Google’s new Pixel 4a doesn’t have the latest processor, cutting-edge telephoto cameras, or a 120Hz display. It doesn’t even have wireless charging. But with a $349 price tag, 5.8-inch display, and the best design Google has ever shipped, it just might be able to take on Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 behemoth arriving later this week.
At first glance, the Pixel 4a doesn’t look much like its namesake, the Pixel 4, but it’s not hard to see the influence in its rounded silhouette and raised square camera array. There’s a sleekness here that we haven’t seen in a Google phone before, though. Google offers just one size of the Pixel 4a and just one color as well, but it’ll likely nail most people’s sweet spot: 5.8 inches and black, with a mint-green power button. That’s right in between the 5.6-inch Pixel 3a and the 6.0-inch Pixel 3a XL, but the Pixel 4a is actually a good deal smaller than even the smaller the 3a thanks to its shrunken bezels: