With May upon us, the leaks for the Google Pixel 8a have been going wild these past few days. The affordable Google smartphone is expected to arrive during the Google I/O Developer Conference that happens in May. With the launch nearing, the leaks have been intensifying and today we have new information. Firstly, there is a new pricing-related rumor, which brings some relief compared to the previous pricing-related rumors. The second leak shows the Pixel 8a’s extra case that will be included in the package.
Google Pixel 8a – New Pricing Leak for the US and Coral Case Spotted
The first leak points to the Pixel 8A with 128 GB to start at $499, and the 256 GB variant to cost $599. This price is for the US market, so we can expect the smartphone to cost more in other markets. For example, the previous rumors pointing to a costlier Pixel 8A were both about different markets – Europe and Canada. While this sounds strange, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Google adopting a different pricing strategy for distinct markets. This often happens with some brands in markets like India.
At the same time as pricing info emerges, we have some new leaked renders of the Google Pixel 8a inside upcoming original Google cases. The big twist is here. While the phone has been expected to come in at least four colorways, the cases add a fifth color – the Coral-like hue. We can bet on a Coral color option, if not at the launch, in the future.
One thing to note is that each official color has a case that matches its colorway. However, the coral case has the Obsidian Black variant inside. So we can’t confirm the launch of the Coral variant at this point. However, this does not deny its existence for a possible launch in the future.
Gizchina News of the week
Rumored specifications
The Google Pixel 8a will be officially announced at Google’s I/O developer conference on May 14. So there are at least two weeks ahead of the launch, and that is plenty of time for more leaks to emerge. The smartphone will have a Tensor G3 chipset. We also expect a 6.1-inch OLED screen with a 90 Hz refresh rate, a 64 MP main camera, and a 13 MP ultrawide shooter. It will count on Android 14 on board from day one. The phone will draw its power from a 4,500 mAh battery.
Although $499 is not exactly cheap for some consumers, especially those used to Chinese mid-range phones, it’s the most affordable in the Pixel range. Also, some users won’t mind paying this amount to enter Google’s ecosystem and get fast Android support.
Also, the presence of the Google Tensor G3 makes this an interesting deal for those in Google’s hardware. The chipset comes with a single Cortex-X3 core at up to 2.91 GHz. There are also 4 x ARM-Cortex A715 performance cores operating at up to 2.37 GHz. Finally, there are 4 x ARM Cortex-A510 with up to 1.7 GHz for power-efficient tasks. The chipset is on the level of a premium mid-range chipset, but Google does a decent job optimizing this chipset.
The true core of the Tensor SoCs is the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), which is responsible for AI and ML tasks. Unfortunately, we don’t get precise information about the powers. However, Google states that this chipset can process complex AI models 150x faster than on regular chipsets.
Despite the modest camera setup, the Google Camera within the Pixel 8a should also make it one of the best devices for photography. Google is known for optimizing the hardware very well. The app has advanced camera algorithms. In the end, the Pixel 8a becomes attractive for those who want the best of Google’s hardware and software without paying the price of a premium Pixel 8.
