Introduction
Google's Pixel 4a is finally here and although it has arrived a few months behind its rumored schedule, many are eager to buy one during these trying times. How much has been done to improve the Google-fied budget Pixel 3a from last year? Well, last year's formula was quite successful that Google didn't need to change it up too much. In fact, it lowered the price and doubled the storage.
The 4a gets a modest performance boost with a Snapdragon 730 chipset, 2 additional GB of RAM, and updated UFS 2.1 storage speeds (The Pixel 3a used eMMC 5.1). A slight boost in battery capacity is seen as well, and the display size was stretched out to cover more surface area, and there's a punch hole selfie camera cut-out of the screen as well.
The backside and frame are both made of plastic, but the display glass is now made of Gorilla Glass 3. In addition, the camera, while otherwise identical in hardware, gets a slightly brighter f/1.7 aperture lens (the 3a had f/1.8). We are expecting to see camera performance comparable to what we saw on the Pixel 3a last year, which was wonderful to say the least.
Google Pixel 4a specs:
- Body: 144 x 69.4 x 8.2 mm; 143g; Plastic body and frame
- Display: 5.81-inch OLED; 1080 x 2340 px resolution; 19.5:9 aspect ratio; 443ppi
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 (Octa-core (2x2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver); Adreno 618 GPU
- Memory; 6GB RAM; 128GB UFS 2.1 internal storage (non-expandable)
- O/S Software: Android 10
- Rear camera: 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
- Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1.12µm
- Video: 4K @ 30fps; 1080p @ 30/60/120 fps
- Battery: 3140 mAh battery: 18W charging
- Misc: NFC, Bluetooth v5.1, rear-mounted fingerprint scanner; Wi-Fi 5GHz b/g/n/ac; dualSIM (nano+eSIM)
Despite the taller screen, Google managed to shrink the footprint of the 4a (compared to the 3a) in both height and width. This is the first Google Pixel phone to feature a punch hole cut out for the selfie camera.
With the Pixel 4a, Google is solidifying its foothold in the midrange category. The higher-end Pixels that came before it excelled in camera technology, but these days the competition swerves around Google's offerings. With the 3a, Google has proven it can make cheap hardware deliver a premium-feeling experience.
Let's dig further into the Pixel 4a starting with the unboxing.
Unboxing the Google Pixel 4a
The Pixel 4a comes with the bare necessities inside. The box is printed with a matte finish on the outside. Google's branding and an image of the Just Black Pixel 4a appear on the packaging.
Inside the box is the Pixel 4a itself, a quick start guide and safety information card, SIM eject tool, a USB-C to C cable, and a USB-C Power Delivery charge adapter. There's also a USB-C to A adapter, useful for transferring data from an iPhone or other Android device. This adapter doubles as an OTG input so you can mount a USB drive into the Pixel 4a.
The Pixel 4a doesn't come with any earbuds, case, or screen protector.
Design and build quality
The Pixel 4a is built with a plastic frame and back panel while the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Like the Pixel 4 and 4 XL, the 4a no longer has the "window" on the back, so it is completely matte on the back, save for the camera bump. It's interesting to see this fingerprint scanner, which is also matte on the back, we can't help but think it might have been more aesthetically pleasing to make it shiny to contrast the rest of the back.
The camera setup is square like its more expensive siblings, but it only houses a single 12.2MP camera, and a dual-LED flash. We like that the styling matches with the Pixel 4. The camera housing does protrude, but not enough to make rocking back and forth on the table a serious issue.
The rear cover and the frame are a single piece, so holding the Pixel 4a feels really nice and smooth with no breaks or seams. At 144 x 69.4 x 8.2 mm, the Pixel 4a is slightly shorter and narrower than the Pixel 3a, despite having a screen that takes up more space. It's even slightly lighter at 143g and its weight is well distributed.
It's a well built phone, but we wonder if it has any structural weak points. It doesn't creak or buckle under light pressure, so that's worth something. Remember that the Pixel 4a is not rated for water or splash resistance, and we would not bet that it's even sealed well for such an event.
Google has omitted Active edge from all Pixels starting with the 4a. Perhaps it realized that the pressure sensors placed in the frame take up more space than is worth the squeezy feature. You can do the same thing by swiping up from a corner, but it won't be the same.
