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Google’s Pixel 5a with 5G adds water resistance, a bigger battery and a headphone jack
It’s no secret that Google is in the midst of a pretty massive overhaul of its Pixel division. The Pixel 6 offers the next major Hail Mary for the company’s hardware division, complete with its own custom chip, Tensor.
This is not that. The new flagship won’t be available until the fall. Meantime, here’s the 5a, the latest addition to the “budget flagship” line that’s proven a nice overall sales boost for a struggling department.
Image Credits: Google
Google confirmed the phone’s existence back in April, mostly as a way of curbing rumors prematurely predicting the unannounced handset’s death. “Pixel 5a 5G is not canceled,” the company told TechCrunch at the time. “It will be available later this year in the U.S. and Japan and announced in line with when last year’s a-series phone was introduced.”
And, indeed, here it is. The handset officially goes on sale August 26 for $449. The Pixel 5a with 5G is, in a word, “safe” — a fact highlighted by the recent announcement of the Pixel 6. This is very much not a phone from a company looking to shake things up, but rather, the remnants of a division that was content to play right down the middle in the smartphone wars. Safe isn’t a bad word — particularly not at this price point. It’s sturdy (now with IP67 water resistance!) and it’ll get the job done.
As the name very clearly implies, the price includes 5G connectivity. That’s coupled with a dual-camera — with the same 12- and 16-megapixel setup as the Pixel 5. Those perform a slew of software-enabled modes, including Night Sight, Live HDR+ and Portrait Light. The phone is powered by the same mid-tier Snapdragon 765G process, while the RAM has been reduced down to 6GB.
Image Credits: Google
Storage is the same at 128GB and, interestingly, the battery has actually been bumped up from 4080 mAh to 4680. The screen, too, has been expanded from 6.0 to 6.34 inches, with the same resolution. It drops the Pixel 5’s wireless charging, but hey, there’s a headphone jack.
The Pixel 5a with 5G is up for preorder starting today.
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Google is building its own chip for the Pixel 6
Google just dumped a whole bunch of news about its upcoming Pixel 6 smartphone. Maybe the company was looking to get out in front of August 11’s big Samsung event — or perhaps it’s just hoping to keep people interested in the months leading up to a big fall announcement (and beat additional leaks to the punch).
In either case, we got the first look at the upcoming Android smartphone, including a fairly massive redesign of the camera system on the rear. The company has traded its square configuration for a big, black bar that appears to indicate an even larger push into upgraded hardware after a couple of generations spent insisting that software/AI are the grounds on which it has chosen to fight.
More interesting, however, is the arrival of Tensor, a new custom SoC (system on a chip) that will debut on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. It’s an important step from the company, as it looks to differentiate itself in a crowded smartphone field — something the company has admittedly struggled with in the past.
That means moving away from Qualcomm chips on these higher-end systems, following in Apple’s path of creating custom silicon. That said, the chips will be based on the same ARM architecture that Qualcomm uses to create its otherwise ubiquitous Snapdragon chips, and Google will still rely on the San Diego company to supply components for its budget-minded A Series.
Image Credits: Google
The Tensor name is a clear homage to Google’s TensorFlow ML, which has driven a number of its projects. And unsurprisingly, the company sites AI/ML as foundational to the chip’s place in the forthcoming phones. The Pixel team has long pushed software-based solutions, such as computational photography, as a differentiator.
“The team that designed our silicon wanted to make Pixel even more capable. For example, with Tensor we thought about every piece of the chip and customized it to run Google’s computational photography models,” Google writes. “For users, this means entirely new features, plus improvements to existing ones.”
Beyond the upgraded camera system, Tensor will be central to improving things such as speech recognition and language learning. Details are understandably still thin (the full reveal is happening in the fall, mind), but today’s announcement seems geared toward laying out what the future looks like for a revamped Pixel team — and certainly these sorts of focuses play into precisely what Google ought to be doing in the smartphone space: focusing on its smarts in AI and software.
In May of last year, key members of the Pixel team left Google, pointing to what looked to be a transition for the team. Hardware head Rick Osterloh was reported to have had harsh words at the time.
“AI is the future of our innovation work, but the problem is we’ve run into computing limitations that prevented us from fully pursuing our mission,” Osterloh wrote in today’s post. “So we set about building a technology platform built for mobile that enabled us to bring our most innovative AI and machine learning (ML) to our Pixel users.”
