A slice of good news is here for Pixel budget smartphone fans, as the Pixel 8a was confirmed by a Google software engineer earlier this month while addressing a bug report concern of a user. This centers on the battery status information which was said to be missing on the Pixel smartphones after the last update that Google rolled out for the users.
While the feature would be making a comeback, this also confirmed the company's development of the Pixel 8a, the budget smartphone version of its current lineup.
Pixel 8a is Coming, Google's Engineer Confirmed
A bug report submitted by a user who asked about the Pixel's missing 'Battery Info' feature revealed more than what the fans expected, as it talked about the presence of the Pixel 8a from Google's development.
This came from Google's software engineer who addressed the issue, claiming last March 4 that this is enabled on the Pixel 8a and beyond, pointing the feature to be available on future releases only. Moreover, while users find this feature inaccessible for current Pixel smartphones, this is regarded as WAI (working as intended).
In this confirmation, it yet remains unknown what the Pixel 8a will offer once it releases in the future, but it is expected to be cheaper than the current Pixel 8 lineup, sport the same Tensor G3 chipset, but have fewer features than this earlier release.
Battery Status and Pixel 8a Arriving Soon
As per Google's software engineer, the Battery Status which was introduced on the Android 14 QPR1's update and removed on the Pixel update in February 2024, is coming back once Pixel 8a arrives. It will also be available to the next-gen smartphone, Pixel 9, which Google will soon talk about more in the future.
Like Google's I/O 2023, it is also the time when the fans expect the Pixel 8a would arrive, leveraging the budget smartphone during this event.
Pixel's Budget Smartphone Lineup
The last Pixel update from Google supersedes the Android 14 update of the company, and this is also the same update that was said to remove the battery status information which users are disputing with Google. Moreover, this update addressed massive security concerns and the safety of its users, centering on bug fixes to patch the vulnerabilities and Android security bulletins.
It is also important to note that Pixel's budget smartphone lineup, those with the suffix 'a' always comes around half a year (or more) after its mainline release the year before. For the Pixel 7's case, the main release of the company arrived during its October annual release, and the Pixel 7a arrived in May 2023, seven months after, during Google's I/O 2023 event.
While it is known as a budget smartphone, it provides significant value for money with what it has to offer, and this includes the same chip as the mainline release, like Pixel 7a's Tensor G2 which it shares with the 7th generation smartphone, and more.
Despite using a more than half-a-year platform, Pixel's budget releases offer a good value for money, with Pixel 8a already awaited by fans and confirmed by Google themselves.
