- A leak suggests Google will announce and ship the Pixel 5a this August.
- That might see it launch near Android 12.
- The phone is believed to be a slight spin on the Pixel 4a 5G.
You might not have to wait too much longer for the Pixel 5a to reach your pocket. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman said to expect a Pixel 5a release sometime in August, or roughly a year after the Pixel 4a made its debut.
That wouldn’t be completely surprising if true. The Pixel 4a release was pushed back to August due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and releasing the 5a earlier would have given its predecessor a short lifecycle. It would also see Google deliver the phone alongside or shortly ahead of Android 12. The company even hinted that a launch might be “in line” with the timing you saw for the 4a last year, although it didn’t narrow things down to August.
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Whenever the release date might be, the Pixel 5a could be a highly iterative upgrade. Earlier leaks have hinted that it’s effectively a tweaked Pixel 4a 5G with a (hopefully) lower price point. You’d get dual rear cameras, 5G, a headphone jack, and possibly the same Snapdragon 765G chip. While that might be disappointing if you were hoping for a renaissance on par with the rumored Pixel 6, that could make it an easy pick if you want a capable phone without a huge outlay.
Google has so far only committed to a release in the US and Japan, although it’s likely to make the Pixel 5a available in Canada, Europe, and other parts of the world where Pixel phones are already available.