Google Pixel 3a Smartphone Coming on Wednesday for $400

Google offifically announced the Pixel 3a, a smartphone designed to fit in your hand, packed with camera and security features, Google Assistant, and a long battery life.

Pixel 3a includes an OLED display. It comes in three colors—Just Black, Clearly White, Purple-ish—and two sizes, with prices in the U.S. starting at $399 for the 5.6-inch display and $479 for the 6-inch model.

Starting with the camera, Pixel 3a lets you take photos using Google’s HDR+ technology with features like Portrait Mode, Super Res Zoom, and Night Sight to capture clear shots in low light. Google Photos is built in, so you can save all your high-quality photos and videos with free, unlimited storage. And it comes with an 18-watt charger so you get up to seven hours of battery life on a 15-minute charge and up to 30 hours on a full charge.

You can squeeze Pixel 3a for the Google Assistant to send texts, get directions and set reminders—simply using your voice. Plus, the Google Assistant’s Call Screen feature (available in English in the U.S. and Canada) gives you information about the caller before you pick up, and shields you from those annoying robocalls.

Pixel 3a is protected against new threats with Google to provide three years of security and operating system updates. It also comes with the custom-built Titan M chip to help protect your most sensitive data.

Pixel makes it easy to use Google apps like YouTube, Google Photos and Gmail. And you'll get access to new features first. Pixel 3a and the entire Pixel portfolio will get a preview of AR in Google Maps—the next time you're getting around town, you can see walking directions overlaid on the world itself, rather than looking at a blue dot on a map. This helps you know precisely where you are, and exactly which way to start walking (in areas covered on Street View where there’s a good data connection and good lighting).

Time lapse is coming to Google Pixel 3a, so you can capture an entire sunset in just a few seconds of video—great for posting on social media or messaging to your friends.

The 3a and 3a XL look nearly identical to the current Pixel 3 line, save for a few key differences:

The new phones have a poly-carbonate back instead of glass or metal
The handsets lack wireless charging
The main processor is a slightly slower Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 processor (Google says it makes up for some of that with software)
They have 64 gigabytes of storage, but lack the 128 gigabyte option of the more-expensive models
There’s one camera on the front instead of two, which means Group Selfie mode isn’t available on these devices
The Pixel Visual Core, a Google chip for processing photos, is missing. Google is replacing that with software that processes photos instead.

Still, the 3a line does include some new features:

Battery life is 30 hours, slightly more than the regular Pixel 3
There’s a headphone jack, so people don’t need to pay extra for wireless earbuds
An augmented-reality feature for 3-D navigation in Google Maps is coming to the phone as a preview (it’ll come to other Pixels as well)
The camera app gets a Time Lapse feature, which has been present on iPhones (other Pixels will get this too)

The Pixel 3a line was primarily engineered by the HTC business that Google acquired for $1.1 billion last year.

Pixel 3a and Pixel 3 are now available through more carriers, including Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular, Spectrum Mobile (Charter), C Spire and Google Fi, as well as being supported on AT&T. If you’re new to Pixel, you can transfer photos, music and media quickly with the included Quick Switch Adapter. If you need a little extra help, 24/7 support from Google is just a tap away in the tips and support link in the settings menu. You can even share your screen for guided assistance.

Look for Pixel 3a in the Google Store in countries where Pixel is sold beginning today, and through Google's partners beginning tomorrow.

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