Exactly as we anticipated, Google unveiled the Pixel 6a nine months after the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Well, it’s only been a few days since we got to see the Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, but already rumours about the Pixel 7a are circulating due to some very early activity on Amazon.
Users of Amazon have the choice to subscribe to a variety of mailing lists that cover topics including the hottest new releases in books, updates on new Alexa features, and the newest discounts. There are literally countless options available, but if you scroll down the list you’ll see one for a “Google Pixel 7a Family Launch Announcement” (via GSMArena).
What the hell is that intended to be, then? The inclusion of the word “Family” there is also strange, implying that there may be more than one Pixel 7a model in development. As if the extremely early timing of this weren’t strange enough.
Details in this notice, however, imply that it might all have been a result of one major error committed by Amazon. For instance, a Watch is mentioned in the description. It is quite doubtful that a budget-segment successor will be released any time soon as the Pixel Watch was only introduced together with the Pixel 7 smartphones. In light of this, we ponder the possibility that this was simply an error and all along was meant to allude to the Pixel 7 Made By Google event.
The alert is available months in advance if this is actually for the Pixel 7a, but it wouldn’t be the first time a shop leaked information about a product ahead of time. Although we currently know very little about the Pixel 7a’s precise launch plans and what to anticipate from its hardware, we can be sure that the wait will be worthwhile.
The foldable Pixel smartphone, which may or may not be a myth, and the next “a” phone, which is very much a reality, are the only Pixel gadgets left in the rumour mill now that the Pixel 7 series is available for purchase. In fact, Amazon claims that it won’t be long before it arrives. Users of the massive online retailer can already sign up for the forthcoming announcement.
The Pixel 7a won’t be launched anytime soon, albeit it isn’t specified when or how. The Pixel 6a was released in July of this year, several months after the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
There was a report that the 7a will be released in early 2023, so it’s probable that we will have to wait. In the same report, it was also said that Google had ordered 4 million “a” phones, showing great confidence in the product.
The Pixel 7a has been given the code name “Felix,” while the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro have the names “Panther” and “Cheetah,” respectively. Additionally, the Pixel 7a should have a smaller display than the standard Pixel 7, therefore its size should be between 6.0 and 6.1″.
One thing to take note of is the fact that Amazon refers to the “Pixel 7a family” as though there are multiple models.
The impending Pixel 7 series has received very little information from Google, but we do know that working prototypes already exist—one of them even turned up on eBay. The Google News Telegram group utilised another such prototype, a bricked Pixel 7 Pro, to discover further information about the new models.
Even though the phone was bricked, the team was able to extract boot logs. They looked through those and found the Tensor 2 chipset had Cortex-A55 processors. The new design (A510) is based on ARMv9, and this is the final little core based on ARMv8 architecture. The additional CPU cores are similarly outdated ARMv8 designs since the two architectures cannot coexist on a single chipset.
The logs also showed that the Tensor 2 will keep its two plus two plus four core CPU arrangement. Two Cortex-X1 cores, two Cortex-A76 cores, and four A55 cores were on the original Tensor chip. The two X1 and the A55s will undoubtedly remain in place, while the new X2 core is an ARMv9 chip. Since the initial design utilised outdated A76 cores rather than the most recent Cortex-A78 cores, there is still a chance for new medium cores (the last of the ARMv8 medium cores).
This means that, at least in terms of CPU-bound tasks, we cannot anticipate any significant performance increases from the Tensor 2 chipset. When the first Tensor was released last year, it wasn’t the quickest chip on the market; this year, the difference will be even more noticeable.
Despite this, we are still unsure of Google’s plans for the GPU and other hardware. One of Google’s trump cards is image processing, which is handled by the ISP and TPU (Tensor Processing Unit).