The front of this Pixel finally looks like it belongs in the present day. The Pixel 3 had large bezels (and the 3 XL had the bathtub notch), and the Pixel 4 and 4 XL had the honkin' upper bezel for the underwhelming Motion Sense hardware. The bezels on the Pixel 4a are the smallest we've seen on a Pixel phone thus far and the display fills the space nicely.
There's a 5.81-inch OLED screen with a punch hole cut out for the 8MP selfie camera. This cutout does have a border that isolates it from the display. The front-facing speaker is now a slit that sits above the display, so we wonder if it will affect the stereo loudspeaker performance.
There's a headphone jack at the top, which you don't see on the higher-end phones anymore.
At the bottom is a USB-C port, and two symmetrical ports - the right one is a loudspeaker, and the other is a microphone.
The SIM tray is on the lower left side of the phone, and it only takes a single nanoSIM card. There's no expandable storage here, but dualSIM is possible via eSIM.
The power key is accented with a slightly mint-colored white. The buttons themselves are very clicky and tactile, though not too sensitive.
The phone feels great in-hand. From its curvy matte back cover to the compact size, this is going to be a wonderful phone to hold and use. Finger gymnastics are still kind of needed to reach the top of the status bar, but the Pixel launcher already lets you swipe from anywhere on the home screen to reach the notification shade.
Bright and compact OLED display
The Pixel 4a has a 5.81-inch display with a taller 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It's smaller than many smartphones of this class, but smaller phones are rare these days. Most midrange phones are pushing upwards past 6.5-inches sometimes, so we welcome the more compact size for some variety.
The display has a resolution of 1080 x 2340px and a pixel density of 443ppi. It looks sharp and the contrast of the OLED screen is great as well.
There's no high refresh rate on the Pixel 4a, and that's okay. Although it seems like 90Hz is becoming a new standard in smartphone displays - even in the entry level - it is still considered to be a purely cosmetic feature.
We tested 803 nits of maximum brightness when set to "adaptive brightness". With the manual brightness slider, we got a maximum of 451 nits. This is a great device to use outdoors and even in direct sunlight.
This is the highest brightness of any Pixel phone we've ever tested. In fact, the Pixel 4a is the first Pixel phone to actually push brightness past the manual slider when set to the automatic adjustment. Pixel phones in the past have always been average in brightness, but the Pixel 4a is excellent for its class.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 854 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 843 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 803 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 756 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 743 | ∞ | |
| 0.434 | 670 | 1544:1 | |
| 0.428 | 644 | 1505:1 | |
| 0 | 642 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 635 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 596 | ∞ | |
| 0.466 | 543 | 1165:1 | |
| 0 | 525 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 525 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 520 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 516 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 508 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 456 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 451 | ∞ | |
| 0.349 | 443 | 1269:1 | |
| 0 | 436 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 424 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 423 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 410 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 379 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 323 | ∞ | |
You have three options for color profiles: Adaptive, Boosted, and Natural. The default display tuning is set to Adaptive, which is based on the DCI-P3 color space, showing vivid colors and pleasing images. This profile had an average deltaE of 2.8 and a maximum of 6.
The Natural profile yielded the most accurate scores (based on the sRGB color space) with an average deltaE of1.7 and a maximum of 2.5. Finally, the Boosted setting is a slightly more saturated version of the latter, with an average deltaE at 2.2 and a max of 4.3.
Across the board, whites were always within 2 deltaE units, which is indistinguishable to the naked eye. We're very happy with the display on the Pixel 4a. Now would be a great time to mention that the Pixel 4a is one of the latest devices certified to stream Netflix in HDR10.
Battery life and charging
The Google Pixel 4a gets a slight increase in battery capacity. 3140 mAh up from last year's 3,000 mAh on the Pixel 3a but it still doesn't sound like much. Perhaps the switch to a more efficient 8nm CPU might be enough to offset the added screen size of the 4a. So how did it do with battery endurance?
The phone comes with the same 18W USB-C Power Delivery charger that Pixel phones have included for a few generations now. Using the included charger, the Pixel 4a recharged to 45%in 30 minutes. It took 1:37h to get to a 100% charge. Naturally, the last 10 percent takes the longest.
In our battery tests, the Pixel 4a did okay. It scored 76h overall in our tests with talk times of 22:45h, 11:48h of web time, and 12:17h of video playback. For 2020, these numbers are about average. We're seeing cheaper phones with 4,000mAh and even 5,000mAh batteries push past 100h of endurace scores.
