Google Pixel 5a Impressions: Perfect Flagship Compliment By Chrome Unboxed

Around here we don't generally unbox anything, that's not a Chromebook or maybe a chrome base or a chrome box from time to time. But when Google makes a phone we got to get our hands on it and that's the case with this one, the pixel 5a. So let's hop in the box. So, as I said, this is a little out of our comfort zone, but it's a Google made phone, so we want to talk about it, and we have on our website. Quite a bit. We've talked about the pixel 5a and a little about why it's a tad bit confusing honestly, because remember back a little over or under a year ago, I'm sorry they announced the pixel 5 and the 4a 5g, and that was on the heels of the Pixel 4a things got real confusing.

There was coveted involved. You know it was a whole thing and google almost felt like they were getting out of the flagship game. Well now we've got the pixel 6 and 6 pro coming and everyone I've talked to is super excited about a flagship level. Pixel phone again, I'm excited about it. I'm ready to return to those roots again, but for now what we're getting today is the pixel 5a, and so the question then becomes: where exactly? Does this phone sit in pixel lineup right now and this device is only going to be released in the US and Japan? So it's not trying to take over a bunch of stuff and it kind of still sits pretty.

Oddly next to the 4a 5g, it's a little bigger 6.3 inches versus the 6.2 in the 4a 5g, and it's got water resistance added this time, you've got perfect cameras. It's a pixel phone, so you've got an actually wider angle, wide angle camera. So, instead of 107 degrees field of view, I believe it goes up to 117 degrees this time around, but there's just not a lot different going on here and unboxing it I'm just going to be honest. It feels like the 4a 5g. It looks like it is I don't know, there's just not a lot different going on here.

You've got two camera notches here: a flash fingerprint scanner again a 6.3 2-inch screen, I think, is what it is. Something like it's 6.3 inches roughly. You know so not that different of a screen. It's got a hole, punch, camera up, top uh plastic chassis, colored button here and one color, this almost black, it does have hints of green in it, and Google actually does say it's like a forest green hint. That's in here.

So if you look hard enough, you can kind of see a greenish tint to this, but there's not really a lot going on here. This is a very basic pixel phone. If you look at pixel phones since the Pixel 4a, basically so the 4a, the 4a 5g, the pixel 5, and now the pixel 5a have all a very specific aesthetic. It kind of gets out of its own way. Doesn't do anything flashy, but you know feels good enough.

In the hand, has a nice glass front rounded corners, you know it. It's not doing a lot here again, and it's not really differentiating itself from the 4a5g in a lot of ways. So, let's actually just look in the box real, quick I've got a sim tray. Our sim card tray removal tool, some paperwork there, and lo and behold, you still get a charging brick here. It's an 18 watt, fast charger again, similar to what we've seen on pixel phones for a little.

You've got the cable, and you've got an USB a to USB type c converter, again, nothing out of the ordinary here when it comes down to it, I mean honestly when it comes to smartphones, there's not a lot of new stuff, we're expecting to see in the box. We're not going to be blown away by whatever's being packaged, especially not in a phone in this price range.449 is what this will go for in the states that comes with 128 gigs of internal storage, six gigs of ram and the same 765 g snapdragon processor, that we've had in other devices prior to this pixel 5 pixels, 4a 5g, most notably there, and so it's impossible not to draw these uh conclusions uh with the similarities between this and the 4a5g again they're. Almost the same size, they're made of the same build materials, they have the same processor inside same amount of ram, same amount of storage uh. The difference has come down to ip67 rating for this phone, so this one can actually get submerged in water and have dust and stuff in it with no problems. This one again has 5g as well, but it also has a much larger battery capacity inside and because of that, google saying you can get up to 48 hours if you're, using their extreme battery saver tool on here.

Most people don't want to do that. It's going to shut down a lot of your stuff that you would normally want to use, but I would wager that this phone will get pretty good battery life easily getting you through a day, because the 40 680 William hour cell inside here should easily power a pixel phone, because again they get great battery life anyway, should power any pixel phone easily. Through a day. I don't see battery life being any issue here whatsoever. As for the screen, 6.3 inches and plenty bright, Google's actually saying that this particular display will get brighter if you're out in sunlight. So if you were to point it say at certain light, and it's bright enough, it actually has a boost that can give you some outdoor brightness, which would be a nice addition.

It's not the brightest display. I've seen. I put it up next to my OnePlus 8t, and it's a little warmer of a display and a little dimmer, not too much. But ultimately I think it's going to be a fine panel. It is OLED, so the punchlines of the colors looks perfect to my eye.

