The Pixel 4a Really Gets Me Going... By Unbox Therapy

Here's the most exciting part about the Pixel 4a 349.349. , I love it. The magical mixture is just something that's tantalizing to me, and it gets me going to be quite honest with you. It finally happened. Google came through the pixel.4A has landed in to unbox therapy studio. What a time I'm very excited! You know: I've been a pixel guy.

I've used the pixel phone dating back to the original one. I got a bunch of them lined up over there. Actually, those are the most recent ones, pixel 4 kirks, using his phone right now all right, so it tells you something been a popular choice in the studio uh. You know, I said to you many times that I, like the pixel camera aesthetic. A lot of it has to do just with the camera application.

The software side, but whatever it is. The magical mixture is just something that's tantalizing to me, and it gets me going to be quite honest with you. The software, the stock android experience the experience that Google intended for android in 2020 that's baked into here as well, and here's the most exciting part about the Pixel 4a 349.349. I love it more people getting to experience this experience, more people getting their hands on the goods and more options and more exciting products at different price points. It doesn't have to be a thousand dollars to have a good time, and I like that this is going to go head-to-head with devices like the iPhone SE, the new one.

In fact, I've been reading and looking at a number of comparisons of those two devices aiming at the same segment within the marketplace, but taking different approaches anyway, on the table. Here I have the Pixel 4a in the just black color. This is a 5.8 inch device, 128 GB of storage. This is in the just black color. Ah, speaking of just black, you know I like to wear just black black black.

I, like plain clothes, I like basic clothes, but I like premium basic clothes. So I want to give a quick shout out to my sponsor built basics. They make all the shirts that you see me wearing here on this channel. I've got a promo code, so you can step up your basic clothing game as well. You can stick a bunch of these in your drawer, and you don't even have to think about what you're going to wear that day.

I just have. I just have a tremendous number. Furthermore, I reach it's high quality fabrics, high quality materials, durable, and it doesn't look like trash after you wash it a bunch of times so go check that out just black. The name made me think of that the name made me remember. We have that we have the Pixel Buds which these this one.

It also took a while to get here, so you may have seen some videos about it, but you know I want to give my feedback on that. This is competitive with the uh apple air, pods and the various galaxy products. Well, they got a new one. They got the buds live, which I think Samsung's going to get to the studio. So that's going to be nice to compare.

We also have the Pixel 4a. I guess that's the official case they've been doing this fabric thing for a while. You know my style, it's more on the later case side with the uh, the nice texture here, the impossibly thin case. So you know I had to do it for the Pixel 4a as well had to bring it into the later case family. So you can buy this right now on pre-order I'll link that, in the description also so lots of good stuff to look at here, we're going to kick it off with the main unit.

Obviously this is the Pixel 4a unboxing experience team pixel on the back. You got the two little pull tabs I'll, give you some pulls tab therapy. I hope you heard it high quality, sound effects, lovely all right. We lift boom there. It is now it's important to note this is a budget minded a value-conscious device, so you're going to have a plastic back a plastic chassis.

Some people don't mind, they say hey what. If I drop my phone on the back? Wait? Yes, so some people, you know they say! Look, I don't mind if I have a plastic back when I drop it. I don't have to worry about shattering the back, but there is such a wide variety of plastic. The way that plastic is implemented in smartphones yesterday was it. I was talking about the note 20 how the plastic back it felt a little cheap this one on the plastic meter.

I hear a little clip to it, but it's its a more solid thud, so the gap between the plastic and the components on the inside appears to be less than the note 20. So you could live with it. Also, the color of it. It can fool you at a certain. You know if you're using this thing on a daily basis, you're probably gonna, forget that it's plastic.

That said, you slap this on check you out now who's kidding. Who you see what I'm saying now you actually line up the fingerprint better, because you feel exactly where it is. You get the wonderful you get the beautiful texture. So that's the way I'm going to go. But that said, it's not the end of the world, a plastic phone at 349.

The note 20 took a lot of heat because it isn't at 349. It's at a thousand bucks, and so that's why people's expectations were different. Another thing to notice here, of course, is that rear fingerprint scanner, it's kind of interesting, the way that it's outlined here. It's part of the back of the unit, so there's no real large ring around it. Instead, it's just this little depressed section here: is your camera module supposedly the same performance as the pixel 4, which is fine with me? If that's actually what it turns out to do because, like I said, the cost savings, pixel, 4 and 4xl, those were more expensive devices.

I used the 4xl as my personal device for a very long time. We still have the stylized power switch, which they give one special color to. I believe this is yeah. It was orange or like a coral on the XL model, the standard version last time around it has the exact same or now that's white, so anyways they're always playing around trying to give a little of style, especially to a basic phone, a just black phone. You have to volume rocker below there.

