Google Pixel 3a: Features | Pricing | Specs

Google Pixel 3a

• Display

  5.6 inches

  2220 x 1080

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• Storage

  64GB

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• Battery size

  3,000 mAh

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Google looks to the mid-range with the Google Pixel 3a, bringing most, but not quite all the features of its premium siblings.

Since its inception, Google's Pixel phones have been premium-priced devices. However, Google's phone ambitions didn't always point that way. Before the search giant offered Pixels, it had the more affordable mid-range Google Nexus phones.

In many ways, the Google Pixel 3a is a return to those Nexus days, because it's a clean Android phone from Google at a more affordable price point.

Design

• 5.6-inch display
• Plastic body
• Clearly White, Just Black, Purple-ish colours

• Read more on the Google Pixel 3a's design

  The existing Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have nicely premium designs, but the mid-range status of the Pixel 3a doesn't appear to have affected its overall build quality all that markedly. They're notably plastic body phones, but that's not that surprising in the mid-range.

  Google will offer the Pixel 3a in Clearly White, Just Black and Purple-ish colour finishes, although as always you're free to slap a case onto your new handset to protect it. In Australia, we'll only see the Clearly White and Just Black finishes.

  As the smaller of the new more affordable Pixel range, the Pixel 3a features a 5.6-inch display with a resolution of 2,220x1,080, which is quite decent for a mid-range device. Similar to the Pixel 3, there's a fingerprint sensor at the rear and no microSD storage expansion.

  What you do get with the Pixel 3a, and it's quite the welcome return, is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Fans of cabled headphones, or those who find Bluetooth cans annoying rejoice!

  The Google Pixel 3a also supports a feature Google more or less purchased from HTC when it gobbled up a load of its engineers and intellectual property. A quick squeeze of the sides enables the Google Assistant without requiring a spoken command. On HTC phones you can define individual tasks at squeeze sensitivity settings, but Google's only interested in letting you access the Google Assistant this way.

Camera

• Single front 8MP camera
• Rear AI-assisted 12.2MP camera

• Read more on the Google Pixel 3a's camera

  Where a lot of the flagship market has shifted to a multi-lens strategy, and more than a few mid-range phones have followed, Google has stuck to its position that one lens is all you need, as long as you pump it up with a little AI smarts.

  That's the story of the Google Pixel 3a's 12.2MP rear-facing camera, which runs Google's own AI-assisted app for better overall photo quality, including the exceptional Night Sight mode for low-light photography. There's really not a lot of difference here between the Google Pixel 3a and the Google Pixel 3.

  It's not quite the same story at the front though. Where the more premium Pixels feature two front-facing cameras for ultra-wide group selfies, the Pixel 3a has just one. An 8MP f/2.2 sensor to be precise, but one that again should benefit from Google's smart approach to camera photo processing.

Performance

• Snapdragon 670 on board
• The fastest way to get Android updates
• Clean Android interface

• Read more on the Google Pixel 3a's performance

  The Google Pixel 3a features Qualcomm's relatively new Snapdragon 670 processor. It's the higher-end of Qualcomm's more affordable 600-series processor families and only a small step under the Snapdragon 710, for example. That's still placing it below the Snapdragon 845 found in the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL, but you'd expect that.

  Where the Pixel 3a should be able to outpace its mid-range competition lies in the fact that Google ships its Pixel phones with very little in the way of clutter, installed apps or fancy launch environments.

  It's often called a "clean" Google interface, because it's very Google-centric, but being Android, you can then customise it to suit your tastes. We've certainly seen the Pixel 3 devices run very well for the most part because of this fact, although the use of only 4GB of RAM has seen them slip somewhat behind the premium pack. For a mid-range device 4GB of RAM is about right.

  Google provides its Pixel phones with one advantage that no other Android device has, because they're always first to see new Google Android releases. The Google Pixel 3a will ship with Android 9 ("Pie") on board, but should see Android Q later this year when it appears and Android R in 2020 seems likely too.

  The Pixel 3a will ship with 64GB of storage onboard and as has been the case for every Pixel generation, there's no microSD storage card expansion on offer. However, you do get access to Google Cloud backup for your photos at full resolution.

Battery

• 3,000mAh battery
• Fast wired charging

• Read more on the Google Pixel 3a's battery

  If you were building a mid-range phone in 2019, you'd throw a 3,000mAh battery in there, or maybe a little larger if you wanted the battery life to be a notable point. The Google Pixel 3a sits in the absolute middle ground for battery capacity for mid-range phones.

  That should enable single day battery life with ease, and Google's claim is its adaptive battery usage model should enable up to 30 hours of battery life. Without testing that conclusively, we suspect that's with a lot of downtime where the phone isn't being used all that much.

  The one feature found in the full Pixel 3 series phones you won't find in the Google Pixel 3a is wireless charging. It's not a common feature for mid-range phones just yet, sadly.

Pricing and availability

• Pricing at $649 outright
• Available on contract exclusively through Vodafone

Google Pixel 3a

Google's Pixel for the masses

The Google Pixel 3a provides the best of Google at a lower price point than its flagship Pixel phones.

Buy at eBay

Google announced the Pixel 3a at its Google I/O 2019 keynote on 8 May 2019 (Australian time) and stated that it would be available to order on that day. Pricing locally is at $649 outright for a Google Pixel 3a with 64GB of storage in the Clearly White and Just Black finishes only.

Vodafone is the only Aussie telco offering the Pixel 3a on contract. It has yet to announce contract pricing, but we'll update this page when it does.

Google Pixel 3a specs

Compare Google Pixel 3a plans

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