First Pixel 4a leaks show cut out camera and fingerprint sensor

Renders have emerged that allegedly show the Google Pixel 4a, the upcoming budget version of Google’s latest Android smartphone hardware. If genuine, it would likely succeed the Pixel 3a that launched in May 2019 to great critical acclaim. 

Reception to the premium Pixel 4 has been  less than enthusiastic for its poor battery life, oddly hampered biometrics, weird radar sensor and performance issues.

The renders of the supposed Pixel 4a are from  @OnLeaks and 91mobiles and show the first Google phone to have a cut out camera (the only Pixel phone with a notch to date is the 3 XL). The design, predictably, suggests the 4a will not have anything like the Soli radar tech that is in the Pixel 3.

The 4a retains the square camera module from the Pixel 4 on the back, but notably has only one lens compared to that phone’s two.

Also on the rear of the phone is a physical capacitive fingerprint scanner, while a welcome 3.5mm headphone jack sits on the top of the device. Details are finished off with an orange power button on this white model and a thin earpiece grate on the top of the black bezel that curves around the front of the flat display that is said to be 5.7in or 5.8in.

That screen will almost certainly not have a 90Hz refresh rate like the Pixel 4.

Oddly there’s no SIM card tray to be seen, but we don’t think Google would pick this particular phone with which to go fully eSIM. The body of the phone will be plastic, much like the 3a, according to the report.

We hope the reports are true and Google is indeed readying a second budget Pixel device – we expect there to be a Pixel 4 and 4a XL.

The Pixel 3a took the Pixel line’s excellence software and camera and sold it for a reasonable price and promised three years of software support. For many, that is much better value than what the Pixel 4 offers.