Google Pixel 4a: Release date, rumours, specs and leaks

n 2019 Google launched a more affordable handset, the Pixel 3a and it looks like there's going to be a follow-up in 2020, a cheaper version of the Pixel 4.

Leaks surrounding the Google Pixel 4a have started to appear, so we're rounding them up so you know expect come launch day.

Release date and price

• 12 May 2020 announcement?

Nothing has been said about when we might see the Pixel 4a launch so far, but the Pixel 3a was announced at Google I/O 2019, and Google has confirmed that I/O 2020 will take place on 12-14 May, so we're guessing that the Pixel 4a might be announced on 12 May 2020. 

There's no word on price, but that's a key point of this phone. Google dropped the prices on the Pixel 4, so the 4a might come in cheaper than the 3a's £399.

Thanks to some detailed renders, we have a vision of what this phone will look like. It doesn't throw up too many surprises, but it's worth mentioning that the given dimensions suggest that it's slightly smaller than the Pixel 3a. However, the display - while not edge-to-edge - cuts down the forehead and chin of the 2019 phone, so the display is likely to be larger.

There's a fingerprint scanner on the rear, but it's not yet known what material is being used for the body. The early renders give it a seamless look like it's polycarbonate, and YouTuber Dave Lee has confirmed that this is the case.

Also interesting is that Google looks to be pushing a pronounced camera bump here, with a single camera and flash in the black housing on the rear. That does, at least, give some familial design link to the Pixel 4. Point of note - it's rumoured that there will only be one size in 2020 and we feel that's the right decision: the Pixel 3a XL was just not competitive at that price, but discovery of three codenames for new Google devices might point to the existence of an XL phone.

There's also reported to be three colours: black with a lime button, white with an orange button and finally a teal version with a hot pink button.

An interesting detail is the 3.5mm headphone socket, something many flagship phones now omit.

Display

• 5.81-inch display 
• Punch hole camera
• Likely OLED

The display on the Pixel 4a is expected to be flat, with slimmed down bezels and no notch. Instead, there's going to be a punch hole for the front camera, something that we've not seen on a Pixel before. 

There's no word on the resolution of the Pixel 4a, but it's likely to be 1080p. While there's no detail on the display technology we suspect it will be OLED.

Hardware specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 765, 5G
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 730, 4G

The discovery of some new codenames - Sunfish, Bramble - fit the codenames for Pixel devices, along with hardware details. Those details include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765, the new integrated 5G platform that's rolling out in 2020. That would suggest that there's a 5G Pixel 4a in development. 

There's also mention of a Snapdragon 730 model, which would be 4G, so there might be a choice, or different variants for different regions.

Outside of that we don't know much about the forthcoming devices: we don't know the RAM or the storage, but the Pixel 3a was a 4/64GB configuration. 

Camera

From the renders we can see a single camera in the rear housing, along with the LED flash. We can fairly safely assume that this is the same camera unit as the Pixel 4 - that's the point of these phones after all - to give you access to those camera skills at a lower price point.

In that sense, you can expect to find a 12.2-megapixel 1.4µm sensor with f/1.7 lens and optical image stabilisation. It will likely have all the AI skills of the Pixel 4, like Night Sight.

The front camera in the display is likely to be an 8-megapixel 1.22µm sensor with f/2.0 lens and some rare bokeh skills.