Google Pixel 8a review

Vanilla Android 14

The Pixel 8a ships with the latest Android 14 out of the box. As with other recent Pixel launches, the Pixel 8a is claimed to get 7 years of software updates from the day of its release.

The software experience here is par for the course for a Google smartphone. You get by far the cleanest version of Android out of the box with no third-party bloatware pre-installed (just Google's own). There's also no UI customization done, nor are there any built-in options for the user to do so.

Of course, not everyone is interested in that, and there has always been a subset of users who are fans of Android's stock appearance, so much so that it became a selling point for select other manufacturers. However, even though brands like Nothing or Motorola may offer near-stock UI, they have their own customizations with additional options for the users, something Google does not do.

What Google does offer is a suite of software features exclusive to Pixel devices that enhance usability. Features like Call Screen, Direct My Call, and Hold For Me can vastly improve your phone call experience by screening spammers and making interacting with automated systems easier.

The new Circle to Search makes it easy to search for something on the screen by simply drawing a circle around it. Then there are camera features like Best Take, Magic Editor, and Audio Magic Eraser, along with Top Shot and Astrophotography mode. All of these help the Pixel phones stand out among other Android devices.

But perhaps the best feature of Pixel phones is the monthly software updates. And while the updates are mostly just security updates, every now and then the company will do a Pixel feature drop, which adds a bunch of new stuff to the device.

This, along with the seven-year promise, make the Pixel devices some of the best-supported smartphones on the market. And none of this changes with the Pixel 8a, as despite it being the cheapest of the series, gets the same level of support as the more expensive models.

Performance and benchmarks

The Pixel 8a runs on Google's Tensor G3 chip, the same one inside the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. It is based on Samsung's 4nm manufacturing process.

The processor has 9 cores in 1+4+4 core clusters. The main core is Cortex-X3 clocked at 3.0 GHz, followed by 4x Cortex-A715 cores ticking at 2.45 GHz and 4x Cortex-A510 cores running at 2.45 GHz are used for not-so-demanding tasks to save on some power. The GPU is Immortalis-G715s MC10 GPU.

The chipset also contains Google's Titan M2 security chip and a dedicated NPU for AI-related tasks. The latter handles the real-time translation features and other AI-requiring services.

The Pixel 8a has two variants of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage - 8GB/128GB (ours) and 8GB/256GB.

Let's see some tests now.

The Tensor G3's prime core is an excellent performer, but the overall multi-core performance of the G3 chip is mid-range level.

The GPU performance is also upper-tier mid-range, which is not bad at all, just not recent Snapdragon-grade. Also, there is no hardware accelerated ray-tracing hence the missing 3D Mark Solar Bay test.

Finally, the Tensor G3 scored as much as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered Xperia 5 V on AnTuTu. Obviously, it offers plenty of oomph, though far from the best phones.

The Tensor G3 chip has been known for its high temperatures and the previous Pixels throttled a whole lot. This new Pixel 8a is no different - the processor drops down to 80% in just 3 minutes of stress testing, and continues down to 60% at the 10-minute mark. The GPU stability is similar - 53% stability with a noticeable throttling in just 7 minutes at full speed. At least this aggressive performance throttling prevents the the Pixel 8a from becoming hot to the touch.

CPU test • GPIU test

The Pixel 8a packs a capable chipset that delivers smooth performance on its display and exceptionally fluid OS experience. It is not the fastest phone, nor the one to have superb stability. We have seen and even felt the phone throttling in games and some other demanding tasks. And while we were happy most of the time with the smoothness the Pixel 8a delivered, we cannot ignore the little hiccups along the way, too.