Oh, another thing I should mention this has a headphone jack on it, which is its kind of a must on a budget device, because the expectation now you spend 349 on the phone, maybe you got a wired headset kicking around, and it's just it's a little harder to go, splurge on the Pixel Buds or some air, pods or something like that. When you've got the 349 budget, I'm not saying you can't do it, but it's just it's a nice little touch and consideration for the fact that you picked a budget phone, and you may still need to be using a wired headphone, and you know the way I think of this. Is its just a bonus either way if you can fit it in their sure why not sim card tray is in an unusual location over here it's towards the bottom of the device and then on the bottom. Here on the very bottom, it looks like we have our speaker, grille and also our type c connector for the fast charge. It's not the fastest charge in the world.

I believe it's 18 watt Kirk will correct me in the edit right here if it's different from 18 watt, but I think it's an 18 watt fast charge in there. Oh, and the other big difference is on the front of the unit where the hole punch is. We now have a hole, punch cut out on a pixel device, so they've given up abandoned the notch situation. There we had the really advanced face, unlock going on. We had the radar in there they're, simplifying it, and especially for this model with the 349 price tag.

It's not the most aggressive screen to body ratio. You definitely have a bezel around the outside, but these are the know. These are the things you put up with in exchange for the savings. This is a value for money play and I actually think it's a really smart play for Google and apple for that matter. We have a unique world circumstance here in 2020, people aren't exactly out there splurging in general, on smartphones or otherwise.

People want value for money and that's the aim here, and I appreciate that aim. Also inside the package, we've got a little of paperwork from Google. You have your sim tool over on the back here we have a type c cable, followed by a little adapter here, which I believe is going to be type a to type c. Yes, it is so this can be used for migration from another device to this one and here's the power brick. It's definitely some form of quick charge in there.

Look at this. It's a nice little setup on here, and I mean we have the gradient background. It's so simple, isn't it the pixel life in the android world? Furthermore, it's very simple: you don't have the bloat unless you consider google's apps, but it's hard to consider google's apps blow because they make the OS, and these are all applications that I use. Google podcasts YouTube YouTube music. It does to a point, look how it's also quite snappy here.

So what do we have? We have a 90 hertz display on this at this price point is: that is that, did they give us that the display is 60 hertz? But it is its an OLED panel at this price, which is, I mean, that's probably the biggest difference on the daily basis. If you were to compare this Pixel 4a to this guy over here, this is the iPhone SE which, as you can tell, the displays are there's quite a discrepancy there. I don't know how well this shows up for you but um because of this older design. Here it's just the display feels like it's further beneath the glass, and you have the different technologies at play and then just the screen to body ratio as well. Not every buyer cares about this.

Some are going to sit there and say: well, you have a 700 series. Snapdragon, you have a flagship chip from apple in the SE, so yeah that's completely correct, and the camera thing is kind of a coin flip, depending on whose processing, in which application you, like better, I tend towards the pixels, doing cooler, color temperatures and higher contrast, which is well that's just to my taste buds pretty frequently. Here you have USB type c. This is the proprietary connector, so you have a bigger battery over here as well. These are you know.

These are things to consider if you're actually weighing these two options but form factor wise, even though this display is much larger, you know in the hand it's fairly comparable between the two. Also, I should mention this is the cheaper unit of the two. This is going to save you, 50 extra bucks, the 31 40 William hour battery in here and the 700 series. Snapdragon is usually pretty power efficient, so I mean I can't say for certain. I just got the phone, but presumably it's better than the pixel 4, which is well that's not really hard to say.

Pixel 4 is probably the main drawback was the battery life snapdragon 730, six gigabytes of ram 128 GB of storage, oh yeah, and the pixel gives you the headphone jack. You do not have Apple's ecosystem, but you do have a headphone jack and, like I said, I think that's a big deal at this price point. Okay, so some things I'm curious about on here outside the camera, which I'm definitely going to get to I'm curious about the speaker, performance oftentimes on a budget phone. You take a little hit in the speaker performance. So, let's load up a YouTube video.

We get some dialogue rolling first I'll load up the latest episode of Lou later you know that was such a thing, but everybody wants an ecosystem. Apple's got an ecosystem because once it's an ecosystem, you see you need all the pieces. You got to catch them all. You see how that goes, yeah and so Samsung in their press release wow. So you have a stereo thing happening.

You have some high-end coming out of the earpiece location, and you have some low end on the bottom. The speaker, I'm pretty happy with it's, not the loudest thing. I've ever heard it's not as loud as uh. The note 20 ultra from the last video but like oh you've, got the z flip two, not flip fold. It's not crunchy.