The Pixel 4a should last you through the day and partially into the next day, so it will definitely last a solid day.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Google Pixel 4a for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Loudspeaker test
We couldn't perform our new loudspeaker test since the review was performed far away from the office.
There are dual loudspeakers on the Pixel 4a. Sound output is quite loud with some distortion heard at higher volumes. We're happy with the loudness of these stereo speakers.
Audio output quality
We've recently discontinued our audio output quality test.
The reason for that is that most phones were already excellent in this regard and whatever difference there was, it was marginal and probably indistinguishable to anything but lab equipment.
Android 10, soon to be 11
It's interesting that Google released the Pixel 4a this close to the release of Android 11. We're expecting it next month along with the new Pixels, so we'll skim over Android 10's most prominent features.
Upon setup, you'll be offered the chance to transfer data from another Android device, iOS device, or restore from a Google Drive backup. You do have the option to transfer via a USB cable (via the adapter included in box), iCloud download, or Google Drive backup, but this won't be as thorough as the other two methods.
Copy data from an old phone
Keep in mind if you skip the initial setup, you won't be able to transfer from another device unless you reset the Pixel, so skip wisely.
Next, the setup prompted us to set up a screen lock and register a fingerprint. This process is quick, simple, and the fingerprint scanner unlocks the 4a in a pinch, and every time.
Screen lock • Fingerprint setup
In case you haven't opted for Android 10's gesture navigation by now, you're offered a quick tutorial on how to use it. You can always switch the setting if you prefer the classic navigation bar. You can also adjust the back-gesture sensitivity here.
Classic navigation bar • Gestures
The home screens are clean and uncluttered. A weather and date widget are at the top, with a dock, Google Search bar and Google Assistant shortcut at the bottom. The app drawer pops up with a swipe upwards. A swipe to the right opens your Google feed. As before, there are plenty of pre-loaded and downloadable wallpapers for the Pixel launcher.
Home screen • App drawer • Google Feed • Wallpapers
You can change the look of the UI's icon and quick toggle shapes, fonts, and accent color.
Customize UI Style
All Android 10 phones have universal live captioning that is accessed from the volume menu. Be advised that this feature will consume more battery when it's enabled. Since its launch, English is the only supported language.
Dark Theme is easy on the eyes if you primarily use your phone at night. It can also be set to switch between light and dark with your local sunrise and sunset.
Live caption • Dark Theme
Google's Personal Safety app combines an emergency contact page, a page with your health information, a Safety Check feature, and an automatic car-crash detection feature.
Personal Safety app
Always-on display is available in the Display settings. The 4a doesn't have the Motion Sense hardware that the Pixel 4 has that woke up the phone with a wave, but it does have "Tap to check" and "Lift to check" options to make checking the time or notifications easy. Ambient Display will also briefly show notification as they arrive.
Now Playing • Always on settings • Tap to check
With every passing year, Google's software is more solid, polished, and keeps getting deeper integration with Google Assistant. Android 11 is coming next month, so we're expecting a slew of new features to come. The Pixel 4a is expected to be among the first in the queue to receive the update.
The Pixel 4a doesn't stutter, slow down, or take a second to really think about what it needs to do. It handles multitasking like a champ thanks to those 6GB of RAM.
Synthetic benchmarks
The Pixel 4a gets a modest performance update over its predecessor (which used a Snapdragon 670 chipset built on the 10nm process). It runs the Snapdragon 730 chipset built on the 8nm process with a total of eight cores. There are 2 high-power Kryo 470 Gold cores clocked at 2.2GHz, and 6 efficient Kryo 470 Silver cores clocked at 1.8GHz. Powering the graphics is the Adreno 618 GPU.
The Pixel 4a uses UFS 2.1 storage, which is vastly superior to the 3a's eMMC 5.1 storage. In Androbench, we saw significant improvement in storage speeds over the Pixel 3a's. Otherwise, UFS 2.1 is suited well in this class, glad to see Google catching up. 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM makes the Pixel 4a feel like it isn't breaking a sweat when trying to juggle a bunch of apps. Day-to-day usage is great.