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Q3 earnings find Apple and Google looking to the future for hardware rebounds
“5G is a once-in-a-decade kind of opportunity,” Tim Cook told the media during the Q&A portion of Apple’s Q3 earnings call. “And we could not be more excited to hit the market exactly when we did.”
The truth of the matter is its timing was a mixed bag. Apple was, by some accounts, late to 5G. By the time the company finally announced that it was adding the technology across its lineup of iPhone 12 variants, much of its competition had already beat the company to the punch. Of course, that’s not a huge surprise. Apple’s strategy is rarely a rush to be first.
5G networks are only really starting to come into their own now. Even today, there are still wide swaths of users who will have to default to an LTE connection the majority of the time they use their handsets. The arrival of 5G on the iPhone was really as much about future-proofing this year’s models as anything. Consumers are holding onto phones longer, and in the three or four years before it’s time for another upgrade, the 5G maps will look very different.
Clearly, the new iPhone didn’t hit the market exactly when Apple had hoped; the pandemic saw to that. Manufacturing bottlenecks in Asia delayed the iPhone 12’s launch by a month. That’s going to have an impact on the bottom line of your quarterly earnings. The company saw a 20% drop for the quarter, year-over-year. That’s hugely significant, causing the company’s stock to drop more than 4% in extended trading.
Apple’s diverse portfolio helped curb some of those revenue slides. While the pandemic has generally had a profound impact on consumer spending on “non-essentials,” changing where and how we work has helped bolster Mac and iPad sales, which were up 28% and 46%, respectively, year-over-year. It wasn’t enough to completely stop the iPhone stumble, but it certainly brings the importance of a diverse hardware portfolio into sharp relief.
China was a big issue for the company this time around — and the lack of a new, 5G-enabled iPhone was a big contributor. In greater China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong), the company saw a 28% drop in sales. There are a number of reasons to be hopeful about iPhone sales in Q4, however.
As I noted this morning, smartphone shipments were down almost across the board in China for Q3, per new figures from Canalys. Much of that can be chalked up to Huawei’s ongoing issues with the U.S. government. Long the dominant manufacturer in mainland China, the company has been hamstrung by, among other things, a ban on access to Android and other U.S.-made technologies. Apple’s numbers remained relatively steady compared to the competition and Huawei’s issues could present a big hole in the market. With 5G on its side, this next quarter could prove a banner year for the company.
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Google Pixel 5 review: Keeping it simple
I’m going to be totally honest with you. I don’t really understand Google’s phone strategy right now. And for what it’s worth, I’m not really sure Google does either. I wrote about it here, but I’ll save you from having to read an additional 800 words on top of all these. The short version is that Google has three phones on the market, and there isn’t a whole heck of a lot of distinction between them.
The Pixel is a portrait of a hardware division in transition. That applies to a number of aspects, from strategy to the fact that the company recently saw a minor executive exodus. It’s pretty clear the future of Google’s mobile hardware division is going to look quite different from its present — but 2020’s three phones are most likely a holdover from the old guard.
What you’re looking at here is the Pixel 5. It’s Google’s flagship. A device that sports — among other things — more or less the same mid-range Qualcomm processor as the 4a announced earlier this year. It distinguishes itself from that budget handset, however, with the inclusion of 5G. But then here comes the 4a 5G to further muddy the waters.
There are some key distinctions that separate the 5 and 4a 5G, which were announced at the same event. The 5’s got a more solid body, crafted from 100% recycled aluminum to the cheaper unit’s polycarbonate. It also has waterproofing and reverse wireless charging, a fun feature we’ve seen on Samsung devices for a few generations now. Beyond that, however, we run into something that’s been a defining issue since the line’s inception. If you choose not to use hardware to define your devices, it becomes difficult to differentiate your devices’ hardware.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
Since the very beginning of the Pixel line, the company has insisted that it will rely on software advances to push the products forward. It’s a nice sentiment after years of feature arms races between the likes of Apple and Samsung. But that means when it comes time to introduce new devices, the results can be fairly lackluster. That certainly applies to the Pixel 5.
From a hardware perspective, it’s not a particularly exciting phone. That’s probably fine for many. Smartphones have, after all, become more commodity than luxury item, and plenty of users are simply looking for one that will just get the job done. That said, Google’s got some pretty stiff competition at the Pixel 5’s price point — and there are plenty of Android devices that can do even more.
