The Pixel 8a is the cheap Google phone to buy, right? Well, no, because the Pixel 8 is. Sometimes. Google has made it hard to know which phone to buy.
I had a terrible time explaining which cheap Pixel 8 phone you should buy when I reviewed the Google Pixel 8a. I eventually settled on saying the Pixel 8a is the low-cost Pixel phone you should buy … except for those times when it isn’t.
This confusing situation is all Google’s own doing and is really awful for us as consumers. It’s not entirely to do with the specifications and design of the phones, but with the uncertain prices of the Pixel 8a and the Pixel 8 and the staggered release dates for both of them.Prices aren’t set in stone
The Pixel 8a’s retail price starts at $499, and the Pixel 8 starts at $699, which doesn’t sound complicated at all. When I was writing my review of the Pixel 8a, I found it difficult to pinpoint exactly why you should spend an extra $200 to get the Pixel 8, which isn’t a slight against that more expensive phone, but more a confirmation of how good the Pixel 8a is when compared to it. It does almost the same things, with only slight changes that may not bother everyone, so why spend more?
So, that’s it, then? A cut-and-dried situation where you can compare the specs and decide if there’s enough value in the Pixel 8 for you personally to spend that extra chunk of money to own it. Sadly, that’s not the case, and it’s here where it becomes quite hard to say which phone is the best to buy — and it’s all due to the older Pixel 8’s price fluctuating quite a lot.
Just weeks before the Pixel 8a was announced ,the Pixel 8 could be purchased at Best Buy and Amazon for $549 — a significant reduction on its regular retail price and only $50 more than the Pixel 8a. At this price, you should definitely choose the Pixel 8 over the Pixel 8a, and even if these two deals aren’t running when you’re reading this, I’d expect that if they’ve happened once, they’ll happen again, as retailers jostle to drum up interest in the aging phone.Release date chaos
That’s right, I said aging, as the Pixel 8 is getting on a bit.
