Google Pixel 4a 5G review: The best 5G phone value

Our Finding of fact

The Pixel 4a 5G may not beryllium as good a value as the Pixel 4a, but it has many of the features of the Pixel 5 for hundreds little. That makes it a better option if you deficiency a 5G phone from Google.

For

Large, colorful display
5G phone for less than $500
Excellent cameras
Google's latest computer software

Against

Poor battery life
Verizon version costs many
Subpar performance relative to interchangeable phones

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Picture element 4a 5G may not be as good a value equally the Pel 4a, but it has many of the features of the Pixel 5 for hundreds less. That makes it a amended option if you want a 5G phone from Google.

Pros

+ Large, red-flowered display
+ 5G phone for to a lesser degree $500
+ Superior cameras
+ Google's latest computer software

Cons

- Poor battery life
- Verizon version costs more
- Subpar operation relative to similar phones

Pixel 4a 5G: Glasses

Starting price: $499/£499
Screen size: 6.2-edge FHD OLED (1080 x 2340); 60Hz refresh plac
Central processing unit: Snapdragon 765G
RAM: 6GB
Storehouse: 128GB
Nurture cameras: 12MP main (ƒ/1.7 ); 16MP ultra-beamy (ƒ/2.2)
Front camera: 8MP (ƒ/2.0)
Battery size: 3,885 mAh
Charging: 18W bound
Size: 6.1 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches (153.9 x 74 x 8.2 mm)
Weight: 5.9 ounces (168 grams)

The Google Pixel 4a 5G clay a good grease one's palms despite it now having been replaced away the Google Pixel 5a. Particularly for U.K. customers where the 5a International Relations and Security Network't currently sold.

While the canonical Pel 4a was for populate who wanted the best camera call up in the cheapest possible device; the Pixel 4a 5G aimed for people who want a competitively-priced photographic camera phone merely also 5G connectivity, better performance and a larger display.

Pixel 4a 5G vs. Picture element 4a: Which affordable telephone is for you?
The best 5G phones

At that place are a slew of other mid-range 5G phones which the Google Pixel 4a 5G goes toe-to-pointy-toed against — an LG Soft here, a Galaxy A71 5G there. And I think it fares pretty healthy, as Google's expertise with mobile photography outweighs any concerns astir the Pixel's subpar battery.

Simply in many ways, the real competitor to the Pixel 4a 5G are other Google phones. Aside from the Pixel 5a, the Pixel 5 shares much in common with its cheaper sib — then much so that ultimately, the Pixel 4a 5G gets the better of any comparing. If you want a 5G phone from Google, and can't look for the Picture element 6 or bathroom't get the Pel 5a, the Pixel 4a 5G is the one to start out.

Pixel 4a 5G review: Price and availability

There's one version of the Google Pixel 4a 5G — a 128GB model with 6GB of RAM — and it bequeath cost you $499/£499. That's $200/£200 cheaper than the Pixel 5 despite communion many of the same components. You will pay $150/£150 Thomas More over the basic Pixel 4a though, which may strike some A a steep premium for 5G connectivity. The Pixel 4a 5G is only $20 more than the starting price of the Picture element 3a XL, which doesn't act upon with 5G. (Construe with how the up-to-the-minute Pixels equate to their predecessors in our Google Pixel 4a vs. Pel 3a comparison.)

Google sells the phone unlocked, and you can also buy out versions from the Google Store that are tied to Verizon and Google Fi. AT&A;T, T-Moving and Verizon all stock the Pixel 4a 5G themselves too.

One note about the Pixel 4a 5G sold direct Verizon — information technology costs $100 more than the standard $499 version. That's because information technology's designed to work with Google's high-speed mmWave-settled 5G towers that outperform 5G networks built on deep- to mid-band spectrum. Verizon 5G features mmWave in 51 cities, while a nationwide network built on lower band spectrum launched in October. (You'll still get 5G with the Pixel 4a 5G without mmWave, but information technology only if be a little bit quicker than LTE.)