There are certainly some upgrades in addition to the above worth pointing out, however. Fittingly, the biggest and most important of all is probably the least exciting. The Pixel 4 was actually a pretty solid device hampered by one really big issue: an abysmal battery life. The 2,800mAh capacity was a pretty massive millstone around the device’s neck. That, thankfully, has been addressed here in a big way.
Google’s bumped things up to 4,080mAh. That’s also a pretty sizable bump over the 4a and 4a 5G, which sport 3,885mAh and 2,130mAh, respectively. That extra life is extra important, given the addition of both Battery Share and 5G. For the sake of disclosure, I should mention that I still live in an area with basically no 5G (three cheers for working from home), so your mileage will vary based on coverage. But using LTE, I was able to get about a day and a half of use out of the handset, besting the stated “all-day battery).
This is helped along by a (relatively) compact display. Gone are the days of the XL (though, confusingly, the 4a 5G does have a larger screen with a bit lower pixel density). The flagship is only available in a six-inch, 2,340 x 1,080 size. It’s larger than the Pixel 4’s 5.7 inches, but at a lower pixel density (432 versus 444 ppl). The 90Hz refresh rate remains. Compared to all of the phones I’ve been testing lately, the Pixel 5 feels downright compact. It’s a refreshing change to be able to use the device with one hand.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
The camera is probably the aspect of the handset where the opposing hardware-first and software-first approaches are the most at conflict with one another. Google was fairly convinced it could do everything it wanted with a single lens early on, but eventually begrudgingly gave in to a two-camera setup. The hardware is pretty similar to last year’s model, but the 16-megapixel 2x optical telephoto has been replaced by a 16-megapixel ultra-wide. Whether that represent progress is largely up to your own personal preference. Frankly, I’d prefer a little more non-distorted zooming.
Google, of course, is building on a solid foundation. I really loved the Pixel 4’s photos. The things Google’s imaging team has been able to do with relative hardware constraints is really impressive, and while you’re lacking the scope of a premium Samsung device or high-end iPhone, casual photo snappers are going to be really happy with the shots they get on the Pixel 5.
Night Sight has been improved and now turns on when the phone’s light sensor detects a dark scene. My morning walks have gotten decidedly darker in recent weeks as the season has changed, and the phone automatically enters the mode for those pre-dawn shots (COVID-19 has made me an early riser, I don’t know what to tell you). The feature has also been added to portrait mode for better focused shots.
The Pixel’s Portrait Mode remains one of the favorites — though it’s still imperfect, running into issues with things like hair or complex geometries. It really doesn’t know what to do with a fence much of the time, for instance. The good news is that Google’s packed a lot of editing options into the software here — particularly for Portrait Mode.
You can really go crazy in terms of bokeh levels and placement and portrait lighting, a relatively subtle effect that lends the appearance of changing a light source. Changing the effects can sometimes be a bit laggy, likely owing to the lower-end processing power. All said, it’s a good and well-rounded photo experience, but as usual, I would really love to see what Google’s imaging team would be able to do if the company ever gives it a some real high-end photography hardware to play around with. Wishful thinking for whatever the Pixel 6 becomes, I suppose.
In the end, the two biggest reasons to recommend upgrading from the Pixel 4 are 5G and bigger battery. The latter is certainly a big selling point this time out. The former really depends on what coverage is like in your area. The 5G has improved quite a bit of late, but there are still swaths of the U.S. — and the world — that will be defaulting to LTE on this device. Also note that the $200 cheaper 4a 5G also offers improvements in both respects over last year’s model.
Still, $700 is a pretty reasonable price point for a well-rounded — if unexciting — phone like the Pixel 5. And Google’s got other things working in its favor, as well — pure Android and the promise of guaranteed updates. If you’re looking for something with a bit more flash, however, there are plenty of options in the Android world.
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Google takes aim at ‘beauty filters’ with design changes coming to Pixel phones
Google is taking aim at photo face filters and other “beautifying” techniques that mental health experts believe can warp a person’s self-confidence, particularly when they’re introduced to younger users. The company says it will now rely on expert guidance when applying design principles for photos filters used by the Android Camera app on Pixel smartphones. In the Pixel 4a, Google has already turned off face retouching by default, it says, and notes the interface will soon be updated to include what Google describes as “value-free” descriptive icons and labels for the app’s face retouching effects.
