Google Pixel 4a 5G VS LG Velvet 5G In 2021! Which Smartphone Is Better? By Matthews Tech

Yo, what is up guys today we're going to be talking about the Google Pixel 4 a5g versus the lg velvet 5g, so two 5g phones, two mid-rangers around the same price. Actually, you can pick both up for around the 400 price point, depending on whether you want it uh refurbished or brand new uh, so that is going to vary, but I'll drop, the cheapest ones down below. So let's go ahead and talk about these two phones here, starting off with the hardware, so both these phones are completely polar opposite. When it comes to hardware with the velvet, you have a premium design and with the Pixel 4a uh, you have pretty much a plastic design, and you can definitely tell the difference. They both look uh very different from each other. The velvet obviously is going to be the, in my opinion, better looking phone and more premium feeling phone.

Of course, you just can't beat you know a glass and metal phone here, and honestly I just like the design of the velvet. I think it looks more expensive, more unique. Now google has actually done a very good job with the pixel, because usually I've always thought of their phone, that's kind of ugly and a little outdated um. But with this one, this one looks actually perfect, especially uh with the display they finally went with a more modern punch, hole display and stuff like that. But as far as you know, the design itself on the 4a- it's plastic, it's matte at least, so it doesn't pick up fingerprints, which is something that I like the benefit of it is you know it's not going to break as easy as like a glass uh phone, and I do like the know very trendy camera module set up on the pixel.

I think that looks good fingerprint scanner on the back, very minimal brandy on here and uh. Let's just go around the device here and the velvet does appear to be thinner as well, and it is much taller, but you can see you have really cool white power button on the pixel power button on the velvet we go to our left side. We do have our Google Assistant button, uh volume rockers. Both of these phones have stereo speakers USB type c. You have your headphone jack with the quiet deck on the um velvet, so you can get very high quality audio.

If you have a good pair of headphones, our headphone jack is up top on the Pixel 4a. Let's talk about the displays on each phone, so starting with the velvet here we have a massive 6.8 inch poled display it's 1080p 395 for the PPI on the pixel uh. We also have a kind of more compact phone, I guess at 6.2 inches. It is also an OLED display, 1080p 413 for the PPI, so both of these phones uh have a beautiful OLED display, so colors very deep, blacks on here. That's a beautiful display on both.

So I don't have any issues with display quality they're, both 1080p. So when watching videos they pretty much look the same, but the difference is: do you want a bigger display or a smaller display? And do you want a punch, hole or a notch? So I like the punch hole but on the uh 4a. Obviously we have just more bezel on the 4a as well, so that is one thing that I've noticed uh, but I guess the poncho does kind of make it a little more immersive. But honestly, you have super slim bezels on the velvet, so I do like the velvet screen a little more. I just think it looks a little better now you do have a curved display, only velvet which, if you put a case on this phone, you won't get accidental touches.

A lot of people hate that, but that's what gives it this like really premium. Look, but the know the thing you have to pay for is that you might get accidental touches right, uh, so that really comes down to the person but display wise. I really do like the velvet, but if you're somebody that's looking for a compact sort of package here, uh the Pixel 4a is great. You have your punch hole, and you have a beautiful OLED display, so uh very good displays on both here all right. So let's talk about software updates in the software itself, so you have android 11 on the pixel, and you also have android 10 on the bell, but this should get android 11 this year, uh.

So the pros and cons. So you have stock android super bare minimum. There's no bloatware anything, but it's very basic! There's not a lot of stuff. You can customize it's! You know stock android. So the pros of that is that you get the uh the latest version of android.

As soon as google releases it so android 12 comes out, you'll be the first to get it.13 you'll be the first to get it so with these pixel phones, software uh updates, if you, if that's something you care about, these are going to be great phones for that and uh on the velvet. You don't really get updates superfast. I've been getting security, patches and stuff like that, but it usually takes a while for lg to roll out updates. That's one of the things that they're infamously known for so, if that bothers you, you might want to stay away from the phone, but overall lg skin on here is very a bare minimum as well. It's not really doing too much like people would think it's super uh bare.

So it's not doing it like a lot like me, UI or one UI. Here, it's very minimal skin. Here. Both these phones have the exact same processor, the snapdragon, 765 g and only available you have micro, SD support, 128, gigs of storage and six gigs of ram uh. You do not have any SD card support on the Pixel 4a, but you do have the same: 128 gigs and six gigs of ram uh.

So you do have more storage, essentially on the velvet uh, which is something that I always like. I always appreciate uh, you know having a SD card uh for sure here, so let's go ahead and run a little quick speed test uh for you guys all right. Let's go ahead, open, subway, surfer, 3 2, and they should basically be the same unless there's a difference with the skin and stuff like that, oh the velvet got it there. First, let's go ahead and try the play store, look like the pixel got it there. Let's go ahead and try actually load up a web page open espn.

com, so the velvet seems to be a little faster than the pixel um. As far as I can see here, let's go ahead and try YouTube three: two one and the pixel got it there uh. So both phones are pretty much essentially uh the same when it comes to speed, let's go ahead and try tempo run two and like the pixel got it there. So both phones are pretty much neck and neck uh. When it comes to your know performance, they got the same chip same amount of ram, so you're not really deciding on speed with these two phones because they pretty much open the exact same here.

