The Google Pixel 4a will be even cheaper than expected and may beat out the iPhone SE for the best budget phone.

Last week, 9to5Google's Stephen Hall announced the phone's $349 potential on Twitter and the Alphabet Scoop podcast. If true, the Pixel 4a would be the real deal for a budget smartphone.

Hall is not alone in pointing to the Pixel 4a's lower-than-expected price. Google may have revealed its hand in a survey asking respondents who would be interested in a $349 phone that looks very similar to the features on the Pixel 4a. (The same Google pricing survey also suggests a lower price for the Pixel 5, which could be $699.)

Hall's original price rumor not only claims a $50 gap between the iPhone SE and the Pixel 4a, but also that the basic Pixel model will come with 128GB of storage. This is double the basic 64GB model of the iPhone SE.

According to previous leaks, the Pixel 4a has other advantages over the iPhone SE: it will feature a 5.8-inch OLED display, which will surpass the 4.7-inch Retina display on Apple's phones. In addition, the Pixel 4a will not suffer from large bezels.

The Pixel 4a will also reportedly have a 3,080 mAh battery, which is much larger than the iPhone SE's 1,821 mAh battery. The 3,000 mAh battery in the previous Pixel 3a model lasted about 12 hours in our web surfing test and ranked in our best smartphone battery life list. iPhone SE lasted only 9 hours and 18 minutes.

That said, there's still a lot to like about the iPhone SE: it's the cheapest way to get all the apps and software experiences that make up iOS 13, plus its super-powerful A13 Bionic processor is a Snapdragon 730 chip should outperform the Pixel 4a's Snapdragon 730.

The most interesting battle between the Pixel 4a and iPhone SE will be the camera duel. iPhone SE did very well in our tests, but it lacks the Night Side mode for low-light photography that the Pixel 4a should have, which is Apple's We believe this is the Pixel 4a's secret weapon against Apple.

The Pixel 4a is expected to be announced in June.