The A-series of Pixel devices have always aimed to take the marquee features from their more expensive siblings. It’s always interesting to see which features the engineers and designers deem essential to preserve the Pixel experience at more pocket-friendly prices. However, there was only ever going to be one feature that everyone was keen to see come to Google Pixel 8a.
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Google has, unsurprisingly, given the masses what they want – the full suite of AI features. There are compromises elsewhere to drive the cost down to €559/US$499/£499, but the robust Google AI companion will ride in the passenger seat of your Google Pixel 8a from day one. And that’s a very good start.
Cool Pixel Bay
Our review unit is Bay, a rather vibrant baby blue. Google Pixel 8a comes in four colours, of which Bay is probably the most distinct. The overall design is very similar to the premium Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, a glass sandwich with most corners softened and rounded off to a ‘friendly box’ vibe.
The metal ‘eyemask’ across the rear is even cooler than usual on our Bay review model. The metallic blue offers a neat contrast to the matte expanse on the rear. A solitary ‘G’ printed in slightly darker blue adds some visual intrigue to the rear.
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The lightly frosted aluminium frame that surrounds the device also presents a nice contrast with the matte rear. The visual design is iterative, but kept fresh with its range of colours and subtle changes to its form. Our Bay review unit is, all in all, a gorgeous device. It’s minimal, balanced and elegant, but its colourway gives it a lot of pop.
The front is dominated by the vibrant and bright OLED panel. There is a small bezel around the display, which may bother some…
Singlehandedly
Others will value that tiny bit of dead space around the screen which allows the 6.1″ device to be easily manipulated in one hand. This small design consideration maximises this single handed benefit of Pixel 8a being a relatively small device.
The matte rear, lightly frosted frame and light weight further enhances the ability to grip Google Pixel 8a. The device is a little slimmer than Google Pixel 7a, which, again, just adds how secure it feels in the hand.
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At around 9mm thick, it’s not the thinnest device on the market but it’s slender enough to be easily pocketable. Google Pixel 8a isn’t heavy at 188 grams but it feels reassuringly dense inside its svelte frame.
Google Inside
Pixel 8a features the same CPU and GPU as its elder, more expensive, siblings. As a result, the device is a bit of a power house for its price. Google Pixel 8a runs Android 14 smoothly, switching tasks without a hitch and allowing for serious tab/app abuse.
8GB of RAM is competitive in the mid-range of devices, and more than enough to keep Google Pixel 8a running smoothly. The device’s chipset and its high-quality display work in tandem to do justice to Android 14’s signature look and animations.
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Google Pixel 8a can tackle high-end 3D gaming, reaching 60fps on higher settings in most cases. 2D games runs flawlessly at rock-solid 60 frames per second.
Easy Search
Google Circle-to-Search is available out of the box with Google Pixel 8a. The process is simple, press and hold the Home icon, or the bottom bar on your navigation panel on the bottom of your screen, draw a circle around the item you want to find, and Google’s AI object recognition will find the item online.
Whether it’s something you might like to buy or simply know more about, Circle to Search does a good job of discerning the best action for a given subject or object. However, it can be patchy with certain type of subject. Many of the most famous landmarks or piece of art in the world work flawlessly, but head off the cultural beaten track and it can be less likely to know what its looking at.
Display of Class
The 6.1-inch OLED display is bright and features a natural colour straight from the box. Users can give the colours a little more punch if they so wish. However, it’s always refreshing to see Google’s realistic default colour base versus every other brand’s oversaturated hues.
The 120Hz refresh rate gives a wonderful smoothness to scrolling and compatible media. The device doesn’t feature fully adaptive refresh rates, like LTPO, but it can switch back and forth between 60 and 120HZ on the fly to keep battery consumption down while allowed the right type of content to shine.
And at 2,000nits maximum brightness, most content does shine. The adaptive brightness mode also allows the device to be used in direct sunlight outdoors. This is further enhanced by Google’s own Actua display technology. Actua keeps a close eye on the brightness and hue of your surroundings and matches the display to any given situation.
Budget AI Buddy
Google Pixel 8a brings the full AI experience to the mid-range. Google’s AI assistant sounds altogether more human and produces more human-like answers in text.
The Live Caption feature has only become more reliable. AI recognises more events or requests in emails or messages and can more accurately add to your calendar, set a reminder or even arrange travel.
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Often, a long-press on different elements prompts a request for the AI to perform a task, whether it’s transcribing or translating audio, extracting text from an image, or creating an outline. However, it’s important to note that not all apps support every AI Assistant feature, and some features may not work with certain apps.
