Unintentionally Verified Google Pixel 8a Model to Launch Soon?

Through a bug tracker website, Google unintentionally revealed that its most recent low-cost smartphone product, the Pixel 8a, is still under development. The recently deleted new battery status feature provided information about the future phone.

Google claims that the battery statistic was removed as “intended behavior,” as this functionality was never intended to be made available to Pixel owners of already-purchased devices. The tech giant cleared the matter by stating that only the Pixel 8a and next models of its smartphones would support Android’s new battery statistic feature. This is the company’s first formal acknowledgement of Google’s impending budget proposal.

It has been anticipated that the forthcoming Pixel 8a will mostly carry over the flagship Pixel 8’s design language. It is anticipated to be powered by the Tensor G3 processor developed by Google. Like the Pixel 7a, the display is probably going to stay at a refresh rate of 90 Hz. It seems unlikely that there will be any significant modifications made in the camera division either, considering Google’s history of utilizing the same image sensors for several generations.

The term “a-series” refers to Google’s lower-end smartphone portfolio, which combines flagship characteristics with certain omitted features. When Google revealed the Pixel 3a back in 2019, it was the first smartphone in this market. Since then, the Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6a, and Pixel 7a are among the variants of this phone that we have had available.

With the release of Android 14 QPR1, Google expanded its Pixel portfolio with a new battery statistics extension. The date of manufacturing and the number of charging cycles for the smartphone battery were shown in this version. Pixel users were happy to see the new function, even if it had little practical value.

However, the battery statistics on Pixel smartphones vanished with the March 2024 feature update. According to 9to5Google, Google responded to inquiries about the reason for the feature’s extraordinary removal by saying, “We only enabled this page on Pixel 8a and beyond, so this is WAI (working as intended).”

The precise reason the battery statistics feature appeared on the current pixels in the first place is still unknown. During its first release on other Pixels, this feature’s statistics were often unreliable. This may indicate that Google plans to expand on this functionality in the future. In the future, accurate battery health information may also be included for Pixel users. It is predicted that the much awaited Pixel 8a will be unveiled during the annual I/O 2024 keynote, which takes place in May.