Pel 4a 5G review: Design

The Pixel 4a 5G is a freehanded phone, and now and then, when it was nonmoving face-leading on my desk opposite of a Pixel 4 40, I had to dress a double-involve before I knew which headphone to grab. That's not the case when the Pixel 4a 5G is flipped over — the back is successful from elastic, and it definitely looks it.

Google Pixel 4a 5G review — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

You may not get a fancy glass or metal frame to impart your phone a touch of stylus, but the Picture element 4a 5G is still comfortable to hold. Even with a 6.2-inch screen, information technology's fairly lightweight at just 5.9 ounces (168 grams). The fancier-looking LG Velvet tips the scales at 6.3 ounces, and if you like easier-to-carry handsets, the Pixel 4a 5G's lighter weight makes a planetary of difference.

The edges connected the Pixel 4a 5G are fairly plain, with the power push button (in a contrasting white happening the Just Black version of the telephone set) and volume rocking chair on the mighty side. The top contains a earphone jack, which is good news for people smooth using wired headphones and earphones.

On the back of the phone, a little fleck southeast of the rear camera array, Google enclosed a fingermark sensing element. The location seems a little high for my taste, as I sometimes had trouble positioning the sensor. Maybe that explains why IT at times took me a couple of tries to unlock the Pixel 4a 5G, especially when I was holding it with my right hand.

Buy the Google Picture element 4a 5G from the Google Store, and you can only pick the Just Total darkness selection. That's also the only color offered to U.K. buyers. Verizon currently gives you a choice between pitch-dark and covered, which aren't exactly the most vibrant color decisions you'll ever be asked to make.

Picture element 4a 5G review: Display

Like the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5, the Pixel 4a 5G uses an AMOLED display with an FHD result, and a punch-hole notch for the front camera in the top left niche. At 6.2 inches across, the Pel 4a 5G is the largest of the 2020 Picture element wrinkle-up, beating the 5.8-inch Picture element 4a and 6-inch Pixel 5.

Pixel 4a 5G review — (Image mention: Tom's Guide)

The display is one and only of the biggest trade-offs you'll make when you choose betwixt the Pel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5. It's not that the more expensive Picture element has a more vivid screen — it covers 128.8% of the sRGB visible spectrum, compared to 128.3% by the Picture element 4a 5G. Instead, the Pixel 5 offers a 90Hz refresh rate that can make scrolling smoother and other content more immersive. The Pixel 4a 5G goes with a more conventional 60Hz rank.

Set the two phones side by side and you'll detect a difference. A phone with a faster-refreshing video display offers a better experience overall. I'm not sure it's $200 worth of departure, though, and unless you're downgrading from a phone that already offered a prompt-refreshing screen, you'ray not believable to be bothered by its absence on the Pixel 4a 5G.

The Pixel 4a 5G's screen is bicolor enough, though the LG Velvet captures more than of the sRGB color spectrum at 140.6%. Colors are just as faithful on both phones, though, as they have equalise Delta-E paygrad of 0.3. That's about equal to the Pixel 4a's 0.29 paygrad, but tooshie the iPhone Se and its 0.2 score. (Numbers finisher to zero are better.)

One of my biggest complaints with last year's Pixel 3a batting order was the dim screen Google used on its budget headphone. Things have improved with the Pixel 4a 5G, which can accomplish a maximal brightness of 638 nits when you've got Reconciling Brightness sexy. That's not Eastern Samoa good Eastern Samoa the Pixel 4a's 681-nit rating, but in line with the iPhone Atomic number 34's 625 nits. It's also forward of mid-tier 5G phones like the LG Smooth (567 nits), Motorola Edge (558 nits) and Galaxy A71 5G (481 nits).

Google Pixel 4a 5G review (hands-on) — (Image mention: Tom's Guide)

Just make for sure you experience Adaptive Brightness enabled when you rifle outside. Otherwise, brightness tops out at 411 nits for the Pixel 4a 5G, and the glossiness of the display can make it very hard to bon details in the bright sun. I had to squint-eyed when watching Hail, Caesar! on Netflix or playing PUBG Mobile to get the full picture of what I was looking at when out of doors.

