Google Pixel 3a XL unboxing and first impressions By Neowin

Hey guys I'm Richard Neal Wynn today we're unboxing the Pixel 3a XL, so Google sent me this nice big box here, hashtag team, pixel and there's a lot of stuff in there. I need to take a peek inside because they really only told me that they were sending me a pixel three eggs. So I wasn't sure if it was a 3a or the three AXL. So we've got this nice Google bag here, okay, a couple of things: here's the device itself, and we have a case which is the same case and my pixel 3 XL, here same kind of fabric case that they're introducing with this device a top socket teen pixel pop socket. Alright, and you know: try one month free of Google Phi hit 18 pixel Google Pixel three aims. Finally, here so that's what's in the box and the hit in the big box or getting into this box on a moment, so Google announced this device at its IO developer conference this week, and it said something it was widely rumored.

I. Don't think anybody was surprised at what actually showed up here. So they said they got on stage, and they said something interesting. Because I'd never heard any OEM say it in public before which is that the price of flagship phones is going up and up and up and so Google wanted to deliver flagship features and a phone that doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. Really this device right here, the pixel 3 XL.

It costs eight hundred and ninety-nine dollars. This one costs under $500. In fact, the regular Pixel 3a only cost 399. It's got a Snapdragon 670 chipset, so it is considered high-end, not premium high-end, just high-end, four gigs of RAM 64 gigs of storage, but this also has four gigs of RAM. So if you're, you aren't getting a solid experience, and it's supposed to have all those pixel three features.

It's supposed to have the same great camera with night sight. One feature that I particularly love about the pixel 3, which this also has. Is that see how it hasn't always on display here and if you're playing music. It just tells you on the always-on display what song is playing. You don't have to go open up Shazam or anything like that.

It just kind of works. So this is like I said the Excel. It's got. A six-inch display no notch, which is fantastic uh. You know, I've heard it criticized for not having a full screen display and I have to, say I, don't share that this not just is hideous on the pixel 3xl, it's just awful.

So it's been criticized already for not having that that full top-to-bottom display and I disagree. I. Think a little of bezels is actually a good thing and I wish more companies realize that it's got wider side bezels as well, and it makes a phone easier to hold when you have a little of bezel. So the device we've got here is called purplish. Alright, I'm just going to open this up, and it wraps around.

So we are pulling off the screen protector. There's no no option there. So it does it have. It has a pretty big chin, a top bezel, which is really around the sides of the bezel of the notch on the pixel 3xl I'm, going to start booting this up and like I said you can't see the pencil size around the same size as the notch on this phone. Okay, um side.

Does its fine, you know it's. It looks a little dated as far as bezels go and I think that's fine, let's see what else is in the box. We got some paperwork and a SIM PIN right here you have a USB type-c to type-c cable, which is always nice, a Type C to type-a adapter. If I can get the box alright, and we're going to have a power adapter in here USB type-c supports 18 watt fast charging, which is nice, the bad news, no wireless charging on either of them, which is kind of a bum deal. If you ask me, the phone is made of plastic, which is kind of nice, because I, like plastic phones, I, think it's okay to make nice plastic phones.

A lot of companies have gone away from that. A lot of companies just go well, most phones are just glass now, and obviously you do. Wireless charging through glass, just like you can through plastic and I, think a lot of companies just gave up on plastic because it doesn't seem to look premium, but I disagree. One thing: that's cool about a type c2 type-c cable. Is that it's easy to simply copy all your accounts and data from one phone to the next, and if you don't have one, you can easily use the adapter, that's in the box and that's I guess, assuming that your old phone uses microUSB, because you have that type: c2, type-c, cable, alright! So here we have it.

The pixel of 3a XL, like I, said the sizes of the two devices. Aren't that different, the, in fact, the body's just about the same surprisingly, so the screens a little bigger on the full pixel 3. Just because it has that notch, alright and yeah. It's you got a bigger chin, um, it's like both of them have OLED, which is cool. So this is a 1080p OLED 6 inch display and really, if you're, looking for a smaller phone.

This is not it is the regular Pixel 3a. It has a 5.6-inch screen, and it's really nice also 1080p, alright. So we just we have our pixel features that were used to you can install the Android Q beta on this and same single 12 megapixel camera. It's. It's really being it's very much like a pixel, 3 XL of a smaller body.

Obviously no wireless charging like I mentioned earlier. We got the Google Pixel of the Google camera app, and we have our different features here. It does support 4k video, although obviously not see this is 60 frames per second we're going to have to go into settings to turn on 4k and that would be 30 frames per second only. Obviously, if you want 4k 60 frames per second, you need something with a snapdragon, 845 or higher, but 4k 30 frames per second in a phone that that's that's you know under $500 or the $400 Pixel 3a is pretty good, so we should also be able to look there's nitrite, which is a feature that we all love doesn't seem to have the playground feature that we've seen in other pixels and let's see we can see that here it might just be because the apps haven't installed. Yet you do need some third-party apps for that.