Right now and again, you get that near bezel-less display with the hole punch, camera up front there again. This is all just. It feels like kind of reiterated Google Pixel stuff. At this point, they've put together a similar overall aesthetic, a similar overall recipe for success, basically in the affordable phone category here- and I think this phone's going to do well uh, especially if it's not put up against some randomly cheaper 4a5g. Now, if the situation arises, where google chooses to keep this phone and the 4a 5g around, which it doesn't look like they're going to, especially in the US that could get confusing for consumers, I think, and it would be hard for anyone to say.

Oh, go buy this over that if, if the 4a5 g is cheaper, but as it stands right now, I think this phone will stand up as a decent complement to the pixel 6 when the pixel 6 arrives. This fall because, ultimately, that's going to be an expensive flagship phone, but this gives you the pixel experience on a budget. Basically, you get plastic externals, and obviously you're not getting the fastest chipset in the world, but the 765g does okay, it gets 5g, which is nice, and it can play some games as long as you're not trying to crank everything up to the highest settings and from what I can tell just kind of moving around the phone a little. Everything seems pretty snappy and pretty nice, so overall you're getting the pixel experience, probably for half of what you're going to end up paying for a pixel 6. In the fall, ultimately, though, I think what has impressed me most about this phone right now is how much it makes me eager for the pixel 6 and a mid-range phone should do that Samsung's kind of figured out.

You know the the general uh idea behind marketing phones, this way of having an expensive flagship and then having other phones. Underneath it, I mean apple- does the same thing with their iPhones. They have you know the top ROG iPhone, but then they kind of step down as you move down beneath that phone and there's a reason for that. I can get this pixel experience here, and you know the launcher acts the way it's supposed to and all the extra pixel feature drops are in here and the voice recorders here, the great features and the camera here like night sight and portrait lighting and all that stuff comes along for the ride with this phone because it's a pixel phone. It also gets the latest version of android.

So as soon as android 12 launches later in the year, this phone's going to get that it comes with the launcher that you expect in a pixel phone. It comes with all the things that make a pixel great, which is mostly just software stuff, and it comes in at a lower price, and because of that, I think this is going to be a fine phone to be around, especially throughout the holidays, because it could go on sale and be even less than 400 bucks outright you're, not getting it on some sort of payment plan or anything to be able to spend 400 bucks for a phone like this honestly is pretty awesome, because again, it comes with a lot of great features that you expect in the pixel line. But for me for users like me for people who don't mind spending a little more money on a phone. What this phone also does is point to a pixel six, something that I think is a better going to be a better overall experience, something that's going to be fast and fluid and probably have some features that this one doesn't. But ultimately, this gives you the pixel experience and maybe for the first time someone gets this and goes man I didn't know.

Android could be this good. I didn't know it could be kind of this cohesive and feel this nice to use, because, ultimately it does. I've been away from pixels for about 18 months at this point like as a daily driver and just picking this phone up and using it for a very little has reminded me why I love pixel phones. Furthermore, I love how easily the Pixel Buds pair up to it. Furthermore, I love how seamless the integration is with all of google services and, ultimately, when it comes down to it, Google's win across the board, whether it be the camera or video or just the experience of using a pixel phone always comes from the software, and so even though the pixel 6 and the pixel 6 pro will be better hardware, it will be faster, and they'll probably have some tricks.

This phone is going to give you that pixel experience and I think that's where it's going to win and where it's going to be really attractive to consumers. Come this fall. So when will these become available? Well right now you can go and pre-order this device right at the Google store or through Google phi at 449 it'll launch on August, the 26th, so it'll actually be available, start shipping at that point and Google's also including some cases right out of the gate with this one. So, even though it only comes in one color right out of the box, they're going to have the availability of uh a couple different colored cases, and you know they're they're, pretty standard, pretty basic uh, well we'll open one up here: um they're a little on the chunky side, but they're nice and protective too um, and again they're made by google. So they are going to fit the device uh perfectly.

Basically- and you know it's its more like a CPU sort of case- adds a little of thickness to the overall. You know silhouette of the device, but ultimately the fingerprint sensor is easily accessible there. The buttons are nice and click on it, and it's going to provide you some drop protection. If you accidentally mishandle your pixel 5a again, this phone will be available August 26th. You can pre-order right now over at the Google store or on Google phi, either one you're going to pay 449.

For this thing and again it will work on most carriers here in the United States and ultimately, I think this is going to be a good fit for a lot of people, a lot of people that want that pixel experience that want a larger screen that want great cameras and all that kind of stuff. You want to add in some ip67 dust and water resistance, you want to add in a bigger battery versus what's already on the market, and you don't want to pay pixel six and pixel six pro prices, so 449 dollars gets you a lot when you think of it. That way- and I think this is going to be a good fit for a lot of people, but guys that's it for this one. If you enjoyed this video, give us a thumbs up, go down there and hit that subscribe button and make sure and ring the notification icon as well. If you'd like to be alerted when we make future videos just like this one till next time, we'll see you.

Source : Chrome Unboxed