So Google wants everyone to at least have a taste of the Pixel smartphones. Of course, why shouldn’t you have a taste of the powerful smartphone alongside it’s many features…after all, most of Google products are great right? But while the new Pixel 3a is an attempt by Google to reinvent the mid range smartphone and patch it up with a great flagship and premium mix, the Pixel 3a is far from what you’ll really expect to be just another Android smartphone.

With companies such as Oppo, OnePlus and Huawei disrupting the mobile market with amazing smartphones at affordable price tag, the same might be with this particular device. Remember that time when Google disrupted the Android smartphone market with the Nexus 4 which offers premium features at affordable pricing, the same we are experiencing again.

The Pixel 3a comes with a sister, the Pixel 3a XL which are very similar in every sense just the size as usual differentiates them both. But that isn’t the case. I still wondered why Google named the device “Pixel 3a”, the probably standing for “Affordable” as it mimic the high-end Pixel 3.

With the lower-end of the Pixel 3a coming at just $399, it’s definitely still not a cut throat price. Although if compared to other affordable smartphones like the Galaxy S10E…(is that affordable) or never mind me, if we consider the Galaxy A50 or the A80 bpth offering outstanding feature, I’d argue the Pixel is still up for a really fierce competition with other larger brands.

While the Pixel 3a looks very similar to the Pixel XL in many ways considering it’s polycarbonate unibody which is well polished that mimics an aluminum or glass finish, it would be quite hard for you to conclude when you handle one yourself.

Google makes the device in 3 colors namely: Black, White and Purple-like design. The device has fingerprint scanner at the back which still like the regular place most of us are familiar with.

Talking about the display of the smartphone, it features a nice 5.6 inch and 6 inch gOLED display which at FullHD+ resolution has an 18:9 aspect ratio and the Always-On Display capabilities.

It’s speakers are at the bottom of the device. I’t not really bad though because I’ve seen many tech journalists and bloggers as well criticize the fact that speakers are usually underneath the device which can be blocked accidentally when playing games for example. But our beloved Headphone jack is going nowhere.

As for internals, Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 on both variants, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of non-expandable storage; the phone comes unlocked, and there are eSIM capabilities for Google Fi, 18W charging, Wi-Fi a/c, Bluetooth 5 and either a 3,000 or 3,700mAh battery, respectively.

The device has Android 9 Pie out of the box and comes with some Google applications that makes the device really interesting. Handling it and scrolling through the app launcher page feels nice.

While this might not be enough, the Pixel 3a features the Pixel 3 camera experience which is totally unbelievable. But it’s true anyway whether you believe it or not. The rear camera is a 12.2 Megapixel Sony IMX363 Camera sensor at f/1.8 aperture and 1.4 microns and the front facing camera is a decent 8 Megapixels camera at f/2 and 1.12 microns.

But there is still a little bit of downturn with recording too high quality videos such as taking 4K videos as it causes some really slow behavior during processing of those images but to me isn’t a deal breaker.

Pixel 3a specs

While you might be a bit disappointed with the absence of Notch or a punch hole or whatever the trend might be, this device still looks and feels modern in every sense. The device is like Google trying to create it’s own firm stance in the smartphone industry and let other competitors know what it’s capable of . While we’re yet to complete our review on the device as of now, we’ll let you know about our overall opinion of the device in subsequent articles.