Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel 4: What's different?

1. Home
2. News
3. Smartphones

Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel iv: What'due south unlike?

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

Subsequently a longer than anticipated wait, the Google Pixel 4a is hither, delivering the photographic capabilities of a Google flagship phone in a much cheaper device. And based on our Google Pixel 4a review, this new phone appears worth the await, especially when yous compare its specs to the electric current Pixel 4.

While the Pixel 4 ranks amid the best Android phones largely considering of its camera, it yet commands a flagship price. The Pixel 4a manages to deliver many of those aforementioned features, but in a $349 phone that's one of the more compelling smartphone options currently available.

• Our verdict is in: Google Pixel 4a review
• New Apple tree iMac 27-inch revealed with these huge upgrades
• Plus: Moto'southward Pixel 4a killer has 4 cameras and a massive bombardment

Comparison the Pixel 4a vs. the Pixel iv helps the states see which merchandise-offs you have to make to savor a less expensive phone. The upshot? If y'all can alive with a phone that doesn't rank anywhere close to the top-performing Android devices, the Pixel 4a delivers some pretty comparable features to its flagship predecessor.

Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel 4 specs

	Pixel 4a	Pixel 4
Starting price	$349	$799
Screen size (Resolution)	5.81-inch OLED (2340x1080)	5.7-inch OLED (2280 ten 1080; 90Hz)
Processor	Snapdragon 730G	Snapdragon 855
RAM	6GB	6GB
Storage	128GB	64GB, 128GB
Rear cameras	12.2MP (ƒ/1.7)	12.ii-MP principal wide (ƒ/ane.7); sixteen-MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom (ƒ/ii.4)
Front camera	8MP (ƒ/ii.0)	8 MP (ƒ/two.0)
Battery size	3,140 mAh	2,800 mAh
Battery life (Hrs:Mins)	8:55	8:03
Size	five.7 ten ii.seven x 0.3 inches	5.79 x ii.71 ten 0.32 inches
Weight	v.04 ounces	5.71 ounces
Colors	Merely Black	Merely Blackness, Clearly White, Oh So Orange

Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel iv price and availability

The Pixel four debuted at $799 for a 64GB model when information technology arrived final fall. And while that'southward all the same the price you'll pay at Google'due south online store, some retailers and carriers offering the phone at a disbelieve now that it'due south been ten months since the Pixel 4'southward debut.

Even at its most generous discount, though, the Pixel 4 can't match the Pixel 4a on price. Google's latest phone costs $349, which is $fifty less than what the Pixel 3a sold for when it arrived in 2019. That makes Google'southward budget phone an even greater value, particularly when compared to its flagship devices.

In addition to Google Fi, you can buy the Pixel 4a through Verizon and US Cellular. The Pixel 4 is a little easier to rails down, as its' available from those options as well as T-Mobile, Visible, Republic Wireless and All-time Bay.

Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel 4 pattern

The Pixel 4a and Pixel 4 wait a lot alike, though when you pick upwards both phones, you'll quickly figure out which telephone is the budget-pleasing device, and which is the flagship offer. The Pixel 4a uses plastic for its chassis, compared to metal and glass for the Pixel 4. That means the budget phone weighs lighter — five.04 ounces to the Pixel 4'due south 5.71-ounce weight.

Pixel 4a (Image credit: Hereafter)

But even though the Pixel 4a hosts a slightly bigger display — v.81 inches to the five.7-inch screen on the Pixel 4 — it's not every bit tall as the Pixel four. Credit the Pixel 4a's minimized bezels, made possible by the fact that the front camera is housed in a punch-hole cutout in the brandish. The Pixel 4a also drops the Pixel 4's Motility Sense technology, which eliminates the sensors used to ability that gesture control engineering. Those sensors account for the noticeable bezel that sits at the top of the Pixel 4's display.

Pixel 4 XL and Pixel 4 (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

You won't have a option in Pixel 4a sizes — there's just the single five.81-inch model. The Pixel four comes in either the five.7-inch version or a 6.3-inch Pixel four XL model.

Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel four display

1 of the Pixel iv'due south biggest flaws was a dim display that other flagship phones easily outshone. The Pixel 4a may be a less expensive handset, but it avoids that problem, at least when you flip on the phone's adaptive brightness feature. With that setting enabled, we measured effulgence at 653 nits for the Pixel 4a. Turn adaptive effulgence off, and the reading fell to 433 nits, more in line with the Pixel 4's 429-nit performance.

Pixel 4a (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The OLED panel on the Pixel 4a isn't equally colorful as what you get from the Pixel iv, every bit it captures 105.8% of the sRGB colour spectrum. The Pixel four recreates 130.i% of that spectrum. Colors on the Pixel 4a are slightly more than accurate, with the less expensive Pixel scoring a Delta-Due east rating of 0.29 to the Pixel iv'south 0.34. (Numbers closer to naught are more than accurate.)

