Google Offers Pixel 4a to Fi Subscribers for Just $216

Google Fi subscribers can add a Pixel 4a to their plan for just $216 and pay for it over two years, a total savings of $133.

“For just $15 per month, you get the top-rated Pixel 4a, device protection, and a phone upgrade after two years,” Google’s Kayla Fedewa writes of the new Google Fi phone subscription program. “This amounts to saving $133 over two years. You can pair the phone subscription program with the Fi Flexible plan or the Fi Unlimited Plan for everything you need to connect with friends and family.”

To put this price in perspective, if you just bought the Pixel 4a directly from Google and used Google financing to pay it off over two years, the monthly cost would be $14.54. So you’re getting two years of device protection for just 46 cents per month. Assuming you’re a Fi subscriber, that is. (Device protection costs $6 per month as a standalone offering.)

And to be clear, this phone subscription is in addition to the normal Google Fi subscription, which starts at $30 per month for unlimited phone calling, texting, and 1 GB of data. (Each additional 1 GB used is $10.) And, of course, at the end of those two years, you’re stuck with a pretty lackluster device: The Pixel 4a is a great choice for the price, but it’s missing all kinds of features and likely won’t be a very good experience by next year, let alone two years from now.

But the device protection feature is nice—it provides “device replacement or repair for damage from cracks, drops, spills and more (deductibles apply)”—and of course you do own the Pixel 4a after the payoff period ends, so you’re free to keep using it or upgrade then.

I’m curious that Google doesn’t offer the Pixel 4a with 5G—which ships next month—or the Pixel 5, or any third party Fi-compatible handsets, as part of its Fi phone subscription program. Perhaps it will soon.