Google's $549 Pixel 8a is arguably the best 'budget' smartphone of the year - here's our verdict

Google 's Pixel 8a is arguably the best 'budget' smartphone of the year thanks to its innovative use of AI and appealing $ 549 price tag.

Its innovative AI software takes point-and-shoot photography to new places and the seven-year update guarantee is practically unheard of at this price point.

The 8a has the same camera setup as the 7a with two rear lenses a 64MP main lens and a 13MP ultrawide one.

The Google Pixel 8a has the same Tensor G3 chip as the Pixel 8 and the 8a 's performance is largely the same.

There is a 'best take' which works really well for portraits and group shots of people.

The camera setup is very impressive, the AI features are eye-catching, and the battery runs and runs.

We did notice some lag when opening apps and the fingerprint reader is still not as seamless as it could be.

The only negative is the display, but there are better screens available at this price point.

In his time at ITPro, Bobby has covered stories for all the major technology companies, such as Apple , Microsoft , Amazon , and Facebook , and regularly attends industry-leading events such as AWS Re:Invent and Google Cloud Next. Bobby mainly covers hardware reviews, but you will also recognize him as the face of many of our video reviews of laptops and smartphones. He has been a journalist for ten years , originally covering sports, before moving into business technology with ITPro . He has bylines in The Independent, Vice, and The Business Briefing ..