Pixel 4a vs iPhone SE 2 (2020) - Battle of the Budget! By Noah Herman

Welcome back to another tech, video shot at the crack of dawn, I'm your host Noah Herman, and I'm not getting any sleep tonight, partly by choice by the way, but anyway I was sent the Pixel 4a. I am part of team pixel. This is a hashtag GIF from Google and even though it is, that doesn't mean I'm not going to objectively cover it, and the first thing I wanted to do with this brand-new compelling budget smartphone is compared to apple's budget offering the iPhone SE 2020 and without further ado. Let's jump into this comparison here, but before we continue I'd appreciate it. If you leave a like comment, if you have any questions, suggestions or opinions as the YouTube algorithm likes that and will help push my content to more people, and if you are a recurring viewer, please press the bell icon, as it does help the channel out a lot. So you'd think with design there'd be a clear winner here, but there really isn't for two different reasons.

One of these phones has a better overall look and the other one has better build quality, and I'm sure you can guess which is which here the iPhone SC to start out with, has an outdated design. This is basically the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 8. These bezels, just like 2014 called they want their bezels back. You know what I'm saying, but the build quality is just great. You got aluminum here, you got glass, and it's overall spotless, and it feels like a premium product, even though it looks outdated.

It looks old, whereas the Pixel 4a looks fantastic from the front. You have this great full screen display it's a wider or fuller aspect ratio. You have a hole. Punch like this is 20 20. This is clearly 2019.

At least you know. This is a new looking phone. However, the build quality, it isn't exactly lacking, but it's not the same. It's made out of plastic and that's fine, it's cheaper feeling, but yeah. This looks better feels a bit cheaper.

This looks older but feels more expensive, and I'm dropping these phones here, like a real professional and let's just admire the backs of these phones here they both look clean. I have to say, even though the materials are different here, you have clean logos. You have a fingerprint sensor on the back here, which is barely like visible. If you ask me it's sort of like a little divot and then the cameras look nice on here as well. This seems a little extra.

If you know what I mean, like I'm sure they cram tech into this little space on the pixel 4, but it looks nice, and then you have a clean, iPhone, 8 is, looking setup on here as well and something I also note, is this little mint green power button. This phone only comes in one color, but you do get this little accent piece right here, which is just a staple of Google Pixel phones. As for the o, of course, you get lightning, which is a legacy port with the iPhone SC, soon to be replaced with USB type-c, hopefully in 2020, and then we get an USB type-c with the Pixel 4a. So this definitely has more versatility with newer accessories. As for the speaker quality, I think both have fantastic stereo setups.

However, I do believe the 4a has a bit of an edge here. The sound just sounds fuller to me, and I'll just do a little demo here to give you an idea. Yeah, it just sounds like there's something more there. You know what I mean like more substance to the sound. I don't know you know, I'm not an audiophile, so I don't have the right terms, but maybe you heard it.

Maybe you didn't but yeah. I think the Pixel 4a wins in that category. Another audio difference is the lack of and the presence of a headphone jack. We got one with the Pixel 4a and none on the iPhone SE, so you do get decent inbox headphones with the iPhone. However, you have more versatility with the 3.5 millimeter jack on the Pixel 4a and finally, let's talk biometrics here with the iPhone. You have a front facing home button, fingerprint scanner touch ID 2.0, very quick and then with the Pixel 4a, you have a back facing fingerprint scanner. It's also very quick to unlock and set up as well, so in terms of speed and accuracy.

Both are fantastic. However, I do like the fingerprint sensor on here a bit more because I don't know like I don't have to do like a shimmy to get my thumb down here like and my finger is already resting here uh, but I will say, though, with the iPhone when it is resting on a table. The ability to just you know tap like this and unlock is nice? That's not something you can do here with the pixel you're going to have to type in your pin. Normally, you should be dancing next up. Let's talk displays, and this is not a negotiable category like this isn't even a contest.

We already know which phone wins. It's the iPhone SC just kidding it's the Pixel 4a, with this giant at least comparatively 5.8 inch OLED display here compared to the 4.7 inch IPS thing that we get with the iPhone. I was about to say, eight, the iPhone SE. It's basically an iPhone 8 screen. It's basically an iPhone 6 screen with uh.

What's it called with true tone, so I mean yeah. This is not a bad display, but it pales in comparison to what you're getting here. I love the size of this phone. It has a great form factor. It's very much like my personal daily driver, the iPhone 11 Pro it's a PPI of like 440, compared to like 326 that you get with the iPhone and not only is it great in the UI and displays you know more than that of the iPhone it's great for video as well and again, you get a hole, punch display, which you know, makes this phone look more futuristic.

The one grace that the iPhone's display has is true tone. I enjoyed the fact that this display is color accurate in pretty much any environment, but yeah I mean when it comes to watching movies and content, and whatever I mean the Pixel 4a wins, even with 16 by nine content, which the iPhone um displays natively but yeah. Once again, there's no contest the aspect, ratio, FHD, plus and OLED outdo, an IPS dish 16x9 display any day of the week. Next up, let's quickly talk battery life here, and I will say both are going to get you through the day, no problem. When I was using the iPhone SE, I had no problem uh, not having my phone die on me, for example, but you know it's not the biggest capacity.