That means it won’t use language like “beauty filter” or imply, even in more subtle ways, that face retouching tools can make someone look better. These changes will also roll out to the Android Camera app in other Pixel smartphones through updates.
The changes, though perhaps unnoticed by the end user, can make a difference over time.
Google says that more than 70% of photos on Android are shot with the front-facing camera and over 24 billion photos have been labeled as “selfies” in Google Photos.
Image Credits: Google
But the images our smartphones are showing us are driving more people to be dissatisfied with their own appearance. According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 72% of their members last year said their patients sought them out in order to improve their selfies, a 15% year-over-year increase. In addition, 80% of parents said they’re worried about filters’ impact and two-thirds of teens said they’ve been bullied over how they look in photos.
Google explains it sought the help of child and mental health experts to better understand the impact of filters on people’s well-being. It found that when people weren’t aware a photo filter had been applied, the resulting photos could negatively impact mental well-being as they quietly set a beauty standard that people would then compare themselves against over time.
Image Credits: Google
In addition, filters that use terminology like “beauty,” “beautification,” “enhancement” and “touch up” imply there’s something wrong with someone’s physical appearance that needs to be corrected. It suggests that the way they actually look is bad, Google explains. The same is true for terms like “slimming,” which imply a person’s body needs to be improved.
Google also found that even the icons used could contribute to the problem.
It’s often the case that face retouching filters will use “sparkling” design elements on the icon that switches the feature on. This suggests that using the filter is making your photo better.
To address this problem, Google will update to using value-neutral language for its filters, along with new icons.
Image Credits: Google
For example, instead of labeling a face retouching option as “natural,” it will relabel it to “subtle.” And instead of sparkling icons, it instead shows an icon of the face with an editing pen to indicate which button to push to enable the feature.
Adjustment levels will also follow new guidelines, and use either numbers and symbols or simple terms like “low” and “high,” rather than those that refer to beauty.
Image Credits: Google
Google says the Camera app, too, should also make it obvious when a filter has been enabled — both in the real-time capture and afterwards. For example, an indicator at the top of the screen could inform the user when a filter has been turned on, so users know their image is being edited.
In Pixel smartphones, starting with the Pixel 4a, when you use face retouching effects, you’ll be shown more information about how each setting is being applied and what specific changes it will make to the image. For instance, if you choose the “subtle” effect, it will explain that it adjusts your skin texture, under-eye tone and eye brightness. Being transparent about the effects applied can help to demystify the sometimes subtle tweaks that face retouching filters are making to our photos.
Face retouching will also be shut off in the new Pixel devices announced on Wednesday, including the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5. And the changes to labels and descriptions are coming to Pixel phones through an upcoming update, Google says, which will support Pixel 2 and later devices.
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Google now has three mid-range Pixel phones
The Pixel has always been a mixed bag. The first-generation product was announced roughly this time four years ago, with Google finally offering a full-throated entry into the smartphone space after years of device partnerships.
Of course, by 2016, the market was already mature — particularly for Android phones. But while it was easy to write off those initial devices as Nexus-like references for future software updates, Google made it clear that it was taking the line seriously. It put any doubts to rest two years later, with its $1.1 billion acquisition of the design team from a struggling HTC.
But Google’s had struggles of its own. Slow Pixel 3 sales left the company in a tough spot, as the overall market took a hit. Google was able to correct the ship with the launch of the Pixel 3a, joining the likes of Apple and Samsung in offering budget versions of its smartphone flagship as consumers grew weary of premium prices.
It’s a strategy that makes sense. Two primary devices: a flagship and a budget model. Of course, the line has never been particularly clear for Google. For one thing, the company just doesn’t chase premium hardware in the same way that Apple, Samsung or Huawei does. Rather, it insists setting itself apart with its software — even for things like imaging. That often results in a less pronounced gap between devices. It also dulls the company’s edge with features that, more often than not, come to other Android devices.
But today’s hardware event blurred those lines more than ever. The dual-launch of the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G was arguably the most confusing element about a morning event with words “Launch Night” in its title.