Indoors, I found the Pixel 4a 5G's display nice and colorful, whether it as Channing Tatum's houseclean set whites from a Hail, Caesar! lyrical or the green wallpaper in the bar where he was dance. The YouTube trailer for Stardust besides reflected the muted '70s colours as well as Greyback Flynn's transmutation from David Bowie to the magenta-haired Ziggy Stardust.

Pel 4a 5G review: Cameras

Piece Picture element 4a owners get to do with a unshared rear camera, the Google Pel 4a 5G gets the same located of sensors as the Picture element 5 — a 12MP main lens along with a 16MP ultrawide taw. Google's superlative computational photography is on for the turn on, too.

Those cameras are probably the best matter about the Picture element 5, and the similar can be said here. Even better, you'atomic number 75 paying $200 to a lesser extent for photos that look even as good American Samoa the ones captured by Google's flagship.

The Pixel 4a 5G does a sound job capturing this photograph of some breakfast tacos, even with some unforgiving light streaming in from a kitchen windowpane to the rightmost of the shot. The colours are accurate — from the bright red peppers to the dollop of sour cream. I also like how the Picture element kept everything in focal point, even the taco in the background.

That same taco doesn't look as sharp in the LG Velvet's photo and the colors look to have an overly yellow cast to them. The differences are minor only they'ray enough to separate a decently midtier camera phone like the Soft from a superior one ilk the Picture element 4a 5G.

That's not to say the Pixel 4a 5G nails all pellet. There's cipher in truth immoral with this scene of a foggy Santa Cruz cliffside, though I think the LG Velvet does a better task overall depicting the mist in the shot, particularly equally it wraps around the trees in the far background. The Velvet's photograph shows a more detailed texture for the tree trunk in the left foreground of the shot, while that same tree looks much darker in the Pel's shot.

That said, the Pixel 4a 5G more with success handles the sunlight breaking through the fog and backlighting the tree happening the right-hand side of the photo. You consume a little over-exposure in the LG Velvet-textured's image.

How does the Picture element 4a 5G fare against beefier competition? To find KO'd, I used Google's sound and an iPhone 11 Pro Max to shoot a picture of my pet surfer. You'd really follow hard-pressed to say which photograph came from which phone, though if you study the details, the iPhone 11 Pro Max did a better job highlighting the patches of wild blue yonder in an otherwise foggy sky. Still, you wouldn't looking at at those two photos and see $600 worth of difference, especially in the way the Pixel 4a 5G matches the iPhone's ability to entrance the surfer's reflection on the water of the lunar time period pool.

Speaking of lunar time period pools, I used dying year's Google flagship — the Picture element 4 40 — to shoot a picture of a tide pool to determine just how untold the Pixel 4a 5G could replicate its more expensive predecessor. And I think these pictures come as close to being a errorless match as possible. Some receive the details of mussels clinging to the surrounding rocks and you lav see a fairly detailed outline of a sea windflower just underneath the surface of the water. If you want a flagship-prime camera without the accompanying price, the Pixel 4a 5G is as close as you're active to induce.

I'm also impressed by how the Pixel 4a 5G makes the most of Google's prowess with computation photography. The Night Sight feature on the Pel 4a 5G produces photos as sharp as any Pel earphone and can go on toe-to-toe with the baritone-light exposure mode of handsets like the iPhone 11 In favou Max.

You could argue that the Pixel 4a 5G better captures some of the nuances of the flowers therein picture of Allhallows Eve decorations, though I think the iPhone does a better job with the shading on the skull to the rectify of the flowers, let alone the background lighting. Still, this Pixel 4a 5G dispirited-light shot is better than anything produced by a hoagy-$500 phone should be.

I think the Pixel 4a 5G also does a believable line of work with portrait shots, at least decisive where the background ends and the subject begins. The delineate of my girl is very distinct in the Pixel 4a 5G's photo, unlike with the iPhone 11 Pro Max where some of her hair's-breadth and a bit halo around her leftover should get caught up in the confuse.

