Google Pixel 4a Review: Astounding Value For Money By Alex Hong

Hey there, Alex here. This is the new Pixel 4a, and if you’ve seen other reviews about the phone already, you probably know how good it is. But I still want to share some of my thoughts on it, because it is actually really well-priced here in Singapore this time round. If you recall, the Pixel 3a was priced at 659 SGD at launch, which was a significant markup over US prices. This time round, the Pixel 4a comes in at a very reasonable 499 SGD, and it even brings with it tons of improvements. So let’s talk about some of those things.

First of all, this is still a mid-range phone, so we’re still not getting a premium build quality, water resistance, or wireless charging. That said, for a plastic phone, this feels pretty solid. The matte black unibody is clean looking, and the buttons have good tactility. The display is a huge upgrade over its predecessor, and perhaps better than even the Pixel 4. The viewing angle and colours might be a tiny bit behind the Pixel 4, and it doesn’t have 90Hz refresh rate or the ambient EQ feature, but outdoor visibility is actually better, which I think is more important.

Then, because of the smaller bezels, the screen is a bit bigger, and overall, it’s just a more enjoyable viewing experience. By the way, we’re still getting a headphone jack here, and it still has stereo speakers. It’s not quite as good as the ones on the Pixel 4, but it is definitely above average, and something you don’t often find on mid range phones. The fingerprint sensor is still here as well, and I prefer it over Face Unlock for sure. It’s reliable, works with banking apps, and actually more convenient these days.

Specifications wise, again, massive upgrades here. We now have 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which is double the storage that was on the Pixel 3a and the base model Pixel 4. But most importantly it’s using the faster UFS 2.1 instead of eMMC storage. There is a noticeable improvement in speed when loading local content or just opening apps and games. The Snapdragon 730G here is decent as well even though it is an older chipset.

For regular day to day use I have no complaints here, and even gaming seems decent for the most part. However, I do want to mention that, like a few other phones I’ve tested with the 730G, I can’t turn on High Frame Rate mode for Mobile Legends. Battery capacity is slightly larger here at 3,140mAh, and even with slightly heavier usage I can still make it through a day of use, which is pretty great for such a compact device. Software experience is pretty much as expected from Google. I don’t really use a lot of the extra Google features, but I like it because of how clean it is, and the three years of timely software support.

So I don’t even care that they removed the Active Edge feature. Like with all Pixel phones, camera performance is definitely the highlight here. It’s only a single rear camera, but it’s a really good one that is almost as good as the Pixel 4, which is to say it might be even better than some flagship phones. But of course the Pixel 4 still has that additional telephoto lens, so portrait mode and zoom quality is not quite as good. But I do prefer the slightly warmer photos from the Pixel 4a, and Super Res Zoom works well enough for taking macro shots or zooming in a little.

Front camera is good when it comes to colours and dynamic range, but I think that the minimum focus distance might be a bit too far away, so for a lot of the shots that I took, my face seems to be slightly out of focus. I’m not sure if it’s the same for everyone or just this unit, but anyway it’s probably still fine for social media use. Video quality is really good as well with nice stabilisation and dynamic range on both the front and rear cameras. So no complaints here. At this price point, I think this level of camera performance is pretty much unbeatable.

Google’s image processing is so good that all you need to do is just point and shoot. The Pixel 4a doesn’t really do anything new. It’s actually the same formula as the Pixel 3a, with the main focus being camera quality. Just that this time round, the rest of the phone went from being just passable, to actually being pretty good. In fact, I actually enjoyed using this more than the Pixel 4.

It still has some compromises for sure, but it’s a lot less than you would expect for a phone at this price point. So I think this just might be one of the best mid-range Android phones that you can buy today. Thanks for watching this video. If you’ve enjoyed it, be sure to leave a like, and subscribe to the channel for more content in the future. Thanks again, and see you guys on the next one.

Source : Alex Hong