Google has officially revealed the Pixel 5A 5G. The tech giant had previously previewed its planned Pixel 6 handsets for later in the year, which together with the 5a will form its latest push for respectability in the smartphone market, a Bloomberg report explains.
According to The Verge, the 5a comes with a small list of updated features compared to its precdecssor – the Pixel 4A 5G, including a slightly bigger screen, a much bigger battery, and an IP67 rating for water resistance.
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Though they might be few, these are some important tweaks to an already good midrange phone, and the best part is the price. In the US, the 5a will cost $449 (roughly ₹33,000), which is $50 less than the Pixel 4A 5G's introductory price. The 5A will go on sale in the US and Japan, as well as via SoftBank Corp.’s carrier stores, on August 26.
The Pixel 5A's screen has got a slight boost to 6.34 inches, an increase over the 4A 5G's 6.2-inch display. It's still a 1080p OLED with a standard 60Hz refresh rate, despite rumours of a faster 90Hz display. According to the Bloomberg report, the device’s market competitiveness will rely largely on Google’s promises of delivering the best Android experience, security and long-term support, allied with its mobile photography expertise.
The battery has also been increased to 4,680mAh, up from 3,885mAh, which Google said will last through a full day of typical use or two days using the ‘extreme battery saver’ mode.
The 5A is also the first A-series Pixel to get an official water resistance rating. With IP67 protection, the phone will be able to withstand immersion in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. That's an uncommon feature in the sub $500 class where IP ratings are few and far between.
The Pixel 5A will continue to offer support for sub-6GHz 5G. Unlike last year, Google will not sell a mmWave-compatible version of the phone. That's no great loss -- mmWave 5G is very fast, but the range is highly limited and hard to find.
According to The Verge, unfortunately, the 5A also doesn't have support for C-band 5G frequencies, which some network services globally will start using at the end of this year to bolster their struggling 5G networks. Google has said it could add the necessary software support later but won't commit to doing so at this point.
Other specs remain unchanged from the previous model: the phone still uses a Snapdragon 765G chipset with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 12.2-megapixel main and 16-megapixel ultrawide rear cameras and 8-megapixel front camera remain the same.
There's a rear fingerprint scanner for biometric unlock, a headphone jack, and an 18W charger included in the box, though Google has stated that this will be the last Pixel phone to offer one, an ANI report explains. The phone will ship with Android 11 and guarantees Google's standard three years of OS platform updates and security patch support.
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