Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Google Pixel 6a review: Is it worth buying?”.
Following in the footsteps of the pixel 5a, google’s latest mid-range phone aims to deliver a smartphone experience complete with a decent, build clean as a whistle software and great camera experience all at a fraction of the price of a flagship smartphone. But has google cut too many corners with the pixel 6a and should you even consider the 6a or just buy the pixel 6? Instead, i’m harley moran with android authority, and in this article we are going to be reviewing the google pixel 6a. The google pixel 6a follows the same formula: you’d expect from google’s a series: phones, blending premium design elements from the pixel 6 and 6 pro with affordable choices that keep the cost down, starting at the front, you’re greeted with a 6.1 inch flat oled display making it The smallest display in the pixel 6 lineup the panel is protected by gorilla glass, 3 and features a full hd plus resolution with a refresh rate of 60 hertz, while the display is decent for a mid-range device. It’S a little disappointing to see google cut corners with the glass and refresh rate gorilla glass. 3 is a fine choice for the front, but there are a lot of other mid-tier phones that use higher grades of corning’s display glass such as the samsung galaxy a53, 5g.
Adding insult to injury that same phone also features a more fluid 120hz display, which is double that of the pixel 6a regardless. The display on the pixel 6a is bright, easy to see in sunlight and has an improved contrast ratio over the pixel 5a. It should be more than serviceable for watching videos looking at photos or just everyday use. The pixel 6a is held together by a tactile alloy frame and the back of the device is constructed with a 3d thermoformed composite, also known as plastic. The phone also features an ip67 rating for dust and water resistance. Now, on paper, it may seem, like google has taken a few steps back.
However, there are some advantages to the pixel 6a scaled back design. For starters, the phone smaller frame makes it easier to use one-handed compared to the larger pixel 6 and 6 pro, and you won’t have to worry about dislocating your thumb to reach across the screen. Also, the flat panel may make the phone appear boxy, but this design choice, coupled with a plastic back, makes it easy to grip the phone and less likely to slip out of your hands and with the smaller design, also comes a smaller camera bar, which is about Half as thick as what you’d find on the pixel, 6 and 6 pro, this means that dust and fine particles aren’t likely to build up on the camera bar, which is an issue we had on the other pixel 6 phones. Overall, the pixel 6a is a well designed phone.
It feels great in the hand, and the 6a seems to adopt the unique design of the pixel 6 series well, despite the cost-cutting adjustments. By the way, if you want to learn more about my colleague, ryan’s first-hand experience using the device be sure to read this full review on android authority.com. This year, the google pixel 6a comes equipped with the company’s tensor silicon, which was first introduced with the pixel 6 and 6 pro, and this results in dramatically improved performance over last year’s pixel 5a, the pixel 6a breezes through daily tasks like checking, email, web browsing and Scrolling through social media, my colleague ryan, hardly noticed any stuttering when bouncing between labor-intensive apps, like music, streaming and navigation. We even ran the pixel 6a through some benchmarks and found that the phone was able to hold its own against its more premium siblings.
For example, the pixel 6a came in right near the pixel 6 pro on the 3dmark wildlife test, despite having only 6 gigabytes of ram. The pixel 6a also came close to the pixel 6 on single core and multi-core scores on geekbench 5.. Now these differences aren’t drastic, but they show that google’s in-house chip hasn’t lost a step even in the less expensive pixel 6a. The pixel 6a also outperforms other mid-range phones, including the samsung galaxy a535g, as well as the paco f4 and nothing phone one. However, it is worth noting that the pixel 6a isn’t exactly top dog when it comes to performance in a mid-range device. That spot belongs to the iphone se with its apple a15 bionic processor. While it’s clear that the pixel 6a performs well, it has one big drawback, and that is heat buildup. The phone can get hot, really hot. Anything from scrolling instagram for around 15 minutes to using the camera. App is enough to get tensor going. We had this issue when we tested the pixel 6 and 6 pro, but here’s hoping for some improvements via software heating issues aside, the pixel 6a performs very well for a mid-range device and while the phone only comes with a single ram and storage configuration, the pixel 6A will sink through daily tasks with no issues and will certainly keep up when running more resource intensive apps, although the inclusion of tensor, is a welcome new addition to the pixel 6a. One thing that is not so new is the camera.
The pixel 6a uses the same 12.2 megapixel primary camera found on the pixel 5a and it pairs it with the same 12, megapixel ultrawide shooter found on the pixel 6 and 6 pro looking at our samples. You can see that the pixel 6a produces photos with accurate color reproduction, especially in rich sunlight, google’s natural bokeh is impressive, and the cameras also have a fairly wide dynamic range. The ultra wide camera is handy when you’re shooting larger subjects, though the distortion is quite noticeable, especially when pointing at a landscape with apparent leading lines. Google’S camera app also allows you to digitally zoom in with the main camera. Although the results aren’t perfect, aliasing becomes apparent on sharp edges when starting at two times zoom, and it only becomes worse as you zoom further in google is trying its best to compensate with software, but this will never be a replacement for a true telephoto camera.