Androbench results: Pixel 4a • Pixel 3a XL
Jumping into benchmarks, the CPU-intensive GeekBench test shows the Pixel 4a has improved its single-core performance over last year, gaining roughly a 50% improvement. Overall, multi-core results show a marginal improvement. The Pixel 4a won't be getting any impressive performance scores from here on out. This chipset was built for efficiency.
GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
3332 - Apple iPhone SE (2020)
3237 - OnePlus 7T
2858 - OnePlus 7 Pro
2721 - Google Pixel 4
2542 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
2141 - OnePlus Nord
1953 - OnePlus Nord (Fnatic)
1945 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
1927 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
1898 - vivo X50
1827 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
1781 - Motorola One Fusion+
1705 - Realme 6 Pro
1666 - Google Pixel 4a
1626 - Sony Xperia 10 II
1413 - Google Pixel 3a XL
1307 - Samsung Galaxy A41
1175
GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone SE (2020)
1334 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
916 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
789 - OnePlus 7T
776 - OnePlus 7 Pro
720 - Google Pixel 4
623 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
616 - OnePlus Nord
610 - OnePlus Nord (Fnatic)
605 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
589 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
569 - Realme 6 Pro
565 - Google Pixel 4a
553 - vivo X50
552 - Motorola One Fusion+
542 - Google Pixel 3a XL
352 - Sony Xperia 10 II
315 - Samsung Galaxy A41
309
The compound results from AnTuTu 8 show the gap in performance above the Snapdragon 670 and MediaTek Helio P65. A smaller gap separates the SD730 from the SD765G. A difference in performance may be noticeable between the 670 and the 730 but we're talking small fractions of seconds.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
538221 - OnePlus 7T
485585 - Apple iPhone SE (2020)
462253 - Google Pixel 4
395351 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
389694 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
318117 - OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
315641 - OnePlus Nord
312794 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
299926 - Realme 6 Pro
268785 - Google Pixel 4a
268714 - Motorola One Fusion+
267980 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
261359 - Sony Xperia 10 II
196545 - Google Pixel 3a XL
176612 - Samsung Galaxy A41
170044
How about GPU performance? The Adreno 618 pumped out 30fps in the least-intensive GFX 3.1 Manhattan test. 16fps was achieved in the most-intensive GFX test. Not stellar, but that shouldn't stop you from playing any game on the 4a. All games have software optimizations for general smoothness with some of the crust cut off.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
87 - OnePlus 7T
79 - OnePlus 7 Pro
68 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
67 - Google Pixel 4
62 - Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
56 - Huawei P30
54 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
38 - OnePlus Nord
38 - OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
38 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
33 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
31 - Google Pixel 4a
30 - Realme 6 Pro
30 - vivo X50
27 - Motorola One Fusion+
27 - Google Pixel 3a XL
20 - Samsung Galaxy A41
13 - Sony Xperia 10 II
13
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
59 - OnePlus 7T
59 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
57 - Google Pixel 4
55 - Huawei P30
48 - Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
48 - OnePlus Nord
34 - OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
34 - OnePlus 7 Pro
33 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
32 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
29 - Google Pixel 4a
27 - Realme 6 Pro
27 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
26 - Motorola One Fusion+
25 - vivo X50
24 - Google Pixel 3a XL
19 - Samsung Galaxy A41
12 - Sony Xperia 10 II
10
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
51 - OnePlus 7T
48 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
42 - OnePlus 7 Pro
41 - Google Pixel 4
39 - Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
33 - Huawei P30
29 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
21 - OnePlus Nord
21 - OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
21 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
19 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
18 - Realme 6 Pro
18 - Google Pixel 4a
17 - vivo X50
16 - Motorola One Fusion+
16 - Google Pixel 3a XL
11 - Samsung Galaxy A41
8.1 - Sony Xperia 10 II
7.1
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 7T
41 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
40 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
40 - Google Pixel 4
31 - Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
28 - Huawei P30
26 - OnePlus Nord
19 - OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
19 - OnePlus 7 Pro
19 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
17 - Google Pixel 4a
16 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
16 - Realme 6 Pro
16 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
15 - vivo X50
14 - Motorola One Fusion+
14 - Google Pixel 3a XL
11 - Samsung Galaxy A41
6.9 - Sony Xperia 10 II
5.6
3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
7223 - OnePlus 7T
6296 - OnePlus 7 Pro
5462 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
4385 - Google Pixel 4
4294 - Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
4279 - Huawei P30
4055 - Apple iPhone SE (2020)
4015 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
3294 - OnePlus Nord
3285 - OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
3187 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
3031 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
2512 - Realme 6 Pro
2506 - Google Pixel 4a
2487 - vivo X50
2263 - Google Pixel 3a XL
1630 - Samsung Galaxy A41
1149 - Sony Xperia 10 II
1125
3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
6660 - OnePlus 7T
5540 - OnePlus 7 Pro
4833 - Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
4264 - Samsung Galaxy S10e
4258 - Huawei P30
4163 - Google Pixel 4
3760 - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
3080 - OnePlus Nord
3067 - OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
2960 - Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
2821 - Oppo Reno4 Pro
2377 - Realme 6 Pro
2334 - Google Pixel 4a
2275 - vivo X50
2082 - Google Pixel 3a XL
1544 - Samsung Galaxy A41
1161 - Sony Xperia 10 II
1121
To give you the skinny: the Pixel 4a will play pretty much any game you want it to. Casual gaming is fine for any smartphone of any price range these days, but if you're looking for a powerhouse with optimized cooling and game-specific settings then the Pixel 4a won't be what you're looking for.
