Google Pixel 5a review: All hail the king of affordable camera phones
Our Verdict
The Google Pixel 5a delivers the same experience every bit the Pixel 5 or Pixel 4a 5G, but for only $449. It'southward besides got the biggest battery ever in a Pixel — at least until the Pixel 6 Pro came forth — and it's the kickoff A-series Pixel to sport water resistance. The phone's large OLED brandish, two rear cameras, and decent amount of power are great for the price.
For
- Spectacular cameras
- Big, brilliant display
- IP67 water resistance
Confronting
- Older chipset
- Express to US and Japan
- No wireless charging
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Google Pixel 5a delivers the same experience equally the Pixel 5 or Pixel 4a 5G, but for only $449. It'due south also got the biggest bombardment always in a Pixel — at least until the Pixel 6 Pro came along — and it's the commencement A-series Pixel to sport h2o resistance. The telephone'southward big OLED display, ii rear cameras, and decent amount of power are keen for the price.
Pros
- +
Spectacular cameras
- +
Big, bright display
- +
IP67 water resistance
Cons
- -
Older chipset
- -
Limited to Usa and Nippon
- -
No wireless charging
Google Pixel 5a: Specs
Price: $449
OS: Android 11
Display: half-dozen.43-inch OLED (2400 x 1080)
CPU: Snapdragon 765G
RAM: 6GB
Storage / Expandable: 128GB / No
Rear cameras: 12.2MP (f/1.7), 16MP (f/2.2) ultrawide
Front end camera: 8MP (f/ii.0)
Bombardment: iv,680mAh
Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 9:45
Charging: 18W
5G: Sub-6Ghz
Size: six.1 x ii.nine x 0.iii inches
Weight: 6.5 ounces
Colors: More often than not Black
The Google Pixel 5a is a revelation in the most boring sense of the word. After the incredibly skilful Pixel 4a last yr, some of us were left wondering how the Mountain View-based company could one up itself. While nosotros loved the Pixel 4a — with it regularly appearing in many of our all-time telephone lists — information technology had some flaws.
Merely the Pixel 5a wows me more than than the 4a did. Substantially, this new telephone is a cheaper Pixel 4a 5G with a bigger bombardment. Since we liked that phone a lot, too, you won't hear me complain about getting what'southward effectively a tweaked version of that phone with a $50 discount. We'll have to see what a potential Goggle Pixel 6a does to meet if it changes the current Pixel a'due south winning formula.
The Pixel 5a costs $449. For that coin, you get 5G connectivity (just sub-6Ghz) and the largest battery we've ever seen in a Pixel. That translates to real-world benefits, as well, with the Pixel 5a lasting longer than nigh any other Google phone that we've tested. It's likewise the first water-resistant A-series Pixel, adopting a feature Google has long reserved for its flagship devices.
In fact, I'k hard-pressed to find anything truly wrong with the Pixel 5a. It'due south non the well-nigh powerful phone, and the display doesn't wow. While budget-witting buyers won't like the price increase over the Pixel 4a, I don't think these criticisms stop up detracting from this phone's claim.
In this Google Pixel 5a review, I'll go over everything that makes this ane of the all-time Android phones y'all can currently buy.
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Google Pixel 5a review: Price and availability
The $449 Pixel 5a features 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. Information technology comes in ane color option, Mostly Black. You lot tin buy 1 unlocked from the Google Store and through the Google Fi wireless carrier.
Every bit with the Pixel 4a, the Pixel 5a'due south biggest rival remains last yr's iPhone SE (2020), which starts at $399 but has half the storage of the Pixel 5a (64GB). The cheaper iPhone also makes practice with a single camera versus two, and an LCD screen instead of an OLED panel.
The Pixel 5a is only bachelor in the Us and Japan, possibly due to the chip shortage that led to rumors of the telephone being outright cancelled before this year. A couple months after its release, we still don't know if Google volition expand the Pixel 5a'south availability in the futurity. Google's focus at the moment is on the Pixel 6, which at a starting price of $599 is but $150 more than the Pixel 5a. (We've got a Pixel 6 vs. Pixel 5a comparison to help yous determine which phone is best suited for your needs.)
If you're looking for Pixel 5a deals, there'south a Pixel 5a Black Friday deal for just $349, which takes $100 off the price. And we expect more sales during the holidays.
Google Pixel 5a review: Design
With the exception of the new Pixel vi and Pixel six Pro, Google's design language has been very minimalistic. I daresay information technology'due south downright spartan in many respects, just it's too pretty functional. The Pixel 5a follows in that vein, looking like an unassuming large plastic handset. Nothing about the phone stands out, except perhaps its mint-colored power button.
And mayhap that's but how it should be. I love fancy-looking phones like those from Samsung or OnePlus, but I'm also a fan of function over beauty. The Pixel 5a won't turn heads, just that's not what Google was aiming for. Instead, this is a $449 phone that focuses entirely on software. As yous'll see in a bit, that largely translates to extraordinary photographic camera prowess.
