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Hot on the heels of last week’s Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra rumors comes intriguing news of the Google Pixel 6a. According to a prominent leaker, the affordable version of Google’s popular Pixel 6 smartphone will be arriving in May – which puts it well ahead of its original expected release date of August 2022.
Google has launched its affordable smartphones in August over the past few years, with the Pixel 5a arriving in August 2021 and the Pixel 4a arriving in August 2020. It seems the company is changing things up for 2022, as Max Jambor (a reliable leaker in the tech industry) has indicated May as the arrival date for the Pixel 6a.
The new timeline doesn’t seem too farfetched. Google is expected to hold its annual Google I/O event around the middle of May. It wouldn’t be out of the question to have the Pixel 6a launch date arrive a few days later. There have also been rumors of a Google Pixel Watch, which also carries a speculated release date of May 2022.
Official specs for both the Pixel Watch and Pixel 6a are yet to be announced. The budget smartphone is rumored to be surprisingly powerful. This includes a 6.2-inch AMOLED display, 8GB of RAM, 5G support and internal hardware that’s built around Google’s unique Tensor chip. Both the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5a could be had for well under $500 at launch. It’ll be interesting to see if that trend continues with the Pixel 6a.

The Best Affordable Smartphone for 2022

The Pixel 6a is likely to become one of the most popular budget smartphones of 2022, but there are plenty of great, affordable devices currently on the market. Here are a few of our favorites:

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JB

Jon Bitner

Jon is a freelance writer who primarily focuses on topics related to video games, science, medicine and technology. Before starting his career as a writer he worked in the Biotechnology industry. He has a degree in Biology, and when he isn't writing he can usually be found traveling, playing video games or hunting down the latest deals.