Google is jumping on the 5g train, with the pixel 5 and the Pixel 4a 5g priced at 700 and 500 respectively. These phones run the latest android 11 oses have a second ultra-wide camera and have the biggest batteries than any previous pixel phones. So let's check them both out a little closer. Let's start with what makes the phones different. My colleague Lexi has an excellent explainer, comparing these two that I encourage you to check out, but really quickly. The more premium pixel 5 has a 90hz display more ram, a slightly bigger battery and an aluminum body.
That's water resistant. It also has wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. The pixel 4 a5g, on the other hand, is a tad larger, has a polycarbonate design, that's not water resistant, and it has a headphone jack other than that, though. The phones share the same camera, setup, processor and general look and feel like past years. The pixel phone's main selling point is the camera google got rid of the telephoto lens that we saw on the pixel 4 and replaced it with an ultra-wide camera.
This wider field of view is great for sweeping landscapes or just fitting more buddies in your photos. The camera's low light mode branded as night sight takes great pictures and dim lighting, and now it works in portrait mode. So you can still take those polished, dramatic pictures in the dark. Google also added a tool that lets you play around with portrait lighting. It's really easy to use, and it came in handy whenever I took a generally nice image, but the lighting just didn't quite come out right for video.
There are now different types of optimizations you can choose for stabilizing video. One is cinematic pan, which offers a slow and smooth cinematic. Look when you're panning during a shot, keep in mind this mode, doesn't capture audio for you, slo-mo fans out there. The phones can also now record 60 frames per second in 4k resolution in general, the cameras are still fantastic, pictures have great dynamic range, shots are vibrant and clear and night sight does an excellent job at handling low light, but the delta between it and other phones isn't as wide any more compared to the OnePlus 8t. For example, pictures looked pretty on par with one another, though, when it came to low light, the pixel had better dynamic range and white balance.
The pixel phones run android 11 and there isn't a huge amount of new software things we haven't already seen. Since the OS has been rolling out. The devices do preview, something called hold for me, which lets assistant, take your place when you're on hold, so you don't have to listen to crappy hold music, and it notifies you when a real person is back on the line. The native recorder app also has more tricks up its sleeve. Since the last time we took a look at it on the Pixel 4a.
I'm not too sure why Google has really leaned in on this app, but as someone who uses it all the time for taking notes, I'm not complaining. You can now copy or remove chunks of audio and create a cool little graphic. If you want to share some quote or audio snippet on social media, the pixel, 5 and 4 a5g features a snapdragon 765g processor. It's an interesting choice, given that a lot of current flagships in last year's pixel 4 have the more robust, snapdragon 855 chipsets. While that means the pixel's benchmark scores aren't as high as say the OnePlus, 8t or galaxy s20.
The phones are still fast and reliable. During my time with it, I didn't experience any hiccups or lag time throughout my day-to-day tasks. The pixel 5 has a 4 ampere hour battery and the pixel 4 a5g has a 3.8 ampere hour battery. It's the highest capacity of any pixel phones, but keep in mind plenty of other phones like once again the OnePlus 8t and the galaxy s20 have batteries that are as big or even bigger than that. From what I've seen so far, the pixel phones are able to go without charging for more than 24 hours with mild usage.
I remember last year with the pixel 4 that phone's battery drained noticeably quickly throughout the day and fortunately, I'm not seeing the same thing here. Preliminary battery tests on the pixel 4 a5g for continuous video playback on airplane mode yielded an excellent time of 22 hours, but we're still conducting battery tests on both phones so check back with the written reviews for updates and, lastly, Google is introducing a new mode called extreme battery saver that severely limits app usage to extend battery life so are either of these new pixel phones worth your money. Well, one important thing to consider is that, while these are google's flagship phones- yes, they aren't ultra premium flagship phones, software wise, the updates are pretty incremental and when it comes to hardware, there are plenty of phones from Samsung apple OnePlus, even lg, that boasts faster processors, bigger batteries and more cameras. But google knows this and that's why the phones are priced. The way they are the pixel 5 is a hundred dollars cheaper than the pixel 4 when it first launched last year and the Pixel 4a 5g is relatively affordable at 500.
You know if you're big on mobile gaming, or you need stuff like 8k, video, recording or three cameras, it's best to look elsewhere, but if you're looking for an incredibly user-friendly android phone that gets prompt software and security updates and has an excellent camera, then I'd lean towards the Pixel 4a 5g, it's 200 cheaper than the five it still has 5g, and it has a bigger screen. So, while I love me, a higher refresh rate display reverse wireless charging and wireless charging that 200 chunk of change is worth skipping out on, at least for me, and it's my pick among all three new pixel phones this year. That's it for me for more tech, videos, check out the rest of CNET's channel and be sure to subscribe, stay safe and be well I'll. See you guys next time.
Source : CNET