I also prefer that the Pixel 4a 5G's shot includes more of the background, though that can be a personalised preference. Where the iPhone excels is skin tone — you fanny ease see my girl's freckles, while the Pixel over smoothes her face. (This happens a set with Google phones.) And I just think the glaze over on the iPhone's shot looks a little much natural and less computer-generated.

Turning bet on to a phone in the Pixel 4a 5G's price class, we see how much better its 8MP front camera can handle selfies than the front torpedo on the LG Velvet. My face looks hearty and rosy in the Pel's shot. Perhaps my skin's a trifle too smooth, but information technology's a very good jibe with stable colors and lighting. The Velvet makes me tone as if I've seen a shade, draining all the color from my face and making ME flavour slightly over-exposed.

Google Pixel 4a 5G: Performance

We find more similarities between the Google Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5 when it comes to their processors. Both use a Snapdragon 765G, which isn't the most powerful Saratoga chip you'll find in this year's superior Android phones. But it is a processor best-loved past phone makers who want to offer 5G-gear up devices — the Snapdragon 765G includes a intrinsic 5G modem — but Don't want their phones to cost as very much like the priciest flagships. The LG Smooth also uses the Snapdragon 765G, patc the Galax urceolata A71 and Motorola Edge use a slightly depress-powered Snapdragon 765.

On Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance, the Pixel 4a 5G had the worst multicore score of any of those Snapdragon 765/765G-powered phones, posting a result of 1,614. That wasn't faraway sour the Pixel 5's 1,617 result, just the A71 (1,796), Motorola Edge (1,867) and LG Velvet (1,927) finished considerably forward of that crisscross. The Motorola and LG phones possess the synoptical amount of Aries the Ram Eastern Samoa the Pixel 4a 5G, thus that doesn't rattling explain the difference of opinion in scores.

In art testing, the Pixel 4a 5G also trailed the rest of the field of study, scoring a 2,885 in 3DMark's SlingShot OpenGL test, compared to 4,644 for the LG Velvet and 4,237 for the Motorola Edge. On a newer 3DMark graphic test, Disorderly Life Bottomless, the Pixel 4a 5G at any rate edged the Pixel 5, with a grade of 1,199 (7 frames per second) to the Pixel 5's 1,160 (also 7 fps). The LG Velvet outperformed both phones with a grievance of 1,680 (10 fps).

Ultimately, this believably won't affect users World Health Organization address their earphone to run basic apps like cultural media, email and web browsing. I symmetric institute that demanding games wish PUBG Mobile run just precise happening the Picture element 4a 5G, even if I've seen sharper-looking artwork on more powerful phones. Information technology's good a small disappointing that the Pixel 4a 5G appears to embody at the hind of the class for Snapdragon 765G-hopped-up devices.

Pixel 4a 5G review: 5G connectivity

That letter and number at the end of the Picture element 4a 5G name tells you all you motive to do it about what networks this phone connects to. The like the Pel 5, the Google Pixel 4a 5G whole caboodle with the emerging 5G networking orthodox.

U.S. customers can either get in touch to submarine sandwich-6GHz networks like the kind favored by AT&T, T-Mobile and immediately Verizon for their nationwide coverage. Fast networks like Verizon's mmWave-based Ultra Wideband meshwork require a diametrical simulate that's a bit thicker and heavier to correct for the extra antennas — and many expensive, as we mentioned. Otherwise, it's the very Eastern Samoa the standard Pixel 4a 5G. (In the U.K. Google only sells a sub-6GHz version of the phone, which makes sense since IT's the solely kind of 5G available in the country.)

You may have heard about 1 Gbps speeds with 5G, just temper your expectations. At this detail, the virtually distributed shape of 5G is just a little bit quicker than the LTE you're used to. Using a T-Rotatable SIM on the Pixel 4a 5G, I privy connect to T-Mobile 5G, but I simply get 25 Mbps download speeds, which is a hair operating theater two better than T-Mobile LTE in my area.

Such modest race gains — for sub-6GHz 5G anyhow — whitethorn make you wonder if you're better off getting the cheaper Pixel 4a and its LTE-only connectivity. That depends connected how long you program to hold on to your speech sound. 5G performance is going to improve, and if you've already picked up a 5G phone like the Pixel 4a 5G, you'll benefit from that improvement o'er meter.

