
For all of its positioning as a premium flagship phone, 2018's Pixel 3 wasn't that fancy a device in design terms. You got a two-tone back in your choice of three colours, no headphone jack and active edge squeezable sides to invoke the Google Assistant, and that was pretty much your lot.
It's a recipe that Google has only ever so slightly tweaked for the Google Pixel 3a. The screen size improves, up to a 5.6-inch 2220 x 1080 display from the Pixel 3's 5.5-inch 2160 x 1080 panel. Where the Pixel 3 features a glass back, the Pixel 3a is pure plastic, although this does mean it's not a particularly slippery handset.
Like the Pixel 3, there's no notch in the screen to deal with. Instead, there are prominent top and bottom bezels. Your take on whether that's a preferable state of affairs may differ from mine, but I can't say that I either missed them or bemoaned the heavy bezel that much during real-world usage of the Pixel 3a.
Google has been quite adamant for years that we don't need 3.5mm headphone jacks on Pixel phones
One curious change that actively benefits the Pixel 3a is in audio connectivity. Google has been quite adamant for years that we don't need 3.5mm headphone jacks on Pixel phones because Bluetooth is meant to be good enough for our purposes now.
Which is why it's rather odd – but very welcome – that the Pixel 3a is the first Google Pixel phone to feature a full headphone jack. You can also hook up Bluetooth headphones with ease, but it feels very odd to have the cheaper Pixel get a feature you don't find on the flagship models.
Google produces the Google Pixel 3a in three different colour variants. There's Clearly White, Just Black and Purple-ish, but the latter colour isn't one that Google is going to sell in Australia.
It leaves the Pixel 3a looking and feeling just a little bit plain and conservative in its colour choices. You could always directly import a Purple-ish model if you really wanted to.
The model I've tested with is the Clearly White variant. It's a glossy, plastic-finished white tone with a slightly discordant peach-accented power button. You certainly can't miss it, and it fits the style that Google established with the Pixel 3 series colour scheme.
Google could probably have cut the "Active Edge" feature out of the Google Pixel 3a, but even it made the cut. It's a feature that Google picked up via its near-acquisition of HTC, where the sides can be squeezed in to perform actions. On HTC phones, you can choose what action you want, but on the Pixel 3a, it's purely used to invoke the Google Assistant.