Google surprise-dropped the Pixel 8a earlier this month, and the phone was everything that we had expected. Sure, it slightly gets outperformed by the more expensive elder siblings, but other than that, if you are looking for a stellar Pixel experience, then I don't think it can get better than that. Now, a renowned YouTuber, PBKreviews, decided to teardown the device, and they have found some interesting revelations about Google's affordable Pixel.
The Pixel 8a's battery is held down with plenty of glue and no pull tabs, making it really difficult to remove
For those who don't know, the Pixel 8a is powered by the Tensor G3 chipset. This is the same chipset that is found in the more expensive Pixel 8 devices, but the one found in the more affordable offering is underclocked. The performance, based on the benchmarks we have seen, is still comparable. The teardown reveals how the unit does not come with any vapor chamber for cooling, but this should not really come as a surprise because the baseline models also did not have any vapor chamber cooling. You can watch the complete teardown video below:
However, you should not worry because there are plenty of copper and thermal pads found inside the phone so that certainly is a good thing for the Pixel 8a. Plus, I doubt the phone is going to heat up a lot, so there is no reason to panic. Now, what does cause actual annoyance is that, for some reason, Google has decided to make battery replacement a painful experience for those who might want to keep the phone long enough. After all, the Pixel 8a also supports 7 years of software updates, and it is going to be rare to see the phone actually hold up its battery for that long.
The teardown reveals that there are no pull tabs to remove the battery from the Pixel 8a, and it is also glued pretty strongly to the phone's chassis. Even using plenty of isopropyl alcohol is not enough to get the battery out with ease, so you will have to keep that in mind. This should not be an issue for users who are going to use the phone for a year or so. However, if you are looking to keep the device for a longer time as Google intended and indicated by its software promise, then you might run into battery replacement issues.
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