Pixel 4a review: Impressive camera and a battery that beats the iPhone SE By CNET

2020 has definitely been a garbage year, but it's unexpectedly been a good year for budget phones joining alongside the iPhone SE and the galaxy a51 is the Pixel 4a. So, let's dive right into Google's the newest phone, the Pixel 4a costs 349. And comes in one color, black and one size, as in there's no Pixel 4a XL, it's a cheaper version of 2019's pixel 4. , but, unlike the flagship, the Pixel 4a doesn't have a second telephoto camera. A 90 hertz display wireless charging, water resistance or motion sensing features. It does, however, have a headphone jack, a slightly larger screen and a bigger battery, and while its processor isn't as powerful as the pixel 4, the 4a does come with 128 gigs of storage right off the bat. Besides its affordable price, the Pixel 4a's main draw is its camera, which it shares with the main camera on the pixel 4.

At times. The HDR effects and contrast can look unrealistic, but overall, the cinematic quality of its photos make it one of the more impressive and intuitive cameras to use these photos. I took outdoors had a lot of fine details and crisp contrast in this picture. The camera was pointed directly towards the sun, and this one was taken in the dim shade against a bright sun-drenched lake. Both were tricky lighting situations, but the photos came out well exposed.

This photo was taken with a phone's 7x super res zoom, though the person sitting on the lawn looks muddled. The fact that I can still make them out 400 feet away is impressive. Like previous pixel phones, the Pixel 4a can take pictures in very low light, known as night sight and portrait images. Shooting video was also great. The Pixel 4a uses a combination of optical image, stabilization and software to stabilize footage when I recorded video, while walking on the sidewalk and riding one hand on a bicycle on a paved trail, the videos were stable and smooth.

The Pixel 4a comes with android 10 out of the box and features a few new updates. You can now live transcribe phone and video calls, including ones made on non-native apps like Facebook, messenger, real-time transcription for audio recordings, which debuted on the pixel 4 and is for English. Only can now be prompted by Google Assistant and saved to google drive and, like all of Google's phones. The Pixel 4a will be one of the first phones in line to receive OS and software updates when they're ready to roll out from Google. The Pixel 4a has a plain polycarbonate body, so it makes it really clear that you're getting a budget version of the pixel 4.

It doesn't have that kind of elegance of the iPhone SE or that cool glossiness of the galaxy a51 and, unlike the pixel 4, it doesn't have that silky smooth higher refresh rate display, but the Pixel 4a has a better battery life than the pixel 4. With mild usage, the phone lasted all day, no problem without a charge and tests for continuous video, playback on airplane mode averaged 18 hours and 45 minutes, which is an excellent time for comparison. Last year's Pixel 3a lasted about 16.5 hours, while the pixel 4 clocked in only 10 hours, we're going to conduct more battery tests on the Pixel 4a with streaming video and when those results are in I'll update the written review with the final rating. So does the Pixel 4a have the best camera on any phone, which is to say, does the pixel 4 still have the best camera now, not necessarily when the pixel 2 came out in 2017, the delta between Google's camera and other android phones at the time felt pretty wide, and when the pixel 3 introduced night sight, it was like witchcraft levels of impressive. These days, though, rival like apple Samsung and OnePlus have closed the gap when it comes to important camera features like low light photos and zoom.

Instead, I think the better question to ask is: is this the best phone with the best camera that you can get for 350, considering that the Pixel 4a will receive prompt software updates? Has a long battery life from what we've seen so far and a headphone jack? Then I believe the answer is: yes. I'd venture to say that, for its price, the pixel 4h really has one of the best cameras on a phone, and these days any amount of money that you can save is crucial. That's it for me. Let me know what you think about the Pixel 4a in the reader comments and for more tech. Videos check out the rest of CNET's channel, stay safe, be well, and I'll.

See you all next time.

Source : CNET