Google Pixel 8a – Unlocked Android Phone with Google AI, Advanced Pixel Camera and 24-Hour Battery – Obsidian – 128 GB

Lots of advanced features at an affordable price
The Google Pixel 8a has most of the same features as the higher end Pixels at a more friendly price. Very solid. Great screen. Very fast. Features the Gemini AI system. One of the best cameras you can buy (although it lacks the zoom capacity of the higher Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro). Very easy to set up and it was easy to switch phones on Mint Mobile — just a matter of removing the SIM card from the old phones and placing it in this one (it also has eSIM capability). It was on sale for $450, unlocked. That’s great value.

Takes great pictures
My husband bought me one. My brother ran over his other phone so I replaced it with this one. Size is perfect. My husband has a more expensive phone but he makes me take the pictures because the quality of mine are better. It is a easy to use phone. I am so happy with this phone. Have dropped several times with not damage. My brother love the one I got him and he has managed to not run over this one. Easy to set up, if existing service just take to phone provider and they can transfer service with ease. They would rather you buy one from them, but this was significantly cheaper that the same phone at the cellular provider. Came overnight which as great. Excellent value for price.

Overall good phone with some flaws
So, I’ve been using the 8a for about 6 months. I upgraded from the Pixel 5a due to support for that supposedly ending soon. I saw the 8a on sale so pounced. I’m mostly going to compare the 8a to the 5a. Keep in mind I really liked the 5a.8a vs 5aBattery life : 5a wins (slightly). I’m not sure how they compare on mAh but the 5a kept a charge a little longer. That’s not to say the 8a won’t last long. It pretty much always gets me through the day and I don’t really feel held back by the difference.Screen: 8a wins (slightly). 8a is a little crisper, overall both are very good. Downside to the 8a is the screen size was a hair smaller I believe.Camera: 8a wins solidly. 5a took good pictures. 8a is even better, especially in low light. I also found the 8a AI editing feature to be handy at times.Charging: Mixed bag. 5a had a faster charging speed (although no Turbo charge). But I like having the wireless charging in the 8a which the 5a didn’t have. After about 2yrs of 5a use the port was kinda loose. Wireless charging should negate that later problem of the port wearing out.Functional speed: 8a wins. 5a wasn’t slow, but 8a is a little snappier.Headphone jack: 5a wins only because the 5a had one, 8a does not have a headphone jack. Most of my headphones/ear buds I use are wireless, but I still use a few wired ones. But you can get an adapter which has worked fine for the 8a.**Fingerprint reader/sensor: 5a wins by a long shot. This is the reason I removed a star. The 5a fingerprint reader on the back of the phone worked right nearly every time (except with moist fingers). The 8a in screen finger reader works more than half the time, but was is far less accurate than the 5a method. To make matters worse, I think the Pixel engineers forgot most people like to put a screen protector on. With a screen protector on the 8a, the fingerprint reader is nearly useless. (I had tried resetting the fingerprint scans to no avail). Maybe this wasn’t the engineers’ fault. Maybe a sales exec thought a fingerprint sensor on the screen sounded cool so demanded it while the engineers said it needed more work. But I digress.Out of frustration, I had started using the less secure face unlock which does work reasonably well. But the face unlock doesn’t work well if you’re wearing sunglasses or in dimly lit rooms. So, I’ve had to type the numerical unlock a lot more with the 8a.Overall this is a good phone at this price point that does most of what the expensive phones can do. But they need to overhaul the fingerprint sensor. Either move it to the back again or improve it so that it a) works nearly every time and b) works with most screen protectors.

Excellent!
I recently purchased this mobile cover, and I am beyond impressed! The build quality is exceptional—sturdy yet lightweight, offering excellent protection for my phone without adding unnecessary bulk. The precise cutouts for buttons, ports, and the camera ensure full functionality without any hindrance.

