In a surprise announcement, Google just introduced three new smartphones today. These include the much leaked – and very affordable – Pixel 4a, the Pixel 4a (5G), as well as the flagship Pixel 5. It’s interesting how Google is basically revealing its smartphone lineup for the year.

However, today’s announcement is very much focused on the Pixel 4a; Google is still keeping the 5G variant of the Pixel 4a and the flagship Pixel 5 under wraps. Nonetheless, the company did mention that the two smartphones will be revealed sometime this fall. On top of that, Google also confirmed that the Pixel 4a (5G) will retail at $499 (about RM2,110). No word on exactly how much the Pixel 5 will go for, however.

As for the standard Pixel 4a itself, it’s really quite an interesting mid-range smartphone, mostly because of its affordable price tag. After all, it retails at only $349 – that comes up to approximately RM1,475. That makes it the most affordable smartphone Google has ever released in recent times. For the sake of comparison, the Pixel 3a retailed at $399 (around RM1,685) when it was launched last year.

For only $349, the Pixel 4a offers the best feature of any Pixel smartphones: excellent camera performance. Even though it only has a single 12.2MP f/1.7 sensor on the back, Google says that the Pixel 4a has “the same incredible camera experiences from Pixel 4.” Based on early reviews of the phone, this certainly seems to be the case, which is incredible for the mid-ranger.

Camera performance aside, the processor under the hood of the Pixel 4a is quite respectable as well. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset, which should be fast enough to provide a pleasant user experience. Whether you’re gaming or multitasking, we reckon the Snapdragon 730G is up for the task. It also helps that Pixel smartphones have a very clean version of Android.

In the display department, the Pixel 4a sports a rather compact 5.8-inch 2340 x 1080 OLED display with a hole-punch cutout on the top left of the screen for the 8MP f/2.0 selfie camera. Compared to the sizeable top bezel of the Pixel 4, the hole-punch design of the Pixel 4a is certainly a breath of fresh air.

Other specifications of the Pixel 4a include 6GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, a 3,140mAh battery, and a rear fingerprint sensor.

The Google Pixel 4a is currently open for pre-order in the US. There’s very slim chance of the phone ever making it onto Malaysian shores officially, though it’s almost certain parallel importers will offer the Pixel 4a here one way or another. Just make sure you’re not paying too high of a premium for a phone that costs less than RM1,500 in the States.