Google Pixel 5a review: best mid-range smartphone of 2021? By Phandroid

This here is the brand-new pixel 5a from Google, and I have to say I typically get pretty excited when google releases new smartphones, especially devices within the series lineup simply because they offer incredible value, but also an incredible camera experience to go along with it, especially when you compare them to any other budget friendly devices that are on the market. But things are a little different this time around and that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today. I'm degree- and this is my review of the pixel 5a from Google okay. So what makes the pixel 5a different from any other device that google's released over the past couple years? Well, my issue is the confusion that I have over, which device it's actually replacing the 350 Pixel 4a or the 500 Pixel 4a 5g, which both launched last year about a month and a half apart from each other. The good news is the pixel 5a is better than both of those devices and at a pretty reasonable price. At 450.

On the surface, though, we're getting pretty much more of the same, especially when it comes to the design. As you can see here, these devices are practically indistinguishable. It's as if google started with the Pixel 4a stretch it out a little added that same camera, module that you get on the pixel 5 and the Pixel 4a 5g man. These names are confusing and then calling it a day now. I know that's really not what happened here, but I think we can all agree that this design here is played out at this point, especially when you consider that this phone is only available in black now I could give google a pass if they offered a couple different color options here, but they definitely did not do that.

The good news is there are some fun colored cases to go along with this phone if you want to spend an extra 30 bucks or so on. Something like this. On a positive note, this is the largest pixel phone that you can currently buy, with a 6.34-inch full HD plus display, though you will have to contend with a 60 hertz refresh rate. If you are looking to compare specs, that's about a half an inch larger than what we got on the pixel, 4a and I'd have to say the quality of the panel itself, brightness and viewing angles as well are pretty much on par with what we got on the 4a as well, with an 8, megapixel selfie camera peeking through the display right out the top and also symmetrical bezels all the way around. But let's talk about the price of this phone really quick, because this is honestly the most contentious thing about this phone when comparing it to the devices it's supposed to be replacing at four hundred and fifty dollars.

This is a hundred dollars more expensive than the Pixel 4a. That's a 29 year-over-year price increase. And if you ask me, that's a lot to pay if you're looking for a budget-friendly device. But if you flip it around, it's 50 dollars cheaper than the Pixel 4a 5g, and there lies the conundrum that this phone really finds itself in. If you are looking at one edge of the spectrum, it's a lot more expensive than the device that you had last year, and you might want to be upgrading.

But if you flip it around the other way, it's cheaper than the other device that you have for a 5g. So if you're looking for another 450 dollar smartphone to buy this phone here is going to be a disappointment. But if you do happen to have that extra 100 bucks, and you think it's actually worth it to spend on this phone. This is probably the best smartphone that you can buy in the US for 450, and I have to say that extra price does give you quite a bit more phone when compared to what we got last year. As mentioned already, the display is larger at a half an inch larger than the Pixel 4a, and then we get a 4680 William hour battery, which is 49 larger and google even doubled.

The internal storage from 64 gigabytes to 128 gigabytes inside this phone and the processor is faster as well. It has a snapdragon 765 g, which is roughly five to ten percent faster than the 730g that we got on the 4a and then there's also the improved camera system. Okay, so it's not an improved overall camera system since the main camera and the selfie camera are the same as what we got on the predecessor, the same 12 megapixel sensor on the back and eight megapixel selfie camera, but that's only because Google's been using those same exact sensors on all of its cameras for all of its devices for the past couple years now. The difference here is the addition of the 16 megapixel ultra-wide camera, giving the pixel 5a camera parity, even with the pixel 5, which is a 700 smartphone. Needless to say, the photos that you get out of this phone are phenomenal, even when comparing them to high-end devices like the brand new Samsung Galaxy s, 21 lineups from this year.

If you match this phone up against any other smartphone in the sub 500 segments, the results aren't even close. Of course, you also get all of Google's computational photography, goodness with AI, enhanced portrait, shots, night sight and even macrophotography for truly stunning results when it comes to video capture. Google's devices really haven't done that great when matched up against flagship tier devices, but when you get 4k video capture that looks like this on a 450 smartphone, I really have no complaints. Now earlier, I did not google's design team for giving this phone pretty much. The most boring look ever reiterating the same, look and feel that we got on its predecessor, but they actually did put in some work here, because this is the first a series device from Google that has, or is dust and water resistant with an IP rating of 67.

Now you don't have to be an outdoorsy person to truly appreciate this. Since most water damage phones either happen from dropping the phone in the toilet in the pool or simply getting caught in the rain when you weren't expecting it with an IP rating, you simply don't have to worry about any of those situations and when you're spending 450 on a budget friendly device, that's typically not something that you get I'll touch on. The software experience really quick, simply to point out that this phone is running on the latest version of android 11 with the latest security patches as well and Google's usual pixel experience. Now personally, I love the look and feel of what google's done with android and love the simplicity of it. But if you also love having the latest version of android, you definitely want to be able to pick up a pixel device, since this phone will be updated to android 12 and even android 13 on the day that that software drops, you won't have to wait like any other android device does typically three even sometimes six months for the latest version of android to wrap up this review.

Let's talk about battery life on this phone, really quick and, as you probably know, the Google's pixel a series. I've always gotten pretty good battery life, but with the 4 680 William hour battery on the inside of this phone, and it's snapdragon, 765 g, it's honestly a match made in heaven in our battery test. It lasted 16 and a half hours with that benchmark test, which was the second longest after the word n200, which we tested just a couple of months ago or a couple of weeks ago. Honestly- and it really lives up to Google's claims that this phone can last two days on a single charge, and we were only able to cycle the battery four times in the full week that we've had with this phone, which is honestly pretty amazing. As you can probably guess, it doesn't have wireless charging, but neither do most other 400 450 dollar smartphones these days.

But I am definitely disappointed with the fact that google is still using 18 watt fast charging if they can really call it that, with this device here, taking upwards of two and a half hours to fully charge the 4 680 William hour battery from zero all the way to 100. , that's honestly, ridiculously slow and even slower than what we've seen on some Samsung phones this year, which I've been pretty critical of, while I'm not quite as enthusiastic about this phone. As I was about the Pixel 4a from last year, I have to say that it is a really, really good smartphone, especially for those of us in the US market, since we really don't have a great selection of amazing mid-range android devices to choose from the only real competition that the pixel 5a has is the Samsung Galaxy a52, which is 50 more expensive and has a dramatically inferior camera system and software that's a little too bloated and perpetually out of date. Now, if I had to choose between those two devices, the obvious choice for me is going to be the pixel 5a and that's going to do it. Thank you guys so much for watching.

If you want to see my upcoming camera comparisons between the pixel 5a and the competition make sure you subscribe to the channel and stay tuned for those thanks again, and I'll catch you in the next one.

Source : Phandroid