Let's check out the speaker quality on both they both have stereo speakers. So let's go ahead and check that out uh. So one thing I'm noticing here is that the velvet is slightly louder than the 4a, but the 4a to me sounds better. When it comes to the bass, it's got way more depth with the bass. I can just hear all the kicks and 808s really clearly on the 4a.

I've always been impressed with the speakers that google has put on any pixel phone. They've always been sounded really great to me yeah, but the velvet is loud louder but um. They don't distort at high volume. So two excellent speakers I hear for sure alright. So what about gaming performance? And honestly, you know, like I said you have the same amount of ram in the same chipset, so they pretty much perform the same when you're playing any game.

These are capable of playing the latest games, Fortnite Call of Duty. Whatever you want to play and graphics, you can see uh you're limited to HD on high on both. So you get essentially the same experience. Uh they're both play games, fine they're not going to be like you know, flagship level, gaming experience, but they both do a great job. The only real difference is obviously when you're gaming, the screen size and speaker quality.

That's pretty much it. That's the only difference, you're gonna notice here, all right. Let's talk about our additional features on each phone, so, like I said you have the quad deck on the velvet, no quad DAC on the 4a. Of course, you have ip68 dust and water resistant on the velvet, so you can get it wet, and it won't break. You know immediately, there's no IP rating on the 4a.

Both of these phones have NFC for your mobile payments. Let me wipe this off. Both these phones have NFC for your mobile payments, uh, which is excellent uh. So you do have wireless charging on the velvet and there is no wireless charging on the pixel in the fingerprint scanning scanner situation. So you have a physical one.

It is faster than the know in display one on the velvet, but, like I said, I always love in display ones, because I just think they're cooler to have I've always felt like that. So I do like really like just any in display one if it works and the velvet works. I've never had an issue. This is faster, it's physical, it's the classic! You know physical one, but as you can see, the velvet works. There's no issue.

Both of these phones do not have faced unlock, which makes no sense. I hate that like why take away the option to have faced unlock, so I don't understand, but they don't so that sucks on both ends all right. So let's talk about the cameras here and uh I'll show you guys some side by side. Comparisons then we'll go into detail about. You know what I saw uh, but on the uh velvet you have a triple camera setup, 48, megapixel, standard, 8, megapixel, archer, wide 5, megapixel depth, 4k video 16, megapixel selfie, and that is 1080p on the pixel dual camera setup: 12 megapixel, uh standard 16, megapixel ultra-wide 4k, video 8, megapixel, selfie 1080p video for that one uh.

So I'm going to go ahead and roll those selfies, you guys are not selfies click. Uh pictures you guys can uh determine which one you like uh, better, and then I'll talk about. You know how I feel about them. So all right. So let's talk about the camera so on the velvet this was taking on the main lens and they both did a perfect job with detail seems pretty much uh on par.

They both pretty much look identical. I actually can see a little more detail on the velvet just slightly uh, but I do think the colors came out better on the pixel and I do think the pixel handles white balance uh better, but that's pretty much. It um, where the comparison stops is really with the main lens uh. Because um you lose a lot of detail when you go to the ultra-wide on the velvet. It's really not even it's not even close um you, the velvet or the pixel, just takes way better photos with the ultra way better.

So it's an it's a big difference in terms of detail and stuff. You can just see on the texture on the trees. You can barely see it on the velvet. So just uh got killed with the ultra-wide there uh here's another shot. We took again both did really well pixel, slightly more detail and slightly better color as well here angry bird.

Also, as you can see, the uh pixel did a much better job with the color. Again you got sort of a really blue tint on the um velvet, which you can change and mess around with this stuff in the uh pro mode uh. But this was just you know. Auto most people are just going to snap. A photo they're, not gonna, do all that um, but, as you can see again, not too different when it comes to detail again color you got a super warm color, more color accurate, so the pixel just kills it with color accuracy and handling white balance.

I think it just does a perfect job with that. You can see this picture here, really not too much of a difference at all, pretty much the same amount of detail, just a slight difference in color. So two very good cameras for you know what it is. I do think the pixel overall has a better camera here now. Let's talk about the battery situation here, so I have not been able to use any phone on 5g because of where I live, but you have a 4 300 William battery, only velvet 25 watt fast charging wireless charging and on the pixel you have a smaller 3 85 William battery 18 watt fast charging, so the velvet charges much faster, which is something that I love uh.

I think you should at least try to aim for 21 watts on any phone these days, at least so this charges, you know slower than the velvet, and also there's no wireless charging, of course. So it's always convenient just to put your phone down and wirelessly charge um. So as far as battery life, honestly, they perform around the same around seven hours to six hours and 30 minutes of screen on time, which is excellent, so you can get full days use out of both of these phones, and I was thinking because the velvet has you know a much bigger screen that um it was going to do about the same as the pixel. Since it has a smaller screen, smaller battery um but yeah, so battery life is excellent on both of these phones. But I do like that.

You have fast charging, and you also have wireless charging on the velvet. So what do you guys think be sure to let me know, and I'll catch you guys in the next one.

Source : Matthews Tech