Performance gains over the Pixel 3a aren't too significant, but they are noticeable in the benchmark results. In daily usage, the Pixel 4a performs wonderfully with minimal stutter and without hesitation even after loading many apps and content. The switch to UFS storage should speed up app loading/installation times as well. Even though it isn't the speediest device in its class, the Pixel 4a will deliver reliable performance.
Camera hardware and UI
The camera on the Pixel 4a is identical to the hardware from the 3a, save for one line on the spec sheet.
There's a 12.2MP camera with 1/2.55" sensor and 1.4 µm size pixels. While the Pixel 3a used an f/1.8 aperture lens with 28mm-equivalent field of view, the Pixel 4a has a slightly brighter f/1.7 aperture and 27mm-equivalent field of view. This camera is also optically stabilized with quick and accurate Dual Pixel autofocus.
The HDR+ algorithm takes between 3-15 underexposed shots, aligns and combines them with overexposed frames, and a 14-bit "linear RGB" image is created. This image is then reduced to 8-bit (16 million colors) which is what gives Google PIxels' images their signature "tonal" look.
Although there's no manual shooting mode, there's a "Dual Exposure" feature that debuted on the Pixel 4 which lets you adjust the highlights and shadows of the scene before taking the shot. Live HDR+, another feature from the Pixel 4, lets you preview a near-final version of the post-processed shot in real-time before you hit the shutter button.
Live HDR+ • Final image
The Google Pixel's camera app is simple and straightforward. There aren't too many shooting modes that can overwhelm the user, and the interface is not bogged down with too many settings or options.
Camera UI
How do the shots look?
Once again, Google's HDR+ proves that you don't need major hardware to get nice looking shots. The Pixel 4a does a wonderful job of reducing noise in attempts to save resolved details in the shadows. Google's really solidified its distinct style of photos that's recognizable as coming from a Pixel phone.
Camera samples
Contrast is excellent in most shots and colors remain true to life. It's worth noting that one of the characteristics of photos from this camera is that the overall color temperature is generally cooler (bluer) than other phones.
This camera shines in bright daylight photography: details are well resolved without oversharpening and sometimes, if you pixel peep, you'll find that some details look like they were drawn by artistic hands. There's barely any noise in these shots.
Shots in less-than favorable conditions like overcast or with a light source behind the subject is where the HDR+ starts to show its efforts. Colors wash out and although noise stays very low, exposure drops overall. Overcast skies are perfectly represented, but the overall scene under the sky can sometimes appear dimmer and with low contrast. This wasn't any different on the Pixel 4 XL - the resulting images from both cameras are barely distinguishable.
Samples from Pixel 4 XL
The Pixel 4a has only a single camera, but it supports Google's Super Zoom, which uses software to upscale a 2X digitally zoomed image into a lossless 12MP photo.
Super Zoom samples
Remember those details that look like they were drawn? The camera's algorithm tries to compensate for details it can't see by generating the textures from the multiple frames taken by HDR+. The details look a bit smudgier, but there's still barely any noise throughout.
This is a great effort from Google's part, but a dedicated 2X zoom camera would certainly take more detailed photos. Here are some shots taken with the Pixel 4 XL's secondary zoom camera.
