A list of key specs surrounding the Google Pixel 4a has been confirmed ahead of its launch later this year. 9to5Google has details on the upcoming budget Pixel's display, processor, battery, and camera, and from the looks of it, the new model will double many of the qualities that made last year's Pixel 3a doubles down on many of the qualities that made the Pixel 3a such a great proposition.

First up is the CPU: 9to5Google reports that the Pixel 4a will have a Snapdragon 730 chipset, which should be reasonably powerful for a budget or mid-range device. Note that this is not the Snapdragon 765 with a built-in 5G modem, but a lower-specification silicon for 4G LTE networks.

Turning to the display, the Pixel 4a will feature a 5.8-inch OLED display with full HD+ resolution. This is a slight step up from the Pixel 3a's 5.6-inch panel. And given rumors that Google has opted to produce one mid-range Pixel model this time around because last year's Pixel 3a XL did not sell particularly well, this size increase essentially places the Pixel 4a in a perfect middle ground between the 5.6-inch 3a and 6-inch 3a XL

The Pixel 4a's selfie camera is hole-piercing and does not have motion-sensing or face-unlocking like the Pixel 4 has. Instead, it must rely on the old-fashioned Pixel Imprint capacitive sensor on the back.

And speaking of the camera, the Pixel 4a's image processing stack, while perhaps producing impressive results in practice, doesn't sound earth-shattering on paper. On the back is a single 12.2-megapixel single-lens module, like the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a, and like the main lens on the three-dimensional Pixel 4.

9to5Google has confirmed that there is no Pixel Neural Core to complement Qualcomm's chip, meaning the Snapdragon 730 will do all the heavy lifting with regard to computational photography. Granted, that was the case with last year's Pixel 3a, and it doesn't seem to have held back that device's camera.

The phone's design is reportedly all polycarbonate, but it does not support Qi wireless charging. However, the 3.5mm headphone jack is still present, and Google is adding a 128GB storage option to the base 64GB option. Last year's Pixel 3a was quite cramped in terms of capacity, and the lack of a 128GB configuration was particularly frustrating given Google's aversion to microSD expansion storage.

The 9to5Google report does not provide any further information on when the Pixel 4a will be available. A photo of a Pixel 4a retail box was leaked a few hours before this article was published. We had hoped the Pixel 4a would debut during the Google I/O conference in May, but that event was scrapped due to a coronavirus pandemic.

Apple is expected to be ready to ship the iPhone 9 before April is over, making this spring an exciting time for those looking to purchase a great budget phone.