Google Pixel 8a Review in Five Minutes: A Different Type of Flagship Killer!

Google recently dropped its mid-tier Pixel smartphone in India. The Pixel 8a arrives with substantial upgrades over the Pixel 7a but also comes at a significant price bump.

With a starting price of Rs 52,999, the Pixel 8a just about borders on flagship, a flagship killer if you will. But can the Google Pixel 8a cut it as a flagship killer in a highly competitive market? Let's find out!

Design and Build

It is same old same old in terms of what's in the box. There's no charger, just the phone, a charging cable, SIM ejector tool, and a USB-A to USB-C adapter. Our model of the Pixel 8a came in the Aleo shade, which is a Pixel 8a exclusive.

Safe to say that the Aleo color is eye-catching and immediately caught the attention of my friends. The back panel now opts for a matte finish, which is resistant to fingerprints and smudges. You also get a shiny aluminum frame, the traditional camera bar, which has become synonymous with Pixels and a subtle Google logo on the back.

The Pixel 8a also has a more rounded design, which makes the phone comfortable to use. Moving on to the build quality and the Pixel 8a does skimp a little bit here, using Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and a plastic back panel. Moreover, the bezels are thicker than usual.

On a positive note, the Pixel 8a comes with an IP67 rating for resistance to dust and water. The Pixel 8a's power and volume buttons are easily accessible on the right, while the SIM tray is located on the left. My initial impression of the Pixel 8a is that Google definitely prioritizes comfort with the design.

Display

For the display, the Pixel 8a opts for a 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED display with a traditional 20:9 aspect ratio. The screen features a refresh rate between 60Hz - 120Hz, although it does support HDR for a vibrant viewing experience. The Google Pixel 8a also gets significantly brighter than its predecessor, clocking in at 2,000 nits of peak brightness.

The display here is easily usable under direct sunlight, during peak afternoon hours. The screen also comes with the Always-on-display feature. The screen seems like a big upgrade over the Pixel 7a and is on-par with the vanilla 8, apart from the thick bezels that is.

Performance

Perhaps the biggest upgrade on the Pixel 8a is the incorporation of the Tensor G3 SoC, the same chip used on the Pixel 8 Pro. In our benchmarking tests, the Tensor G3 managed a Geekbench 6 score of 1571 points (Single Core Score) and 3713 points (Multi-core Score).

The performance here falls short of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, little alone the latest SD 8 Gen 3 chip. However, the Pixel 8a performs admirably when multitasking or gaming. One of the reasons for the lower benchmarks is that the Tensor G3 is tailored towards AI operations as opposed to gaming.

Google Gemini AI app is yet to hit the Pixel 8a, but we can expect it arrive soon. Unfortunately, the Pixel 8a is still prone to heating, we did notice the phone get a little toasty while gaming for around 40 minutes, although it wasn't to any uncomfortable degree. However, I hardly used this phone to game and in every other task, the Pixel 8a performed flawlessly.

Cameras

Sitting on the back of the Pixel 8a is a dual-camera setup, which consists of a 64 MP primary sensor with an f/1.9 aperture, dual-pixel PDAF, and OIS. The main camera is accompanied by a 13 MP ultrawide lens with an f/2.2 aperture and super-wide 120-degree FOV. Up front, there's a 13 MP selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture.

In daylight, the main camera captures shots with excellent levels of detail and accurate colors. White balance was consistent in shots and Google got saturation and sharpness on point. A 2x crop doesn't dramatically reduce image quality, although detail drops, and noise kicks in after 5x zoom and 8x zoom.

The ultrawide camera maintains consistent colors with the main shooter and captures detailed shots without any edge distortion. This might just be the best ultrawide camera in the segment. But we're yet to test in out in most scenarios. At night, both the main and ultrawide cameras exceed expectations thanks to Night Sight.

The Pixel 8a can capture 4K video at 60fps on the main camera, although the selfie and ultrawide shooters are limited to 4K recording at 30fps. I still have to put the camera system through its paces. For now, all I can say is that none of the three lenses disappoint, delivering flagship-worthy results in most scenarios.

Software

On the software side, the Pixel 8a runs stock Android 14 out of the box. Google has also upped the ante on the support side, now offering 7 years of software updates and 7 years of security updates. There are a ton of features, tricks, and AI magic here, but I simply couldn't get through it all in our first impressions, so hold on a little longer for our full Pixel 8a review.

Battery

The Pixel 8a has a slightly larger battery than its predecessor with a capacity of 4,492mAh, which can offer an entire day of battery life on a single charge under moderate usage. The cell supports 18W fast charging and 7.5W wireless charging, which is a far cry when its competitors and short of the Pixel 8.

Google Pixel 8a First Impressions

Given its price tag, the Pixel 8a is by no means a mid-range smartphone, nor is it a full-blown flagship. Instead, it sits comfortably in flagship killer territory. But given its simple design, average build, mediocre charging, and sub-par performance, can you really call it a flagship killer?

I'd say 'Yes'! The Pixel 8a sacrifices hardcore performance for quality cameras, unbeatable software support, and a vibrant display. And that's not counting the myriad of AI features and the bloat-free UI, all tailored towards bettering your smartphone experience.

There's more to the Pixel 8a than just its specs sheet, once you scratch the surface, there's a lot to uncover underneath. Stay tuned for our full Pixel 8a review to make those discoveries. Until then, the Pixel 8a can be summarized as a flagship killer than puts the emphasis on camera performance, software, and user experience, rather than just hardware.