Pixel 11a Leak Shows the Same Design With a Tensor G6 Chip and a Purple Option

The first renders point to a phone that changes inside rather than outside. Price, battery and launch date have not leaked, which matters now that the Pixel 10a costs $599.

The first leak of Google's next budget phone suggests that very little will change on the outside. Renders of the Pixel 11a, published by the leaker known as OnLeaks together with Android Headlines and reported by 9to5Google on September 29, show a phone that the site describes as looking mostly unchanged from the Pixel 10a. Google has not announced the device, and nothing in the leak has been confirmed by the company.

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Google Pixel 10a specs →YouTube ↗

The dimensions make the point. The Pixel 11a is said to measure 153.46 x 72.35 x 9 mm. The Pixel 10a measures 153.9 x 73 x 9 mm. That is a difference of less than a millimeter in height and width and none in thickness, which means the new phone would feel the same in the hand, and probably that the flat back without a camera bar, introduced on the Pixel 9a, carries over again. The renders show exactly that.

The real change is the processor. According to the leak, the Pixel 11a uses the Tensor G6, the chip in this year's Pixel 11 series. The Pixel 10a runs the Tensor G4, which was already a generation old when that phone went on sale in March. A two-generation jump is the main reason to care about this model: the chip determines how quickly apps open and how well the phone will handle new software features, including Google's on-device AI functions, over the years it is supported.

Four colors are mentioned: black, silver, green and purple. 9to5Google notes that the purple in the renders is a deeper shade than Google has used before, and adds that it is unclear whether that shade is based on leaked information or is simply the artist's guess. Renders of this kind are built from design files that give the shape of a phone accurately, and they are much less reliable for colors and finishes.

What the leak does not include is as important as what it does. There is no information on battery capacity, charging speed, the display or the cameras, and nothing on price or launch date. Google announced the Pixel 10a on February 18, 2026, and began selling it on March 5. If the company keeps that schedule, the Pixel 11a would arrive in early spring 2027, but that is an inference from past practice and not something the leak states.

The price question is sharper than usual this year. On October 2 Google raised the Pixel 10a from $499 to $599, citing nothing publicly; Bloomberg tied the increase to memory costs. A buyer deciding today is therefore choosing between a $599 phone with a two-generation-old chip and a successor that may be five months away with a much newer one, at a price nobody outside Google knows. If you need a phone now, the Pixel 10a's measured battery life and seven years of updates have not changed. If you can wait, this leak is a reasonable argument for doing so.

Original coverage: Pixel 11a: first leaked renders and specifications