The build quality of the Pixel 5a feels very solid, and it comes with an IP67 h2o-resistance rating — a offset for A-series Pixel phones. Even though the 5a is a large polycarbonate slab, it has a smooth, soft-impact finish. Unfortunately, that too ways information technology attracts fingerprint oils, which appear prominently on the blackness plastic. Different fingerprints on glass back phones, these oils can be hard to remove with just your shirt or a microfiber cloth.
There's nothing on the Pixel 5a's back merely a simple foursquare camera module, the fingerprint sensor, and a small Google "Grand" near the bottom. Effectually the front, there's not much more going on, either. The big six.34-inch brandish covers nearly the whole face of the telephone with impressively slim bezels all effectually. The new phone looks like a more premium device compared to the Pixel 4a.
The rear-mounted capacitive fingerprint sensor is incredibly accurate. I didn't in one case have a false rejection (bold I placed my alphabetize fingers properly) — I call back this sensor is as practiced as the i on the Pixel 5. The placement feels very natural, as I think rear-mounted fingerprint sensors are superior to in-display ones.
Like other A-series Pixels before it, the Pixel 5a nonetheless has a 3.5mm headphone jack. I dearest this decision however, and I think many of you will, too. Fifty-fifty though Bluetooth headphones and earbuds have gotten really expert, having a headphone jack is still a must for many people, non to mention cars so that you can plug the phone in with an auxiliary cable.
Audio quality on the Pixel 5a is very good, thanks to stereo speakers. The superlative speaker is nestled in the earpiece, which is a barely noticeable slit to a higher place the display. Combined with the bottom-firing speaker, the Pixel 5a can get very loud and punchy. While it lacks the bass and warmness you'd observe in a pair of headphones (or higher-quality phones), the 5a has better audio than most other phones in this cost range.
As an aside, the rumored Google Pixel 6a could exist a big deviation in pattern terms from the Pixel 5a.
Google Pixel 5a review: Display
Google is pretty proud of the Pixel 5a'due south display, calling it the biggest ane ever on a bezel-less Pixel, which covers the Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, and v. At vi.43 inches, the total-Hard disk OLED screen on the Pixel 5a is vibrant and brilliant. It'southward non the almost impressive panel we've ever seen, but it's very good however, especially at this cost.
One thing I really appreciate is how easily I can see what'southward on the display when I'm out in direct sunlight. When I was out wandering around to capture photos for this Pixel 5a review, I establish myself surprised and impressed because I could see the photos I'd just taken. Normally, I have to discover shade to run across the photos conspicuously enough. Not and then with the 5a, and not every phone that crosses my desk tin can claim that.
Similar the residual of the telephone, the Pixel 5a's display gets the job done. Neither awful nor amazing, the screen is average in the best kind of mode. Ane area that has definitely improved over the Pixel 4a is the viewing angles. With the 4a, yous'd start to observe distortion pretty speedily when viewing the telephone from an off angle. I ran into no such problem with the Pixel 5a. In fact, the display has fantastic viewing angles and little visible baloney until you lot go to closer to 180 degrees, equally yous do with most phones.
Once yous get with an OLED screen, it's hard to go dorsum to LCDs on a phone. That comes downward to how deep the blacks get, which lends itself to a sense of foreboding and dread in night games like Limbo or adding stark dissimilarity to the harsh orange scenes in Blade Runner 2049. Even Genshin Impact with its anime-style graphics or Expressionless Cells' pixel fine art expect amazing on the Pixel 5a. The resolution is merely crisp enough to brand nature photos almost wait similar you're actually there, too. Fifty-fifty something as mundane as a YouTube video or sports clip looks great on this display.
In its default color profile, the Pixel 5a managed to reproduce 119.3% of the sRGB and 84.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamuts. That's really a bit more than saturated than the iPhone SE'south 111.2% sRGB rendering. The iPhone has a significant advantage with color accuracy, however, with a Delta-E score of 0.2 compared to the Pixel 5a's 0.32. (Scores closer to 0 are best in this exam.)
The Pixel 5a is like most other Android phones out in that location, in that y'all can merely accomplish maximum brightness with Adaptive Brightness enabled. In our testing, the phone reached a 501-nit max, which is surprisingly lower than the Pixel 4a's 681 nits and the iPhone SE's 651-nit average. Only like I said above, I had no problem viewing the brandish out in direct sunlight.
Adaptive Brightness uses AI to judge how you lot like your display brightness in certain lighting conditions. that requires you to train the feature, which I doubt well-nigh people do — I just allow my phones accommodate automatically. On some previous Pixels, a few people (including Adam Ismail in his Pixel 4a review) reported a general sense of indecisiveness with Adaptive Brightness. I ran into this problem on my Pixel iv XL, which would vary wildly while sitting in 1 spot. I haven't noticed this frustrating problem with the Pixel 5a.