Image Credits: Google
While pre-show rumors and leaks revealed a lot about the devices that ultimately proved true, they didn’t do much to distinguish the differences between the products. Turns out there’s an obvious reason: There really isn’t that much of a difference. If anything, the 4a 5G feels like a stepping stone toward the Pixel 5 — a device that would, perhaps, more fittingly have been named the Pixel 5a, if the company’s naming conventions worked that way.
We already knew that both devices were going to sport 5G. That seems to be Google taking advantage of Qualcomm’s aggressive push to bring the next-gen wireless technology to more budget devices. Really, the big driver here is that both devices utilize the same processors: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G. It is, as I’m sure you’re aware, a mid-tier processor. It’s a step down from the 865 currently found in the majority of this year’s flagships.
Likely, the decision was a cost-cutting measure, but we’ve seen evidence from a number of manufacturers that it’s possible to produce an 865-sporting device priced in the middle six digits. Both devices also sport the same dual-camera set up on the rear and the same resolution screens — though the 4a 5G’s is actually bigger (albeit with a lower pixel density), at 6.2 inches to the 5’s 6.0.
There are some differences between the products to justify the $200 pricing gap. For starters, the 5 features a 100% recycled aluminum body, whereas the 4a 5G is polycarbonate. The cheaper phone lacks waterproofing and the reverse wireless charging found on the 5. It also sports a smaller battery, though both devices have been upgraded in that respect over the 4 and 4a. Battery life, after all, was the biggest complaint against the Pixel 4 — and either way you’re going to need more milliamp hours to handle the strains of 5G and, in the case of the 5, reverse charging.
So, are you clear on all of this? Me neither, to be honest. Google’s smartphone line now contains three devices. There’s a mid-tier handset, a slightly lower-mid-tier handset and an even lower-mid-tier handset. That’s three distinct devices with about a $300 price difference, all released within months of one another. It’s as if Google saw the 3a’s successes and decided “screw it, we’re making all of our products mid-range.” Affordability isn’t a bad thing, of course, but if you’re going to release three separate products over roughly a two-month span, you owe it to yourself and your fans to offer clearer value propositions.
Some of this is going to self-correct. For starters, it seems likely that the three devices will turn into two by this time next year. I don’t foresee the company keeping both an LTE and 5G model around in late-2021. There’s also the fact that the company has been undergoing a bit of an executive shakeup among the Pixel line — something that appears to point to a dramatic rethink of the line. It’s likely that the 4a, 4a 5G and 5 were already pretty far into development when Google started its executive shuffling.
Hopefully all of this will cause the company to rethink the Pixel line from the ground up and determine what Google can bring to the table that the competition can’t.
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Google’s Pixel 5 gets reverse wireless charging and 5G for $699
Here it is, the centerpiece of this morning’s confusing-titled Launch Night In. The Pixel 5 is Google’s latest mobile flagship. Launching months after the budget-minded Pixel 4a (and same day as the Pixel 4a 5G) , the new handset sports a a 100% recycled aluminum body to set the new phone apart from the rest of the line. That’s coupled by 8GB of RAM and the addition of reverse wireless charging.
Reverse wireless charging is probably the most interesting hardware addition here — and the one that wasn’t leaked like crazy. The feature, which is already available on fellow Android devices like Samsung’s flagship, lets users charge devices (such as the newish and very good Pixel Buds) using the device’s on-board battery.
The specs are now live on the product page (where you can currently pre-order the device). As usual with Google mobile devices, basically all of the leaks proved true. There’s a 6-inch display with a hole punch selfie up top.
Inside, you get a Snapdragon 765G (which brings the 5G), coupled with 8GM of RAM and 128GB of storage. There’s also a healthy 4,000mAh battery on board, which addresses the single biggest issue with the Pixel 4 — though be aware that 5G connectivity can be a massive battery hog.
The product could pass for something mid-tier in most lines, and honestly, the line is fairly blurry between this product and the new 5G version of the 4a.
Image Credits: Google
There’s a single front-facing eight-megapixel camera and a 12-megapixel and 16-megapixel ultrawide on the back. As ever, though, the big camera advance come via software. New imagine features include Night Sight in Portrait Mode, Portrait Lighting to illuminate subjects and an improved editing tool in Google Photos.
It seems likely that this is the final device from Google that maintains that trend, courtesy of a recent shakeup of the department aimed at juicing flagging device sales.
