Google held its I/O conference today where it announced a whole range of new products and dropped the second beta of Android 13. Possibly its main takeaway from the event was the Pixel 6a announcement. The a-series of devices have been coming out for a while now and it’s continuing the line this year. The a-series is supposed to be more affordable, however, the Pixel 6a still carries a pretty hefty price tag of $449.
The new Pixel 6a is very similar to the Pixel 6 in terms of design. It carries the camera bar and has a durable metal frame. The colour variations available include Chalk, Charcoal, and Sage, all of which are quite mild so you might want to look elsewhere if you want a phone using sharp colours like red or orange. With that said, the firm is releasing official cases that are translucent and can be mixed with the phone to create new unique colours.
Thanks to the Google Tensor chip inside the device, the Pixel 6a has many of the features that the Pixel 6 series boasts such as Real Tone, Night Sight, and Magic Eraser. Magic Eraser has also been updated so that you can change the colour of distracting objects instead of completely removing them. In addition to these neat camera features, the Tensor chip also comes with highly accurate speech recognition like the Pixel 6 Pro so features like Recorder, Live Caption, and Live Translate perform better.
If you’re the type of person who will be away from the phone charger for long stints, the Pixel 6a may be ideal for you. With the Extreme Battery Saver mode, Google says the device can run for three days (72 hours) – that’s the longest battery life of any Pixel phone to date. The Tensor chip isn’t only easy on battery usage, but it also comes with a dedicated security chip called Titan M2 which ensures your data is safe on the device.
The phone will be available for pre-order from July 21 with a $449 price tag, though, higher-spec models will cost more. The device should arrive in the post on July 28 and it will be available in stores. The Pixel 6a will ship with Android 12 but will be among the first to get Android 13 in the fall and will also receive Feature Drop updates like the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro to ensure you get all the latest features from Android first. You can find all the specs for the device over on the Google Store.