As Google teased its upcoming Pixel 7 phones, it also revealed a little about its mid-range budget Pixel 6a smartphone which is expected to have some enhanced features and the latest OS.

Google’s “A-Series”, which are often named 4a, 5a or 6a for that matter are the company’s mid-range smartphone lineup. They are also considered the budget options for those who don’t wish to pay a higher price for the premium base models. The A-series are often differentiated by their lower-end specs, plastic builds, and lack of wireless charging.

During the I/O event, Google didn’t reveal much about the Pixel 6a series as it did with the previous Pixel 6 when it was announced, however, we expect certain things to remain true regardless of the limited information.

According to 9to5Google, unlike the Pixel 3a and 4a, which used mid-range Snapdragon chips, the Pixel 6a is expected to have the Google Tensor chipset out of the box. The same chipset also powers the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro flagships respectively.

Reports also state that with the new chipset, the Pixel 6a will most likely have a 5x increase in performance compared to the Pixel 5a when it comes to dealing with daily tasks. Google’s Tensor chip is a flagship-tier processor produced by Samsung based on Google’s design, which borrows from Exynos. The chip is largely similar in performance to the Snapdragon 888, scoring only a bit lower than that chip in overall tests.

Google Pixel 6a RAM, Camera and Display Features

Since few details were released by Google, aside from the Pixel 6a having a Tensor chip, it will offer 6GB RAM plus 128GB of storage. The storage will be based on the UFS 3.2 standard which is considered fast so as to improve performance and make multitasking faster.

It should be noted that the 6GB of RAM was also offered on the previous Pixel 4a and 5a models, and it’s not as much as what the Pixel 6 offers, however, it is decent enough to deliver solid performance for multiple tasks and other things in general.

Just like every other Pixel, the 6a won’t have a microSD card slot to allow users to expand storage and neither will it have a headphone jack which we considered a big letdown, especially for those who prefer wired headsets to wireless ones. Nonetheless, technology has improved a lot and there are lots of good wireless headphones and earbuds out there on the market.

Camera and Display

Since it’s a budget offering, the 6a has a 6.1-inch display which is an FHD+ OLED panel and is expected to offer a sharp 1080p video output at a 60Hz refresh rate which of course won’t be as fluid at the flgahsips.

When it comes to the camera, unfortunately, the 6a won’t have something as powerful as that on the Pixel 6 series but we expect the photo quality to be as good as that of the previous Pixel 5 coupled with software prowess. The camera setup is largely identical to most past Pixels so don’t expect a major bump. The lineup consists of:

12.2-megapixel IMX363 primary
12-megapixel IMX386 ultrawide
8-megapixel IMX355 front-facing

Other specs

According to Google’s website, the Pixel 6a will have an adaptive battery that lasts for over 24 hours, improved security features, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and 6E (6GHz), Dual SIM, 4410 mAh battery, plus a customisable Pixel interface to mention but a few. It will also offer three colour options which include Sage, Chalk and Charcoal.

Cost and Availability

The Pixel 6a will launch for $449 in the United States. As for availability, Google won’t open up pre-orders for the 6a until July 21, 2022, and the device won’t be formally available until a week later on July 28.