Google Pixel 8a

The Google Pixel 8a has a standard, non-folding form factor measuring 152.1 mm tall, 72.7 mm wide, and 8.9 mm thick, with a total weight of 188 g and a volume of 98.41 cm³. It carries an IP67 rating, meaning it is rated waterproof against dust and temporary immersion in water. The device does not feature a rugged build, but it does earn a French Repairability Index score of 8.6, indicating a relatively high ease of repair by that standard.

The Pixel 8a uses a 6.1-inch OLED/AMOLED touchscreen with a 1080 x 2400 px resolution and a pixel density of 430 ppi, paired with a 120 Hz refresh rate and matching 120 Hz touch sampling rate for responsive input. Typical brightness sits at 1400 nits, and the panel achieves a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, with support for both HDR10 and HDR10+, though Dolby Vision is not supported. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and features an Always-On Display mode, while there is no secondary screen on the device.

The Pixel 8a is powered by the Google Tensor G3 chipset, built on a 4 nm process with a nine-thread CPU running at up to 2.91 GHz in a big.LITTLE configuration with Heterogeneous Multi-Processing, and a 6W TDP. Graphics are handled by the integrated Mali G715 MP7 GPU clocked at 890 MHz, supporting DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 975. The SoC includes integrated LTE, TrustZone security, and NX bit support, and is paired with 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM running at 4200 MHz — expandable up to a maximum of 12 GB — alongside 256 GB of internal storage, an 8 MB L2 cache, and a 4 MB L3 cache. The AnTuTu benchmark score stands at 876,500, and the chipset fully supports 64-bit processing.

The Pixel 8a features a dual-lens rear camera system combining a 64 MP sensor at f/1.9 and a 12 MP sensor at f/2.2, both using BSI CMOS technology, with optical image stabilization, laser autofocus, phase-detection autofocus, and touch autofocus. Video recording reaches up to 4K at 60 fps, with slow-motion recording also supported, though HDR10 and Dolby Vision recording are not available. The rear camera offers a broad set of manual controls including exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, plus burst mode, panorama, timelapse, and RAW capture, while manual shutter speed and 360-degree panorama are absent; a dual-tone LED flash with two LEDs is included, but there is no RGB flash. The front camera is a single-lens 13 MP unit at f/2.2 without a front-facing flash or under-display placement. The device holds a DxOMark Mobile score of 136, and 3D photo or video recording is not supported.

The Pixel 8a runs Android 14 and receives direct OS updates from Google, with the platform being free and open source. Privacy features include clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, and the ability to block app tracking, though Mail Privacy Protection and cross-site tracking blocking are not present. The interface supports dark mode, dynamic theming, theme customization, widgets, split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, customizable notifications with notification permissions, a media picker, full-page screenshots, sharing intents, and an extra dim mode, while focus modes, app offloading, Wi-Fi password sharing, and Quick Start are not available. On-device machine learning is supported alongside offline voice recognition, voice commands, Live Text, phone tracking, a child lock, multi-user support, battery health check, and the ability to play games while they download, though the device cannot function as a PC.

The Pixel 8a houses a 4492 mAh rechargeable, non-removable battery with an estimated battery life of 11.25 hours. It supports 18W wired fast charging and 7.5W wireless charging, with a charger included in the box, though reverse wireless charging is not available. A battery level indicator and an ultra power-saving mode are both present for managing power consumption.

The Pixel 8a includes stereo speakers and three microphones, but omits a 3.5 mm headphone jack and has no built-in radio. For wireless audio, it supports aptX, aptX HD, and LDAC, covering a range of higher-quality Bluetooth audio codecs, though aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless are not available.

The Pixel 8a supports 5G and includes a cellular module, with Wi-Fi coverage spanning Wi-Fi 4, 5, 6, and 6E, alongside Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC. It accepts one physical SIM and one eSIM, but has no external memory slot, HDMI output, or DLNA certification. The USB interface is Type-C at version 3.2, and there is no stylus or built-in projector included. For positioning, the device supports GPS and Galileo, and onboard sensors include a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, and barometer, while infrared, ANT+, heart rate monitoring, motion tracking, and optical tracking are all absent. Security is handled by a fingerprint scanner, with no iris scanner or 3D facial recognition present. Crash detection is supported, but emergency SOS via satellite is not. US SAR values are rated at 1 W/kg for the head and 1.2 W/kg for the body.

The Pixel 8a includes a video light for recording, while its display is flat rather than curved and uses neither sapphire glass nor an e-paper panel.