I have to keep my z's together now z, fold, two, but that's not it. I want you to scroll down a little here. Furthermore, I like the audio on this. This is very clear and, and it's full it's fuller than I would have expected. Oh also, this gives you an idea when you're zoomed into the frame just to get an idea of how much screen you're getting in the body and then what the hole punch looks like.

This is not a massive distraction over here now we might as well since I have the SE over here. We might as well just load YouTube, because I can't recall how this compares the audio that is yeah you didn't know. Oh, I was trying to. I was trying to make it. I was trying to make it bigger because I'm so used to phones not having a chin and forehead like this in 2020 I was like oh yeah I'll just span it out to, but now that's that's actually the size of your video.

It's quite a substantial difference. If you're gonna use this thing as a multimedia machine, I think it's important to note in this particular comparison. Even if you have all the horsepower in the world, your video is just it's gonna. It's a small video, it's a small phone, a small screen considering the scale of the phone, because it's got the antiquated design, and you know this is where waiting for the iPhone 12. Although it'll be at a higher price point, you will finally be able to get an iPhone with a small form factor that has a more modern screen to body ratio, and I talked about it in a recent video, the small iPhone 12.

You can go check that out and see how it compares but anyways ecosystem audio system. You know what I'll take an ecosystem makes. It sounds big makes it sound grand, and it also makes it sound like you should spend a few dollars, so you can take so this also sort of exposes the brightness the viewing angles. It's pretty obvious. I mean you, you make up your own mind, you see it in the camera there and now turn this one back up, so it's sucking more energy.

It makes me question my life they're, pretty comparable. I probably give a slight edge to this guy, but they're pretty comparable, it's hard for you to know the microphone is right there, but uh. It's not a massive difference between the two, let's jump into the cameras. Obviously I mean this is a huge area of focus for smartphones in general. This is the differentiating characteristic.

This is the reason you might select this phone uh over some other competitive phone in the same price bracket. It's an area where google has had an edge, so I'll bring over to trustee plant I'll back it up, and we are going to snap just at the stock.1X, no big deal, nothing fancy. Just a quick little snap, and I can see the magic happening, it's doing the work, it's its! It's such a brain, the pixel camera app is such a brain. It's an it, takes the thinking out of taking a photo. I still don't feel that I've interacted with a camera where I just point and shoot and often get results that are pleasing to my eye.

Now I've done the extensive analysis. It's true that Apple's software tends to elevate the shadow areas and provide a little more detail there. This is mostly in the software and what is pleasing to a person is dependent on the individual. However, by google, selecting more for contrast in deeper blacks, I end up with a photo that is more pleasing to me without me needing to go in and edit it. Of course, you can still do that.

I just like what happens with the pixel straight out of the camera selfies, it's kind of the same thing. I don't get all softened up. There 's's detail, and it's I mean it's incredible: it's. What can I say: uh, google engineers, engineering, the app. This is one area where the uh Apple devices make me look really weird I'll.

Show you what I'm talking about it makes me look super flat for some reason: I'll do the exact same location like somehow my skin, it's like I'm wearing makeup. It makes it look like I'm wearing makeup. I've been talking about this for a number of generations, but like look at the color of my eyes, for example, and my beard, the whole thing just looks way softer and less sharpened. Like less and less contrast, it tries to sort of flatten the complexion and ease the gradient between dark and lights, and you could argue this. This photo has more detail.

You could argue that if you went into a photo, editor you'd have more play with the iPhone photo, and it's probably true, but I don't you know oftentimes I just want to. I just want to point shoot and then publish a photo or send or share a photo and not do too much to it and that's where the pixel camera and mostly the software, determines that through its style choices and how it treats the environment almost like a filter or something I end up with something that to me is more pleasing and that I would want to share right away. So that's again, it's personal preference, it's not better or worse, it's personal preference, so there's also a night sight mode built in and then on video. Let's see what we have for options here. I don't think we have any type of exotic uh video settings.

We do, we do have 4k. We are now testing 4k video on the Google Pixel 4a. I am moving into the plant, and we are testing the autofocus I'm moving back. I will lift my hand up. Oh, baby.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, that looks pretty good. I'm increasingly, smartphones are getting better at those autofocus transitions, but I have run into problems in the past. It doesn't look like that's going to happen here.4K video on the Google Pixel 4a, it sounds good, it does sound good. You know what. Ladies and gentlemen, I mean we're on to something: it's a nice time to be in the smartphone market.

