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  The Pixel 3a XL. [credit:
  Ron Amadeo ]

Google finally took the wraps off the Pixel 3a at Google I/O this week. It’s a cheaper, plastic version of the Pixel 3 with the same great camera and the same great Google software support.

There really isn’t a ton to say about the Pixel 3a. The phone is so incredibly similar to the Pixel 3 that it can be hard to tell apart from a distance. Both devices have the same design, but the 3a is just rendered in plastic and (in the case of the XL version) noticeably lighter. It feels a bit like one of those plastic demo phones you’ll see in stores—a perfect copy, but lighter and cheaper.

The Pixel 3a’s body doesn’t feel bad. The back continues the Pixel 3’s two-tone design with a hard, glossy plastic around the top camera portion of the back and a soft-touch plastic coating. The back wraps around the sides with easy-to-hold, rounded corners, and the display and display cover sit on top of the body. The 3a isn’t premium, but at only a $400, it doesn’t have to be.