Google Pixel 4a images show the budget iPhone 9-rivalling phone in real life

 Lots of buzz around the Google Pixel 4a, the new budget version of last year’s hit Google Pixel 4, indicates the phone is coming in a matter of months. 

While mid-range smartphones don’t often get a lot of attention, last year’s Google Pixel 3a crammed the Pixel 3’s incredible camera and sleek design into an affordable package. It did compromise on specs, but that’s a price that must be paid if you’re looking for a great phone under £500. 

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 Will the Google Pixel 4a retain that premium design at a price-point everyone can be happy with? It certainly looks like it – at least according to a source posting on Slashleaks, which has images purported to be the front and back of the new Pixel 4a.

The Google Pixel 4a retains the 3a’s rear fingerprint sensor, indented onto the back of the phone. A square camera module in the same style of the Pixel 4, which is all the rage in smartphone design right now, shows off two lenses. It’s unclear what kind of lenses these will be, although we’d hazard a guess at the Pixel 4’s 12.2MP main camera and 16MP telephoto lens. 

The screen has been expanded compared to last year’s budget model, although the leaker – a poster known only as VolFiona – does not provide a size. A punch-hole selfie camera design is incorporated into the display, while with no need for an under-screen fingerprint sensor, the face of the phone extends from bezel to bezel to retain that premium look. Check out both leaked photos from the site below: 

Image 1 of 2

Google Pixel 4a: Front

Google Pixel 4a: Rear

It’s a pleasant-looking bit of kit, but it’s definitely worth noting that the leak only has a 33% “trust” score. Slashleak’s platform allows its readers to rate leaks as “fake” or “legit” based on whether they find the information plausible or not. 

While a reader poll is no indicator of legitimacy (or lack thereof), it’s an indicator that we should take this handset leak with a few hefty pinches of salt. However, it also matches the leaked renders from LetsGoDigital, released last month, very closely indeed.

Perhaps it's a previous prototype, and the Pixel 4a (and presumably its bigger sibling, the Pixel 4a XL) will look radically different to this handset. It's possible, but it shares a lot of common design threads with both the Pixel 4 and Google Pixel 3a. We wouldn’t be surprised to see this design on shelves in a couple of months, going up against other rumoured budget phones such the iPhone 9, or SE2. 

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