In the mid-range, the smartphone market has a lot to offer, with some being quite hit-or-miss and some being absolutely brilliant. The Google Pixel 8a steps into the market looking to capitalize on the excellent showing its older sister, the Pixel 8, presented just a few short months ago.
As always, the unboxing process for Pixel phones is simple, elegant and minimalist, which is exactly how I like it. I was greeted by a beautiful ‘Bay’ colour, which is a matte baby blue, so I was immediately impressed. The Pixel 8a is also available in 3 other colours: “Aloe, Porcelain and Obsidian respectively. We also get the USB-C to USB-C charging cable, a USB-A to USB-C adapter, and some manuals, and that’s all about it. No more and no less than you need, although I’m still annoyed that phone manufacturers don’t include the charger with their devices.
Physically, the Pixel 8a is gorgeous, maintaining the traditional Pixel look and placing the power button above the volume buttons where it belongs, on the right side of the device. With no buttons on the left side, there is plenty of room for the SIM tray to be placed in an easy-to-find location. The USB-C charging port and speakers are on the bottom, and that’s about it. The camera and flash are minimally obtrusive, occupying only a small portion of the top half of the device, and even then, they don’t rise too high off the surface.
In terms of construction, the Pixel 8a impresses me much more than the Pixel 8 did. The Pixel 8a features a matte composite finish on the back with a matte aluminum frame, whereas the Pixel 8 has an Edgeless Corning® Gorilla® Glass Victus® back with the same matte aluminum frame. In terms of fingerprints and ease of handling, the Pixel 8a is by far my clear winner, as the glass back on the 8 is far too slippery and resulted in more drops than I care to admit. The matte finish on the 8a gives me much more grip and remains fingerprint-free day in and day out.
“In terms of processing capability, the Pixel 8a features the same Google Tensor G3 and Titan M2™ security coprocessor that the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro have built-in.”
The display that the Pixel 8a offers is equally as good as the construction itself. Sporting a 6.1” Actua display with a 20:9 aspect ratio and 1080×2400 OLED resolution, the screen on the Pixel 8a ticks all of the boxes for me when it comes to looking at my phone with any sort of regularity or frequency.
The Smooth Display feature of the Pixel 8a allows the device to utilize a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, which is a big improvement on the Pixel 7a’s 90Hz refresh rate. Smooth Display allows the phone to give a much easier scrolling interaction without the stuttering or delay that some other phones may experience.
As for brightness itself, I will say that it is my preference to have the brightness of my phone at around 50%, so I did have to increase it to at least 75% when looking at the screen in the sun. It made catching Pokémon in Pokémon Go much easier when the brightness level was increased. Google says that the Pixel 8a will get up to 1400 nits of brightness in HDR and up to 2000 nits of brightness in peak brightness, which is pretty much identical to the Pixel 8, so there’s a lot to be happy about there.
In terms of processing capability, the Pixel 8a features the same Google Tensor G3 and Titan M2™ security coprocessor that the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro have built-in. What this means is that the Pixel 8a can be equally as powerful as its bigger sisters when handling your everyday tasks and leisure activities.
I mentioned earlier the physical space the camera takes up on the back of the device, and I’d like to talk about the camera itself now. On the back of the Pixel 8a, you’ll find two camera lenses: a 64MP Main Wide that features an 80-degree field of view that can record 4K video at 30 or 60 fps and a 13MP Ultrawide with a 120-degree field of view. Your front camera is a 13MP and 96.5-degree field of view camera. The cameras are technically not at all different from the cameras found in the Pixel 7a, with the small exception of the front camera on the 8a having a slightly wider field of view (96.5 vs 95 degrees).
Given the similarity between the cameras on the 7a and the 8a, I didn’t expect them to be so different in quality, and in fact, they were. What I really like about the photos taken by the Pixel 8a is that they are very photorealistic, meaning that the photos are very true to life in terms of colour reproduction without going overboard with the brightness of the image.
With AI assists built-in like Magic Eraser, Best Take, and more, the Pixel 8a is perfectly capable of handling any general photo-taking and editing endeavour you plan to take on.
Google Gemini is available on the Pixel 8a, which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Gemini is an AI chatbot that can be used to replace Google Assistant and do everything from drafting emails to editing photos to searching for hotels for your next business trip or vacation. Circle To Search is another interesting feature that allows me to long-press on the nav bar at the bottom of the screen (or the home button, if you have that enabled instead) and perform a Google search on whatever you choose from that screen.
“The Pixel 8a, happily, comes equipped with 24-hour battery life, and up to 72 hours when Extreme Battery Saver is enabled.”
What makes all of these AI features essential is that they are easy to use, especially Circle To Search. I can’t count the number of times I see something on Reddit or while browsing Instagram. I want to know more about it, but I don’t want to copy the text, open the search app and look it up. Circle To Search lets me search right there, and that alone makes it worth it.
Google has made a commitment to longevity with their newest devices, and that extends to the Pixel 8a as well, with it scheduled to receive a massive 7-years of software support/security updates, so you can remain confident that your device will be secure and usable for the better part of a decade.
When it comes to smartphones, battery life is paramount to the user experience. We all want our phones to last as long as possible without having to live near a charger all day. Luckily, the Pixel 8a comes with 24-hour battery life and up to 72 hours with Extreme Battery Saver enabled. Combine that with fast charging and wireless charging (the Pixel 8a is also Qi-certified), and you can take the Pixel 8a with you wherever you go without worrying about running out of juice in the middle of the day.
All in all, the Pixel 8a is a brilliant mid-range phone, and Google has provided the public with a great service by not changing the price when compared to the 7a. You can get the Pixel 8a for $679.99 CAD ($499 USD), which is a fantastic price for the quality of the device you get. I can happily recommend the Pixel 8a to anyone in the market for a new phone, not just a mid-range device either.
