Google Launches Mid-range Pixel 3a And 3a XL, Now Available In Singapore

After multiple leaks and rumors regarding Google’s upcoming mid-range phones, the Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL have been officially announced and two colours – Just Black and Clearly White – are now available for immediate purchase in Singapore.

Priced at SG$659 for the 5.6-inch 3a and SG$779 for the 6-inch 3a XL, it’s about half as expensive as the flagship Pixel 3 and 3 XL’s 64GB models. To achieve the significantly lower prices, there have been compromises made, but overall, the 3a and 3a XL are still ridiculously capable phones at this price point.

The new phones both use the Snapdragon 670 octa-core processor that’s also utilised in other mid-range phones, and come with 4GB RAM and a fixed 64GB worth of storage. They also retain some features such as the Active Edge squeezable sides, but lost others like water resistance, wide angle selfies and wireless charging.

Photos provided by Google

Unlike the Pixel 3 and 3 XL which have notches, allowing for an almost full-screen display, the 3a and 3a XL have a rather thick bezel and use Dragontrail instead of Corning’s Gorilla glass for the screen. The glass back from the flagship phones have been replaced with a polycarbonate shell as well, no doubt to keep costs lower.

But the main draw of the Pixel phones have always been the incredible cameras and Google has chosen to keep the same 12 megapixel rear camera from the Pixel 3 and 3 XL for the 3a and 3a XL. The exclusion of Google’s Pixel Visual Core Processor might result in slight differences between photos taken with the flagship and mid-ranges phones, however.

Thankfully, the much-acclaimed Night Sight feature and others like Top Shot, Super Res Zoom and HDR+ have been retained, with the addition of a Time Lapse feature.

There’s a whole bunch of features, battery life and more to be tested out, so stay tuned for our in-depth review coming up soon. For now, the Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL are available from Google, Singtel, COURTS and Challenger.

UPDATE 5/17/2019: Full review for the Google Pixel 3a XL is now available here.