This has like an 1800 William hour battery and has a powerful processor, so you're going to want to plug in if you are using it more heavily and something that I noticed about the pixel is that with it soled display, and it's presumably lower powered snapdragon 730 processors, and not only that a bigger 3100 William hour battery uh yeah. It does perform better after about like two hours of screen on time. Like video playback and some casual usage, I was at 84 with my Pixel 4a and then my iPhone had like 69, so there's definitely a bit of a difference there, a 15 difference so yeah, apparently um the pixel 48, with its bigger battery duh, performs better here, but once again, you're going to be able to get through the day. No problem with both, but something I will note is that the iPhone has wireless charging, which is really great. If you have something next to your bed, so you can just roll over and just you know, plop your phone down to charge, but something that the Pixel 4a does better beyond just having better screen on time is fast charging, while your iPhone SE can fast charge, apple phones tend to sort of power sip or excuse me like charge trickle.

If you know what I mean, if I'm saying that right um, basically, they might charge quickly from like 0 to 60, but when it goes from 60 to 100, it gets slower. This I mean charged real quick. I was at like 70, and I plugged this in for 20 minutes, and it was back up at 100, so yeah fast charging is definitely great with here so yeah. At the end of the day, you're going to get better screen on time with the Pixel 4a, but decent enough battery life with the iPhone SE plus wireless charging. Next up, let's talk about camera quality or performance.

We have similar hardware on the back here, a 12 megapixel single sensor with the SE and a 12.2 megapixel sensor with the Pixel 4a and singular flashes here as well, and then on the front. Here we have a seven megapixel front-facing camera with the SE and an eight megapixel hole punch front facing camera with the Pixel 4a. That is quite a bit wider by the way, as you can see here, but to actually touch on image quality. Here there are some situations where I think iPhone might look a little sharper or a little more natural, but I have to tell you the Pixel 4a does not disappoint. It is a pixel in every sense of the word and, for example, with portrait mode.

It just kills it I mean with the iPhone SE. You have to have a face involved, but with the pixel, of course, they have their AI and their algorithm doing its magic. So you get really crispy both on here, even though it's totally fake and yeah you just get really crispy nice looking photos out of both of these phones. You get cooler colors with the Pixel 4a a bit warmer colors with the iPhone SE. Dynamic range seems better with the Pixel 4a as well.

As you can see here with the iPhone. You get a pretty dark. Looking brick wall here against the sky, but with the pixel you just get a whole nuanced image with all this value, which just looks amazing. Something I also noticed is that the autofocus seems to be a bit better with the Pixel 4a here, for example, with this picture of this leaf, I was able to rack focus or get this leaf in focus quicker than that of my iPhone, but yeah. Both of these images came out very nice.

Looking, as you can see here, the same concepts apply here with front-facing photography with these phones. Here, but one thing you have to notice or will notice is that the Pixel 4a takes a much wider image, so you'll be able to get more people in the shot and something else I want to note or an opinion that I want to share is that I think that the front-facing both effect with the iPhone SE just looks a bit more natural. I don't know especially around my glasses. It looks a little less choppy, whereas with the pixel it does seem to have sort of a sharp edge, especially around, like my glasses, for example, but both look like see like next to the hat here, like yeah, that seems kind of jagged. If we look over here with the iPhone- that's not very present, but I have to say both look really great here and, as I said before, the portrait effect with the back facing camera is superior in my opinion, especially because it can be applied to just objects in general and not just faces.

Shooting video is a bit of a different story, though I will say with the front cameras. It is actually kind of a similar story. You both can shoot hd30 with these cameras here, so not a difference in resolution or frame rate here. However, overall, I will say from just my previous experience and from my current experience, image quality with iPhone with video, at least, is usually better, I believe better image stabilization, especially with the back facing camera here, and not only that you get 4k 60 video, not just 4k 30 video, like you get with the Pixel 4a here, and that's because I believe the a13 is just more powerful and can accommodate that, whereas the 730 might not be able to support that- or maybe google just didn't feel like doing that. Also- and I believe the Pixel 4a does not optically stabilize video.

Instead, it uses a gyro as system, whereas the iPhone SE has optically stabilized video, and it does show it looks a lot smoother, especially with 60fps at 4k, so yeah. In my opinion, hands down video quality does go to the iPhone. However, pixel does put up a great fight, and you can see a lot of the positive pixel image quality aspects shining through like the dynamic range and sharpness and color, but yeah iPhone, wins video quality and, I would say, for the most part, probably 70 of the time: Pixel 4a wins photo quality and finally, let's talk performance and just like with display. This analysis is pretty simple or didn't. Take me too long to draw my conclusion here, while the Pixel 4a pushes a very smooth stock, android experience with the snapdragon 730 and six gigs of ram the iPhone SC.

