Google Pixel 5 Review By Alex Hong

Hey there, Alex here. This is the Google Pixel 5. Since it’s not really that new anymore, I’ll try to keep it brief. Starting with how it looks, it’s a pretty simple and boring design that we’ve seen on the Pixel 4a already. The green colour does look kinda unique, but it’s still a relatively muted colour. Google says that it has a metal body, but that’s on the inside.

What we actually see and touch on the outside, is just plastic. But, it does feel pretty sturdy, it still has an IP68 rating, and by having a cutout on the metal inside, they were able to implement wireless charging as well. So no complaints from me here. The OLED display looks decent and bezels are relatively thin. It has a 90Hz refresh rate which is nice, and it has just enough brightness for outdoor use.

It’s probably one of the nicest displays I’ve seen on a Pixel device, but coming from the Galaxy S21 it looks pretty underwhelming. The Pixel 5 comes with dual speakers, but the top speaker is now built into the screen, and produces sound by vibrating the glass. I’m not sure why they decided to do this because the volume output is so much lower compared to a normal speaker. Thankfully, the bottom speaker does sound pretty good, so it’s still pretty decent sounding overall, but I don’t think you could call it a stereo setup anymore. Anyway, the Pixel 5 is using a capacitive fingerprint sensor, and it’s definitely the right move to make.

Face Unlock was a nice idea in theory, but a lot of local banking apps never got around to supporting it, and most of us are wearing a mask these days. I don’t really have much to say about the performance of the Pixel 5 since it’s just fine. It’s a pretty standard mid range chipset with a decent amount of storage and RAM. It’s not the fastest phone around, but it should be able to handle daily tasks and a bit of casual gaming. Because of the less powerful chipset, battery life is pretty great for such a small device.

I can get a day of use out of the phone even with heavier usage. I recorded the amount of battery drain while using the phone, so you can pause the video if you want to take a closer look. In terms of software, it’s a Pixel. I know a lot of folks like it because of how clean it is, but personally, I find it a bit bare bones in terms of features and customisation options. I personally don’t use a lot of the Pixel exclusive features as well.

So to me, the main selling point here is pretty much just the fast and consistent software updates. Well, maybe if you consider that Google will be stopping unlimited backup to Google Photos for other devices soon, this could also be a selling point for the Pixel 5. Camera performance is kinda boring to talk about as well since they’ve been using the same sensor for a while now, and the only new thing here is an ultra wide angle camera. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a pretty capable shooter and I still like the way Google processes images during the day. But I can tell that the camera hardware is just not able to keep up with newer flagship devices these days, especially in low light.

Video capture has been improved, but again, there are phones out there that perform better. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed shooting with the Galaxy S21 more than the Pixel 5. Anyway feel free to check out the link in the video description below if you want to see for yourself whether the camera is good enough for your needs. I’ve uploaded everything I took with the phone at original resolution. As you can see, I don’t really think that there is anything super interesting about the Pixel 5.

It is a decent, but boring phone. If you are a Pixel fan, and you like having a clean software experience with fast updates, sure, you probably won’t be too disappointed with the Pixel 5. But personally I just feel like it’s not that great value for money. Not just because the phone isn’t sold here in Singapore so you have to buy export sets, but also because the hardware is so underwhelming. Maybe it’s because I’m coming from the Galaxy S21, which offers way better hardware all round, but is only slightly more expensive.

Not to mention as well that if you can live with a few less features, there is the Pixel 4a and 4a 5G, which offers mostly the same Pixel experience at a lower price point. Thanks for watching this video, and see you guys on the next one.

Source : Alex Hong