Google unveils Pixel 8a smartphone in Taiwan, preorder sales start

Taipei, May 8 (CNA) U.S.-based tech giant Google unveiled the Google Pixel 8a, the latest flagship smartphone model, in Taiwan on Wednesday and announced that preorder sales had begun.

The Pixel 8a, which will be available in three colors -- obsidian black, porcelain white, and bay blue -- in Taiwan, is scheduled to hit store shelves on May 14.

The model with a 128 GB storage will carry a price tag of NT$16,490 (US$509), while the model with 256 GB storage will be priced at NT$18,490, Google said.

Sumi Sam, director of Google Taiwan's technical program management office, said in a post on the Taiwan division's blog, that the Taiwan research and development team took part in the development of the new model, the sixth generation of the Pixel 8 lineup.

In 2018, Google spent US$1.1 billion to acquire Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Inc.'s ODM manufacturing assets, which had previously produced the Pixel smartphone line for the U.S. tech giant.

Under the deal, HTC transferred its 2,000 HTC engineers to work for Google to continue to produce the Pixel line.

Google said users of the Pixel 8a will have access to its new Gemini AI assistant, which can generalize and understand, operate across and combine different types of information, such as text, images, audio, video and code.

According to Google, the Pixel 8a is equipped with a 64-megapixel main shooter along with a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 13-megapixel selfie camera, and it is powered by the Tensor G3 processor self-developed by the tech heavyweight.

The Pixel 8a also features Magic Eraser, which is able to remove unwanted objects from pictures, and Magic Editor, which allow users to edit images in seconds, Google said.