iPHONE SE (2020) vs PIXEL 3A [Best $400 Phone?] In-Depth Comparison By Mike O'Brien

Welcome back to the channel in this video I'll be comparing the brand-new iPhone SE to the Google, Pixel 3a, and essentially these are the phones you'd be buying if you wanted an excellent and brand-new phone that wasn't $1000. So these are both companies that make flagship phones but are selling these for 399 and what they did there once they took. Essentially a lot of the flagship features, the things that we really liked about the pixel series and the iPhone series, and they kind of watered them down. They got rid of the things that were maybe not super necessary, and they were able to cut costs down to 399, but these are still very impressive phones and what they actually cut out is slightly different between these phones. So, in this video I'll be diving in and figuring out what the differences are and helping you decide which one's actually best. So in this video I'll be breaking it down into five major categories.

The first one is the physical differences, which are actually pretty substantial. The second one is the differences in displays. Thirdly, I'll do a full camera comparison because I know a lot of you will be very interested in that and then. Fourthly, we will talk about the electronics, meaning the internal components, the battery life, the charging stuff like that and then. Lastly, the software which I know is very different.

Obviously just Apple and Android is really what I'm talking about there, but there are a few things that I really want to point out that are kind of special for both of these phones. That would be important to note and right off. The bat I do want to say that I know there's kind of a little of a war between Apple and Android and people kind of like this, a little of a brand affiliation deep down, I want to say: I have Apple I have Android I, really they're, both just phones to me, I'm, really not going to be biased in this video I'm, going to be trying to be as neutral as possible to make sure that you guys can make the right decision for your own needs so jumping into the physical aspects of these phones. You'll see that the pixel is slightly larger, with a 5.6-inch screen, while the iPhone only has a 4.7-inch screen. The iPhone also has ip67 water resistance, while the pixel doesn't actually have an IP rating I think that was just one of the ways they cut cost.

It should be semi water, resistant I, wouldn't really trust, dropping it in the water as much as I. Would this iPhone? But you know if you get the right case, you really shouldn't have too many problems as far as controls go. They both have a power button. They have the volume rockers. The iPhone has their classic little switch on the side to turn it on silent, that's something nice that iPhones all have and the iPhone SE here also has a physical home button with a fingerprint sensor on there.

The pixel also has a fingerprint sensor. You can see it's on the back of the phone. It doesn't have a physical home button. Instead, that's just part of the interface, you just tap it on the bottom, or you can use a gesture or something like that. Depending on how you set up your phone.

Now the pixel has a really cool extra thing on there that you can't actually see just looking at it, and that is by squeezing the sides you're able to summon the Google Assistant. You could also just say the command I'm, not gonna, say it in case. You guys have a Google home in your house, but you could just say that, and that works as well, just as you could say, hey Siri and the iPhone would do that now. Looking at the ports on this, of course, the iPhone here has the Lightning port on the bottom. Unfortunately, it does not have a headphone jack looking at the Pixel 3a.

This is a big difference that I think a lot of people will definitely enjoy if they get the 3a is having that headphone jack. So not only is it USB see on the bottom, but it also has a headphone jack, so you can plug in anything for your car or headphones or whatever you want without needing a dongle or needing wireless earbuds. So, as far as the build quality of these phones go, I think the iPhone kind of wins that one, because it does have that glass back, which feels very nice very smooth, and it's just overall more premium texture, mostly because this is the iPhone 8 body. So it was formerly a flagship phone. Now the pixel is polycarbonate, which does allow you to squeeze it on the side.

That's why they have that. That's pretty much why they chose polycarbonate, but it is definitely still a pretty good phone being that polycarbonate is a little more durable. You don't have to worry about shattering it really, but I will say that maybe scratching it could be slightly more of a concern and also the waterproofing on there as well. So overall aesthetics, they both have three different colors. The iPhone comes in black white or red, and it'll pop up the pixel colors right there they're a little more strange as a white one, there's kind of like a purplish one, so I'll show you those colors on the screen right now.

So now, I want to get into a speaker and screen test I'll. Just play a video on both of these. You guys can see the relative brightnesses of these screens, as well as the volumes of the speakers. Apples just calling it the iPhone SE, and essentially what it is, is an iPhone 11 internals crammed into an iPhone 8 body sold at 399, which is a fascinating combination and can be very promising honestly having something so powerful and so based on that test. Droid, there I think it's pretty obvious that the pixel has more base and overall, a slightly better speaker set in broad daylight.

Neither of these screens are perfect, but you'll see that I think the iPhone has a slight and also the true tone makes it look a little better. Okay, so getting into the display. Now the pixel definitely has deeper blacks and a little more contrast in the screen, but the iPhone does have a true tone display there, which means in different lighting. It will be showing things a little differently, so that it should look very consistent, no matter where you are so in a very yellow, dark environment or out in broad daylight. The colors should look similar on this phone.