Google Pixel 5a review: Cameras
The biggest highlight with the Pixel 5a this year is the improver of the 16MP, 117-caste ultrawide camera, which joins the primary 12.2MP shooter. Final yr's Pixel 4a only had the single 12.2MP camera. Up front, the Pixel 5a's 8MP selfie cam sits nestled in the top left corner of the display in a hole-punch cutout.
This is a Pixel, so you'd expect the photography experience to be really adept, especially given that the 5a has almost the same hardware as the Pixel 5. As you'll see below, the Pixel 5a's cameras come across that expectation and and then some — they're the all-time you'll notice under $500.
When testing the Pixel 5a against an iPhone SE, you lot tin can immediately see the differences in approach betwixt the two phones in this photo of some flowers. The Pixel 5a kept a more natural color profile, while the iPhone SE looks a flake too saturated and fantastical. The iPhone's image besides looks too cool, particularly given the daylight's overall warm tones in this scene. I prefer the Pixel'due south shot.
To see how well either phone captured vibrant color, I took a picture of this pickup truck. The blueish is very brilliant, dazzlingly so in direct low-cal. The Pixel once once again opted for a more than somber look to complement the overcast sky above. The truck'due south blueish paint is nevertheless beautiful in the Pixel's epitome. However, with the iPhone SE, Apple'south telephone turned up the saturation again. You can as well see the evidence of this in the grass behind the truck, and even on the lighter portion of the wooden fence in the groundwork.
Heading inside, the Pixel 5a and iPhone SE took their own approaches to this statuette of Merida. WIth the 5a, the image is cool, but however captures the vibrant colors of Merida's dress and pilus, plus the yellow candle off to the right. The iPhone took a warmer image, a bit too yellowish in my stance. However, both phones compensated for the calorie-free in the room, producing well-lit photos.
The portrait shots were also quite different, and the results surprised me. Apple pioneered the portrait photo style years ago, merely the Pixel 5a offers a much meliorate and more artistic photograph in this detail comparing. The iPhone SE zoomed out and had a softer bokeh effect, while the Pixel 5a focused solely on my face. The background is beautifully blurred, too.
The night modes differ greatly between the two phones, mostly because the iPhone SE doesn't have one. This remains a foreign omission on Apple's part, merely the Pixel 5a features Google's excellent Night Sight. You lot tin can see how well the 5a handled the smoker at night, producing a clear image with plenty of detail. The smoker is nonetheless visible in the iPhone SE'southward photo, but it's harder to encounter.
A familiar pattern repeated itself when I tested the front photographic camera. The Pixel 5a kept the colors toned downwards, giving my face a more natural look. The SE, meanwhile, cranked upward the saturation and fabricated my face await splotchy and unhealthily cerise. If my face up isn't proof enough, await at the pool umbrella in the background. Information technology'southward way too green for something that'due south sat out in the sun for years.
Google Pixel 5a review: Video
The Pixel 5a can tape video upwardly to 4K at sixty frames per 2d. Google also includes what it calls Cinematic Pan for capturing audio-less video clips. This finer slows down the panning in your video clip, adding a more artistic, cinematic issue.
Compared to the iPhone SE, the Pixel 5a's video is merely better. Colors are more than authentic, the mic quality is much better, and Google's new phone focuses on shut objects faster. Even the stabilization on the Pixel 5a is expert, right on par with the SE's. Google has gotten steadily better with video recording lately, and the 5a is definitely one of the best Pixels so far at this job.
Google Pixel 5a review: Functioning
It may not have the Google-congenital Tensor chip introduced in the new Pixel half dozen lineup, just the Pixel 5a takes a serious step up from its predecessor in terms of hardware. Rocking a Snapdragon 765G (the same system-on-chip equally the $699 Pixel 5 and $499 Pixel 4a 5G from last year) and 6GB of RAM, this is a decently powerful phone for many tasks. As far as Android phones become, the Pixel 5a is pretty middle of the route.
The 765G isn't a bad scrap and it's an improvement over the Pixel 4a's Snapdragon 730G system-on-chip. But the Snapdragon 765G is not going to hold up well confronting the A13 Bionic in the iPhone SE. Apple's silicon magic makes the $399 iPhone SE a little powerhouse that even the all-time Android phones struggle to match. At $449, though, the Pixel 5a is almost as powerful every bit Android devices in this price category go.
Playing games on the Pixel 5a was a fine experience, though some of the more intense titles like Asphalt 9 and Genshin Impact caused the phone to oestrus upwardly. Lowering the graphics settings can aid, specially with dropped frames, but the Pixel 5a isn't truly skilful at gaming in the mode more powerful flagship phones are.
