For a few years now, the Pixel A line has been one of the best deals in smartphones. It’s a budget take on an already low-priced product. It starts with a foundation of premium components, discovering ways to reduce cost without — hopefully — stripping too much of what made the premium product good in the first place.
It’s a strategy that’s served Google well. When the company was struggling to sell Pixel devices, it was the A series that helped it dig itself out of a hole. It’s a move that’s allowed the company to expand into additional markets, including — most notably — India, the world’s second largest smartphone market, where premium-priced flagships are often a hard sell.