The Pixel 6a is going to be one of the most promising smartphone releases of the year. With a flagship system on a chip and a price tag of $450, it looks like Google is taking a credible turn with the iPhone SE. Since Thursday’s announcement, a few more details have come out that didn’t make it to the keynote.
First off, the Pixel 6a will be Google’s widest smartphone release ever by a narrow margin. Remember that the Pixel 5a release was from Google smallest ever, launching in only two countries, the US and Japan. Google’s device availability support page was updated Thursday, and the Pixel 6a is available again in the usual 13 Pixel launch countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States.
But wait! There’s more: Google also says the Pixel 6a will be come to India to 14 countries later this year. That’s a new record for Google’s relatively small (Apple and Samsung ship in more than 100 countries) phone hardware. India is an odd choice as it is one of the most competitive global smartphone markets. Google will have to cut the price of the Pixel 6a significantly to be competitive there. We don’t know the price in India yet, but check out the replies to that tweet announcement, which is full of Indian consumers already towing the phone for its supposed price tag of $450 and “only” 60Hz. It’s going to be a tough battle.
The second news comes from Android Central, which received confirmation from Google that the Pixel 6a will not use the same fingerprint sensor as the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. Some people have had a lot of problems with the Pixel 6 fingerprint sensor, calling it slow and unreliable (although the version on our model seems good), and Google has sent out several patches that attempt to address the complaints. The hope is that the new fingerprint reader will be faster with more reliable performance.
Overall, it seems that Google is taking the right steps with this phone. The final verdict will fall when the phone launches in July.