Of course, the overall brightness on either of these phones will not really be comparable to what we see. Unlike the galaxy s, 20 series or anything like that, as I said before, the screen on the pixel is 5.6 inches, while the iPhone is 4.7 inches so significantly smaller on the iPhone. For some people, that might be a good thing. You want a smaller phone for other people. They may want the larger body.

Of course, the Pixel 3a also has an XL version, whereas the iPhone SE does not. So if you're looking for a bigger screen, it may be a good choice to go with the Pixel 3a. Maybe the 3i XL, just to have a little more room to watch your media speaking of the screens. The quality is also drastically different. Being that the screen on the iPhone is only 720p, so the actual dimensions are 13 34 by 70, while the pixel is a 1080p display, so it's 20 to 20 by 1080, so definitely a significantly higher quality.

It is a good high definition screen.720 is relatively low. It's something that I kind of hold a slightly against the iPhone here. The display does look pretty good, because it's so small, of course it's not really a problem that it's 720. So next, let's get into the cameras of these phones. It's something that I think a lot of people are very excited about to see how these actually compare, because the pixel series basically takes their flagship camera the 3 camera and bring it down.

They brought it down to the 3 a think this year, they'll probably bring the pixel 4 camerae down to the 4a. I actually will be comparing this to the 4a as well when it comes out. So if you guys want to see that make sure you go down and click the subscribe button and the Bell icon, so you don't miss that video, but essentially the iPhone, then we're not sure exactly what camera sensor this has. We know that it's not the iPhone 11 sensor. They definitely did not bring that down we, so it's probably slightly lower quality than the iPhone 11 camera.

So just based on specs alone. I do suspect that the pixel camera should be slightly better, but otherwise on paper, they don't look all that different. It's a 12 megapixel sensor on the iPhone 12 point to megapixels on the pixel. Now, of course, megapixels is not everything. There's a lot of internal stuff that changes the aperture size, there's a whole science behind it.

Honestly, then, on the front, we do have a 7 megapixel, selfie camera on the iPhone right here and an 8 megapixel sensor on the pixel, so I'll test that out in a second as well as. Lastly, as far as video goes, the pixel is able to record 4k 30, while the iPhone is able to record 4k 60. So as far as video goes, I do think that the iPhone should have a slight edge over the pixel again, we'll see that in just one second, so looking at some photos, you'll see that the iPhone and the pixel both do an excellent job of skin tones and overall color. In the background, I think the pixel photos generally look a little sharper. As you can see here with my dog, you can really see the hairs a little better and the white balance I think is also drastically improved on the pixel over the general softening.

We see with the iPhone, so here the flowers look a little yellowish with the iPhone, whereas with the pixel it definitely pops out. This is one of the better photos to illustrate this difference again, a closer picture of my dog. You can see the differences with his fur I think the pixel generally looks a little more accurate and true to life when we get to darker environments. This is where the pixel really jumps ahead, being that the iPhone doesn't have a night mode and then even in a dark environment, the pixel looks really amazing. So looking at portrait mode, I think that this is where an apple definitely does a slightly better job.

Here, I think the skin tones look very natural, and the background is not too blurry. I think they do a good job, with edge detection as well, and then in the pixel photo it's a little more flat and not as vibrant. Alright guys so now using the front-facing camera. Let me know what you guys think: how do they sound? How do these look? I would say that the iPhone seems to be capturing color a little better, just looking at that right there, but that could just be the way the screen is displaying of the true tone we'll actually see when I put it on my laptop. So much like the selfie camera, the iPhone rear camera has significantly better color in videos but comment down below, and let me know what you guys think of the stabilization now getting into the internal components the electronics of these phones.

This is where the iPhone really shines. So we see that the hardware it's a little more antiquated with this, but Apple really wanted to preserve the a13 chip. They brought that down to this one, so they have really one of the best phone processors on the market today, I'm talking, this is better than a lot of very expensive flagship, Android phones. This is better than most flagship, Apple phones, except for the iPhone, because it has exactly the same processor in there, which is honestly very impressive. It means that you'll be the longevity of this phone should be significantly greater than we'll see with the pixel, meaning that this will probably be supported for four or five years before they stop getting updates.

That's something very excited. Of course. It is also very efficient and very powerful with this 813 chip now the pixel. Unfortunately, this is something they kind of cut back on a little. It doesn't have, so typically we'll see like a snapdragon, 865 or 855.

Now what they have here is a 600 series snapdragon, it's like 635, I, think, and so it's not going to be nearly as fast or as snappy as we're, seeing with a lot of the other flagship phones. So as far as speed goes, I do suspect that the iPhone should be quicker, of course, running pure Android on the pixel. Most people won't notice a speed difference between these phones, but I'll test it out and show you guys just opening the apps. What kind of difference we'll actually see here like I, said the pixel does run very smoothly, and I've never heard anyone complain that it feels slow as far as storage goes. This gives a little of an edge to the iPhone as well, so the pixel is 64 gigabytes, while the iPhone right here are 64 gigabytes as the base model, but you could also get 128 or 256 gigabytes if you're looking for that extra storage right there, both of these do accept 18 watt charging so considering the size of the batteries in these phones, they charge up very quickly and one thing again that really starts to bring the iPhone SE ahead.

