Google’s next budget A-series smartphone, tentatively called the Pixel 6a, will reportedly make its debut a few months sooner than expected, with a reliable leakster predicting a May launch window for the device. A few weeks ago, alleged renders of the Pixel 6a surfaced online, giving a glimpse of the upcoming phone from all sides. What was surprising to see is that the Pixel 6a looked almost identical to the vanilla Pixel 6 in the leaked images, except for one less camera at the back.
It would be surprising to see the Pixel 6a rock a glass and metal build as its pricier sibling, and it is very much likely that Google will be going with a plastic-made rear panel for its budget offering. Another exciting rumor claimed that the Pixel 6a would use the same Tensor system on a chip that Google fitted inside the Pixel 6 and its Pro version. Going by the market release window of previous Pixel-A series phones, the Pixel 6a was expected to arrive in the second half of the year.
However, it appears that there has been some change of plans. As per leakster Max Jambor, the Pixel 6a will be launched in May. For comparison, the Pixel 5a came out of August last year. And similar was the case with the Pixel 4a, which was introduced in August of 2020. It appears that Google wants to push out a solid budget phone in roughly the same slot as Apple’s highly-anticipated iPhone SE refresh for 2022. And if history is any indication, both the phones should be priced below the $450 mark to stay competitive. If leaks are anything to go by, 5G will be a part of the package in both cases, and so will be an in-house flagship processor. The Pixel 6a is rumored to arrive with the Tensor chip, while the iPhone SE (2022) will reportedly go with the Bionic A15 processor.
A Google-Apple Smackdown Is Nigh
However, one can’t assume that Google is launching the Pixel 6a a tad earlier in May only to shrink the breathing space for Apple’s upcoming budget phone. In fact, Google is no stranger to launching a phone in the first half of the year. To recall, the very first Pixel A-series phones, the Pixel 3a and its XL version, made their debut at the Google I/O event in May of 2019. It appears that Google is moving back to the old cycle of first-half debut for A-series Pixels and a second-half release slot for the flagship Pixel phones.
As for the innards, the Pixel 6a will reportedly offer a 6.2-inch OLED panel, but there’s no word if it will treat buyers to a 90Hz OLED panel. The rear-mounted physical fingerprint sensor has reportedly been swapped in favor of an in-display fingerprint sensor, a first for the Pixel A-series phones. Disappointingly, the 3.5mm headphone appears to have been nixed. Google is said to be using a 12.2-megapixel Sony IMX363 sensor on the Pixel 6a, sitting alongside a 12-megapixel camera for ultrawide photography.
