Google Pixel 3a XL: A 2021 review! By Ryan-Thomas

The pixel 3axl was a turning point in Google's pixel strategy, but also happened to be the first device that I used at android authority, which makes it pretty important to me and if the Pixel 3a didn't exist, we wouldn't have a mid-range pixel 5. , and you can quote me on that one I recently switched to the two-year-old mid-ranger, and today I want to discuss its viability in 2021. How is it aged? Has it bogged down and for 150 pounds one bay UK? Is it worth buying? Hey guys, I'm Ryan, Thomas, and today we're going to find out. We should probably first look at pricing and availability. Now I did hint at this a second ago, but you can kind of expect to get one in decent condition one bay or Facebook marketplace or Gumtree for around 150 pounds. This will get you on with a few scratches, given that it's a plastic build, but that's about it.

No major cracks or anything like that, and also this pricing is going to kind of vary based on your region. That's the pricing for those websites in the UK, but you might use a different website in a different part of the world, and it might not equal the same amount of value. I have to say this kind of plastic and the implementation of it has resulted in a phone that still feels perfect in 2021. Of course, plastic is less prone to cracking, but this particular plastic feels really dense and solid, not like the plastic of the OnePlus word n100 or put co x3. For example, it's a mid-ranger, so you don't get any kind of IP rating so avoid British weather, if at all possible with this thing, but it also means you don't get any kind of flagship features: no wireless charging, no in-display, fingerprint scanner, no multi-camera array, no superfast charging.

However, there are a few good things as a result of this. The traditional capacitive fingerprint scanner is really quick and responsive. You get a headphone port which is ideal for those of us who like to use wired headphones or who use our phones for music in older cars, where a cable is necessary. Overall, this package is pretty solid for the money performance, on the other hand, isn't so great now this is likely due to the use of four gigabytes of ram and a snapdragon 670, which is already mid-range back. Then it is pretty low quality.

These days, the 3axl is on android 11, which is the latest officially available version of android, but that does use a lot of ram. This means that for daily use, this thing isn't amazing, but it's also kind of usable as someone who uses older phones anyway, you kind of get used to it, but if you're coming from something newer and kind of falling back to a pixel 3xl, you are not going to have a great experience. There are lags, there are hangs and, if you're looking to extensively game, this is definitely not the phone for you in general. It's all right, but it does require a factory reset. Every so often just to kick it back into decent speeds.

Performance isn't amazing and that's likely, due to the use of a 60 hertz panel to be fair. The Pixel 4a also has a 60hz panel, so you're not missing out on a load there, but the difference is that that phone doesn't lag as much, so you don't really notice it as badly as you do with this one. Speaking of the screen, it's a 6 inch 1080p OLED, and it looks pretty good to be honest, it's one of those panels that you don't notice when you're using it. Let me explain: it's not super vibrant, and it's not super bright. It doesn't stand out as a beautiful panel like you might find on a Samsung flagship.

However, it's not overly bad either, and so you don't notice it in a bad way. It kind of just blends into the background. It's a very usable display. Also, I'd rather take a well calibrated 60hz panel over a badly calibrated 120hz panel. Every day of the week.

We need to talk about battery life because the pixel 3axl, it kind of surprised me. It's got a 3700mah battery which got me through a full day. Without much worry, I am a lighter user. However, so I don't do heaps of Bluetooth streaming and I don't play games on my phone and my brightness tends to be around fifty percent. Most of the time, however, did get a full day quite easily.

I mean that's, come to be expected with a cell this size and the lower power system on chip and stuff like that, for really heavy users, don't expect a full day out of it and given the 18 watt fast charging, it's not stupidly, quick to top up either. So you kind of want to be careful there. You might want to top it up at lunchtime for let's say 30 minutes and that that could work quite well. However, if you're expecting to go the full distance with you know max brightness and Bluetooth connections and LTE connections, and all that kind of thing, without topping up you're kind of asking a bit too much from an already degraded cell. This may change if you replace the battery in the phone, but I haven't tested that, and I don't have the means to test that right now.

So I don't know, but now we have to get to the whole pixel element of the 3a XL. That's right, the cameras, I'm sure you've all heard about the 3a's great camera, and I can't deny that, honestly. However, the lack of versatility will turn some off, and it is one of the main reasons why I'm not using this thing as my main phone going forward, but we'll get back to that later. You get a 12 megapixel main camera and an 8 megapixel selfie shooter, which aren't all that on paper. But you have to remember that the processing is what makes google's cameras.

The 3axl produces some fantastic. Looking images, even in 2021. Google's processing is a little more contrast, heavy and washed out in terms of colors than an iPhone or a Samsung photo. But what that means is that there's more character in the samples coming from the 3axl than from those other models. I'm a fan of this approach, but I still lean towards Huawei's implementations.

However, if you're a fan of Google's processing, you'll love the images from the 3axl, the samples look natural and tend to nail exposure compared to some competition, whether you're, using the main photo mode, portrait mode or night mode you're, getting solid image quality across the board. Selfies aren't quite as good in my opinion, but they're still very serviceable. When you consider that this is a two-year-old mid-ranger, I mean yeah. So with that all said and done, should you go out and buy a pixel 3axl? Well personally, I think. Yes, it's a solid smartphone, it's way better than let's say an original pixel you're, getting a nice big screen, you're getting decent battery life, very good camera decent display.

The performance is probably the one let down. However, if you're, not a power user, it's really not that bad, especially as it's a 60hz display, so you don't notice it as much anyway. Value for money is definitely there and if you can pick one up say even a hundred pounds or something closer to that you're, getting a fantastic deal and obviously being a pixel. You get that fantastic software experience as well, although that bit tends to be more subjective. Some people love it.

Some people hate it. Some people think it's kind of in the middle and personally towards the liking at camp. I really do like the way google does its software. However, Samsung UI is still. My favorite must correct myself there I meant one UI, not Samsung, UI Samsung's, one UI, so you can tell by now that I'm not switching to it as my main phone.

It was a good few weeks towards a month with the phone it was. It was fine. Furthermore, it was all right, but I want to explore other options and, to be honest, Samsung's are the ones calling my name right now anyway, I'm going to leave this video here. Please do like comment and subscribe if you're an artist, never miss a video like this one. I've been Ryan, Thomas and I'll catch you later.

Peace.

Source : Ryan-Thomas