A big part of the appeal of Google’s affordable Pixel “A-Series” smartphones is that they have the same chipset – more or less – as the proper flagships. But, after rumblings early this year, a new piece of evidence suggests Pixel 10a will break that streak by forgoing the new Tensor G5 chip.
In a prior codename leak of Google’s 2026 smartphones, it was suggested that Google was still mulling over the decision to release Pixel 10a with either Tensor G5, the chip found in the rest of the Pixel 10 series, or the last-gen Tensor G4 chip which debuted in the Pixel 9 series. Price was the speculated reasoning at the time, but it also didn’t sound final back then.
Now, though, new evidence suggests Google is moving ahead with that decision.
Mystic Leaks on Telegram today posted a handful of specs from “stallion,” the codename that points to Pixel 10a. The device is listed with a display that can hit 2,000 nits, 128GB of storage (at UFS 3.1, of course), and Google’s Tensor G4 chipset. This breaks the pattern we’ve seen which started with Pixel 6a, where Google would recycle its same flagship Tensor chip in its midrange phone, albiet usually using a slightly slower version.
It’s unclear what else Google may have in store for Pixel 10a, but it certainly sounds like a minimal update. The leaker also claims that the device won’t have a telephoto camera, meaning it likely has the same optics as the prior generation too.
What do you think of this potential change?
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