While the Pixel 6a hasn't been formally announced yet, some reviewers got their hands on one early, tested it out, and exposed several ways in which the low-cost Google phone doesn't quite fit the Pixel 6 family.  

A Malaysian tech YouTuber, Fazli Halim, had the pleasure of getting their hands on a retail-ready Google Pixel 6a sample at the beginning of June and he gave it the unboxing treatment, but now he's back with a full review, and he compares its fingerprint sensor with the line's current top dog, the Google Pixel 6 Pro.

The Pixel 6A and the Pixel 6 Pro both offer optical in-display fingerprint sensors, but in Halis's review of the two phones, the Pixel 6A's sensor proves to be both consistently quicker at reading and unlocking the phone, as well as more reliable, when compared to the Pixel 6 Pro.

The lower-spec of the Pixel 6a would make it seem a bit surprising that it would perform better than the Pixel 6 - but early signs suggest that it will.

  The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro were plagued with many small issues around their launch in late 2021, which had a lot to do with the performance and responsiveness of the device's fingerprint sensor.

The result is that it was quite heartening to learn that the Pixel 6a would use a different fingerprint sensor than the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. The confirmation came from Senior VP of Devices & Services at Google, Rick Osterloh, at Google I/O 2022 when the Pixel 6a was first officially announced.

Halim's video presents us with what is likely to be our first look at the Pixel 6a, but consumers will still have to wait until July 28 before they can take advantage of this phone.

This is just one of the tweaks that the Pixel 6a has in comparison with its siblings, which also includes a smaller 6.1-inch 60Hz Full HD+ OLED display, a lower resolution 12.2MP primary camera compared to the 6 and 6 Pro's 50MP main camera

With the same Qualcomm Tensor SoC, and, of course, that snappier fingerprint sensor, the Pixel 6a is still up there with the flagship, which might make it the ultimate combination for some when paired with the reduced price tag.

Google will probably release a new Pixel 7a model not that long after the Pixel 7 arrives, so it doesn't seem easy to decide when to buy a new phone from the search giant.