The Pixel 4a doesn't take the fast refresh rate you'll see on the Pixel 4 and its 90Hz display. We'd chalk that up to a compromise yous accept to make for a cheaper phone, just it's worth noting that the OnePlus Nord manages to feature a fast refresh rate while keeping its price below $500.

Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel 4 camera

The Pixel 4a has a unmarried 12.ii-megapixel camera to the two lenses on the Pixel 4. Just fifty-fifty though Google's flagship has both a 12MP chief camera and a 16MP telephoto lens, you're really not giving up that much with Google's budget phone, except for the ability to zoom in optically.

Pixel four (Epitome credit: Tom'southward Guide)

Credit's Google's computational photography for the Pixel 4a's power to hold its own against other midrange camera phones. Software smarts included with the Pixel 4a allow you modify contrast and brightness on the fly, see the effects of HDR processing before y'all accept your shot and zoom in on a subject without introducing besides much fuzziness to your shot. That Super Res Zoom capability, bachelor on previous Pixel phones, takes some of the sting out of the lack of a telephoto lens on the Pixel 4a.

Up front end, little has changed. The Pixel 4a sports an 8MP forepart photographic camera, the same as the 8MP selfie cam on the Pixel 3a. The Pixel 4 besides uses an 8MP camera for its front shooter.

Pixel 4a (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

We haven't had a chance to pit the Pixel 4a against the Pixel 4 in a face-off, but Google's phone certainly held its own in head-to-head comparisons with the iPhone SE's alone shooter. While the Pixel four'south camera array provides more diversity, particularly when you demand to zoom in, the camera on the Pixel 4a is pretty compelling in its own right, challenging mid-range cameras with more lenses solely on the force of Google'southward camera smarts.

Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel 4 operation

Maybe the most noticeable trade-off between the Pixel 4a vs. the Pixel 4 will be with the processor that powers both phones. While the Pixel four uses the Snapdragon 855, which was the best system-on-chip bachelor for Android phones at the time of that device's release, the Pixel 4a keeps a lid on costs with the Snapdragon 730G. That'due south a perfectly serviceable mobile processing platform, but it's not going to lucifer the Snapdragon 855 in terms of performance, fifty-fifty if Qualcomm has since come out with more than powerful flagship chips.

Pixel 4a (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Consider the Geekbench five results for both phones. In that test of general performance, the Pixel 4a turns in a multicore score of i,647 — well behind the two,329 result of the Pixel 4. While the Pixel 4a can certainly concur its ain in everyday tasks almost people utilize their telephone for, information technology's non going to take the extra oomph that the Pixel 4 enjoys with its beefier processor even though the Google phones have an equal amount of RAM at 6GB.

Pixel 4 (Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

Oddly, the performance gap is not likely to grow also much should Google release a Pixel five flagship in a few months. Reportedly, Google volition use a Snapdragon 765G chipset in that upcoming device, and while that while offering more than processing oomph than the the Snapdragon 730 in the Pixel 4a — while too including 5G connectivity — information technology's not going to outperform Google's upkeep phone as much as the Pixel iv does.

Google Pixel 4a vs. Pixel iv bombardment life and charging

Google's phones used to deliver the best phone bombardment life we've tested, but not lately. And the Pixel 3a continues this unfortunate trend.

The Pixel 4a and its modest 3,140-mAh battery doesn't come up shut to that, with the phone running out of power in an boilerplate of eight hours and 55 minutes in our testing. That's roughly an hr behind the average for smartphones. On the bright side, it beats out the Pixel 4, which died a few minutes later eight hours when nosotros tested that phone and its tiny two,800 mAh battery. So you won't have to live with less bombardment life if you choose a Pixel 4a over Google's near recent flagship — just you won't exactly go a long-lasting smartphone either.

Pixel 4 (Image credit: Future)

You too won't go wireless charging, a feature that the Pixel iv has just that the Pixel 4a doesn't support. (Again, yous take to cut costs on your midrange phones somewhere.) When using the included eighteen-watt charger for the Pixel 4a, though, we got the tuckered phone back to a l% charge. That'south marginally more than than 47% nosotros got when testing the Pixel 4.

Pixel 4a vs. Pixel 4 outlook

Anytime yous opt for a less expensive phone, you have to make some trade-offs. In the example of the Pixel 4a vs. the Pixel iv, that means settling for a less powerful processor, a single rear camera and no wireless charging. You'll also surrender the faster refresh rate on the Pixel 4's screen.

Skipping 90Hz refresh charge per unit is a hard thing to swallow — peculiarly with the OnePlus Nord offering that feature to bargain-hungry Android fans — but the other sacrifices are ones many smartphone owners would happily make if information technology means paying hundreds of less for a phone that withal takes meridian-notch pictures.

The Pixel 4a is 1 of the all-time cheap phones you can buy. And its features make it a formidable alternative to the Pixel iv.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom'south Guide. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and sometime movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/pixel-4a-vs-pixel-4

Posted by: riversdrinto.blogspot.com

Share this post