Even so, in solar day-to-day tasks, this phone flies. Android eleven on the Pixel 5a feels buttery polish, even with a display locked at 60Hz. Outside of gaming, I couldn't get this phone to slow downward, whether I was rapidly scrolling on a large spider web page, switching between several apps and games on the fly, or taking multiple photos in quick succession.
Having the power of the Snapdragon 765G helps the Pixel 5a procedure photos chop-chop. Google's software magic really shines on the Pixel 5a, and it's thanks in function to the big processor upgrade over the Pixel 4a.
Equally far every bit benchmarks go, nosotros ran into some compatibility bug with Geekbench 5. I couldn't download the app from the Play Shop and the scores we did manage to arrive lab testing (from sideloading) were startlingly low, much lower than the ones nosotros saw from the Pixel 4a with its Snapdragon 730G.
That said, the Pixel 5a did laissez passer through the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited graphics test, managing a score of 1,678 with an average fps of 10 — this, in one case over again, seems really low for a 765G. Regardless, it's chump change compared to the iPhone SE's 47.ix fps boilerplate. The A13 Bionic is still an incredibly powerful fleck, and it makes the iPhone SE the performance champ in the sub-$500 category.
However, even if the Pixel 5a'due south performance feels middling, that'south not actually a bad matter. Google's phone does nearly everything a telephone ought to without whatsoever problem.
Google Pixel 5a review: Battery life and charging
The Pixel 5a sports the biggest battery we caput seen in a Google Pixel, though the Pixel vi Pro now tops that. Nevertheless, the Pixel 5a's 4,680 mAh power pack helps it turn in ane of the improve times we've seen from a Pixel telephone on our battery test. That's not a high bar to clear, though, as Pixels tend to falter on our test involving web surfing over a cellular connection.
To that finish, the Pixel 5a was able to remain powered up for nine hours and 45 minutes, which is effectually the average for smartphones. That beats the Pixel 4a'due south fourth dimension past nearly an hour, and it's roughly thirty minutes longer than the iPhone SE's result.
Given Google's historical struggles on our test, it's squeamish to run into the phone at least in the neighborhood of average performance. But given the size of the battery, nosotros wish the Pixel 5a had come closer to landing on our best phone battery life listing.
Pixel 5a charging is less encouraging. With a max of 18W, the Pixel 5a got from a drained phone to 23% in 15 minutes, and to 43% in thirty minutes. That handily beats the iPhone SE'due south charging times, which but reached 29% in 30 minutes in our testing. However, at that place's no wireless charging onboard the Pixel 5a, dissimilar Apple's upkeep iPhone.
Google Pixel 5a review: Software
Android 12 is rolling out at present, and that includes to the Pixel 5a. That's one of the benefits of owning a Google phone — you lot go Apple-level access to the latest Android versions on the 24-hour interval they're released. At present if but the Pixel 5a would be supported for as long as an iPhone.
With Google debuting its own system-on-chips (called Tensor) for the Pixel 6, maybe nosotros'll see time to come Pixels stay updated as long equally iPhones do. Notwithstanding, the Pixel 5a volition nevertheless see 3 years of platform updates and a minimum of iii years of security patches.
Out of the box, the Pixel 5a comes standard with stock Android 11. In that location'southward nothing new here, since Android 11 is a fairly spartan affair. At that place is a section to customize some of the 5a's gestures, like swiping on the fingerprint sensor to pull down the notification shade. That's most it. If you lot're coming from Samsung or OnePlus — or fifty-fifty Motorola — you might notice the lack of customization and features to be a bit of a trounce shock. That said, Android 12 is going to change that.
Google Pixel 5a review: Verdict
The Pixel 6 and Pixel half dozen Pro introduce more significant changes to Google'southward phone lineup, but the Pixel 5a is worth strong consideration if yous want the Google software and camera experience for a lower price. Despite $449 being a $100 hike from last twelvemonth'southward phone, the Pixel 5a delivers almost everything that the $699 Pixel 5 managed, minus the 90Hz display, for $250 less.
The Pixel 5a'southward merits to fame comes downwards to its cameras, and boy practice they deliver. This phone runs laps effectually anything at this toll, even the iPhone SE. Apple'due south budget iPhone isn't a bad camera phone by whatsoever means, but the 5a is merely amend all effectually. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows that Pixels regularly feature in our picks for the best photographic camera phones.
Despite the battery life non knocking my socks off, I really like the Pixel 5a. It does everything the Pixel 4a 5G did well for $50 less, and that's impressive. While people in other countries will feel left out that the Pixel 5a only ships in the U.Southward. and Japan, you should absolutely consider this phone if you want a height budget handset.
At that place are better phones that cost upwards of $one,000 or more than, but I observe information technology difficult to consider any of them to be as good of a value as the Pixel 5a.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/google-pixel-5a
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