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We expect to see a Google Pixel 7a arriving in the coming months, assuming Google sticks to its usual schedule of releasing mid-range handsets between flagships – and the phone has just been mentioned on Amazon.
As reported by GSMArena (opens in new tab)the retail site is letting users sign up for updates on the Google Pixel 7a announcement, which would suggest that the device is indeed on the way and could be coming sooner rather than later.
We don’t get any info on the Pixel 7a or any images of it – and there’s no real indication Amazon has any advanced details on the handset – but it seems unlikely you could sign up for updates on a phone that doesn’t exist.
Phone Families
Something worth noting is that the Amazon site lists a “family” of products – does that mean more than one Pixel 7a device is on the way? We haven’t seen that for this phone range since the Google Pixel 3a XL in 2019.
Rumors surrounding the Pixel 7a have been pretty thin so far. There has been one mention of a more compact mid-range phone in the works from Google, but it’s not certain that the handset in question is actually the Pixel 7a.
We saw that the Google Pixel 7 and the Google Pixel 7 Pro got their big reveal earlier this month, and all indications are that a Google Pixel 8 is coming next year. The Google Pixel 7a would therefore fit neatly in the middle.
Analysis: getting the timing right
Assuming there is indeed a Pixel 7a on the way, it’ll be interesting to see what Google does in terms of timing. The past may give us an indication: The Google Pixel 5 was announced in September 2020 and was followed in August of the following year by the Google Pixel 5a.
Then we got the Google Pixel 6 in October 2021 and the Google Pixel 6a in May 2021 – the latter phone was actually unveiled at the Google IO 2022 event, so perhaps we should expect the Google Pixel 7a to show up at Google IO 2023. .
Given that the supply chain was so severely disrupted by the global pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the Pixel 6a may be a better indicator of timing than the Pixel 5a (which only launched in the US and Japan, remember).
The Pixel 7 smartphones were fully unveiled in October this year, so maybe May 2023 is when the Pixel 7a is likely to arrive. Google hasn’t announced any dates for IO 2023 yet, but there’s little doubt that it will – and we’ll get into it in detail as usual, of course.