsets: the Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5. The Pixel 4a 5G will start at $499 when it launches and it will be able to connect to 5G networks — something the Pixel 4a cannot do. Meanwhile, the Pixel 5 will be Google's flagship handset for 2020. Both handsets will be available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Taiwan, Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia in the coming months. There's no exact launch date, however.
So, who's going to make the Pixel 4a their new daily driver?