But what you can do is you can kind of you can add stuff like that. You can add ooh, nine Avengers ones. I thought I had that, but um, so you can add a characters on top. If we go here right, so we there are a stranger things one. So we can just kind of throw this guy on top of the table here, and it's not there.

If it doesn't show up, that's going to be a bummer I hope it does. So I did try to force, install the playground app, and we'll see if we can well we'll see if we can come back to that and see it, and we'll see if it works, but other than that this pretty much is the same pixel that you know and love it I mean you really can't tell the difference from the back. So maybe the body of the three AXL is a little bigger, but fingerprint sensor right where you used to it single lens, 12, megapixel camera, the module seems to be a little bigger on the three AXL. The flash is a little bigger on the 3x, so the buttons right where you left them, it's a very similar device which is really cool. The thing that's that's really cool about that is that it's its just over half the price I mean the pixel three costs $7.99 and three XL costs. The cost.

Eight nine starts at 899. So to put this at 489 is really incredible. You know I've seen the early reviews, and they're quite good, not reviews, but early hands-on type of stuff and it looks like a solid device and what really concerns me is the camera, because other companies are really Motorola. Motorola owns that value for priced market, depending on where you go in the lineup, because you go the Moto G is that's where you go. If you want to spend $300 or less on a smartphone, it's hands-down, the best so 400 to 500 I feel like this is going to own that market and then obviously around that $600 price point you get.

One plus pricing for four phones has gotten a little weird, because well really at this price, you're, usually sacrificing camera, and that's why Google promising what it's promising for this was night sight and all that stuff is pretty impressive and, like I said, pricing is a little messed up what it was only a few years ago, when a flagship phone cost $200 with a contract off contract. It was 650, maybe 600, maybe 700, but that's that subsidy brought you down to $200 with the contract and so figure 450 discount $450 discount. If you promise to be with this carrier for two years and your bill was higher as well, so when they got rid of contracts, they lowered your bill, and now they just spread everything out over two years. The price of the phone. So what's interesting, is that now, like remember iPhones, it was $$200300 $400 for storage tears.

Now you just tell them like. Oh, it's just an extra $5 a month and then your next phone, it's another five hundred five dollars a month and then another fight, and then the price gradually goes up because five dollars a month is 120 dollars over two years and that turns a $650 phone into a seven hundred and seventy dollar phone. So these prices just keep going up and now flagship phones around $1,000, maybe 900. So the price of a lot OnePlus makes it particularly hard because they put a flagship phone in that $600 range, although it does have it set back for that, but they put up like your phone on that $600 range, so you can't make a non non-premium high-end device in that $600 range because now you're competing with OnePlus, and so that leaves that three to four hundred dollar range open, so $400 you're, getting a snapdragon, 670 processors, four gigs of ram, solid camera, 64 gigs of storage, and I'm, not sure what else you'd wanted at that price. Hey I said this one's for 79 and there's only one storage tier.

It comes with 64 gigs, but it seems like, like Google's, done, a great job of putting that premium. Experience in that lower priced point, so I'm, just I'm curious. Now how they're going to push pixel three or what they're going to do with pixel four? How are they going to differentiate pixel, four from them from the three? A because remember it's not just gonna, be $100 more, it's going to be $400 more, it's going to be double the price, so it's going to be interesting to see how they handle that. Oh, one last thing before we wrap this up. I did finish installing the playground app, and it does not seem to be showing up in camera.

So if you wanted that, that is one way that the pixel 3 is differentiated, not that that's a real differentiator in any meaningful way, but it was one thing that was pretty cool. So what we'll see I'm gonna play with it later? Who knows so? That's it. I put my regular T-Mobile SIM in this I did not put my project by sim in this, and the reason for that is because people have different phone numbers. For me. You know, I have many phone numbers I like three SIM cards, and so the way it works is that I have one T-Mobile, SIM, and then I have a project by sim that where people can text me through Google Hangouts, and it comes to all of my devices, and so some people have my regular T-Mobile number- and this is gonna- be the only phone that I use for the next couple of weeks.

Well, at least for the next week until I get up, you know the 1 plus 7, but yeah, so I'm excited to try it out the at least the case is symmetrical on this. This is one thing I hated about. This is that the case was just a little off centered on this, and it kills me it killed me so yeah, so I know you can tell even the case is a little bulkier, which is actually kind of fine. You can see that the edges is a little raised so which is cool, because when you put it face down your screen, isn't going to get ascribed so anyway, like I, said I'll be playing this the case of thicker too, like you could feel it when you hit the fingerprint sensor, all right guys, I'm going to be playing with this for the next. Oh, it's gonna only foam for the next week, I'll be playing with it for a few weeks, and then I'll have a review and that's it.

I'm Men from Neo win have a great night.

Source : Neowin