The Google Pixel Buds A were first released in early June and offered great sound for the low price of $99. Other regions had to wait for one reason or another.

However, Google has expanded the launch of the Pixel Buds A, with the official support page confirming that they will be available in the UK, Europe, and other regions for £99/€99. That's great, but now we hope the search giant will do the same for the Google Pixel 5a.

Google just announced a new, lower-priced version of the Pixel 5, which looks like a great phone on paper: 6.43-inch OLED display, dual camera array with 12.2MP (f/1.7) and 16MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide angle lenses, 4,680 mAh battery life, 18W fast charging, 5G, and 9 hours 45 minutes of battery life in our tests.

The OnePlus 7 Pro has reached its limits and has noticeable screen burn. We don't care about the latest (and most expensive) hardware, but we do want a larger phone with decent hardware. Unfortunately, the Pixel 5a is exclusive to the US and Japan, and I don't live in either country.

In my review of the Pixel 5a, I speculated that the limited availability of this phone may be due to the ongoing global chip shortage. There were rumors that the Pixel 5a was cancelled due to this supply shortage. While that apparently did not happen, the lack of component supply could be the reason this phone is not widely available internationally.

Then again, Google has a history of sorts regarding release delays: the Pixel Buds A as well as the Pixel 4a arrived in the US on August 20, but did not go on sale in Europe until October 3. It did not.

But that doesn't mean Google will do the same this year. From the beginning, the company was fairly direct about Europe getting the Pixel 4a much later than the U.S., whereas it was zero about the Pixel 5a.

After all, the Pixel 4a was an outlier, with both the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 launching in the UK and Europe within weeks of their US release.

It's a real tragedy. The prices of flagship phones have continued to rise over the past few years, and buying a phone is now an expensive task. While there are plenty of lower-priced handsets out there, I was looking forward to the possibility of getting one with a clean version of Android. Needless to say, Pixels gets the best new features and updates right out of the box.

I just hope the Google Pixel 6 isn't as expensive as I fear. At least I won't have to shell out for a Pixel 6 Pro to enjoy the Pixel experience on the big screen.

But at least I can buy Pixel Buds A if I really want one.