Just weeks after Google gave us a sneak peek at its upcoming Pixel 6 series and custom Tensor SoC, the tech giant today announced the Pixel 5a with 5G. Google’s midrange a-Series phones have offered excellent value for the money, and the $449 Pixel 5a is no exception.
The Pixel 5a sports many of the same features as its more expensive sibling. Like the Pixel 5, it has an aluminum unibody design and IP67 rating. There’s also the dual camera module with 12.2MP primary and 16MP ultrawide lenses.
Although the phone is the same size as last year’s Pixel flagship, Google managed to squeeze in a slightly larger 6.4-inch OLED display (the Pixel 5 has a 6-inch screen). The refresh rate has been knocked down to 60Hz, but the display is vivid and bright.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G mobile platform, along with 6GB of RAM, power the phone. That’s less than the 8GB of RAM on the Pixel 5, but more than enough for most people. And while 128GB of storage is common for mid-tier phones, there’s no microSD slot. If you need more storage, you’ll have to shell out for Google One.
There is, however, a SIM slot and eSIM with “dual SIM, dual standby” support. With DSDS, you can use two different carriers at once, or assign one SIM to data and another to voice. There’s also solid LTE and mid-band 5G connectivity for every carrier. C-band connectivity is also on board, so AT&T and Verizon customers should see major speed boosts in the coming months. Millimeter-wave connectivity is not included, though we expect to see an option with high-band support for Verizon customers in the near future.
Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC are baked in as well, but there’s no Wi-Fi 6. On the upside, the Pixel 5a has a headphone jack and high-resolution codecs for Bluetooth audio.
And while Google has long skimped on battery capacity, it looks like the tides are finally starting to turn. The Pixel 5a has a 4,680mAh battery (compared to the Pixel 5’s 4,080mAh), which is big enough to get you through an entire day of heavy use without topping off. Wireless charging, however, is missing.
The Pixel 5a ships with Android 11, but expect an Android 12 upgrade in the near future. Google offers three years of OS upgrades and software updates on all its phones, along with special Pixel-first features. It’s also the only smartphone manufacturer that pushes Android upgrades immediately.
Likely to be Google’s last phone running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile platform, the Pixel 5a marks the end of a generation. Future phones will run on Google’s custom Tensor SoC and be better optimized for AI and machine learning tasks.
That said, the Snapdragon 765G chipset is an absolute workhorse that can handle heavy workloads with ease. There’s the possibility that some future Pixel-specific features will be limited to phones running on the Tensor SoC, but we’re confident Google will continue to offer as many special features as possible to its existing Pixel customers for the next several years.
The Google Pixel 5a with 5G sells for $449 and will ship on Aug. 26. It’s available for pre-order now through the Google Store or Google Fi with a monthly payment option. If you order through the Google Store, you’ll get three-month trials of Google Fi, Google Play Pass, Google One, and YouTube Premium.