Let's just admit it is a beast with the a13 here I mean it's, the top of the line processor right now, it's in the iPhone 11 Pro it's in the iPhone 11 and yeah. It just screams. It's like up there with some laptop processors, but that's not to say that the experience with the Pixel 4a is bad or anything. Furthermore, it's very smooth, apps, open, very quickly. Things are very well optimized.

You have to keep in mind. This is a stock android phone. This is as bare bones as it gets um, but yeah. It just doesn't feel as snappy as the a13 does, with iOS here and, of course, apple really, optimizes, the hell out of iOS to run on its own hardware here so yeah, while the pixel 4 8 offers a smooth experience, the iPhone SC offers a buttery experience. I mean everything is smooth.

I rarely see any hiccups or lagging I mean it should be. This is the top of the line processor in here where once again with the Pixel 4a, while it is fairly smooth, you're going to experience little bumps and things along the way. If you know what I mean, but that's just the reality when you have a lower end, snapdragon processor, this is no snapdragon 845 or excuse me 865. Now, I'm like two years in the past, so yeah you get decent performance, whereas you get beastly performance with the iPhone SC, and it does translate into games as well- and I know you guys are going to want a gaming test, so I'm going to test out two games on these phones, Minecraft and pub g in a minute. Here so, let's create a creative world in Minecraft.

First, with both these phones we'll see which one loads faster proceed, it's funny actually both of them rendered pretty much at the same time here, although the a13 is a much more powerful processor, but let's see how the frame rate is with both of these phones. Here, um some lag here and there, though I will say, let's just look around yeah: let's go back on the ground here, so pretty decent experience very smooth. I would say now: let's try the Pixel 4a, oh wow, that rhymed and yeah we're getting decent frames here. You don't need top of the line performance to actually have a decent gaming experience, but I find when you're flying around it is a bit more laggy. Maybe I'm not looking correctly.

I don't know you tell me, but I will say overall, the gaming experience, at least within Minecraft, looks pretty similar. I mean you, don't need to buy once again the a13 to play this game. It's definitely playable with lower to mid-range processors, and I'm very impressed with how the Pixel 4a is doing, but I do believe the iPhone SE is just a bit more smooth. But that's just me you let me know if I'm wrong, and you know what I just realized. I don't have pub g installed on my SC, but I do have a clip of me playing it when I did a gaming test with this phone and of course it was really great really smooth.

I could get. You know, really awesome frame rates with high settings here, but let's test it out with the Pixel 4a here with the lower end, 730 processors, so I'll open that up wherever this is here we go, and we will play as a guest, and I'll try not to suck. So here we are in the plane, it's very smooth here, not the smoothest experience. I've ever had playing this game, but uh. It's definitely nice, like totally playable.

By the way. That's the beauty of you know: google optimizing this phone to run on a mid-range processor, so we are falling towards this house and I will deploy my parachute. We have teammate over here. Oh hello, yeah. I got you that is correct, one shot yeah! This is pub g guys.

This is the experience it is decent. It is playable. I was actually playing this earlier today and I got enveloped in the game. I didn't have any problem playing it and yes, while it may be more smooth on my SC or on a device with a much more powerful soc with the more powerful GPU gaming on here, not bad at all, not bad in the slightest, and I want to use this uh full auto gun here. Even if I don't shoot anybody, let me just oh: I jumped out the window cool um.

Maybe let's look for somebody else. I don't know see. I don't. Furthermore, I don't want to wait. So I'm just gonna aim and just shoot this wall yep and there you go.

That's pub g, it's a great experience! So yeah, I would say gaming. While it's not the most ideal. With this phone it's definitely possible, but if you are more of a mobile gamer, you might want to opt for the SE if you want to do more demanding games, but I will tell you the bigger display on here with the Pixel 4a does make the gaming experience nicer and if you're playing just a 2d title or something pretty basic, then maybe I'd get this over the SC and here's something I forgot to say, and I'm recording this on my iPad Pro, because I'm an idiot, this phone has a base storage of 64 gigs. This phone has a base storage of 128. Ufs2, and this is like NVMe, but regardless here you get half the storage for more money versus you know: twice the storage for 50 bucks to 100 less, depending on if you buy this phone locked or unlocked.

So that's something to consider here. You have more storage for photos and videos and content. So what is my conclusion? People? Well, I don't think there is a clear-cut winner here. Both of these phones have their strengths and weaknesses, and all I can tell you is if you want a phone that has better build materials, better video quality and a superior soc, the iPhone SE 2020 is for you and you have to spend a little more. This phone goes for 3.99 unlocked, whereas the Pixel 4a is for somebody who lacks some change required to buy this phone. This goes for 299 locked from Best Buy.

I saw and 349 unlocked from Google or really any you know, store or outlet or carrier, and it's for somebody who wants an OLED display a great display for that matter, something full screen and modern, with better speakers, um really awesome image or photo quality and a more than adequate stock. Android experience, of course, if you're somebody who likes android better you're going to want to opt for this phone anyway, not to mention this phone has better battery life once again and that about wraps things up here. I hope this video helped you out once again. I'd appreciate it if you leave a like comment and of course subscribe for more content like this and as always I'm Noah, and I will catch you all in the next one.

Source : Noah Herman