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Google Pixel 5a: The Bridge to Google’s Mobile Future

Omar Zahran
Debugger
Published in
7 min readOct 17, 2021

A reflection on the company’s last modest release before it starts shooting for the stars

We’ve all heard the phrase “it’s the end of an era” to describe a departed co-worker or when moving out of an apartment. In tech, an era ending is very seldom lukewarm and rather bitter and filled with thoughts of what could have been. As always, there are exceptions to a rule. In this case, the Pixel 5a feels like that exception. It is a phone that represents the end of an era and the start of a new one for Google’s phone division. It is ultimately the embodiment of everything great and everything bad with the company’s previous strategy. A phone that allows us to reminisce on what was yet keeps us yearning for what is to come.

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Image Credit: Sebastian Bednarek via Unsplash

I have used every generation of Google Pixel phones and also used many of the Nexus phones that preceded them. Even though I have enjoyed every Pixel phone that I have used they seemed to lack the hardware polish of their contemporaries. Part of this could be the relentless commitment to minimal industrial design that lacks the pizzazz of the competition. But perhaps where…

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Published in Debugger

Debugger is a former publication from Medium about consumer technology and gadgets. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Omar Zahran
Omar Zahran

Written by Omar Zahran

Freelance sports writer fascinated by the stories that our favorite teams and athletes present to us

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