Google Pixel 8a review - The small Google smartphone is unique within the mid-range segment

Please note: We have updated our rating system and the results of version 8 are not comparable with the results of version 7. More information is available here.

Color selection of the Google Pixel 8a

The Pixel 8a is available in a wide range of colors—but only the version with 128 GB of internal storage. The version with 256 GB of storage is just available in black, which doesn't really make much sense and is surely a negative point to note. The back is made from plastic, but it doesn't feel cheap. Visually, the material looks similar to glass, although glass does feel a lot more high-quality to the touch. Its surface is slightly frosted, so it isn't terribly sensitive to collecting fingerprint marks. 

The Pixel smartphone's case is dustproof and protected against temporary immersion into fresh water according to IP67—plus, it is made from up to 100 per cent recycled materials (aluminum components). The plastic back is only made from 76 per cent recycled materials. The Pixel 8a's build quality is fine and there are no gaps, with the exception of the area in between the camera model and the back of the device. 

Although the installed Tensor G3 theoretically allows access to the WiFi 7 network, the Pixel 8a actually only supports WiFi 6E. Even so, high speeds should also be possible via the 6 GHz range—using our reference router (Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000), we measured transfer rates of over 800 MBit/s on average (5 GHz) during the test. Interestingly, the Google phone works slower and more inconsistently in the 6 GHz channel, with sharp drops below 500 MBit/s.

For connecting to the web on the go, you can make use of the 5G standard including a wide variety of supported frequencies, but this doesn't include mmWave support. Its available 4G frequencies are also plentiful for a mid-range phone—all the relevant LTE bands were supported in the area in which this test was carried out (Germany). 

Please note: We have received information that the Pixel 8a's actual 5G support may differ from its datasheet in some cases. Although the Google smartphone supports a wide range of 5G bands according to its specifications, Google appears to be restricting this in some countries. Latin America and Asia, but also Europe (UK) seem to be affected. This should be taken into account before travelling abroad.

What the Pixel 8a lacks in new camera hardware compared to its predecessor, AI features (as already known from the Pixel 8 phones) should make up for. For example, Google optimizes group photos by combining faces from several photos to ensure that no person has their eyes closed. An audio eraser is also on board to remove distracting noise from video recordings.

In controlled lighting conditions, the mid-range Google phone showed decent color reproduction during our measurement. However, blue tones in particular were not depicted very accurately. All-in-all, its DeltaE deviations of around 7.1 were fine. Details in our test chart looked sufficiently sharp and color gradients were displayed very cleanly.

As is typical for displays with organic light-emitting diodes, the Pixel 8a also uses PWM technology to control its brightness. Similar to the Pixel 8, the a-model's flickering isn't very high-frequency, meaning it is less friendly on the eyes. We used an oscilloscope to measure a constant 120 Hz with a stable amplitude curve at minimum display brightness. The value doubled to 240 Hz from about half of the phone's maximum brightness.

Still, the amplitude deflection is relatively flat at 26 per cent. The greater this value deviates from 0 per cent, the higher the probability that changes in brightness will have a negative impact. 

When it comes to graphics calculations, the Pixel 8a with its Mali-G715 MP7 achieved very competitive results in our test and, as a result, is clearly better than the Pixel 7a. Together with the Mali-G615 MP6 inside the Poco X6 Pro 5G, the Google phone led our comparison field, although its deficit in the demanding 3DMark tier tests was alarming. It seems that a thermal reduction in the Pixel 8a's performance already plays a big role in this aspect. 

The Pixel 8a benefits from good everyday browser speeds. Websites are loaded quickly and can be scrolled through smoothly. The Google phone's results in the browser benchmarks varied considerably. While it achieved very good results in some tests, other tests sometimes showed results well below those of the Pixel 7a.

The Pixel 8a surprised us when it came to its storage connectivity—unfortunately in a negative way. The Google phone relies on the UFS 3.1 standard, which delivers solid read rates but isn't terribly fast overall. Its low write speeds are probably not due to the Tensor SoC's built-in memory controller, as the Pixel 7a already did better with its Tensor G2 in our test—plus, the Pixel 8 also achieved higher values in this field.

The Google phone's surface temperatures are less of an issue in everyday use, although the Pixel 8a does get noticeably warm when used for video recording or gaming. In the Burnout benchmark, we measured temperatures of almost 44 degrees Celsius. Compared to other mid-range smartphones, however, this value is still acceptable.

Less acceptable is how much the Tensor G3 was throttled in the 3DMark Wild Life stress tests. Post-throttling, the system only performed at about 50 per cent of its capabilities. A better-cooled mid-range smartphone, such as the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G, manages results of over 90 per cent in this scenario. 

The Pixel 8a has two speakers, whereby one is located inside the earpiece, so it doesn't produce an even stereo sound. The Google phone doesn't offer deep, present bass, and our Pink Noise test also showed an ascending frequency curve for the speakers' mids. Overall, the phone's sound is still pretty decent for a mid-range device.

If you want bass-rich sound output, you can use its wired USB port or wireless Bluetooth 5.3. The latter uses the following codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, Opus, LDAC and LC3.