The Pixel 4a 5G is now official: Google's best value-for-money phone
Get this: Google has just announced the bigger brother of the affordable Pixel 4a, and the new phone is not simply an enlarged version of its predecessor. It's bigger, has a much better processor, an additional camera, larger battery, and most importantly, is future-proof thanks to the 5G support on board. The new Pixel 4a 5G is more than a worthy addition to Google's phone lineup for 2020, and is arguably the best value-for-money offering in Mountain View's arsenal.
Surely, the Pixel 4a 5G lacks some of the features of that Pixel 5 wannabe-flagship, but it has all the essential features at a pretty adequate price tag. This definitely makes it a better value for money than all the other contemporary Google phones, and the more you think of it, the less reasons you have for considering the Pixel 5, which was also announced at the same time.
The Pixel 4a 5G is available in Just Black and Clearly White.
Google Pixel 4a 5G specs and price summary
- $499 price tag ($599 for the Verizon exclusive mmWave version), October 19 release date
- 6.2" HDR OLED display
- Snapdragon 765G
- 6GB RAM, 128GB storage
- 12.2MP+16MP camera
- 3885mAh battery
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Pixel 4a 5G: Price and release date
However, you can't gain all of these nifty new features for the same price tag as the Pixel 4a. The new phone costs $499, which is $150 more than the price tag of the Google Pixel 4a. If you want to have the mmWave version, which is a Verizon exclusive, you will have to shell out a $100 more, bringing the grand total to $599.
The phone will be officially released on October 19 in the US.
The Pixel 4a 5G is available in Just Black and Clearly White.
Pixel 4a 5G: Design
Generally, the Pixel 4a 5G follows the design language of the Pixel 4a pretty closely. Surely, the new phone has grown significantly: the Pixel 4a 5G, with its 6.2-inch display, simply towers the 5.8-inch Pixel 4a and is also bigger than the 6.0-inch Pixel 5.
There's actually two versions of the Google Pixel 4a 5G. One of those weighs 168gr and only supports 5G Sub-6, while the 5G mmWave + Sub-6 version weighs 171gr. No matter which one you choose, you will still get the same polycarbonate body with a rear-positioned fingerprint scanner.
Have in mind that unlike the Pixel 5, the Pixel 4a 5G is not waterproof and shouldn't be treated as such. Most importantly for some will be the top-positioned headphone jack, a dying remnant of the past that's found on less and less new phones these days.
Pixel 4a 5G in Clearly White
Pixel 4a 5G: Display
The 6.2-inch display of the Pixel 4a 5G doesn't have a high refresh rate, but at least it remains an OLED panel. The resolution remains an FHD+ one, with 1080 by 2340 pixels displaying your content at large. The 19.5:9 display properly displays HDR content and has other useful features like always-on display, Now Playing info, and more.
Pixel 4a 5G: Hardware and specs
There's a Snapdragon 765G powering the Pixel 4a 5G, which is a more capable chip than the Snapdragon 730 that made the Pixel 4a click and tick. The Snapdragon 765G is powering many upper mid-range devices with 5G connectivity on deck. Interestingly, that's the same chipset that will reportedly make the Pixel 5 click ant tick as well. There are 6GB of fast LPDDR4x RAM on board as well as 128GB native storage.
With the larger display comes a bigger battery as well: the new Pixel 4a 5G will most likely come with a 3,885mAh battery, which should help it achieve a better battery life than the Pixel 4a with its 3,140mAh battery. As a refresher, the latter offers admirable battery life, often upwards of 8 hours of screen-on time, so the Pixel 4a 5G likely won't disappoint either.
The Pixel 4a 5G has no wireless charging, but it supports 18W fast charging.
Also read: Google Pixel 4a review
Pixel 4a 5G: Camera
Unlike the Pixel 4a, the Pixel 4a 5G comes with two cameras. The 12.2MP dual-pixel F1.7 main camera has large 1.4 μm pixels; meanwhile, the 16MP ultra-wide F2.2 angle camera will capture stunning landscapes with its smaller 1.0 μm pixels. Focusing is ensured by dual pixel phase detection. The front-facing punch-hole camera is an 8MP one and has a decent enough 83-degree field of view, which should capture quite a lot of context.
Of course, Google's signature AI-powered image-processing algorithms that make those trademark images. Night Sight is also on board, as well as the rest of Google's software camera features. Interestingly, Night Sight now works with portraits as well.
The Pixel 4a 5G shoots 1080p videos at 30fps, 60fps, 120fps, and 240fps, while 4K videos are captured at 30 or 60fps.
Google Pixel 4a 5G: Camera samples
Here are a bunch of camera samples taken with the Pixel 4a 5G. Note that these are official samples provided by Google itself.
Things that are NOT allowed: