Earlier this month, Google confirmed that their next budget smartphone, the Pixel 5a 5G, would be released later this year. Thanks to the latest Android 12 Developer Preview, we can report that the Pixel 5a 5G will run on the same chip as the Google Pixel 5.
By confirming that the Pixel 5a 5G exists – a fact that had to be addressed due to rumors of the device’s cancellation – Google did little more than confirm the name and give a vague release window. However, the name provided its own hints as the “5G” confirms that the phone will almost certainly use one of Qualcomm’s 5G compatible chips, as my colleague Damien Wilde explained.
Let’s start with the potential chipset, there are a number of options here and we can probably get a pretty good idea of the minimum performance levels of this upcoming mid-range. This all relies heavily on the use of a Qualcomm chipset. If the Pixel 5a 5G stays with Qualcomm, there are exactly 4 Snapdragon chipsets that this smartphone could use:
- Snapdragon 480
- Snapdragon 690
- Snapdragon 765G
- Snapdragon 768G
With the release of Android 12 Developer Preview 3, our Dylan Roussel has delved into the files and discovered numerous references to the code name ‘Barbet’ – which we have confirmed to be the Pixel 5a 5G – in addition to the model number ‘sm7250’, that is the part number for the Snapdragon 765G chip.
From this we can almost confirm that the Pixel 5a 5G – which will be released in the coming months – will be running on the same Snapdragon 765G chip that powers both the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G.
This fact will certainly only further confuse the Made by Google lineup as renderings had already pointed out the Pixel 5a which is almost identical to the Pixel 4a 5G in external design, making it a few millimeters bigger or smaller. That said, it should be interesting to see that the Pixel 5a offers the same level of performance as the full Pixel 5.
It remains to be seen how Google will further differentiate this phone from its predecessors, particularly in terms of pricing. An advantage of using a chip that Google has worked with before is that significantly less research and development time is required, which can help reduce costs. But is it discounted enough for the Pixel 5a 5G to be an effective successor to the superbly priced $ 349 Pixel 4a?
Dylan Roussel contributed to this article
More about Made by Google:
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links that generate income. More.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: