Review of the Google Pixel 4A, after more than 6 months
A brief history
So, on August 20th 2020, Google released the Google Pixel 4A, a more mid-ranged budget friendly smartphone. The “A” line of Pixel’s is meant to still be the same Pixel, but slightly downgraded to reduce price. The 4A follows in the steps of the Pixel 3A from the previous Pixel 3 line. It was around $400 at launch and is among Google’s best selling phone ever, so the 4A had quite the reputation to live up to. Dare I say Google did it, here’s why.
What I was hoping the Pixel 4A would improve from my LG V20
As a disclaimer, I didn’t just buy this phone just because it was less expensive, I didn’t buy it because it has the best features or crazy design, I bought the Pixel 4A because I was in need of new phone(I had been using my other phone since I got it in October of 2016) with better battery, more consistent updates and most importantly a version of Android OS that didn’t include pre-installed stuff I would never use and couldn’t remove.
The starting price of the Pixel 4A was $350 USD at launch(I don’t know what it is now but safe to say it’s lower than that) and at the time I bought mine, the only color available was black(not that I mind, because I put a case on it anyway). All that aside, how has it been to use the Pixel 4A for a phone for over half a year and did it deliver on the reasons I got it for. Yes, it definitely does.
Battery
The battery on the Pixel is slightly smaller than my old phone battery but due to the Pixel having a less powerful processor(so it can’t use as much power if I tried) the battery holds up easily for over a day no problem. I am not a super big “power user”, I use my phone throughout the day but not constantly using it. I tend to be using laptops more than my phone during the day but even with my heaviest usage I am still easily able to get through 2 full days before I need to even think about charging it. Depending on my usage, I can sometimes go over 4 days straight before needing to charge it. So battery life, was completely an issue the Pixel 4A has delivered on from my last phone.(over time of course batteries are going to degrade and with the less powerful processor, the 4A in a few years may be less lively in general).
As seen in the screenshots above, these screenshots taken around 2.5 to 3 months apart(top image taken in mid February 2021, second image from mid December 2020) the estimates for usage and battery life are pretty good. Of course some settings will impact this, dark mode is definitely good for both battery life and helping your eyes. Adaptive battery and setting battery saver based on your routine that the phone learns over time are settings I am very happy with. I have brightness settings not on auto, with the better display on the Pixel 4A, I have brightness set to 20%, whereas on my LG V20 I set it to about 27%.
It should not be surprising that the Pixel 4A has good battery life(even if it still is relatively new) as the processor inside the phone is less powerful, so it doesn’t need to use as much power.
Updates
As far as updates go, my old phone came with Android 7.0 in the box(the only phone to do so if I recall) and LG did eventually deliver Android 8.0 and even 9.0 in the 5 years it was my only phone. However, had I not had it for 5 years before ever getting a new phone, I would have been lucky to get those updates at all. I say this because, the Pixel 4A came stock with Android 10.0 and could pretty much immediately install Android 11.0 once you turned it on for the first time.
Since Google made the phone and is the brains behind Android, it’s impossible for the Pixel 4A to not receive updates(the user would literally have to choose to not install them) and because the Pixel line is Google’s own thing(like the Nexus line from years before), Pixel devices not only are guaranteed to get updates, they are the first to get them too. Though due to the short amount of time so far, I can’t say the Pixel has had more updates than my old LG V20 got in 5 years, but it’s only a matter of time. So it delivers on the promise to have more frequent updates as well.
A note about gaming on the Pixel 4A
So if you are going to do a lot of mobile gaming, the Pixel 4A is not ideal, the chip inside is capable of running some games, but it won’t be a smooth experience. There’s usually more loading time, less snappy responsiveness and random crashes, I don’t play many mobile games so this really isn’t a bad thing for me, but playing much more than a simple arcade game like connect 4 or checkers(as examples) will definitely result in issues occurring more often.
