Google just announced its I/O conference
that will take place on May 12-14, and, if last year is any indication, will
see the announcement and release of the Pixel 4a and eventual 4a XL models, or
whatever the team from Mountain View decides to name them in 2020.
The phones already leaked out nebulously
as fish names in code strings, again as customary for the company, but when the
new Google Camera app version 7.3 was parsed by XDA, we can now be fairly
certain that "sunfish," "redfin," and "bramble" are
indeed referring to Pixel 4a models. Why? Well, because it now says so right on
the tin. Buried inside the code, next to the model code name mentions is now
the string "pixel_20_mid_range," to make detective work easier on the
inquiring minds.
Even better, the chipsets that will power
Google's 2020 generation of affordable Pixels were re-iterated as well.
"Sunfish" is built around the lowly "sm7150" platform, or
Snapdragon 730, and thus we'd wager to guess that it refers to a Pixel 4a model
without 5G connectivity.
"Redfin" and "bramble,"
however, will be based on the new Snapdragon 765 midrange chipset that has
Qualcomm's first built-in 5G modem, so we may be looking at a Pixel 4a version
with 5G connectivity, as well as a Pixel 4a XL that will only come with 5G
antenna.
In any case, last year the Pixel 3a leaked
profusely before launch time, and we already have the CAD_based renders of the
4a, so it's a matter of time before the whole specs sheet confirms or denies
any musings about which model will get 5G versions.