The internals of this phone I keep saying are definitely very, very impressive. It also has wireless charging, while the pixel 3/8 does not have wireless charging. So if you want to be able to just set your phone down, have it charged on any wireless charging pad, they have like tables that can charge in your car. If you have one of those little things, it's just really easy to have wireless charging. It's a nice feature to add into a mid-range phone that, unfortunately, the pixel doesn't have, and then lastly, the iPhone SE also has dual SIM capabilities with the ECM in there.

It's something that I don't personally use, but I know some people may be interested in having a second phone number on their phone, maybe one for business or something like that now. As far as software goes I don't want to get into like a Big Apple versus Android thing here, but I want to highlight a couple key differences. So the first one as I kind of alluded to earlier is that these software updates will probably be lasting longer on the iPhone SE or right here being that it's an 13 Bionic chip. They should be getting updates for probably maybe four or five years or so. So.

If you buy this phone for 399 now, it should be lasting quite a long time, meaning that your cost of owning it per year is pretty low. Now, looking at the pixel, it is running the newest Android, so not sure exactly how long it will be supported, but we do suspect that it might be on the order of three years, maybe four years, if you're lucky before they kind of start up, they stopped updating that phone so actually getting into some different features at these. Have a couple highlights that I really like the first one with the pixel is actually their call screen. So if you get a phone call say you're in a meeting- and you don't know if it's important or not, you can hit screen call Google's voice assistant answers the call for you, and it just transcribes it. So it shows up on your screen.

It feels like you're texting somebody, but it'll go to speech. So it'll just say: hey, please, state your name and why you're calling, and they'll say it you can either reject it. Answer the call or continue just texting them back on your phone. That's a really cool thing, and speaking of that, the pixel also has real Trent, real-time transcription. So if you're trying to take notes during a presentation or a class or something like that, you can just turn it on it'll, go text to speech or speech to text the entire time, and it does a perfect job of that.

It's something Google's sunk, a lot of money into, and they're just it's something that the pixel is very capable of doing. A big benefit of having iOS is, of course, having iMessage and FaceTime, and a lot of things like that Google does have their own counterparts they're, not quite as widespread yet and so, for example, they do have like RCS messaging, which gives like read receipts and stuff like that, and they do also have a Google Duo, which is essentially the counterpart to FaceTime they're, not quite as widespread, yet as we have with FaceTime and iMessage. So that's a big benefit of having an iPhone, and on top of that, as far as software goes, you are able to be better integrated with things like an Apple Watch. You can get an Apple Watch with an iPhone and you do have some slight slightly better integration with the air pods Pro and the air pods, although they definitely work just pretty much just as well with an Android phone. Something else to note about the Google Pixel is that is very well integrated with Google Phi, which is there a phone service plan which allows you to use some Wi-Fi hotspots of VPN stuff like that all over the world, and it still works with an iPhone and with pretty much any other phone out there.

But it is just a little. They have some extra stuff on there with the Google Pixel series, so I think those are pretty much. The only software highlights I really want to mention in this video. Obviously there are so many ones between Apple and Android, the voice assistants. Like the way you message just pretty much, everything is going to be slightly different they're, both excellent operating systems, I- really love using either of them again, sometimes for different reasons.

I can make a video on that in the future, but really to summarize the difference between these phones I think the iPhone has a very solid build. It's not going to be a really fringed, nothing too exciting about it, but it does have like the newest software. So somebody just looking for just a regular phone. Somebody says: hey I want just a phone. That's just going to work.

It's going to be a good phone it'll work! I! Don't want to worry, but I'm not going to have anything great, but I'm not going to have anything bad at all and that's really what the iPhone is going to be. Now the pixel is going to be somebody that says: hey I want the best phone, but I don't really want to spend $1000. How can I get the best camera? How can I get like the newest stuff on there with Android rolling out, then that's going to be the pixel I think the pixel camera is definitely superior in my opinion to the iPhone camera right here on the set hat is and otherwise the software there. You know speed and software they're, both excellent phones, the iPhone, might be a little faster, but for somebody looking to buy a $400 phone, I assume you're, not doing really high-end gaming on it or anything like that. You're, probably just looking to use it as an everyday regular phone, and for that both of these are great phones, I hope.

This video helps you decide which one you want best, of course, everybody's going to have a different answer, so, whichever one you choose comment down below, let me know which one you like better and why, if you enjoyed this video, please remember to Like and subscribe as always guys. Thank you all for watching. I'll see you next time.

Source : Mike O'Brien