Price rises to €550

Pixel 8A: Google unveils its new “people’s phone”

(Bild: Google)

The US internet company Google is expanding its smartphone range with a new upper mid-range device: the Pixel 8A promises refinements usually reserved for the upper class, such as a long-term update vow and a dust and water-proof housing, but at €550 (128 gigabytes) it is also slightly more expensive than its predecessor.

With this price, the Pixel 8A is probably not a "people's phone" for everyone, but Google also advertises the device as particularly future-proof. The company wants to provide seven years of operating system updates - more than customers get with most other upper mid-range devices.

Features with upper-class flair
The hardware equipment includes powerful components: 120 hertz display with OLED technology and 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution on a compact 6.1 inch diagonal with integrated finger scanner; Google's own Tensor G3 main processor with nine cores and eight gigabytes of RAM; plus a bright, optically stabilized 64 megapixel dual camera (F/1.89).

The Pixel 8A can also be recognized by the characteristic camera bar that all current Google smartphones have.(Bild: Google)

The Pixel 8A, which is available with 128 or 256 gigabytes of memory, also has a waterproof housing (IP67 certification) made of metal and glass, stereo speakers, a 4492 mAh battery with wireless and fast charging function and modern wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi 7 and 5G.

Software with AI tricks and update promises
There are also some software extras that are already familiar from Google's Pixel 8 series: AI algorithms with image recognition and optimization capabilities, speech-to-text conversion, text summaries and AI-supported photo editing help with photography, image editing, internet searches and dictating notes.

Just as rare in the price range as the update vow: Google is giving the Pixel 8A a fast USB-C 3.2 port for data exchange. The new Pixel phones will be launched on the Austrian market on 14 May and will be available in four colors - black, white, light blue and light green. Those who cannot make do with the 128 gigabytes of storage space in the standard version will pay 609 euros for the 256 gigabyte model.