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The Pixel 5a rendering of Steve Hemmerstoffer, aka Onleaks. It looks exactly like all other recent Pixels.
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I spy a headphone jack and fingerprint reader on the back.
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The Pixel’s flashy power button is the only unique design touch.
Steve Hemmerstoffer, aka OnLeaks, is back with our first look at a render of Google’s next midrange phone, the Pixel 5a. Hemmerstoffer already nailed the design of the Pixel 4a back in January 2020, so it’s smart to take his Pixel 5a info seriously.
There really isn’t much to see in the renders, as the Pixel 5a looks identical to previous Pixel devices like the Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5, and it’s not much different from the Pixel 4a. In this case, Google won’t fix what isn’t broken. The design looks perfectly modern with sleek bezels and a hole punch camera, and there’s really no need to demand change for the sake of change.
Like a few other mid-range phones, the Pixel 5a offers some design decisions that you might prefer over a flagship smartphone. There is a flat screen with no curved sides, a headphone jack and a capacitive fingerprint reader on the back. Hemmerstoffer says the phone will have a plastic back, stereo speakers and a 6.2-inch screen, which is a larger size than the 5.8-inch Pixel 4a.
The back has an unknown additional camera, but if Google follows the lead of the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5, the camera will get a wide-angle lens. After using the same camera sensor on the Pixel 2, 3, 4 and 5, will the 5a be the first time in four years that Google has upgraded its camera hardware? That may be asking too much of a midrange phone.
We are still missing the other important details, such as the specifications and a price. The Pixel 3a was $400 and the Pixel 4a was $350, making them both hard to argue with when you got great performance for so little.
It’s a mystery when the Pixel 5a will be released. The Pixel 4a was first leaked eight months before launching in August, but much of that time was likely due to delays from COVID-19. The Pixel 3a launched mid-year at Google I/O 2019, but chances are there won’t even be a Google I/O this year.
List image by Steve Hemmerstoffer