2X Zoom camera on Pixel 4 XL
You can see how much more details there are from the dedicated zoom camera. Still, an okay effort for only using a single camera, but even cheaper phones are equipped with 48MP sensors which can take 2X photos with far more details.
Lowlight photos are quite good. Dynamic range and details are great, but this is when we finally start to see trace amounts of noise from the HDR+ algorithm. The noise can mostly be seen in the shadows of the scene. Otherwise, colors still lean very cool while contrast is good.
Lowlight photos
Night Sight is necessary in lower light conditions, as it can capture white balance for the scene more accurately. You'll notice the following images are slightly different than the ones above.
Night Sight photos
Night Sight photos are generally more exposed in the shadows, and offer white balance that's more true to life. Details are slightly improved while noise is slightly less. When there's light in the shot, they give life to the scene, and their colors give a vividness to the overall image.
You can take Night Sight shots in 2X zoom as well. We admit this does work quite well. There's a significant improvement in exposure, dynamic range, resolved detail, and color are more true to life as well. There's still noise apparent in the 2X night Sight photos, but they're still totally usable.
2X Zoom: Auto • Night Sight
Like the Pixels before it, the Pixel 4a crops in a bit when switching to portrait mode. Portraits themselves are pretty okay. The synthesized blur is very dramatic, and the subject line is mostly accurate with the occasional snag in the process. It might be a good idea to take a few portraits in case it misses the first time.
The PIxel 4a supports Astrophotography - first introduced on the Pixel 4 and 4 XL. It's a longer-term Night Sight mode that activates when the phone detects it's perfectly stable (such as leaning on something or mounted on a tripod).
Astrophotography: Settings • capture
Depending on the scene, the camera can take anywhere from 1 to more than 3 minutes to capture a shot. Clouds tend to travel for a good distance in that time, so it's recommended to shoot on a clear night.
Auto • Night Sight • Astrophotography
This mode is meant for capturing the starry night skies or moonlit landscapes. Those blue splotches you see leaked from a blue light source from the neighbor's backyard.
Astrophotography shots
It's entirely possible to shoot epic images with people posing in them, as long as those people are okay with staying completely still for a couple of minutes or so.
The stars really do shine through, as long as you don't live very close to a city with many lights. Objects, images and textures on land look superb, with lots of detail and depth from its shadows. Noise is apparent in the sky, however. If you do have to shoot with clouds in the sky, these clouds will appear almost as if they were brushed into the scene since they swept across during the camera's exposure time.
Portrait photos
Depending on the lighting situation, some portraits can look unnaturally bright. We sometimes wish the algorithm wasn't too aggressive in brightening the shadows, and in cases where light is behind the subject, the subject gets lost in noise and tones look too dark.
Skin tones are okay for the most part, but Pixel's love to highlight all the details possible, so they aren't always the most flattering for the overly self-concious.
8MP selfies
The Selfie camera is unchanged from the Pixel 3a's on paper. It's a fixed focus 8MP camera with f/2.0 aperture lens and a rather wide 24mm field of view - so this one is great for fitting a bunch of friends in with you.
First, let's start with the fixed focus lens. It seems the focus is set to infinity because everything in the background is in perfect focus but faces look slightly out of focus.
Finding where selfies are in focus.
Even when extending an arm out as far as possible, selfies still didn't seem fully in-focus. Perhaps Google did this to soften the look of facial features since the Pixel likes to pull more detail than many would prefer.
Selfie samples
Contrast and dynamic range are excellent when taking selfies. Even when taking a selfie in a shaded spot with a brighter background, the camera knows what to meter and the brightening of shadows doesn't appear as aggressive as photos from the main camera. Like the main camera, colors lean on the cool side and are vivid in bright light. Skin tones look just fine. Resolved details look very good, but more so in the background than on the subject in front of the camera.
With selfie portraits, the background is blurred so it's easier to forget that you're not entirely in focus. Like the main camera's portraits, the bokeh effect is very strong. We prefer how selfie portraits look under softer light such as during an overcast.
Selfie portraits
The separation line is well blended. It seems to be a bit better than the main camera but like the main camera, it's advisable to shoot two or three portraits in just in case the bokeh line clips on the first try.
Video
The Pixel 4a can shoot up to 4K video at 30 frames per second, and there's also an option to shoot 1080p@60fps.
