Google Pixel 4A 5G Review: A decent mid-range Pixel, but is that enough? By Engadget

Google is bucking the thousand dollar phone trend, and I'm here for it, the company's Pixel 4a received nearly universal acclaim earlier this year, if only because that 350 was impossible to argue with, but with the new pixel 4 a5g and the pixel 5 google's decision to focus on affordability and 5g instead of premium specs was met with plenty of criticism. The 485 g in particular is basically a stretched out 4a with a second camera and 5g built in for that you'll be paying north of 500. The question, then, is: if you buy the pixel 4a5g now, will it be good enough to last you, the next two years the Pixel 4a 5g looks so similar to the 4a and the 5 that I kept confusing them for each other. Even if one is bigger, I even picked up the 4a to test the new feature. Only to realize later that I had the wrong phone. It is easier to differentiate between the 4a5g and the pixel 5.

The headphone jack is a dead giveaway that I've got the 4a. All three phones have a fingerprint sensor on the rear, too, which I prefer to face recognition when it comes to unlocking my phone. The camera setups are another subtle. Tell the 4a.5G has a second lens which wasn't included on the original 4a like its siblings. The 4a 5g features a notchless all-screen design, with a small hole cut out in the top left for the selfie camera.

Oh, and you'll also be able to get the pixel 5 in a beautiful new color option. Sage green, although as google calls it sort of sage. Meanwhile, the Pixel 4a and the 4a5g are only available in the standard black. The biggest difference between the 3 pixels is their screens. The pixel 5 is the only one to offer a 90hz refresh rate, while the 4a and 4a5g are stuck on 60hz, which is quickly becoming outdated.

That said, in daily use, I didn't notice a huge benefit in having a faster screen, but the contrast is clear. When I put the 5 and 4a 5g side by side and rapidly scrolled up and down my Instagram feed, the 5 easily keeps up while the slower screen stutters a more meaningful distinction between the 4a 5g and the 5 is the actual size of the screen for those who need more room for bigger fonts or just prefer a larger screen for movies or reading the 485 g's 6.2 inch panel trumps, the pixel 5's six-inch display one last difference between the two phone screens. The pixel 5 supports a contrast ratio of a million to one while the four a's go up to a hundred thousand to one. Despite that, I never found the cheaper phones to be lacking punch and really only saw the difference when I compared them to the pixel 5. Although the 485g screen was a lovely vibrant canvas for all the music videos and Netflix shows that I stream to it with his latest pixels the company finally added a second ultra-wide lens to the rear, which is much more versatile than the telephoto option.

On last year's flagships, the company said it tweaked its processing algorithms, so that people's faces don't appear distorted when taken with the ultra-wide camera. The funny thing is: it'll fix facial distortion by moving a person's head closer to the center of the frame, but leave their body untouched. These results in a hilarious picture of my colleague Chris Velasco looking disproportionate. I haven't yet had the chance to test it in more scenarios, so there might be other factors affecting the result. In my pictures of buildings, though, there is minimal distortion near the edges of the image.

I used the note 20 ultras, wide angle, camera on the same scene and while Chris and I could barely see a difference, our video producer, Brian's trained eyes spotted some slight distortion in Samsung's picture compared to Google's most of the new camera features are in the software, which is where google tends to shine when it thinks there's not enough light in your shot. The Pixel 4a 5g, automatically activates night sight, you'll see the crescent moon symbol on the shutter button, which indicates the mode is on, and you'll have to hold your phone. Steady for the few seconds it takes to get the shot. This works in portrait mode as well. Whether you find this feature useful depends on how much you liked night side in the first place, if you were never into it, you'll hate that it kicks in by default, but at least you can turn it off.

It's a little annoying if you weren't expecting it, especially since you'll need to keep still for a few seconds more to capture a photo in night sight, but by and large the pictures came out nicely, and I remain as impressed by Google's processing software as ever. Another new software feature is a group of stabilization modes for video. Recording you'll now find options for standard locked, active and cinematic pan, as opposed to just one standard option in the earlier models. Standard and active are fairly common, and you might not even notice a significant difference between them locked mode. Let me frame up a specific area and then kept my subject in the center, despite small camera movements due to handshake, it's useful for keeping tight focus on a stationary object, but I don't foresee myself using it that much the real showstopper is the new cinematic pan mode.

