A new Google phone has passed through the FCC today, and even though we can’t confirm for sure that it’s the Pixel 8a, we’re pretty confident that it’s the Pixel 8a given the timing. Let’s go over what we can see.
A device using model number G8HNN has undergone testing, and thanks to that testing, we can confirm at least a few things. The device will likely support wireless charging, offer WiFi 6E, NFC, features all of the necessary 5G radios to make it work properly on all carriers in the US, and it also appears to include mmW support.
There isn’t much else to go on in the documentation: no photos, no other specifics. These FCC filings aren’t like the old days when we would sometimes get actual photos of the device that was being tested. With all of the confidentiality in place, we’re left to use educated guesses.
I previously mentioned timing as the reason behind the Pixel 8a assumption. Last year for the Pixel 7a, we spotted FCC filings in late February. The year before that, for the Pixel 6a, the FCC docs were made available in April. With this mid-March timing and a possible unveiling at Google I/O, things aligns very nicely.
We’ll update this if we can learn anything else.
Update: We have located 3 additional model numbers, also presumed to belong to variants of the Pixel 8a. They are as follows: GKV4X, G6GPR, and G576D. We saw a similar scheme with the Pixel 7a, so things are again aligning nicely.
// FCC