We're expecting to see a Google Pixel 7a arrive in the coming months, assuming Google sticks to its usual schedule of putting out mid-range handsets in between flagships – and the phone just got 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 appear sooner rather than later.
We don't get any information about the Pixel 7a or any images of it – and there's no real indication that Amazon has got any advance details of the handset – but it seems unlikely that you would be able to sign up for updates on a phone that doesn't exist.
Phone families
Something worth noting is that the Amazon site mentions a “family” of products – does that mean that 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 back in 2019.
Rumors around the Pixel 7a have been pretty thin on the ground up to this point. There has been one mention of a more compact, mid-range phone in the works at Google, but it's not certain that the handset in question is actually the Pixel 7a.
We saw the Google Pixel 7 and the Google Pixel 7 Pro get their big reveal earlier this month, and all the indications are that a Google Pixel 8 is going to arrive next year. The Google Pixel 7a would therefore fit neatly in the middle.
Analysis: getting the timing right
Assuming a Pixel 7a is indeed on the way, it's going to be interesting to see what Google does in terms of timing. The past might give us some indication: the Google Pixel 5 was announced in September 2020, and was followed by the Google Pixel 5a in the August of the following year.
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 we should perhaps be expecting the Google Pixel 7a to show up at Google IO 2023.
Considering that the supply chain was so significantly disrupted by the global pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the Pixel 6a is perhaps a better indicator of timing rather than the Pixel 5a (which only launched in the US and Japan, don't forget).
The Pixel 7 smartphones were shown off in full in October of this year, so perhaps May 2023 is the time when the Pixel 7a is most likely to show up. Google hasn't announced any dates for IO 2023 yet, but there's little doubt that it will happen – and we will of course be covering it in depth as usual.
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