DIGIT RATING
60 /100- DESIGN
60
- PERFORMANCE
70
- VALUE FOR MONEY
42
- FEATURES
55
- PROS
- Ergonomic, compact form factor.
- Snappy, responsive UI
- Effortlessly good camera
- CONS
- No ultrawide or macro in the camera setup.
- Battery life not as good as other mid-range smartphones
- No gaming mode to silence notifications while gaming.
- DESIGN
60
- PERFORMANCE
70
- VALUE FOR MONEY
42
- FEATURES
55
- PROS
- Ergonomic, compact form factor.
- Snappy, responsive UI
- Effortlessly good camera
- CONS
- No ultrawide or macro in the camera setup.
- Battery life not as good as other mid-range smartphones
- No gaming mode to silence notifications while gaming.
VERDICT
The Google Pixel 4a is perfect for a compact smartphone that does not compromise on the experience even as it switches to mid-range components. Oh, and the camera? Just as good as before. But you may start missing the ultrawide lens soon after starting to use the phone.
GOOGLE PIXEL 4A DETAILED REVIEW
The fact that not much of the market got up and took note of the fact that Google wasn’t bringing the Pixel 4 and 4 XL to India last year, save for us enthu cutlets ,speaks volumes about Google’s hardware division’s focus on the Indian market, and vice versa. But with India being one of the largest mobile markets, Google just can’t give up that easy, can they? Hence, the Pixel 4a.
The Pixel 4a is a course correction for Google, and at the same time, a bold experiment for the Android ecosystem. Google has put all its software expertise in the Pixel 4a to eke out every last bit of performance out of a moderately powerful, but old mid-range chipset, and enable an experience that's close to, or at par with their flagship counterparts. Does Google succeed? That’s what we’re here to find out —
PERFORMANC
The Pixel 4a is not a flagship smartphone. In the traditional sense, at least. The Snapdragon 730G inside has been used far and wide in mid-range smartphones, and with 6GB RAM, the Pixel 4a performs like the average mid-range smartphone on benchmarks. It’s not terribly far behind the Snapdragon 765 on the OnePlus Nord, and is only marginally beaten by the Redmi Note 9 Pro, Realme 7 Pro and the POCO X3 on both CPU and GPU benchmarks. A CPU Throttle test for 30 minutes slowed the CPU down to 68% of its capacity, and the phone did get quite warm during my benchmark runs.
BATTERY LIFE
A major concern for going for a compact smartphone in 2020 is the battery life. Bigger phones allow room for bigger batteries, and the 3140mAh battery is endemic to that constraint. Don’t expect this one to be a marathon runner like the Samsung Galaxy M51. Heavy usage (gaming, camera usage, and watching an episode) will drain the battery by evening, while moderate usage with a good amount of deep sleep will stretch it till late evening. Faster charging would have somewhat compensated for the lower battery life, but here too, the Pixel 4a feels outdated with only 18W fast charging support, and with over 2 hours needed to fully charge the battery, this could potentially be a deal-breaker.
DESIGN AND DISPLAY
More than the performance and the experience, what may attract you to the Pixel 4a is the tiny footprint. The Pixel 4a is a hark back to the compact mid-rangers before the large screen mania gripped the market. And thanks to the ever shrinking bezels, the screen isn’t horribly small. It’s still a modest 5.8-inches, and this small size allows the pixels in the FHD+ resolution to be more tightly packed. More on that later. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, which was previously absent in the Pixel 4 and dual stereo speakers which could have been a little louder, but the expected sound separation is good enough if you are sitting in a quiet room. It also has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, that somehow refuses to acknowledge a sweaty finger, but otherwise is quite fast. The body itself is made of plastic with a matte finish that may not attract fingerprints, but there’d be hard-to-remove oil smudges galore if you are replying to a text midway eating that paratha!
What made me stick to the Pixel 4a a few days more than required for the review was the fact that I could do everything on the phone with just one hand, and that’s such an overwhelming change from the tall and hefty OnePlus 8 Pro. But it wasn’t like I didn’t miss the 8 Pro at all. While texting, scrolling and navigating from one menu to another is smooth, watching movies and gaming in particular needs that large display for the best experience on a mobile phone. Or I am just spoilt for choice.
The Pixel 4a shaves off a lot of baggage to attain that attractive price tag of Rs 29,999 and I’m not talking about just the performance. It’s not water or dust resistant. And the punch hole selfie camera looks rather big on the small display.
The 5.8-inches, as I was saying before, packs pixels more densely, and the visuals crisper and sharper than a larger FHD+ display, and this advantage becomes clearer when you step outdoors under the sun. And if you can live with the small footprint, watching movies isn’t all that bad. HDR is supported on both Netflix and YouTube, and the battery drain is low enough to allow an episode or two while on the move.
BOTTOMLINE
The Google Pixel 4a is perhaps the most polarising smartphone I got to test this year. It’s just as much a curveball as the Pixel 3a was last year, with flagship camera but mid-range hardware. Only, with the price tag now going further down, recommending the Pixel 4a becomes easier. It also makes the showcase of Android’s fluidity more accessible to the masses. I’d say fret not about the 7-series processor, and go for the experience this is able to provide. It’s not unique anymore, but has the finesse only Google can offer.
What may throw you off the purchase is the fact that the Pixel 4a’s after-service may not be as good as that of the OnePlus Nord or the Galaxy M51 in India. We’ve read some harrowing reports on forums and it’s only fair for us to inform our readers about it. Hopefully this has been fixed, but do scourge through the forums for the most recent experiences to get a better idea. 4. If this is not much of an issue, recommending the Pixel is 4a is almost a no brainer.
GOOGLE PIXEL 4A KEY SPECS, PRICE AND LAUNCH DATE
| Price: | |
| Release Date: | 09 Oct 2020 |
| Variant: | 128GB6GBRAM |
| Market Status: | Launched |
Comments
Post a Comment
Please do not enter any spam link in the comment box