Pre-installed stuff
The third thing I wanted from the Pixel 4A was less pre-installed apps that I could not remove and would not use. The 4A does this as well but in my particular case, I decided to buy my Pixel through my phone service provider, which number one; increased the price I paid a little(instead of $349 from Google, I paid $379 base price through the service provider, not terrible as I thought not buying from Google directly might be a slightly quicker process)
So I thought that because of this, the service provider might include a lot of their own apps onto the device, there were some but it was less than I expected and the apps that were pre-installed weren’t ones that I will never use. On Google’s end, despite how many Google apps were installed by default seemed like a lot, there really wasn’t as many and none of them were things I would never end up using. In total around 20, or slightly less, but considering how small some of them were in size and how often I would actually use some of them, I still don’t have an issue with them.
Comparing my old LG V20 to my new Google Pixel 4A
Now to compare my old phone (an LG V20) to the Pixel 4A (not to be confused with the later released Pixel 4A 5G alongside the Pixel 5 several weeks after the 4A was released) would be sort of unfair now that LG has recently(as of early April 2021) announced they will be withdrawing from the mobile phone manufacturing business in the second half of 2021 to phase out, I’m still going to just so you get a better idea of what is similar and different and what I do and don’t like about them.
The LG V20 specs that are the same as the Pixel 4A
Neither phone has/had an official IP rating for dust, dirt and water. Headphone jack on both devices. Both are USB-C type charging ports. Both have a physical fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone but on the V20, it was also the power button, on the Pixel 4A the actual power button is on the side of the device. Finally both have 18W charging.
I really like the physical fingerprint scanner, it nice because it is placed at a comfortable position on the back where you feel like the phone is firmly in your grip. I’m glad the Pixel 4A has a fingerprint scanner, even if it isn’t the power button.
Battery and Screen differences
The V20 has the ability to remove the battery and replace it in basically a minute, this feature however made the V20 have no official IP rating. The V20 battery is 3200 mah and the Pixel 4A is 3140 mah. The V20 overall is bigger than the Pixel 4A but the Pixel 4A has nearly no bezels where the V20 has a large bottom and top bezel. So even though the V20 technically is bigger, the screen size is basically the same, if not including the V20’s tiny 2 inch secondary screen.
Storage, resolution and aspect ratio
The V20 does have an SD card slot whereas the Pixel 4A doesn’t but interestingly enough, the Pixel 4 (not 4A) has half the storage of the 4A, the 4A comes with 128GB internal storage and free unlimited backup to Google photos(exclusive to Pixels). The display on the V20 has a higher pixel density but with a roughly 10% lower screen to body ratio, the Pixel 4A has only a slightly smaller resolution with a more vertical 19.5 by 9 ratio versus the V20 more conventional 16 by 9 ratio. Also did I mention the screen display on the Pixel 4A is super colorful, crisp and bright as an oled instead of IPS LCD on the V20.
Camera stuff
Lastly, although it isn’t like how it was when the original Pixel came out and not that it mattered to me but the camera on the Pixel 4A is great, Google’s Pixel cameras was so far ahead years ago, but arguably the Pixels still stand as the best cameras for the typical smartphone. A lot of people have bought Pixel phones for the camera, for me personally that was just a bonus. I do think the Pixel takes great photos, but its not the reason I bought the phone.
Wrap up
In case I had not made this clear from the start, Google Pixel devices are the company’s flagship line of phones, but Google does not cram all the flagship specs into the phones. They are not meant to compete performance wise with the top phones around or over the $1000 USD price range, and you should not buy a Pixel (especially the 4A , but really any Pixel) for the performance or specs. If you think that the Pixel line is intended to be in the market for that reason, then you are not understanding Google’s vision of why Pixel phones are around. Google is a software company, not a hardware manufacturer, Pixel’s are meant to be bought and used for those who want to experience Android for the software Google makes for the operating system. For the price, the Pixel 4A is absolutely a good phone, and I don’t see myself getting any other phone for a few years and when I do, it’ll be another Pixel.