It just wouldn’t be spring without a new budget phone from Google. The $500 Pixel 8a is officially here, and as usual, it gets you most of the key features of last fall’s flagship Android phone for a lower price. In fact, it gets you so much of what makes the standard Google Pixel 8 great — including a zippy 120Hz display and all Google’s AI magic tricks — that it begs a very important question: Do you even need to buy a full-priced Pixel anymore?
We’ll have to get our hands on Google’s latest affordable smartphone to know for sure, but in the meantime, the Pixel 8a is officially up for preorder with a release date of May 14. Wondering if it should be your next phone? Here’s everything you need to know.
The Google Pixel 8a promises most of the Pixel 8’s key features — including a robust camera experience and lots of AI tools — for hundreds of dollars less. Best Buy is currently throwing in a free $100 gift card and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription for those who preorder.
A cheaper (but still great) Pixel 8
Like the Pixel 7a (our current best smartphone pick for budget shoppers) the Pixel 8a is very similar to its full-priced counterpart in looks and on paper. In fact, it appears a bit sleeker based on official press photos, with a seemingly smaller camera bump, rounder-looking corners and a matte finish that should be less smudge prone than the glossy Pixel 8. It comes in four colors — Obsidian black, Porcelain white, Bay blue and an especially striking, minty green Aloe — which is a larger and arguably more attractive set of hues than the Obsidian, Rose pink and Hazel green options you get on the flagship Pixel 8.
The Pixel 8a also makes minimal sacrifices when it comes to tech specs, with the same capable Google Tensor G3 processor and 8GB of RAM on the inside as well as your choice of 128GB or 256GB of storage (the latter of which is a first for the Pixel a series). You get a similarly sized 6.1-inch display at a sharp 2400 x 1080 resolution, and perhaps most importantly, the refresh rate has been bumped from 90Hz to 120Hz. This perk makes things like scrolling through photos and web pages feel extra fluid and helps bring the Pixel 8a in line with other budget rivals like the Samsung Galaxy A35, all while surpassing the relatively slow 60Hz you’ll get on the iPhone SE and even the base iPhone 15.
Google is calling the Pixel 8a “the best smartphone camera for under $500,” and considering we gave similar praise to last year’s Pixel 7a, that claim just might hold up. The 8a features a 64-megapixel main shooter alongside a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 13-megapixel selfie cam, which compares well on paper to the 50-megapixel main, 12-megapixel ultrawide and 10.5-megapixel front camera you get on the Pixel 8. But as with any Google phone, the real magic is in the software.
The Pixel a series already had access to popular Google software features like Magic Eraser (for removing photobombers and unwanted objects from pictures) and Photo Unblur, which can sharpen old photos (even ones not taken on your current phone). The Pixel 8a takes things to a new level with two major AI-powered additions: Magic Editor and Best Take.
Magic Editor lets you edit images in seconds, whether you want to get your friend slightly more into frame or make the subject of your photo comically large. The eerily efficient Best Take solves the all-too common problem of finding a group photo where everyone’s face looks good, as it’ll let you pick out every subject’s best expression and create a natural-looking composite. These features are two of the regular Pixel 8’s biggest selling points and ones that we found to work very well in our testing, so the fact that you can now get them on a $500 phone is pretty compelling.
On top of that, you’re also getting Circle to Search, which is a handy AI feature that lets you perform an instant Google Images search by simply circling anything on your screen. We found it handy for identifying landmarks and food dishes when we tested it on the Galaxy S24 series earlier this year, and I’m glad to see it come to a cheaper phone. The Pixel 8a will also have access to Google’s new Gemini AI assistant, which can provide you with help based on various prompts (such as “give me vacation ideas” or “help me prepare for a job interview”). This makes the Pixel 8a compare especially well to the Galaxy A35, which has the look and feel of its pricey Galaxy S24 cousin but none of the same AI-powered perks.
And just like on the regular Pixel 8, the Pixel 8a is promising a clean Android experience with a whopping seven years of security updates.
The Google Pixel tablet gets a cheaper entry point
Launching alongside the Pixel 8a is a new configuration of the Google Pixel Tablet, which ditches the included Charging Speaker Dock in favor of a cheaper $399 starting price. We dug Google’s tablet when we reviewed it last year, thanks to its good display, fast performance and ability to serve as a central hub that lets you do everything from play music to control your smart home devices. We’re glad to see it become a bit more attainable — you’ll just have to provide your own means of propping it up if you want to use it as a true smart hub.
The takeaway
We’ll have to test it ourselves to be sure, but the Pixel 8a seems poised to dethrone its predecessor as our new favorite budget phone and could very well become the new go-to Pixel phone in general. You’re getting the vast majority of the Pixel 8’s key features for hundreds of dollars less, not to mention a design and suite of color options that are arguably more attractive than that of Google’s flagship.
If having a phone with great cameras, software and a bunch of useful AI tools for less than $500 sounds compelling to you, the Pixel 8a should absolutely be on your radar. Still on the fence? We’ll be putting it through our full paces as its launch day approaches, so stay tuned.
