I tested the Google Pixel 8a and it's the easiest phone in the world to recommend
What we love
- Relatively compact size
- Excellent main camera
- Solid battery life
- Seven years of software support
- Good performance
What we don't
- Very similar to the Pixel 8 in features and price
- Not the greatest screen quality
- Slow charging
Mobiles.co.uk has launched a number of great deals for the Pixel 8a which means you can get the handset for less than the device.
For £19 a month with no upfront costs. You'll get 100GB of data, unlimited texts and minutes and you won't need to pay anything upfront.
This is through a 24-month contract which means you'll pay LESS than the phone itself for the device and the data - coming to a total of £455.76.
Carphone Warehouse has also launched a slew of good deals on the Pixel 8a.
You can get free earbuds with a £9 upfront cost and £19.99 a month which is a brilliant offer.
Google has been making Pixel phones since 2016 and the devices have never been as good as they are now in 2034. The new Google Pixel 8a, a cheaper, curvier version of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, is a reasonably compact size phone with an excellent camera, all-day battery life, decent performance, and seven years of software support, all for £499.
That’s good value if a clean version of Android and that long software promise is important to you. The only real downsides to this phone are its screen, which is not as good as pricier models, and relatively slow charging - and the fact you can regularly find the better Pixel 8 for not much more money.
The idea behind the Pixel A-series is a phone that looks and feels like Google’s pricier handsets but cuts back on screen, specs, materials, and camera tech to lower the cost but keep the overall aesthetic and software experience largely the same. In that sense, the Pixel 8a is the best A-series Pixel yet, mainly because it doesn’t cut back on much at all and doesn’t feel like a cheap phone.
I used the Pixel 8a for more than a week as my main phone and the best compliment I can give it is that I would gladly continue to use it as my main phone, despite having access to phones that cost more than twice as much, such as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The green hue of my review sample (Google calls it aloe) is charmingly playful and stands out in a sea of boring black slabs. That said, you can also get it in black, white, or blue - and you can only buy the green one directly from Google.
Unlike the glass £699 Pixel 8 and £999 Pixel 8 Pro, the 8a has a plastic back, but I prefer it. Its matt finish hides fingerprints completely and is less likely to smash or crack if dropped. The phone is also more rounded than its siblings, and has thicker black bezels around the screen.
The only real downsides to this phone are its screen, which is not as good as pricier models, and relatively slow charging
But Google’s distinctive ‘camera bar’ design across the back sticks out less than on the more expensive models, and houses two excellent camera lenses. The main 64MP sensor used here is the same one you’ll find on 2023’s Pixel 7a, but it remains one of the best cameras for still images on any phone, not just mid-range ones. Here’s a selection of the photos I snapped in my time with the 8a:
As you can see, colours are well represented and images are sharp with a good deal of dynamic range. There’s also an ultrawide camera that’s not as amazing, but will suit for when you want to squeeze more into the frame.
It’s great to see the phone is also powered my Google’s Tensor G3 chip. While it’s not the most powerful Android processor out there, it is the same one you’ll find in the other Pixel 8 phones, so getting it here for half the price of the Pixel 8 Pro is a boon. It powers the phone through most things with ease, only occasionally lagging when playing the highest-end mobile games (not something I do regularly). There’s more than enough oomph under the hood here for anyone but the most demanding mobile customer, plus IP67 water and dust resistance and 128GB storage (there’s also a 256GB option but only for the black model).
A downside is the quality of the display. It;s a 6.1-inch OLED panel that looks great most of the time but colours are off when you tilt the phone at an angle, with some banding you see on cheaper devices. I found it much less noticeable when running the phone in dark mode, as you notice it most when the screen is lit white. The display does get an upgrade here though and has a 120Hz refresh rate for the first time on a Pixel A, with smoother scrolling of apps and text.
I love the small touches Google puts into Pixels to make them more personal and smart
The display can only adjust between 60 and 120Hz though, so it’s not as power efficient as more costly phones that can taper all the way down to 1Hz when needed to conserve battery life. Despite this, I found battery life on the Pixel 8a to be excellent - and I definitely noticed Google’s adaptive battery software kicking in after a week’s use. When I first got the phone, longevity wasn’t great, hitting about 20% by 9pm after taking it off charge at 7am. But seven days later, the battery was noticeably better as the phone learned my use, a great feature of Pixel phones.
I love the small touches Google puts into Pixels to make them more personal and smart. If you have an alarm set to wake you up and plug in to charge, the phone automatically slows charging down to make sure it doesn’t fill up and put strain on the battery all night, but that your phone is at 100 percent when you wake up. Charging overnight can degrade the battery quicker, so this is great. It’s also easy to turn off or skip it if you need to top up quicker, but it’s a shame the maximum 18W wired charging is quite slow (there’s also even slower wireless charging). Annoyingly, there's no charger in the box, only a USB-C cable.
You can also activate things like turning on do not disturb mode when the phone is face down on a table, or call screening that can answer the call for you using AI and speak to the caller to find out what they want. This is mainly to deal with suspected spam, which the phone also can detect and make sure don’t even get through in the first place.
I’d got this far without mentioning AI yet on purpose. Although Google Pixel phones (and Google as a company) is going all in on AI, I don’t really want or use the features on the Pixel 8a - and they are easy to ignore. Things such as Magic Eraser for removing people or objects from photos you’ve taken can be fun and useful, but you can simply use the 8a and not know they’re there. This is a good thing, as many people won’t want to be pushed towards such tools and just want a phone that keeps things simple. I like the Pixel 8a all the more for keeping quiet about its AI smarts.
If you want a new Android phone and don’t want to spend the earth, the Pixel 8a is a great choice, and at £499 it undercuts rival handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE. That said, Google’s own, better Pixel 8 is regularly on sale below its £699 RRP and is a better buy than the 8a for its better screen and camera setup. You can also find the Samsung Galaxy S24 for about £549 at the time of writing, which is a real bargain for a more premium handset. But if you want a phone that’ll last, is relatively small, and has an excellent camera, you really can’t beat the Pixel 8a.
You can buy the Google Pixel 8a from Google, Currys, Argos and John Lewis.
Mobiles.co.uk has launched a number of great deals for the Pixel 8a which means you can get the handset for less than the device.
For £19 a month with no upfront costs. You'll get 100GB of data, unlimited texts and minutes and you won't need to pay anything upfront.
This is through a 24-month contract which means you'll pay LESS than the phone itself for the device and the data - coming to a total of £455.76.
Carphone Warehouse has also launched a slew of good deals on the Pixel 8a.
You can get free earbuds with a £9 upfront cost and £19.99 a month which is a brilliant offer.
