Earlier this month Google unveiled its mid-range Pixel 4a device starting as low as $349. For that price, you get a phone that uses Google’s image processing magic to create outstanding photos with a single 12.2MP camera. HDR+ delivers sharp photos with less noise and Night Sight snaps viable photographs even in a dark environment. And with Astrophotography, a Pixel 4a user can take spectacular photos of the night sky. Again, all for a price as low as $349.
The Pixel 4a is also going to have an exclusive live wallpaper option called “Eclipse.” According to 9to5Google, “Eclipse is blue (or purple if you have dark mode set) and as the battery inside the phone starts to drain, the color of the live wallpaper starts to fade away. For example, as you greet the brand new day with your Pixel 4a battery coming off the wall outlet fully charged, only a sliver of the sky as portrayed by the wallpaper is black. As the day progresses and the remaining battery life on the device drops, more of the sky on the wallpaper is covered by black just as though you were watching, well, an eclipse.
Live wallpaper was always a gimmick and the fact that it uses so much of a device’s battery makes the feature less popular than it might have been. The “Eclipse,” while exclusive to the Pixel 4a for the moment, could end up on the 5G version of the Pixel 4a and the Pixel 5. There are other live wallpapers available on the new model, but the “Eclipse,” with its ability to track the remaining battery life on the phone, offers a blend of form and function.
The Pixel 4a should be available on August 20th featuring a 5.8-inch-display with an 8MP punch-hole selfie camera. With a plastic build, the phone is powered by a Snapdragon 730G chipset and comes with 6GB of memory and 128GB of storage. Ironically, the 3140mAh battery inside the device is larger than the 2800mAh battery that keeps the lights on the full-sized Pixel 4. An 18W fast charger comes with the device right out of the box.