The ‘At A Glance’ feature adapts to your habits, providing timely reminders tailored to your needs, such as the weather forecast for your upcoming travel destination.
Camera Pixel
Super Res Zoom which basically takes advantage of the massive 64MP main lens to snap usable images up to around 10x. This works best in good light, with a steady hand, and sometimes a bit of luck.
Google themselves rate the Super Res Zoom at ‘Best Quality’ out to 5x – and I found this to be the case. 5x Super Res Zoom images look almost as good as the device’s 1x capture. This is impressive from a technical standpoint, and very enticing for a device in its price range.
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You can stretch the zoom out to 20x but it becomes noisy and loses detail quickly beyond 10x. Google Pixel 8a also features a hybrid optical and electronic image stabilisation for video capture. The system does a great job of keeping up with the action, especially for the its asking price.
Google Pixel 8a also has a handy trick to salvage those blurry one-off snapshots. Photo Unblur successfully put some sharpness back into some of our lightly botched images. It’s easy and quick, though it really only really works on images that are lightly blurred, be it motion or focus related.
Google AI Imaging Power
The AI features of Google Pixel 8a spill into its imaging capabilities. Some of Google’s most enticing features work perfectly on the device. Best Take allows you to take several images of a group of people and easily stitch the best facial expressions on to each subject. Be it closed eyes, looking the wrong way or being caught mid smile, the device offers several faces for each subject, so you can pick your favourite.
Magic Editor allows users to select an object or subject in a frame and manipulate it easily. Move it around the image, scale or rotate in a few touches. Again, it works almost perfectly, almost all of the time. There are limits – low contrast or fuzzy outlines can cause issues with object/subject selection – but you can mostly fix these problems yourself.
Magic Eraser allows users to delete objects, subjects or the whole background in your image. Like Magic Editor, it has its limits but works well a surprising percentage of the time. And like Magic Editor, you can always fix the little problems yourself. Both Magic Editor and Magic Eraser work on any image in your Gallery.
Video also gets an AI bump. Sound quality can be improved in noisy or echo-filled areas using Audio Magic Eraser. Google’s AI can works its background noise removal wizardry on any video in your gallery. The system does an exceptional job on the most common aural annoyances, like traffic or wind noise.
Built to Last, Coded to Last
Google Pixel 8a is the first A-series device to offer seven years of OS security updates, as well as feature drops to allow the device to keep up.
And to be that little more sustainable, almost a quarter of the device by weight is made of recycled material. The aluminium band across the rear is made of 100% recycled metal, while the rear cover is made of 76% recycled plastic.
Google Pixel 8a Specifications
| Chipset: | Google Tensor G3 (4 nm), Titan M2 security coprocessor CPU – Nona-core (1×3.0 GHz Cortex-X3 & 4×2.45 GHz Cortex-A715 & 4×2.15 GHz Cortex-A510) GPU – Immortalis-G715s MC10 |
| RAM: | 8GB |
| Storage: | 128GB (reviewed), 256GB |
| Display: | 6.1 inch diagonal, OLED, 1080 x 2400 pixels, 60-120Hz refresh rate 20:9 aspect ratio, 2,000 nits max. brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Camera: | – 64 MP, f/1.9, 26mm (wide), 1/1.73″, dual pixel PDAF, OIS – 13 MP, f/2.2, 120˚ (ultrawide) Dual-LED flash, Pixel Shift, Auto-HDR, panorama Video Video: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, OIS |
| Selfie Cam: | Photo – 13 MP, f/2.2, 20mm (ultrawide) Video – 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps |
| OS: | Android 14 |
| Battery: | Li-Po 4,492 mAh |
| Water/Dust resistance: | IP67 resistant – up to 1 metre of water for up to 30 minutes |
| Charging: | 7.5 – 27 W wired |
| Connectivity: | – Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual/tri-band – Bluetooth 5.3, A2DP, LE – GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS, NavIC |
| Dimensions: | 152.1 x 72.7 x 8.9mm |
| Weight: | 188 grams |
| Colours: | Obsidian, Porcelain, Bay, Aloe |
Google Pixel 8a Pricing and Availability
Google Pixel 8a is available now in Ireland, Google Ireland’s SIM-free MRSP is from €559. Pixel 8a is available SIM-free from £499 in the UK from Google. And, Google Pixel 8a is available in the US SIM-free from $499.
