Yesterday, during the annual Google I / O conference, the new Google Pixel 6a smartphone was officially presented. By analogy with the previous series, it turned out to be a simplified version of the flagship Google Pixel 6. On the one hand, the smartphone received a design similar to the older model, on the other hand, it received a number of simplifications, which actually made it possible to significantly reduce the price. In order not to beat around the bush, I will immediately announce it: the smartphone will appear on free sale from July 28 at a price of $449. In the official Google Store, sales will start a week earlier, namely on July 21, and perhaps the manufacturer will provide some “goodies” to the first buyers. As you can see, the price is very tempting, but let’s try to figure out how it was achieved.
Appearance and quality of materials
The design of the novelty has practically not changed, it is immediately clear that the device directly belongs to the 6 series. Although looking at the pictures it seems that the camera block has become noticeably smaller, which is actually not surprising, given that the cameras have been noticeably simplified here. The noble metal and glass in the case also had to be abandoned. The frame of the smartphone is made of recycled aluminum, and the back is now made of polycarbonate. The screen has also become a little smaller, from 6.4″ on the standard Pixel 6 to 6.1″ on the Pixel 6a. And if the older version was protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, here it is the more affordable Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The color scheme is also different, in total 3 options will be available: black, mint green and silver gray.
Here’s the Pixel 6’s color palette for comparison.
By the way, just recently I published a detailed review on the Pixel 6, with many tests and real-life experience, you can read it here , and this is his real photo.
Screen
A 6.1 “OLED screen with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels was installed in the novelty. I wonder how things are with PWM ?, because the older model has it at all brightness levels. The refresh rate is reduced to the standard 60 Hz, but like the flagship , the fingerprint scanner is also placed under the screen.The front camera in the form of a dot is embedded in the center of the screen.
Performance
The most pleasant news was that despite the availability of the device, it is based on the same flagship Google Tensor chipset. I was able to check his work personally and was very pleased with the results. This is a fairly powerful 8-core processor with a pair of powerful Cortex-X1 cores and auxiliary Cortex-A76 + Cortex-A55. The maximum clock frequency of the processor is 2.8 GHz, and the video accelerator is the productive Mali-G78. Do not forget that the chipset is made on the 5 nm process technology. A cool, modern chipset, with a dedicated AI block and a Titan M2 security co-processor. Not the fastest in the world, but quite a flagship. Compared to competitors, in benchmarks it gives out something like Snapdragon 888, only it does not heat up so much. The smartphone was allocated 6 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB UFS 3.1 drive was installed as a drive.
Camera
Whatever simplifications do not concern functions and materials, Google will definitely not sacrifice the camera. Although there are changes, of course. If the older Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro models have ISOCELL GN1 at 50 MP as the main sensor, then Sony IMX363 at 12.2 MP is declared for Pixel 6a, and the IMX386 ultra-wide at 12 MP will help it. We will find out very soon how they will show themselves in reality, but I am sure that the quality of the images will remain at the appropriate level. It is already known that the camera can record video in resolutions up to 4K at 30 and 60 frames per second.
And of course, new tools will be available to the user, such as Face Unblur, which makes faces more clear in low light. Or the “magic eraser” tool, which allows you to remove unnecessary objects from the resulting image. In my review , I showed how you can remove people who accidentally fell into the lens, or even entire objects, such as a lamppost, from a picture.
As for the selfie camera, an 8 MP Sony IMX355 sensor will be responsible for it, in video its capabilities are limited to Full HD at 30 frames per second.
Other
There is no detailed information about the new product yet, but the manufacturer has already confirmed some facts. For example, as the fact that there will be no 3.5 “headphone jack and, as in older versions, we are offered to use wireless headphones connected via bluetooth. If support for audio codecs remains, like in older smartphones, then this is absolutely not a problem, because it even has aptX HD.It also became known that the built-in battery will have a capacity of 4306 mAh, which, according to the manufacturers, will last up to 72 hours of use without recharging when using the Extreme Battery Saver mode.Well, in fact we have a similar picture with the Pixel 6, where, with active use, the battery lasts for daylight hours, and with economical use, it lasts for 2 days.More information is not yet available.The manufacturer claims support and updates for the Android operating system for 3 years, after which security will be maintained for another 2 years.
Source : 9to5google.com
