i android eu: Is the Google Pixel 4a a 4G or 5G phone? Evidence points to both

Friday, 7 February 2020

Is the Google Pixel 4a a 4G or 5G phone? Evidence points to both

Is Google’s next device a Snapdragon 730 or a Snapdragon 765 phone? Evidence suggests the Pixel 4a could have either of the two Qualcomm chipsets, or both.

We’ve been hearing about potential Pixel 4a code names for a while now. Three of them — Sunfish, Bramble, and Redfin — were recently discovered by the folks over at XDA Developers. Now, 9to5Google has managed to dig up some more evidence about the three aquatic monikers (Google’s go-to for secret phone names).

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According to code discovered by the publication, Redfin and Bramble are associated with the SM7250 chipset, which is Qualcomm’s 5G Snapdragon 765 silicon. Sunfish, on the other hand, is a code name associated with the SM7150 SoC which is the non-5G Snapdragon 730.

It’s unclear if the Pixel 4a will have a 5G variant with Snapdragon 765 on-board. However, XDA Developers claim to have discovered a direct link between the Pixel 4a and the Sunfish code name. XDA does not really disclose how it came by this discovery, but seems pretty sure that the next mid-range Pixel will indeed sport the Snapdragon 730.

Our take

Since there are multiple code names going around for the unreleased Pixel phone, we can’t be certain of Google’s plans right now. At the very least it seems possible that there’s a Pixel 4a that runs on the Snapdragon 730, as XDA suggests.

Meanwhile, it also likely that there is a Pixel phone running on the latest 5G Snapdragon 765 SoC. The Redfin and Bramble code names do suggest that. But will that phone launch in the Pixel 4a series? That’s a question only Google can answer right now, but it was previously tipped that there will be no Pixel 4a XL this year. However, one possibility is that the Pixel 4a XL gets a 5G chipset and is known as the Pixel 4a 5G instead. Another possibility is that the Pixel 4a XL is indeed launching under this name, packing 5G nonetheless.

On another note, 9to5Google also came by the code name Needlefish which corresponds to the Snapdragon 855 chipset. However, it is highly unlikely that Google will house a flagship SoC in its upcoming mid-range phone.