Google’s new Pixel 4a is an iPhone SE competitor priced at $349

Way back in April of this year, Apple announced the new iPhone SE — the company’s newest entry-level handset. And now Google has its response: the Pixel 4a.

On Monday, Google announced its newest Pixel-branded smartphone, while also teasing what’s coming later this year. But, first, the Pixel 4a. This is an entry-level handset meant to take on the likes of Apple’s iPhone SE, and that certainly starts with the price tag. Google is offering only one variant of the Pixel 4a, which is set at $349, coming in with just a single color: Just Black.

The Basics

The Pixel 4a undercuts the iPhone SE at starting price, but offers a much larger display at 5.81 inches. That screen offers a 1080 x 2340 resolution, an OLED panel, HDR support, a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and 443 pixels per inch. It has drastically reduced bezels, a hole-punch design for the front-facing camera, and a USB-C port on the bottom of the handset. The Pixel 4a also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The internals

As far as what’s under the hood, here’s what you’ll find: A Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage, and a 3140mAh battery. It supports Bluetooth 5.1, 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, and all of the standard sensors.

Cameras

There is just a single camera on the back of the Pixel 4a, which measures in at 12 megapixels. It supports autofocus with dual pixel phase detection, optical and electronic image stabilization, a 77-degree field of view, and a f/1.7 aperture. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera is 8 megapixels, with an f/2.0 aperture, 84-degree field of view, and fixed focus.

The rear camera can capture video up to 4K at 30 FPS, 1080p video at either 30, 60, 0r 120 FPS, and 720p video at either 30, 60, or 240 FPS. The front-facing camera can also capture video, up to 1080p, but only at 30 FPS.

Launch and what’s still coming

The Pixel 4a is running Android 10 out of the box, but Google says it will be getting at least three years’ worth of software and security updates after launch.

And launch day is August 20, 2020. You can pre-order the Pixel 4a right now, though. When the handset does become available customers can purchase it from Google’s online store, Best Buy, Amazon, and other retailers. It will also be available from Google Fi, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon Wireless.

And yet, that’s not all. Google also confirmed in its announcement of the Pixel 4a today that it will be launching two other handsets later this year. The company said that it will welcome the Pixel 4a 5G to the market in the coming months, and that the handset will cost $499 when it arrives. Meanwhile, the Pixel 5 will be Google’s flagship handset for the year, and that will launch sometime this fall as well.

No additional details regarding the upcoming handsets were provided at the time of publication.

So, as a quick refresher, here’s what the iPhone SE offers with a price tag starting at $399: a Retina LCD 4.7-inch display, bezels, several different color options (white, black, Product(RED)), several different storage capacities (64GB, 128GB, and 256GB), an A13 Bionic processor, water and dust resistance, iOS 13 (upgradable to iOS 14), a 7-megapixel front-facing camera and 12-megapixel rear camera, and Touch ID.

What do you think of the Pixel 4a? Think it’s a worthy competitor to the new iPhone SE?