Pixel 3a review: mid-range is good enough By Phandroid

Let's be honest: if you want a decent smartphone these days, you have to shell out at least $700 or more, and if you want one with a good camera, that price goes up at least another hundred to two hundred dollars. For the most part, that's a fair price to pay for a high-end smartphone. But what, if you don't want the latest and greatest processor, a high-end display or a ton of storage? What, if you simply want a no-frills device with a great camera in the past? That request was akin to wishing for unicorns and fairies, but Google has turned things upside down with the introduction of the Pixel 3a, a $400 smartphone, which features the same award-winning camera as the original pixel 3 I have to admit that I was a bit dismissive of the Pixel 3a. When I first heard the rumors Google's pixel line was intended to compete with the big boys in the industry and the mid-range specs of the Pixel 3a made it look a little like an afterthought, but the idea of the phone slowly grew on me once I got my hands on it. I definitely understand the appeal of a mid-range smartphone with an amazing camera. My original intent was to compare the phone with other mid-range devices in the category, but after using it for a few days, I was so impressed that I wanted to take a different approach on paper.

This phone doesn't have what it takes to stand up against flagship devices, but can the phone's software, and it's camera experience along with its mid-range specs, still deliver a good enough experience for most users. Let's find out personally I'd consider myself to be a power user, I've, owned high-end Android devices since day one and use my phone for work and play on a daily basis, well, I, typically lug around 2 devices during review periods, especially when using mid-range devices like this one I decided to jump in headfirst with the Pixel 3a, leaving my original pixel 3 and the galaxy s 10 plus at home. Making the switch was actually pretty hard for me since I do a lot of mobile gaming, but in the end the experience wasn't nearly as bad as what I thought. It would be sure. The Snapdragon 670 processor inside this phone is dramatically slower than the newer Snapdragon 855 and even last year's 845.

The phone is noticeably slower than what I'm typically used to and apps take an extra half, second or so to load, but navigating the phone's interface was actually quite smooth. The phone also has four gigabytes of RAM, which is on par with other $400, smartphones that are out there. As someone who uses 8 to 10 apps on a regular basis throughout the day for work and personal tasks, the pixel 3 a managed to keep up quite well, though, in most cases, the phone managed to keep 5 to 6 apps in memory at all time, allowing you to quickly switch between them. But there were those occasional moments when you loaded up an application, and it simply had to load it from scratch, something that you don't really want to wait around for sometimes, while the experience of the phone is definitely affected by the processor. What Google is really trying to deliver is that overall pixel experience focusing on incredible software and an impeccable camera.

Every time we review a smartphone, we spend a lot of time focusing on the software experience, mainly because there are a lot of add-on features. Now, I'm, not here to say that all the extra work that OMS put in to differentiate their products aren't really needed, because some of them are actually pretty spectacular, but I honestly didn't miss any of those when using the pixel, 3a I guess. The simple way to say is that the software Google has delivered allows me to enjoy the phone for what it is without getting in the way several customizations like pulling down the notification shade with a swipe down on the fingerprint sensor. Are there, and you can still squeeze the edges of the phone to pull up Google Assistant. The device is also constantly listening for the Google hot word to pull up the assistant, but it also picks up on background music and will display the title of the song and the artist on the screen individually.

These are all minor features, but they do add up quite quickly, especially when you consider that you don't have to think about them. They just make the phone work better, but of course, the main selling point of the pixel experience and the reason why everyone's excited about this $400 smartphone is its camera. The specs are forgettable. You get a single 12 megapixel sensor with an F 1.8 lens with optical image, stabilization and then an 8 megapixel camera up front for your selfies. You can easily find smartphones for half the price of this that do have dual sensors on the back, but what you don't get on those devices is the pixels magical software, which seemingly turns ordinary cameras into something truly spectacular with the pixel 3, a Google delivered the same exact camera setup as you get on the regular $800 pixel.

Three. The images that you get out of this phone are so good that most people prefer them over those taken with a smartphone that cost two and a half times as much. Despite only having a single sensor. Google's phone also has a portrait mode which blurs out the background behind your subject. You might think that the results would be hit or miss since there's no depth sensor here, but Google's machine learning comes into play here, allowing the built-in AI to distinguish between the edges of the people and other objects delivering impressive results in low-light.

The phone can keep up with most other flagship devices, but once you switch on night mode, you'll be ruined and never want to switch back to any other device. There's literally nothing else like it. You can take handheld shots in complete darkness with a Pixel 3a and the phone will capture shots that most other people would have a hard time capturing with a DSLR on a tripod. Since the Pixel 3a only has one front-facing camera. That means you don't have that second ultra-wide lens that the original pixel 3 does that's a bit of a shame since I'm used to using that ultra-wide lens on a regular basis.

But the results that you get out of that front-facing camera are still pretty stellar, throw in the same night and portrait modes that you use on the main camera of the Pixel 3a and the selfie game from this phone is on par with what you get out of any other flagship care device. If not better. Now, I've covered a lot of positives already, but the phone does have a few drawbacks as well. The phone doesn't have front-facing stereo speakers like the original pixel 3 and the battery life can be categorized merely as acceptable it'll conk out on you, after 8 to 10 hours of heavy use, and it does take quite a long time to charge up as well and no Google didn't include wireless charging on this phone to make up. For a few of those shortcomings, the pixel team did throw in a headphone jack on the top of the phone, but I'm really not sure why they did.

Since most people by now have already converted over to Bluetooth headphones following the launch of the Pixel 3a. There were a lot of negative comments about how Google simply doesn't understand the market. No one is going to argue that this phone here is the best thing that you can currently buy, but I will say that the Pixel 3a is one of the most exciting devices I've used all year long, while everyone else is packing in more specs and bumping up. The prices Google is over, on the other side, with the Pixel 3a to prove that a $400 smartphone is where it's at the Pixel 3a isn't going to be winning any design awards and definitely won't be going head-to-head in performance against the 1 plus 7 Pro, but that phone there costs us six hundred and seventy dollars and the main thing that you're paying for is a high refresh rate on the display and applications that open just a little quicker. But forget that you really need the thousand dollar Samsung Galaxy S, ten plus, for that matter.

Most of us use our smartphones for the mundane things of life, checking email, Facebook, Instagram and playing games and, of course, taking pictures of ourselves and our loved ones. For that, the pixel three is definitely up for the job like luxury cars. Most people inspire to own a high-end smartphone, but with the pixel three, a Google has proven that mid-range is good enough. Thank you so much for watching. If you want to see how the camera on the Pixel 3a compares to other devices check out these links and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more camera comparisons, speed tests and, of course, smartphone reviews.

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Source : Phandroid