Pixel 8a review: The mid-range Pixel with a flagship brain and a 7-year promise.
The value champion — seven years of updates for $499.
The Pixel 8a delivers flagship silicon, great cameras and a seven-year update promise at a mid-range price. Slow charging and Gorilla Glass 3 are the cost-savings you will notice.
01Display
84/10084/100 puts it above the 80-point average for mid-range phones of 2024.
02Camera
86/100At 86/100 this is one of the strongest camera showings among mid-range phones of 2024 — 15 points above the cohort average.
03Performance
81/100At 81/100 this is one of the strongest performance showings among mid-range phones of 2024 — 12 points above the cohort average.
04Battery
82/10082/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2024.
05Build
84/100At 84/100 this is one of the strongest build showings among mid-range phones of 2024 — 8 points above the cohort average.
06Value
90/100At 90/100 this is one of the strongest value showings among mid-range phones of 2024 — 13 points above the cohort average.
- Flagship Tensor G3 chip at $499.
- Seven years of OS updates — unmatched at this price.
- Excellent Pixel camera processing.
- 120 Hz OLED display.
- 18 W charging is slow.
- Older Gorilla Glass 3 on the front.
- Plastic back.
- No telephoto lens.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 171-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .