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Overview

In a bit of a surprise to techies, Google announced their new line of Pixel phones – 3a and 3a XL at Google i/o on May 7th. On the surface, the phones have the same great features that made Pixel 3 series great. Bare Android OS, great battery life, fast charging and most importantly, the camera as well as the great software package. But probably what stands out the most is that the Pixel 3a starts at $399 which is a full 50% off of Pixel 3! Also, a surprise to many, they included a 35mm headphone jack which is missing in Pixel 3 to accommodate wireless charging.

This pricing is reminiscent of the inaugural Google’s Nexus line particularly Nexus 5 which launched Oct 2013 for $349. It boasted features and specs that rivaled the flagship phones at the time with great prices.

The Pixel 3a starts at $399 and the 3a XL starts at $479. There are currently several trade in deals available up to $400 back. To cut costs, there are only two variants available, the 3a and 3a XL. There are no options for storage or ram. There are three colors available – Just Black, Purple-lish, and Clearly White.

What’s missing?

Here are the main differences when comparing the Pixel 3 from the Pixel 3a.

As stated earlier, the camera hardware is the same and the software photo package is virtually the same.

In a time where many tech blogs and reviewers claim they prefer the photos Pixel camera takes in comparison to iPhones, $399 is hard to beat.

Finally, both will come with Android Pie OS pre-installed of which Google is guaranteeing 3 years of software and security support.

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