In the phone still, if you’re in a pinch and need to capture a subject from afar, the two times, zoom performs fine. So long as you have enough light on the front of the device, you will find an 8 megapixel selfie camera. The camera quality is not bad, especially for a budget phone, but you can see some loss in detail, especially when looking at the clouds on the top left of this photo.
The front-facing camera also supports portrait mode, although, depending on your hairdo, the phone might skip out on a few hairs with the pixel 6a also comes google’s suite of software photo tricks. This includes night sight, which helps you take images in low light conditions. This feature works with both the main camera and ultra wide cameras and results do vary depending on the ambient light. In this photo of a bell, you can see that nightside is able to capture the subject without looking too artificial, but in this photo of a tree taken with the feature you can see that the tree just looks off and the leaves just become a blur.
Another really useful feature is google’s magic eraser, which allows you to remove unwanted objects or people from your photos. For example, in this photo of a lighthouse, the feature was used to erase a woman standing in the archway. It’S not perfect, however.
The imperfections aren’t really noticeable unless you focus on the railing where the woman once stood. The pixel 6a packs a pretty good camera for a mid-range device, while the tensor chip certainly improves the phone’s image processing, the hardware itself is beginning to show its age. The cameras are by no means the latest and greatest out there, but software touches like magic, eraser, nightside and real tone keep the pixel 6a in the camera game.
So far it seems like the pixel 6a is poised to be a great overall smartphone, but one aspect that may dissuade you is its battery life. The pixel 6a features a much smaller battery compared to the pixel 6 and even the pixel 5a, though it’s not a small cell by any means. It’S compounded by improved hardware that, unfortunately chugs through power. Google claims that the pixel 6a can last over 24 hours on a single charge with regular use, but our reviewer ryan says otherwise, while testing the device he rarely achieved more than a day’s worth of power during the work week, he’d go to bed with 10 percent Of battery left, even with adaptive battery turned on meaning that he definitely need to charge the device overnight or first thing in the morning, more intensive tasks like streaming spotify, gps navigation and gaming, put serious pressure on the phone’s battery life and ryan even ran into instances Where his battery was sitting between 60 to 65 by 1pm in order to get around this you’re going to need to enable power saver now this may limit the phone’s performance, but it does keep the device cooler and helps stretch the battery further. It shouldn’t have to be this way and it’s a shame that the pixel 5a lauded for its amazing battery life is succeeded by a phone that barely gets you through the day. Also, the pixel 6a only supports 18 watt wired charging, which gets the device from zero to 100 in an hour and 45 minutes.
That’S right. It’S 18 watts wired only and no wireless charging, and while the smaller battery helps with charging speeds, the 6a lags behind the charging capabilities of phones like the galaxy a535g and the iphone se in terms of software, there’s not much to say here. The pixel 6a ships with android 12 and comes with google’s pixel ui.
It’S fast, it’s clean and comes with pixel exclusive features and apps and the company’s material. U theming, options, it’s not weighed down by any third-party bloatware and you’re free to delete many of google’s apps. If you don’t want them, basically, if you want an android experience as close to stock as possible, you won’t be disappointed with the pixel 6a.
The google pixel 6a is a good phone, and if you wanted a smaller pixel with the full-scale tensor experience, this is it. It’S got a great design, albeit not the most premium out there and it features improved performance over the pixel 5a, a decent camera system for its price and great software. Now, if the pixel 6a costs 349 us dollars, it would be an easy recommendation, but it doesn’t cost that instead, the pixel 6a costs 449 us dollars, which is just a hundred and fifty dollars under the pixel six, and that’s why it’s so hard to justify the Pixel 6a sure you do save money by going for the a series option, but for just 150 more for the pixel 6 you get a phone with a more durable and premium feeling build 90 hertz display better camera system and longer battery life. If you want to buy the pixel 6a, you really need to think about the long term.
You don’t want to buy this phone and then months later wish you had just spent the extra cash for the improvements offered by the pixel 6.. However, if you know exactly what you’re getting into and you are willing to work around the device’s shortcomings, then the google pixel 6a should serve you well. But what do you think about the google pixel 6a? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Are you gon na buy it or are you just gon na buy something else? Let us know in the comments down below while you’re down there be sure to like this video subscribe and hit the bell icon to be notified of when we upload next for all the latest and greatest in tech, be sure to visit our website at androidauthority.com. I’M harley morana and i’ll see you in the next article you .