India-Bound Google Pixel 6a Poses Strong Competition For Most Mid-Range Smartphones, Here's Why

| Published: Thursday, May 12, 2022, 11:25 [IST]

Google Pixel 6a is officially confirmed to make its way to India. It will be the first official smartphone launch by Google in almost two years after the Pixel 4a (October 2020), which is still available on some e-commerce sites. The official launch news was confirmed by Google in a tweet just after the big yearly event- Google IO 2022. The search engine giant hasn't revealed the official launch date for the smartphone but we expect it to be available in the 3rd week of July 2022.

Google Pixel 6a Officially Coming To India, Find Out Everything

Considering its official launch price of $449 (approx. Rs. 35,000), the Pixel 6a could be priced at less than Rs. 40,000 in India. At this price point, the Pixel 6a will take on sub-40K handsets from Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, iQOO, OnePlus and Samsung. Many of these mid-range smartphones, primarily from Chinese manufacturers, offer better value for money, but the Pixel 6a could still be an ideal choice for many users. Find out why.

It’s All About The Software

The Pixel 6a offers a unique Pixel user experience backed by a comparatively longer software upgrade cycle than the competition. Most sub-40K handsets (Running Android 12) will largely offer two software upgrades with some exceptions from Samsung. The Pixel 6a, on the other hand, is bound to receive five years of security updates and three major software updates including the Android 13, 14 and Android 15.

The Pixel 6a will be among the first few handsets to receive the Android 13 update later this year. Other mid-range handsets will receive the same update in the first or second quarter of 2023.

Google Pixel 6a Offers A Solid IP67 Water-Dust Rated Design

The Pixel 6a also brings a water-dust resistant design. Unlike most sub-40K handsets, the Pixel 6a gets an official IP67 rating, which makes it more durable than Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme and Xiaomi handsets. If your use-case scenario requires such durability, the Pixel 6a would be your best shot.

Effortless Photography Experience

Google Pixel series device's camera prowess needs no introduction. The competition can keep adding more sensors and boast their AI photography algorithms, but a Pixel-series handset will still beat the competition with just a traditional dual-lens camera system. The credit for most of the part goes to Google's class-leading hardware-software optimization and computational photography. The Pixel 6a will prove this right once again.

The smartphone boasts a 12.2+12MP dual-lens camera backed by OIS and Google's class-leading software optimization. While we haven't yet tested the device, we can confirm that the dual-lens camera will beat most mid-range handsets with its color processing, HDR performance and overall clarity. We just can't wait to compare the results.

What Does The Google Pixel 6a Lack?

The Pixel 6a has some neat cards up its sleeve; however, the competition also offers some modern features that make the Pixel 6a feel a bit dated in 2022. These include fluid displays, better screen protection, bigger battery cells and faster charging solutions. The Pixel 6a is still stuck with a dated 60Hz refresh rate panel and just 18W wired fast-charging. Some competition devices are offering crazy 120W fast-charging solutions at similar or even lower price points.

Despite such omissions, we think the Pixel 6a still has a good chance to make a good purchase, provided that Google doesn't' delay the launch this time and prices the handset aggressively. We will have to wait for the official launch to find out the answers.