Google mid-priced Pixel 8a brings processor and feature boost to familiar cameras

Google has announced the Pixel 8a, its latest mid-priced smartphone, bringing the sensors and lenses from the Pixel 7a but the more powerful processor and features from the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. It also gets a brighter screen, now earning Google’s ‘Actua’ branding.

The main camera is a 64MP camera with an F1.89 lens with an 80° angle of view (approximately 26mm equivalent, in 35mm terms). This uses a Type 1/1.73 (7.4 x 5.5mm) sensor.

There’s also a 13MP ultrawide with an F2.2 aperture and 120° angle of view (∼12.5mm equiv). The front camera remains a 13MP camera with F2.2 lens and 96.5° AoV (∼19mm equiv). Both these cameras use Type 1/3 (4.7 x 3.5mm) sensors.

While the cameras themselves remain unchanged, the 8a gets an upgraded screen, now offering a peak brightness of 2000 nits. This, and a wider color gamut, earn it the company’s ‘Actua’ branding, previously only used on the top-end phones. The panel is not exactly the same as that in the Pixel 8, though, with the company calling it a glass-OLED, rather than the plastic-OLED panel used in the 8.

Google says one of its core aims with the new phone was to deliver “the best camera in a smartphone under $500.” Underpinning these hopes is the use of the same Tensor G3 processor used in the more expensive Pixel 8.

The Pixel 8a will be available in four colors, including Aloe (pictured), Obsidian (black), Bay (blue) and Porcelain (off-white).Image: Google

The Pixel 8a includes features such as ‘Best Take,’ which takes a burst of images and then lets you choose the expression for each person in the image. It also includes Magic Editor, which uses generative AI to fill in the background, allowing you to select, resize and move subjects in the image, and Magic Eraser to remove distracting objects.

It also includes a “photo unblur” system that tried to up-res blurry parts of your images.

New to the Pixel 8a is Audio Magic Eraser, which analyses the audio in videos, splits it up into what it thinks are the different sound sources, and lets you selectively delete just the distracting audio elements.

It also includes the Guided Frame feature that gives audio cues for people with limited vision, which has been expanded to help take photos of pets, food and documents, as well as faces. As with all recent Google cameras it also utilizes the company’s ‘Real Tone’ processing to more accurately render a wider range of skin tones.

The company promises a 15% increase in battery life over the 7a, and the 8a maintains the same IP67 weatherproofing rating as its predecessor. It’s also essentially the same dimensions, at 152.1 x 72.7 x 8.9mm (6.0 x 2.9 x 0.4″).

The Pixel 8a will be available starting from $499, in 128Gb or 256Gb varieties. Google promises security updates will be provided for seven years from launch.