It's a nice time to be looking for a new smartphone. Every time I get my hands on a budget smartphone that, like this one, where I feel like. Okay, that that right there is a good value, and I do feel that way here. Uh. It makes me sort of it.

Reconfigures me. I have a really hard time in these moments recommending the far more expensive smartphones you can go out right now and easily find a smartphone that's three times the cost of this. It's not even hard, but is it three times better? It used to be the camera department was the big differentiator. Of course the chip is not gonna, be the fastest in the world. But for me on the daily, what I do on a phone, you know what I mean.

It was never a big issue for me, the rear unlock I can live with that. I start to think to myself. Yeah, probably more people would be better off with this phone and then potentially having money left over for a couple other things, maybe some Pixel Buds, maybe a later case, to spruce it up a little. You got some money left over you're, not spending a fortune uh, you know. Maybe you want to get a think about it.

Kirk. You could pick up that new PlayStation 5 and this, or you could get you know a flagship, iPhone or Samsung. It's just listened! I'm just saying I like to put it in that context, to just help people realize what type of value is out there. I'm just I'm super happy that google's really making a play at the value segment, which is, I think, where the majority of their focus should be the flagship thing it's pretty well figured out. You know it's apple, it's Samsung, and we know how that goes.

It's a lot of glass, it's always glass everywhere when you spend a thousand unless it's the note 20. But anyways okay. So let's put this down for a minute. Let's try the official case since we do have it. I think we might as well, so it's an it's a fabric style case.

My issue with these was, if you put this down on a table, and it had any type of moisture or something this is absorbent. However, it does give you a kind of like a luxury you're, just not used to feeling this type of texture like a fabric, texture on your phone, but then it also makes your phone kind of big, which I mean. I don't know if you heard I'm kind of against the idea of that so, but it gives you a cut-out for your headphone jack. It gives you the space you need on the bottom and because it uh, because it juts out a little, it's more likely to save your device in the case of a fall. So that's the official google case.

I don't know if this is the only one they're offering, but in the past they've had a couple different models. It does have a nice kind of liner in it is smells like uh the gap. It smells like the gap. We have the Pixel Buds, which that's an important one for us to check out. I think this could be a nice little package.

What's the price of the Pixel Buds, Kirk's gonna? Guess I'm going to guess 199.199 for Pixel Buds, Pixel Buds price USD 179? What did you say, 199 you're off, so anyway we have the Pixel Buds here, and I'm excited to try these out as well? You got the dental floss style of case going on in there, although you can also switch that one up. If you want a more stylish or cohesive look, we started making the later case for the AirPods Pro, and then it was like what about the android people? This is completely rude. Having done this, so we talked about it, and we're like I don't know how many people are gonna on the android side. Are gonna, come out and support, but who cares we're gonna, do it for the Pixel Buds as well, and so that you can have kind of this setup right here. Just like that, so that's pretty cool, I'm kind of happy! I'm kind of excited about that.

There's another pair that I think it's going to be. I think it's going to be a common pair for people they're going to pick up this device. You could pick up some Pixel Buds and still be less than the flagship level inside the pack. We've also got exchangeable, interchangeable, ear tips, that's a big one, get the right fit. Then you get the right sound, and we also have a type c cable, which is actually a little longer than you might expect to get with a set of earbuds uh.

Sometimes they sneak in a little short one. Now, of course, we've got to get our unwrap on, and where am I going to do such a thing? Oh, don't miss the flap there. We go all right so what's odd about this. One actually is that the interior and the buds are black, and I think a lot of android fans probably wanted black earbuds people have been asking apple to do a black pair of AirPods for a billion years, but these are still majorly white. I guess they do make them in a couple different colors, yeah, there's, oh so orange quite mint and almost black, so they're, even the black one, though this is a, so this isn't.

This is another thing to consider. Even the black one keeps the white container, which is kind of strange. You would think you would do the white. You would do the black container or case recharge case. Why am I calling that a container? You know what I mean? That's weird, I don't even know the last time I used the word container, but even if you get the black earbuds, you get the white case, which is kind of odd, but anyways, so you're saying the only way to get a black case is yeah.

I'm saying the only way to get a black case is to do a later case, which you should have done in the first place, because you're a smart person right anyways, let's see how these work together, I'm curious how integrated the whole thing is. I mean I haven't used it right. So is this? Are we going to have an apple moment here? We are going to have an apple moment. It's just that's all. It is that's all there is to it, and this is what people expect now: the OnePlus product from the previous video, whatever they're calling theirs.

What are their pods called one plus buds, one plus buds it's hard to keep it together in this business. Ladies and gentlemen, it's every it's every single day, we're doing this, and it's a product. They like them too, and they were only 79 bucks, the OnePlus buds. Of course, it's the OnePlus buds, but anyways. Those are the budget play at 79.

