Google is bringing the Pixel 4a to India in October near Diwali

Google has announced its latest line of Pixel smartphones — which include the Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5. Of all the three phones, Google has said that only the Pixel 4a would be launching in India which doesn’t boast of 5G connectivity. Google, in essence, is replicating its 2019 strategy where it chose not to launch the flagship Pixel 4 in India but banked upon the more affordable Pixel 3a for the Indian market.

The Pixel 4a has a 5.8-inch full HD OLED screen, but its edge to edge nature makes the phone more compact than previous Pixel phones launched in India. Google claims to have a high-quality panel that supports 16-bit colours, 1000:1 contrast ratio and HDR content support.

Google Pixel 4a
In terms of computational capabilities, this phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset which is seen on mid-range and upper mid-range phones like the Poco X2 and Vivo X50. It also gets 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage. There is also a 3,140mAh battery which isn’t mindblowing, but Google is banking on its software optimization to deliver all-day battery life. It supports 18-watt fast charging.

The main calling card of the Pixel phones over the years has been Google’s computational camera technology. On the Pixel 3a, Google was able to deliver the sublime Pixel 3 camera at a lower price on a phone with inferior hardware. The Pixel 4a is about the same formula. It gets a 12.2-megapixel single camera system combined with optical image stabilisation. This may sound archaic by 2020 standards, but the Pixel 4 was amongst the best camera phones of 2019, and Google is promising the same performance.

The only thing the Pixel 4a loses is the telephoto lens which did optical zoom and portrait photos. On this phone, Google is piggybacking on its software to get the job done. Zoom is achieved by its super zoom technology while portrait shots are achieved computationally using a dual autofocus system.

For selfies too, there is an 8-megapixel camera on the front which has a pretty wide field of view at 84-degrees. Google also doubles down on security with these phones as it equips them with its Titan M chip.

The Pixel 4a was long rumoured and leaked on the internet a couple of times for months. It was earlier supposed to launch around April, but Google executives claimed that they had to recalibrate their launch plans due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Google hasn’t revealed the details for the Pixel 4a 5G but says it will launch it in the fall later this year. On the Pixel 5, Google aims to take on the incoming iPhone 12 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series which is scheduled to be announced later in the week.

Google launched the Pixel 3a in India at a starting price of Rs 39,990 while the phone had a US price of $399. Considering the Pixel 4a starts at $349, one can expect the pricing of the Pixel 4a to be lower in India. That being said, the phone will face stiff competition everywhere even more so in emerging markets like India due to the launch of phones like the OnePlus Nord which has slightly better hardware but cheaper and Apple’s new iPhone SE which also costs around Rs 42,990.
CNBC 18