I was using the pixel 4a and wanted an upgrade so I got a pixel 8a. Absolutely love it

The camera is great, the hardware seems really fast to use with no lag but I was trying to store it in the box that it came with and I thought its on a hinge I can easily open the box and use the phone but no it falls 2 inches off of a small box that I had and it looked like it made a pinsize scuff on the silver plastic around the phone and thats really not what I was expecting for the quality of the materials because it fell on wood with paint, it wasn’t metal or tile or anything like that what, should I of bought a case protector for the phone? no this phone is going to get damaged as its used, the monitor I use got scratched because something fell on it, my desk is scratched, this doesn’t say its cheap enough to get damaged, please pay less to get photos this high quality if thats a problem for you or buy a case protector which is a good idea but thats after its terrible. These are so expensive but there treated like scratch technology. After using it for a couple days I can say the camera is great but I did think it needed a better face for the video capture but thats one of the small things you notice about cameras, they may look better in person than the camera for video capture meaning that you need a really attractive face or its a character and what features do you like about the character and what you don’t, its one of things about the technology that I really found to be one of the potential problems because real life interactions are usually better but for photos I was thinking these are better than video capture.After really looking at the image quality I think its lacking in comparison to an IMAX for daytime photos and the video capture in 4K didn’t quite meet my expectations for film, I wouldn’t be using this for filming Planet Earth, a huge amount of data in the imagery that was non existent, not as good as the photographs at 8.3MP at 4K. These are great for using if you don’t have an expensive camera but don’t expect it be a replacement for the film industry. Comparing the video quality to someone elses it did look like mine was out of focus, it does seem to be how I was panning the camera that it was going out of focus or something, the quality didn’t really look worse but there was some motion blur.Really looking at the image quality for distance photos I needed better quality images, im feeling like I needed a better camera and when compared to a less expensive smartphone these are great images but thats only this much better for distance photos and yhea there better selfie images of faces but its also a different style of quality, the faces look different, they look like completely different people being photographed and that means you might like how the person looks with a different phone because of the difference.After using the phone for enough time to determine if I needed a case protector, ive decided it almost feels like if I was using it alot and not being as careful id definitely need to get one but so far it doesn’t seem like im going to drop this phone, Ive not used it enough in a way id need case protector but im sort of feeling like id need one, im using the box it came with and that seems sufficient for storing it but it could use a case protector or something else to store it in but it seems like an extra cost until its used in a way that it would feel like it needed one for sure but im not using it quite like that so im ok for now but it does feel that way. I don’t wanna replace it or if there was enough damage that it didn’t work id need it, im already feeling like its not for any fast movements, I can probably use it without mostly but as soon as I start using it in a certain setting I need a case protector, like im already feeling like I want to buy one just so its there to use if I needed one.I found where the camera is lacking for photos and that is anything to do with distance and leafs or bright sunlight shining at the camera somewhat as in it didn’t look better than a smartphone less than half the price but for most photos it does work and it doesn’t have any effect of something being tall. The quality of the images does still need to be better for a photographer, id consider upgrading to a better camera at this part of my experience with the phone but it does show enough detail to be impressed with the level of detail.After quite of bit use with this camera im really looking for a higher quality image, im quite satisfied with the closeup photos and the distance are quite good to but if you looked at the photographs from the most expensive cameras you would be looking for better image quality. It really struggles to look the same as the eyesight. I realized what it was that wasn’t quite there after really examining the photo quality is that you need to take professional photos with a PhaseOne or something similar to it, the Huawei smartphone cameras take great photos and so do the Pixel phones but the file size is completely different, these are fantastic images with the smartphones but your comparing them now.What I found somewhat of a complication with previewing the larger non smartphone cameras is that theres alot of settings and options on them that you may not understand at first making smartphones the easiest decision for actually taking photos but the need to see the the highest quality image is there in my mind.I am finding that if you want to zoom in after you take a photo it is to blurry and that is even from two feet away so it seems to be that there is interest in taking higher quality photos than this. I was looking at it like it was important for that to be better or you’d need to take a macro photo.Looking at it from the perspective of thickness in the image of the detail, I can’t feel these enough even though the image quality is really good, there not 3d, its a very flat image and you’ll notice that with the really high mega pixel cameras it has the right amount of detail and this was enough but it also needed additional detail, its reaching the distance but its not quite there yet.Im just looking at these photos and thinking I really don’t like that the clarity that you’d see with the eyesight or a really expensive camera isn’t there and though I can zoom in and it looks better, I can zoom in and it looks better but 94% zoom im thinking these should be clearer, 146% zoom the background looks like a painting, 200%+ zoom these are not clear enough at all. Id really think that close up photos are good but theres still a level of not being able to focus the camera, it needs a stand or something.I did find one slight problem with photographing during a day with cloudy weather and some rain, it blurred the photo as in out of focus and added a white film to it which was really noticeable when zoomed in, it actually said that these photos didn’t really look that great but it was only a few of them, a really difficult thing to see in photography.