The Pixel 6A includes Google’s Tensor chipset and costs $449

Image: Google

The 5A's $449 price tag is not going to change with the announcement of the 6A, which embraces the company's new design language. The new device won't ship until July 28th, so if you're itching to get your hands on it, you'll have to wait a little longer.

The 6A is a follow up to the 6 and 6 Pro set, with a raised horizontal camera bump and a two-tone body. The back panel has a fingerprint sensor, but it is under the screen. If you think the 6 and 6 Pro are too big, the 6A comes with a slightly smaller 6.1-inch display. It's a standard 60Hz refresh rate, too, so it's nice to let the leader in fast refresh rate screens in mid-range phones be the one.

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The design ethos is the same as the flagship 6 and 6 Pro, but the camera specifications are less robust. Previous A-series phones had the same camera hardware as their pricier counterparts. The 6A has a 12-megapixel main rear camera with optical image stabilization that appears to be the same hardware used by the 5A, rather than the 50-megapixel main camera on the Pixel 6. There is also an 8-megapixel selfie camera.

The 5A's 4,680mAh cell is larger than the 4,400mAh battery in the 6A, but that doesn't mean it won't last a full day. It claims three days of use in Extreme Battery Saver mode, which is a full day longer than it claimed for the 5A. It's likely due to more efficient hardware and software integration now that they're in control.

Similar to how the 5A was sold, a single storage configuration will be available. It's not clear if the 6A will be available in more markets than the 5A, which was only available in the US and Japan.

The 6A supports both sub 6 GHz and millimeter wave 5G. The 6A does not have a headphone jack. The last phone to come with a charging port was the Pixel 5A.

The best phone in the midrange class was a shoe-in for the Pixel A-series. The 6A has its work cut out for it because of the serious competition it has faced in recent years.