Image Credits: Google
The new phone is available in two Googley-named colors — “Just Black” and “Sorta Sage” (a faint green). It’s up for pre-order now and will be available in nine countries on October 15.
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Google discontinues the Pixel 4, nine months after release
Days after announcing the Pixel 4a, Google has quietly discontinued sales of the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. The move, noted earlier by The Verge, represents an extremely truncated life cycle for a Google flagship — around half of the 18 months the company continued to sell its two predecessors.
Google already announced the imminent arrival of the Pixel 5, when it noted the forthcoming handset would be one of two Pixels devices to sport 5G, along with the Pixel 4a 5G.
“Google Store has sold through its inventory and completed sales of Pixel 4|4XL,” the company tells TechCrunch. “For people who are still interested in buying Pixel 4|4XL, the product is available from some partners while supplies last. Just like all Pixel devices, Pixel 4 will continue to get software and security updates for at least 3 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the U.S.”
The Pixel 4 was a largely well-received device, owing mostly to impressive camera work. But the handset was hampered by bad battery life — something Google has since addressed in the 4a. The new budget handset also sports an excellent camera for its price point, making the Pixel 4’s existence somewhat redundant. Though the end of the Pixel 4 XL does leave Google with a larger option.
The company has clearly been dealing with a kind of identity crisis with its smartphones. A recent management shakeup appears to point to a desire for a new direction for the line, which has long suffered from uneven sales. Among other things, Google entered an already saturated market and has had some trouble distinguishing its offerings from other Android handsets.
It remains to be seen whether the Pixel 5 will be the first device to benefit from the division’s new direction.
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The 4a and 5 will be Google’s first 5G-enabled Pixels
Surprise. The latest version of Google’s budget Pixel device will be one of the first two to get its next-gen technology. It’s an odd strategy, to be sure, but sometimes roadmaps work out like that, I guess. You can read basically everything you need to know about the Pixel 4a in my review here. It’s a pretty basic addition to the line, albeit one that bumps up battery life from its predecessors and maintains the brand’s focus on excellent imaging with limited hardware.
At some point in the fall, it will be joined by a 5G version, priced at $499. That’s a fairly significant bump over the standard 4a’s $349 starting price, but still pretty reasonably priced for a 5G phone. Obviously the Pixel 5 will be going 5G as well — Google even said as much in a blog post this morning (with a rare peek behind the curtains). From the sound of things, the devices will be released in roughly the same time frame, but the details are understandably still very limited on that front.
Image Credits: Google
It has promised more on both in the coming months, though we do know for sure that both models will be available in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Australia. It’s a strange strategy that bucks previous next-gen technology roll outs (not to mention how virtually every other manufacturer has approached 5G). Likely it has more to do with timing than anything, though there’s notably been an aggressive push to democratize 5G access, led by the likes of Qualcomm.
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Google’s budget Pixel 4a addresses its premium predecessor’s biggest problem
The Pixel line has always felt like more of an underdog product than one should reasonably expect from a corporation as massive as Google. After years of partnerships and Nexus devices, when Google finally did enter the smartphone market in earnest, it found itself attempting to chip away at an already mature category — an even more difficult feat when most of that competition is already running your operating system.
In an important sense, the Pixel line’s differentiator may actually be its lack of flash — something that draws a sharp contrast from industry leaders like Samsung, Apple and Huawei. If phones were cars, it would be a reasonable sedan — competent, well-priced and no one is making comments when you drive it up to the PTA meeting. Through much of this, however, Google seems to have struggled to find an identity.
Sales have been mediocre. It’s the sort of thing that has less than zero effect on Google’s bottom line at the end of the day, but the company clearly has grander ambitions. The division recently underwent a seismic shift in management with the exit of division head Mario Queiroz and camera wizard Marc Levoy. It was, seemingly, a sign that Google is set to blaze a new path for its mobile line, which could ultimately make the Pixel 4 and 4a the last of their kind.
I do think there’s value in reconsidering its approach to the flagship. But the budget “a” really was Google getting things right at the right time. And the sales reflected that with the Pixel 3a, following a disappointing performance by the 3. The 3a nailed the smartphone zeitgeist in a way that previous Pixels had failed, delivering solid and affordable options as the smartphone-buying public had grown weary of paying $1,000+ for a new flagship.
