Rumored black and white Google Pixel 4a and 4a XL leak in the flesh

Google announced and released the budget Pixel 3a on May 7 last year, during its 2019 Google I/O Developer Conference during a launch event that took place at the Shoreline Amphitheatre near its office in Mountain View, CA, in front of a gathering of developers, journalists and assorted tech enthusiasts.

In 2020, however, due to the coronavirus outbreak, the May 12 Google I/O conference was cancelled as a physical event, and then "in any capacity." We were waiting on Google to announce how and in what form it will be held, and the team from Mountain View recently delivered by scheduling a June 3 Android 11 Beta launch show event.

While waiting on Google to announce the phone, it has already leaked profusely from various sources in CAD renders and case maker schematics, detailing its specs and general looks. The alleged Google Pixel 4a and 4a XL just leaked in the flesh, both the black, and the white model, depicting what could be the final design of Google's next budget warrior.

Just like the Pixel 3a before it, the Pixel 4a is expected to arrive in a plastic from, which should be enough to tell you that premium features like wireless charging or mmWave 5G connectivity antennas most likely won't be in the specs list. Granted, the Pixel 4a price is also tipped to be $399, or even lower, so we wouldn't expect those anyway.

If the design looks familiar, it's because it's reminiscent of the Pixel 4, what with the "hotplate" camera island on the back, and the rounded corners. Unfortunately, the tipster hasn't flipped the phones on their backs to demo the eventual punch-hole display design, but we all know how those look now, and are just grateful that the era of thick Pixel phone bezels may be history now.

We can also see the rear-mounted finger scanner which is actually a faster and more ergonomic alternative to the trendy under-display fingerprint readers, especially if they are of the ultrasonic variety. Thankfully, there is also a regular headphone jack to plug your legacy headphones in.

The plastic design is actually a breath of fresh air compared to all those heavy glass phones lately that we constantly have to baby, but what else would be under the hood? Well, rumor has it we will get a 5.81 inches OLED panel with Full HD+ at 2340 x 1080 pixels resolution. Thus, we are getting a slight bump in screen size and resolution compared to last year's model.

Moving on to what will make the Pixel 4a tick - a midrange Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 chipset is expected to be in store - an octa-core affair, but with 4G LTE connectivity only. Google is not one to go generous on RAM and storage in its phones, so we'd expect a 4GB/6GB RAM and 64GB/126GB storage models at the most. All that jazz should be backed up be a comparatively smallish 3080 mAh battery, and we really wish that part of the rumor mill get it wrong, despite the fast 18W charging brick.

The main camera of the Pixel 4a is tipped to keep its 12MP resolution, with optically stabilized sensor, as well as software image stabilization. The larger screen in the same package size means that we will be getting something other than a notch this year, and it will likely come in the punch-hole form of the front camera. The selfie snapper is expected to sport a 8-megapixel count with a field of view of 84 degrees, or, the same unit we have on the Pixel 4a predecessor.

To recap, here are the expected Google Pixel 4a specs:

• A 5.8" FHD+ OLED punch-hole display
• Octa-core Snapdragon 730 processor
• 6GB/64GB memory
• 12MP main and 8MP front cameras
• 3080mAh battery
• 18W charging