This slows the footage down to half the speed and mutes the audio shooting at twice the frame rate for a much smoother scene that has an almost slow motion quality. I pointed my phone at autumnal foliage in prospect park, as my cab drove by and the resulting 1080p clips were impressively smooth as much as I like cinematic pan. My favorite new feature is actually portrait light, since it's not always easy to get flattering illumination for my selfies. You don't have to do anything to enable this feature. As long as you shoot in portrait mode with the front camera you'll be able to edit the photo afterwards moving a faux light source around.

This is fairly similar to what the iPhone and Huawei phones already offer, although they do provide a greater variety of spotlight options. Apple's mode doesn't give you as much control over where the light shines. On your face, though, I was hopeful that google's tool might save pictures in tricky light situations, but it wasn't the miracle I was expecting. This is designed for smaller scale, more targeted improvements. I took a selfie in a backlit setting with uneven overhead light and when I edited the photo afterwards, I dragged the circle around to cast some brightness on my face.

I only really saw a difference when I dragged the intensity up past 80 percent and managed to get rid of some shadows on my left, cheek speaking of editing pictures, I like how much easier to use the new photos. Editor is googled rolled out this updated editor earlier this month, and it gives you more precise control over settings like brightness contrast, highlights, shadows and more the Fourier 5gs camera app also features some interface changes, and I appreciate that modes like time-lapse and slow motion are no longer buried in the more section. Instead, you'll find them right above the shutter button. When you go to take a video one of my favorite things about Google's phones over other android handsets is the pixel first software. This year, Google is introducing a hold for me feature on the pixel 45g and the pixel 5 that has assistant stay on the line for you when you're put on hold when it's.

Finally, your turn to speak with a person, the assistant will tell the agent that you're using the service and that you'll be right back it'll also send you an alert that you've been connected, and your phone will ring too, just in case you've wandered away from your table with the Pixel 4a 5g. Google is also adding a new assistant snapshot page to the feed, so that, when you swipe to the left of your home screen, you'll see more than just suggested news articles. You can also get your upcoming calendar events, weather reports and commuter info. You know remember commutes, with its snapdragon 765g processor and 6 gigs of ram the pixel 4 a5g ran smoothly in daily use. Granted, I didn't throw anything too heavy at it, mostly just endless rounds of solitaire and chatting with my friends while browsing twitter and articles online.

What did surprise me was the 485g's battery life, which was so insanely long? It actually kept me from leaving my house. It ran for close to 17 hours on our video rundown test and still had 24 percent of juice left. I had to stop the test and head out with just 20 left on the phone, but I wasn't worried. I'd be left with a dead device in real world use. The 485g usually stuck around for a whole day and change, which is in line with the s20 Fe and the OnePlus word.

In the event that I was truly concerned about the pixel 45g giving up on me, I could turn on the new extreme battery saver mode to kill all but a selection of apps. Everything else will be paused, so you won't get notifications from them and, like the digital well-being, timeout feature, you can still choose to unpause an app while an extreme battery saver, which is helpful for when you need to open maps, Uber or Lyft to get home. It's hard. To sum up how I feel about the pixel 4 a5g, it's basically the larger version of the Pixel 4a, which at 350 dollars is the best phone in that price, with a new wide-angle camera on the back and a slightly better processor, the 485g is definitely an upgrade over the 4a, but it's also 150 to 250 dollars more expensive and doesn't feel like it's bringing enough advancements to justify that delta. If you plan to pay for your new pixel over a year or two, the 200 difference or 100 of your own Verizon might not feel like that big of a difference, in which case spending more on the pixel 5, might be the better decision.

If only for the peace of mind, you would get with water resistance. The smoother screen will also make that phone feel like it's faster, and the display size difference is almost negligible. The main reason to get the 4a5g is, if you absolutely cannot spend more than 500, and you want a bigger screen or if you really must have a headphone jack on a modern phone. That said, despite the fact that it overlaps in so many ways with its stablemates, the pixel 4 a5g is still a capable device for the money for all the buying advice, based on in-depth reviews of the latest smartphones, wearables and tablets, make sure you stay tuned and subscribe to winning gadget and, as always, thank you for watching uh.

Source : Engadget