Google teased us a while back that they were bringing something new to the Pixel universe on May 8. Of course everyone has assumed that it will be the new mid-range Pixels that have been rumoured and leaked extensively for the past six months and tonight we see more ‘evidence’ pointing towards this.
Firstly the Google Pixel 3a showed up on Geekbench revealing a few specs that had only been rumoured before now. It will of course be running Android 9 and contain 4GB of RAM — what is it with Google and only 4GB of RAM? The Pixel 3a looks to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670, slightly lower than the Snapdragon 710 that the Pixel 3a XL is rumoured to be running.
The scores it obtained, while fairly useless in telling how the phone’s UX in real life, are just average — which shouldn’t be a surprise for a mid-range phone.
Not long after appearing there both the Google Pixel 3a and the 3a XL appeared on the Bluetooth certification website. Nothing hidden here. Names of products, manufacturer = Google and they will include support for Bluetooth 5.
There are also four variants for each phone and it is unclear what sets each apart — we suspect it may just be for different regions and/or different carriers.
The Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are expected to be announced at Google IO beginning in Mountain View on May 7. At that time all the eyes of the tech world will be on the developers conference so it makes sense for Google to announce it then. Alphabet’s CFO Ruth Porat effectively confirmed the Pixel 3a announcement at Google IO in the Alphabet earnings call yesterday:
With respect to hardware results, while the first quarter results reflect pressures in the premium smartphone industry, we are pleased with the ongoing momentum for Assistant-enabled home devices, particularly the Home Hub and Mini devices and look forward to our May 7th announcement at I/O from the hardware team.
Originally the phone was expected to only arrive in India and it is unclear if other regions of the world will see it. Hopefully it makes its way Downunder and given they already have a supply chain here we don’t see why not.
Ausdroid will be on the ground in Mountain View should there be any announcement and will hopefully grab some hands on time with anything announced.
