How excited are you for the impending arrival of the Pixel 8a? If you happen to love the stock Android experience and hate spending a lot of money on fancy new high-end phones, your answer may vary from “very” to “exceptionally.” Or at least that was the case before today, when last year’s Pixel 7a is available at its lowest ever price.
Both Amazon and Best Buy (to name just the two leading US retailers) are charging a whopping 150 bucks less than usual for the unlocked mid-range handset in a single 128GB storage variant and a couple of nice colorways. We’re talking about the “Charcoal” and “Snow” options, with the “Sea” flavor being currently unavailable pretty much everywhere apart from the official Google Store.
While said store lists a fairly distant expiration date of May 4 for this totally unprecedented and presumably unbeatable new deal, that inventory issue suggests you probably don’t have a full three weeks at your disposal to make your next big smartphone buying decision.
Instead, it might be wise to thoroughly analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Pixel 7a as soon as possible and figure out whether its sequel is worth waiting or not. Our in-depth review showed Google‘s latest Android mid-ranger to be extremely competent at most day-to-day tasks, from playing video content and games in smooth 90Hz quality to taking surprisingly sharp photos in any and all environments.
Will the Pixel 8a offer substantial improvements over its predecessor? Most likely. Will it start at the same $499 price point as the Pixel 7a? Probably, and that’s clearly the main reason you should strongly consider picking up the existing model at a towering $150 (or 30 percent) discount while Google, Amazon, and Best Buy’s supply allows it. And yes, the Pixel 7a is officially back to costing a lotless than the Pixel 8.