Google Pixel 5a Review - Awesomely Unexciting By Hands-On Tech

Google's pixel 5a with 5g is now announced, and I've been playing around with it for the past week. I did a full review of this week on all about android and that review is next. This is I'm sure you saw this morning, all the uh all the NDAs lifted, and suddenly everybody was talking about the pixel 5a, the next pixel, not the pixel six. We still have to wait for that, but what we got this morning was uh the embargoes lifted for uh pixel 5a with 5g happen to have it right here. I've had for the past week, uh it's been my primary phone. You know.

I even have this case, which I thought that was another phone, but that's just the case. I see what you did. Now that's the case, yeah and um. You know so, as you can see the phone itself, that's nice yeah little flashiness to it. Um.

As you can see, the phone itself you know is muted. In color same as the pixel 5. , I mean it's a little different shade. The pixel 5 is more like a dark, gray blackish and this is more, and it almost has like a faint, green kind of hue to it and then the Pixel 4a, you know similar to the 5a, so very um, very dull, color scheming on the pixel 5a, but they make up for Google makes up for it with their cases that are splashy colors. Just the problem is they're really kind of slippery.

So they're, not my favorite kind of cases. I think I'm so used to the fabric cases that are super drippy. You know so anyways, that's not about the 5a I'm here to talk about the 5a. So, yes, you've got 5g support in here the 5a runs uh 449. Now the 4a5g, which I actually don't have been 499.

And I almost feel like that's. The comparison right is not to necessarily compare this against the 4a because it's the same size as the 5a. Sorry, the 4a5g, mostly it's like slightly taller. It has 5g support it's just more directly comparative comparable to the 4a5g um, so 50 bucks less than that. One of the downsides that you're going to find here, though, and I'm curious to hear what you think about this Damian- is that it's only available in the US in japan, so there's no UK, no Australia seems like a very limited release for a phone that, I would imagine you know the in the mid-range category.

The series has really um has really impressed a lot of people and get has a lot of sales. How do you feel about that? Like? What's your interpretation of that on a personal level, I'm absolutely livid, because I can't complete my collection of all the pixel devices now, but I'll have to import it and that will be proved to be an absolute nightmare. Um! It's its a strange one, because the Pixel 4a 5g is its kind of like that or last year. It was that perfectly priced like device in Google's lineup, even though the entire lineup just seemed to be a confusing mess at times, but I feel like the pixel, 5a kind of didn't have much fanfare, and it's like 100 more than the Pixel 4a, which I absolutely adore, the Pixel 4a. I think it's just like a breath of fresh air compared to some other devices.

I've used the having use, I'm sure, like you, guys, use a lot of flagship devices and you kind of get a little spoiled with all the little extras and tweaks and things like that and then and then the series pixels kind of like just brush away all of that excess and give you something. That's just really cut back and streamlined, and just has everything that you need, or that you perceive need is really like kind of adjusted, and I'm disappointed that it won't come to the UK but uh the guys in the US and Japan. I would hope that it will be a device to pick up. I'm sure there'll be some perfect deals um over the next few months, leading up to the pixel 6 launch and then hopefully it will fit into that really nice, like entry, entry-level kind of position just ahead of the pixel six and six pro later this year, but yeah. Furthermore, I'm really just really, really disappointed.

It's not having a global rollout. This time around yeah- and I don't know if that'll open up at some point down the line or what the case may be, but uh very interesting to see such a limited rollout. You can pre-order um today it would be available August 26th, and I think, what's interesting about the 5a is to start with. What's the same and what's new because I mean really when you're, comparing it against the 4a5g, almost all of it's the same right, snapdragon 765g, that, like I said the design is, is nearly identical. Camera system is the same: 12 megapixel main 16 megapixel ultra-wide.

It doesn't have a laser autofocus though um like the 5 does. So you missed that. I can't remember if the 4a5g had that 128 gigs of storage, 6 gigs of ram those are the same. Headphone jack is still there, so courage, port for Mateo uh if he was on he'd, be dancing in the streets on that one uh three years of OS updates three years of security updates. You know at this point.

It kind of doesn't make sense that google isn't matching Samsung's, four-year um update pledge, but there we are um. This does have a charger in the box, but that's actually kind of a hot button topic, because today we found out that this is the last pixel phone to have a charger in the box. So that means that when you get the pixel six you're not going to find a charger in the box and of course, google, you know as apple and other companies have said this is about in their words, is about being green right, like I can't tell you how many chargers I have in my box in my drawer or whatever just stashed away like, I don't need another charger. Having said that, I'm not the everyday user right like I'm a tech reviewer. So I like I, I just I collect a lot of these things through the inherent fact that I have a lot of phones that I test and stuff.