It was even less flashy than other Pixels, and lacking in horsepower under the hood, but it was custom-built to deliver one of the best and purest Android experiences on the market. Last year’s Pixel 4 got off to a rocky start. The device was solid, but had one extremely important flaw: abysmal battery life. Sales suffered, though Google was reportedly able to make up for a rough start out of the gate due to pretty solid discounts over the handset’s life.
That all brings us to the Pixel 4a, which, most importantly, addresses the 4’s most glaring problem. Battery life is one of those things that rarely gets mentioned in the first sentence or two about a new smartphone. It’s not cool or interesting or new or sexy. But after the honeymoon of the first few weeks or so with a new handset, it can rocket to the top of the most important things about a phone. It’s the sort of thing you tend to only notice when it’s back. And with the Pixel 4, people definitely noticed.
The 4a, mind you, is not a battery powerhouse, but it’s decent. And that, in and of itself, is enough to recommend it over the Pixel 4. At 3140 mAh, the 4a’s battery is nothing to write home about, but it’s a nice improvement over the 4’s 2800 mAh and a slight bump over the 3a’s 3080 mAh. Using the 4a as my regular phone, I was able to get more than a day out of the handset, with the battery finally giving up the ghost around 27 hours after I unplugged it from the charger. That number is going to shrink if you enable the always-on display.
Inside, the handset sports last year’s Snapdragon 730G (an overlooked version of the 730). There was likely little consideration of the new 765, for reasons having to do with price. For most tasks the processor choice won’t make a huge difference day to day, but it’s certainly noticeable on some key things like shooting photos, which take a few extra moments to process.
The camera has, of course, long been the centerpiece of the Pixel line. That fact certainly extends to its budget offshoots. The 4a maintains the 3a’s single 12.2-megapixel rear-facing camera, albeit configured into a square camera module à la the 4. Middling camera hardware has always been a strange source of pride for Google.
The company has long insisted that it’s able to provide some of the best mobile imaging by letting on-board computation and software do most of the heavy lifting. And honestly, the results speak for themselves. The Pixel 3a takes some truly excellent photos for a handset at this price point, including low light and zoom.
Hardware does, indeed, still matter. And it’s going to for the foreseeable future. Google, for example, is able to do some really impressive things with the Super Res Zoom feature introduced on the Pixel 3. But without an optical zoom lens, the AI only goes so far when it comes to losing detail.
Same goes for Portrait Mode. Google’s is one of the best in the business. But while it’s most good enough to offer the illusion of bokeh blur, there are still computation limitations of a system that’s designed to guess at an image’s depth of field. Having been switching between the iPhone 11 and Pixel 3a a fair bit in recent days, among other things, I’ve really come to appreciate the close range at which the Google device is able to shoot in Portrait Mode. Both, however, continue to run into some depth issue with more complex subject matter or noisy background. Shooting a chain link fence, say, can create some blurring chaos.
[L-R: iPhone 11, Pixel 4a]
Night Sight, on the other hand, continues to shine in low light.
I recently asked a colleague what drew him to keep purchasing Pixels. His answer, in hindsight, was obvious: software support. Along with the purest version of Android, you know Google is going to continue to deliver its best and most interesting features to the device. That goes a long a way.
Here, it means hits like the company’s impressive Recorder app, which provides live transcriptions. I’m always a little wary of how much to play up the feature. I know as a reporter who does a lot of interviews, it’s a pretty indispensable tool in my daily life. The same could probably go for college kids who attend a lot of lectures. Beyond that, I’m not sure how handy it’s going to be for most folks’ day to day. But I’m excited to see Google continue to build on the app with new features like Google Doc integration and Google Assistant support.
Other notable software additions include live captioning for phone calls and video calls, which essentially integrates the above technology. Doing so will alert the users on the other end. As Google notes, it’s really only good for conversations between two people. Adding more than that has a way of frying the algorithm in my experience with these services. And for privacy purposes, it will alert the person on the other end when it has been enabled.
At $349, the Pixel 4a starts at $50 cheaper than the 3a and less than half the price of Pixel 4. It also puts it well under budget flagships from the likes of Samsung and Apple. Even with that aggressive pricing in mind, there’s really no measure by which the Pixel 4a is an exciting phone. But it’s one that will get the job done, which is probably the most we can ask of it. Well, that and a headphone jack.
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