These are uh slightly more premium, but, as you see, you get the nice little prompt for the Pixel Buds and the and the hefty integration. So you can have your own uh ecosystem moment where you feel very special for having the cohesion between the two set up: Pixel Buds. You have your battery life on the case and on each bud, and we're going to go ahead and start the setup and I will rotate it into place lovely, and it made a little kind of cool sound. When I did that to indicate that it was in their next, oh, and it's an it's a gentle Kirk, they thought about it. It's a gentle you.

What you'll see is when I go down. It's not a huge. I have a lot of flexibility in there for the exact volume that I'm looking for. I know that's a big deal to you, Kirk you're, very happy about that. Also play pause, double tap for skipping tracks or ending and rejecting calls okay double tap.

So the touch is the touch is pretty good lovely. You know we got the light on there. This is all the things you want, especially if you're going to spend 179. You know, what's a crazy thought, though 179 349. , the whole phone is 340 and these guys are 179 so, but it goes to show you dual microphones for clear calls: in-ear detection, so the audio pauses, if you remove the bud very nice comfortable and secure with the extra ear hook, so you're, not you know, you're doing the physical activities, and it stays in and, of course, Google Assistant, which is the only voice assistant that I use very integrated.

Let's get some tunes going, I suppose I'll do some muted jazz here. Look at that. I mean you got the old Ferrari plus the shades, and then you do the shirt all the way up, and then you have the trumpet. So, oh man, that's some muted. That's a muted, jazz! Okay, that's that's! Actually pretty nice! Now I should uh jump into something with some bass.

People need to know about bass. There's no way around that Kirk. You have a bass request. No, you don't base nectar. Let me tell you something: there's a point where any headphone that is just sitting deeper in your ear canal is just more capable, particularly in the low end in a bass response comparative to something that just sort of sits.

You know on the outside of the ear like a regular air pod or even the one plus buds I like how convenient those are because it's just a little less of a hassle kind of getting it out of the ear. So it's really not a big deal, but it's a little less, but there's just no substitute because you create a seal in the ear canal, and you can create more pressure inside there and then that thump comes through so if you're, a bass head you're. Probably you probably already know this, but you're, probably looking at something like these Pixel Buds or maybe the AirPods Pro, which are the apple equivalent of the in-ear style, so some options there. I think they sound alright, I think they sound pretty good. It's a know.

Look! This is a obvious and easy choice for somebody on the pixel because of the integration and the having the whole package kind of come together, maybe more so for the flagship level pixel because of the price point. But that said, you could look at it. The other way like I did earlier and just say, yo, I'm fine with the 4a. It's got everything I need, and I have money left over. So then you could pick up a pair of these buds to go with it.

You could create a nice little combo effect. If you choose to what can I say about this phone man, vanilla, android enough power for me, OLED for the price decent screen to body at least modern, with the hole punch thing, never minded the rear fingerprint you know about the camera. I don't need to tell you. Camera pixel camera been talking about it, a little of a fast recharge made out of plastic 700 series snapdragon. I think I might have just done the pros and cons simply by adjusting my tone.

You see, I didn't have to even announce it, so it's not going to win any spec awards, and it's up to you to determine to a certain extent what that g is worth. If you want the vanilla, android experience, it does come with some advantages, including getting the latest software features as they roll out as they become available. Instead of waiting for the manufacturer to pump theirs out. If they even will. When I'm talking about manufacturer, I mean Samsung, I mean Xiaomi, I mean the others.

I mean everything else I mean the oppose, I even mean the OnePlus to a certain extent, because you know this thing is squarely looking at the word as well. Another 700 series uh based smartphone, so it's even a little more pricey than this, and I don't know if you want to do a head-to-head on the camera. I'm just saying now granted there are other differences that one it's its got a slightly better spec list than word. I'm talking about the feel more premium. Furthermore, I would say this: this might be a little subdued for some users, but all that aside, I think I can safely say I'm pumped for this device, I'm pumped that it exists.

It has fully gotten me going and, as you can probably tell in this video right here, there's something about the combination of a low price tag with an experience that, for me, is similar to what I'm already having on something. That's a lot more expensive and trust. Me, I tried it all. I try everything right. I think you could be using this phone and feeling like you're using a far more expensive phone, even though you only spent 3.49 so shout out to google for getting the price down as low as they did uh. Furthermore, I don't know how that breaks down whatever market you're in it may not be as competitive, but at least here in North America.

This thing for 349, I think, is worth a look.

Source : Unbox Therapy