So it might be different for my dad. If he goes out and buys the pixel, he might expect to have a charger, and if he wants it, he's going to have to pay for it if he doesn't already have it so that, so I get both sides of that, and we've talked about that on the show before so. Those are all the things that are the same. What's new well, you've got a larger 6.34 OLED display uh the largest battery in a pixel. Ever from my understanding, 4680 William hours uh, the four a5g had 38.85, just as a point of comparison uh, it is the first a series phone to be water and dust resistant ip67. So that's three feet of water for 30, minutes, um and then the power button.

I mean you know the power buttons on all This is are a little all across the board. The five has like a nice shimmery one. The 4a had a kind of plastic flat one. Now it's like this beveled plastic power button. So, there's not a lot different right, like it's just the display the battery, the water um, the water resistance and the power button are really the majority of the things that are even any different on the 5a uh 5g uh you're, not getting the high refresh rate, so no 90 hertz display not getting wireless charging your.

Also, not getting unlimited. Google photos uploads. Remember that perk is done for new pixel phones, uh, including this one and um so outside that I mean you know, I've been using it for a week and prior to that I was using the pixel 5 and honestly, it's like the same. Like my experience is the same. The only difference, actually that I could even you know, tell like tell about right off the top, and you can see it right now is the fact that my pixel 5 is running the beta of android 12, and this isn't, so it's kind of like I stepped backwards in time a little, but the performance is the same.

The camera's as good as ever the display looks fine to my eyes, except the 60 hertz refresh, like I do kind of notice that I think my eyes have grown accustomed to the higher refresh rates at this point, so I really do notice it when I'm scrolling, I even did like a slo-mo record of swapping screens and I could see how you know with every frame. It's just jumping um in places. So, but you know, these are all little things like the battery life is incredible. Like it's a really fantastic battery, I mean it's a much larger battery, that's in here, so that makes sense um. I guess I didn't expect.

You know fireworks and roller coaster rides. Necessarily it's an it's a pretty boring phone, but that's not a ding on it, and I think I say that with every a series release is that it's you know for the mid-range. It's not gonna, wow you or impress you with crazy features that you never knew. You wanted it's going to give you the features that you hope to have, but done really well, and I feel like this does that. So it's hard to recommend it.

I saw a review I forgot which outlet, but, but it had described it the same way you just did Jason and that is boring like boring, but good, you know yeah, some people just want a boring phone like yeah right, I mean you know, and I don't know I guess I could see how that that could be uh construed as like a ding on a device. It's just like I've had my I've reviewed many phones and often when I get a phone, I'm like. Oh, I'm so excited to try this feature or like I'm like I'm pulling it out of the pocket, and I'm like yeah. This is the new phone. You know like there are moments like that, where moments little moments of joy in using it, and I'm so used to the series phones now that I guess the joy is gone, but that's kind of the point right like it's a mid-range device, that's just supposed to be good at what it offers, and it does that.

So it satisfies my expectations. You know it may be boring, but it's also the mid-range phone that I recommend so take from that. What you will, you know what I mean: anyways um, that is it that's the pixel 5a with 5g um, pretty solid 25's, two minutes too many fives. We have to, like we have to, stop doing the 5g thing like just yeah. I totally agree.

I totally agree. Furthermore, I was thinking the same thing um. They could just get rid of that at this point. You know at this point we're a couple of years into this whole 5g thing and say what you will about 5g technology, but um phones, you know most phones, I'd say, are supporting 5g. Now, maybe that's maybe that's an inaccurate statement, but that's the way it feels yeah.

I think, over the last 18 months definitely a lot more fun coming with 5g as standard now, even at the low end, yeah yeah, even at the high-end right in the mid-range. Definitely so at a certain whether your carrier has the infrastructure for the 5g. It's another thing entirely. You know totally could be paying as much as I do every month and still not getting a sim card that catches on to any towers, because you just so happen to live on the edge of the 5g roll out, but also who needs the cell phone tower. Really I mean you don't need that connection.

You know what abolish cell phone towers. It should be something else. So there we have it um. I don't have much more to add 5a pixel 5a, it's its! It is what you thought it would be there. That's the tagline! It's what you expect.

You know what that's good! It's like that! Guy that you have on the back burner. You can go to him when everybody else doesn't work out. You know exactly what you're going to get with my life. I suppose so, and it's a tall drink of water. So it's very like I think it's yeah exactly what you're talking about flow all right.

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Source : Hands-On Tech