In the standard 1080p shooting mode, video looked great. Dynamic range is excellent while resolved details look good. The image isn't soft, but isn't too sharp either. Colors are spot-on and noise is minimal.
Switching to 60 frames per second, there's a noticeable drop in sharpness and quality. It turned out that the 60fps video was only outputting a birate of about 33Mbps while the FHD video was putting out about 22Mbps. We much prefer the quality of the 30fps video.
Finally, 4K video looks excellent. Dynamic range and contrast are great, while colors and white balance are consistent with camera's still images. Resolved detail is superb and noise is minimal. 4K video outputs at a bitrate of about 48Mbps.
The competition
The Pixel 4a is currently on pre-order with a price tag of around 350 bucks - regardless whether that means dollars, pounds or euros where you reside.
The market has never been so full of great midrange propositions. The Google Pixel 4a enters a heated arena where all smartphones are already offering great performance and smooth user experience. It's a compact phone so we'd admit that if that's a particular feature you are after, you'd be hard-pressed to find equally matched counterparts as the industry has generally moved past the 6-inch mark.
Samsung Galaxy A41 • Apple iPhone SE (2020) • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G • OnePlus Nord
The Samsung Galaxy A41 has not launched in the US yet but it's enjoying a warm reception everywhere else. It's got a 6-inch AMOLED screen, a larger battery, and a great battery life. It's owing to the chipset which is more tuned for power efficiency rather than performance. Performance is clearly one area where the Pixel 4a has the upper hand. The camera performance of the A41 is good but not outstanding too, which puts a second mark on the Pixel 4a checklist. However, the A41 is priced some 100 euros less than the Pixel 4a, so if camera performance is not super important, the A41 sounds like the better deal.
The iPhone SE 2020 has the camera performance to match the Pixel 4a as well as the fast rack OS updates and it's got a much more premium build with water resistance. It's got awesome performance thanks to Apple's latest CPU but battery life is uninspiring and it also has a much smaller screen. Coupled with the higher price tag, it's the phone you get if you want the cheapest or most compact iPhone possible (or both). The purchasing decision will likely not be down to specs but rather to the preferred OS ecosystem.
If the compact size is not a must-have, there are a few other alternatives hovering around the 6.5-inch mark. Due to their increased size, they've all got better battery life than the Pixel 4a aside from increased screen real estate.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G offers an amazing value package as well with a great AMOLED screen, and superb battery life while costing around 300 euros. It even throws in 5G connectivity in the mix but camera performance is not as good.
For around 350 euros, the OnePlus Nord is another 5G capable phone that is better than the Pixel 4a. And when we say 5G we mean this comes with a better grade chipset overall even if you don't have access to a 5G network.
The verdict
With many other midrange devices in the same price range, the Google Pixel 4a offers a fully rounded Pixel experience in a compact size and at a budget-friendly price point.
As midrange smartphones are now coming with triple and even quad-cameras, the Pixel 4a's Astrophotography feature, dead-simple camera UI, and distinct style of photography that it produces makes it competitive enough to stand out in its class.
The screen is plenty bright and nicely sharp. The phone's compact size is comfortable and easy to handle - a nice break from all the budget smartphones that come in the mid and upper 6-inch range.
Software is as expected. Android 10 runs smoothly and quickly, though we are kind of puzzled that Google would release a Pixel so soon before it officially releases Android 11. It's generally known that Google severely delayed the launch of this phone because of the ongoing pandemic.
This feels more like a refresh of the widely successful Pixel 3a, which is fine too. We have a feeling that Google is saving all the jaw-dropping changes for the upcoming Pixel 5.
If you're coming from the Pixel 3a or the 3a XL, there isn't any incentive to upgrade to the 4a. The phones are identical on paper and aside from the 4a's design, added RAM and storage, and marginally better CPU, there isn't really anything surprising about the Pixel 4a.
Pros:
- Great display
- Comfortable, compact size
- Plenty of RAM and storage
- Headphone jack
- Smooth, snappy software
- Still images nearly indistinguishable from Pixel 4XL, astrophotography
Cons:
- Not much of an upgrade over Pixel 3a and Pixel 5 launch is imminent
- Battery life is average
- Selfie camera's foccus plane is too far
0 Response to "Google Pixel 4a review"
Post a Comment