The Google Pixel 4a is the latest Pixel phone from Google and, although it isn’t shipping to customers yet, it’s receiving a lot of praise from reviewers who received the device for pre-release testing.
At just $349, the story of the Pixel 4a is that it manages to nail all the fundamentals most users need in a daily driver at a fraction of the cost of a flagship phone. It also carries on the Pixel lineup’s legacy of delivering a best-in-class camera experience, while improving on many features its predecessors lacked, like battery performance.
Matthew Moniz even calls it one of the best phones of 2020. He points out that the phone is the perfect affordable-yet-reliable option for consumers hard hit by Covid-19.
Matthew Moniz on the Pixel 4a being the Perfect Phone for 2020
Let’s take a closer look.
A Clean & Functional Design
Google seems to have made every effort to simplify the design of the Pixel 4a. For starters, the phone is available in a single size and a single color, called Just Black. In fact, simplicity is the theme for everything from design to hardware to software for this phone, as Marques Brownlee highlights in the clip below.
Marques Brownlee on the Simplicity of the Pixel 4a
It’s made of a seamless polycarbonate (aka plastic) and weighs in at just 143g (5.04 oz), making it significantly lighter than its primary competitor the iPhone SE. As Short Circuit points out below, the choice of plastic over glass materials more commonly found in premium phones is a deliberate move to keep the price in the budget range.
Short Circuit on the Pixel 4a’s Plastic Body
Despite its plastic body, most reviewers reported that the device seemed durable and, unlike glass bodied phones, remained scratch free, as Tech Spurt shows in the clip below.
Tech Spurt on the Pixel 4a’s Durability
But what seemed to excite reviewers the most about the design, is how compact it is. At just 2.73 inches wide and 5.67 inches tall, the Pixel 4a is perfect for one-handed use, which is becoming increasingly rare in the world of giant-sized flagship devices. Dave Lee demonstrates how well it works for one-handed use in the clip below.
Dave Lee on the Pixel 4a’s Size
The phone also features the Pixel lineup’s trademark rear fingerprint reader, which reviewers were mostly positive about. Flossy Carter calls the fingerprint reader “100 percent functional” even though it looks a bit “old school.”
Flossy Carter on the Fingerprint Reader
The Pixel 4a also received high marks from Marques Brownlee and other reviewers for the quality of its buttons…
Marques Brownlee on the Pixel 4a Buttons
…And for including a headphone jack for budget-conscious families, as Matthew Moniz discusses below.
Matthew Moniz on the Pixel 4a Headphone Jack
A Capable Spec Sheet
The Pixel 4a is built around a mid-range Qualcomm 730G processor, 6GBs of Ram and 128 GBs of storage. Not a premium spec sheet, but definitely capable.
The display on this device is an Always-On 5.8 inch, 2340 by 1080p OLED screen with a 60hz refresh rate and over 400 pixels per inch. It also supports HDR and is made of Gorilla Glass 3.
And, for the first time, Google is introducing a hole punch camera on the front screen. For the most part, reviewers agreed that the screen is relatively bright, decently responsive and offers solid viewing angles. Nick Ackerman walks through his positive impressions of the screen in the clip below noting that the 60hz refresh rate, although slower than some other phones in this price range, still feels smooth and usable.
Nick Ackerman on the Pixel 4a’s Display
The Pixel 4a features two stereo speakers located on the top and bottom of the phone. Most reviewers reported being surprised by the sound quality of the speakers, as Flossy Carter reports below.
Flossy Carter on the Dual Stereo Speakers
Battery Life & Performance
All of this brings us to the very important question: How well does the Pixel 4a actually perform in the real world. Let’s start with battery life.
The Pixel 4a sports a rather modest 3,140mAh battery. But, because of hardware choices like the 60hz screen, the battery seemed to perform better than most reviewers expected, easily getting through a day without requiring additional charging as Marques Brownlee describes below.
Marques Brownlee on Battery Life
It’s also worth noting that although the Pixel 4a does not support wireless charging, it does come with a fast charger out of the box. Most of our reviewers reported getting nearly 100% charges in roughly 20-30 minutes.
Perhaps the most rigorous test of a phone’s technical guts is high frame rate games, and thankfully several reviewers put the Pixel 4a to the test. The general takeaway is that the Pixel 4a actually performs pretty well, minus a couple screen hiccups here and there as Zolltech demonstrates below.
Zolltech on Gaming Performance
Top-Shelf Camera Experience
We’ve left the best for nearly the last. The Pixel lineup’s most distinguished feature to-date is the quality of its cameras, owing in large part to Google AI’s secret sauce.
The good news here is that the Pixel 4a continues that tradition. The phone includes a single lense 12.2MP, dual flash main camera on the back that supports 4K and an 8MP selfie camera.
The camera experience on the Pixel 4a received huge praise across the board from reviewers. As MrMobile [Michael Fisher] points out in the deep dive below, the Pixel 4a camera isn’t perfect but its “fire and forget reliability” makes it stand out.
MrMobile [Michael Fisher] on the Pixel 4a Cameras
A Word on Software
Besides the camera, another standout feature of the Pixel lineup has been the software experience. With the Pixel 4a, most of the features found in its predecessors are still present, with the exception of a few like the “Squeeze for Assistant” feature found on some of the newer models.
The phone received big praise for the clean, scaled down version of Android 10 that it comes with out of the box. And, like previous Pixel’s, Google is committing to at least three years of software support.
The Verdict
So where does this leave us? The best way to think about the Pixel 4a is not what it includes, but what it includes for just $349 USD.
The phone certainly lacks some features common in most trendy and pricier phones, including, but not limited to, an ultrawide camera, wireless charging, no water resistance rating, 90hz or higher refresh rates or more and 5g support (although Google has teased a 5g Pixel 4a coming sometime later this year).
So, it’s not a flagship phone. But, in the words of Marques Brownlee “350 bucks is an insane price for the amount of phone you’re getting and all of these features.”
Of course, there are other options in the budget category, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Dave Lee does a great job of summarizing and comparing the alternatives in the clip below.