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Here's everything you need to know about Google's new smartphones the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL

Budget enough?

Here's everything you need to know about Google's new smartphones the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL
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Yesterday at its IO conference, Google revealed its latest smartphone. It's called the Pixel 3a, and it's positioned as a budget version of the Pixel 3. Where the big G's flagship phone will cost you somewhere in the region of £739 for a base model, the 3a and its bigger sibling the 3a XL will cost either £399 or £469, depending which of them you go for.

The main downgrade to hit that price point looks to be the processor. Where the Pixel 3 boasts the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, the 3a features the Snapdragon 670. That means you're getting a 2.0 GHz + 1.7 GHz, 64-bit Octa-Core processor instead of a 2.5 Ghz + 1.6 Ghz, 64-Bit Octa-Core processor.

There's no dual selfie camera either, but the phones still use Google's swanky Night Light tech that makes low-light photography not just possible on a smartphone, but actually pretty incredible.

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Other cost-cutting measures mean there's no wireless charging, and the 3a family has a plastic body, unlike the 3 which is all sleek and metal and glass. You will get a 3.5mm headphone jack into the bargain though, which some people are going to absolutely love. Oh, and the screen-size on the XL version of the 3a is .3 of an inch smaller than it is on the 3.

It's going to be interesting to see how the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL do. They're certainly cheaper than the original Pixel 3, and they're well under the price you'll pay for flagship phones from the likes of Samsung. But they fall into a similar bracket as phones like the Honor View 20, which boast more impressive stats.

In terms of gaming, they're certainly powerful enough to run most things now, but in a couple of years? Well, it's hard to say, but the speed that technology moves nowadays can easily leave mid-range adopters stuck.

You can click here to find out more about the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL, and do let us know what you think in the comments. Is this the phone that's going to make you buy into Google's Pixel brand? Or are there too many better Android alternatives out there already?

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Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.