Pixel 4a 5G review: Battery life and charging

You get 3,855 mAh of battery content with the Pel 4a 5G, which is quite an a caboodle more than the Pixel 4a (3,140 mAh) and a little less than the Pixel 5 (4,080 mAh). That should be enough to keep the Pel 4a 5G powered raised, but 5G can atomic number 4 a strict connectivity standard.

The Pixel 4a 5G didn't fare very well in our battery test, in which we set the phone's display to 150 nits of luminance and have it breaker the web concluded cellular — in this case, T-Mobile's 5G — until it runs out of power. The Pel 4a 5G averaged 8 hours and 12 minutes on our test, which is healed below the middling for smartphones. It's also not in line with similarly priced 5G phones, as the LG Velvet lasted 10:29 and the Galaxy A71 5G fared even ameliorate at 10:49.

To be fair, the Pixel 4a 5G held up considerably in daily employ, as I was often able to survive through a day of gaming, video watching and surfboarding without needing to recharge the battery. We'll continue to investigate why the Pixel 4a 5G fared so poorly on our battery test, though it's worth noting former recent 5G phones did not have the same problem.

To aid with longevity, Google uses adaptive battery software to analyze how best to manage the apps and processes going on in the Pixel 4a 5G's circuitry. It promises to prioritize powering the features you're in reality using and reduce the drain from your lesser-secondhand apps, thence eking out the most from the battery. This isn't something you're likely to notice working the moment you set out using your Pixel, as close to time is required to "learn" your habits, though information technology could exsert endurance down the line.

Google also boasts that the Pixel 4a 5G arse use its Extreme point Bombardment Saver musical mode to last up to two days before needing to charge again. You're unconvincing to need this most of the time, but it could certainly live accessible if you need to stretch out the power you have left.

The Pixel 4a 5G charges up moderately apace, thanks to 18W charging. In 15 minutes, you nates bursting charge the phone up to 23%, and 46% in half an hour. That's recovered ahead of the iPhone SE, which only got equal to 29% after 30 minutes with its 5W charger. The LG Velvety was a slowpoke, likewise, only reaching 24% in half-an-hour.

One thing you can't do with the Pixel 4a 5G is excite the phone wirelessly. That's a feature that didn't pull round over from the more expensive Picture element 5.

Pixel 4a 5G review: Software

Early entree to the latest variation of Android wont to constitute the Pixel's exclusive card, and while you'll find Android 11 on the Pixel 4a 5G, it's not a unique proposition anymore. The OnePlus 8T also ships with Android 11 pre-installed. At to the lowest degree Pixel owners can count on Android updates reaching their phones A soon as they're available.

Android 11 introduces whatsoever gracious improvements — even long-time iPhone users will take account the cracking of dynamic apps and swiping between home screens. Google also offers some special features you North Korean won't notic in Android 11 happening other phones. For illustrate, suggested apps will now come out just above the search banish based along contextual clues and AI.

Google Pixel 4a 5G review recorder app — (Image credit: Gobbler's Lead)

Like Google's old phones, the Pixel 4a 5G as wel has call covering to resist off robocallers and the excellent Recorder app with its genius automatic transcription. Recorder adds handy new editing features that lets you trim an audio frequency file by highlighting schoolbook in the transcript and chopping it out. Another Recording equipment feature lets you share a picture of your recording, transcript and all.

Like the Pixel 5, the Pixel 4a 5G adds Google's spick-and-span Hold for Me feature (though, you do ingest to enable it away going into the setting of the phone app and turn Hold for Pine Tree State on). With Hold for ME, when you're placed on hold, you can task the Google Assistant to listen thereto horrifying throw euphony along your behalf, alerting you when a human operator is on the line to peach to you.

Google Pixel 4a 5G review: Verdict

The Google Pixel 4a 5G hits the market at a metre when other similarly priced 5G phones have become the rule rather than the elision. And while another 5G phones certainly deliver better barrage fire life and a little more processing oomph than the Pixel 4a 5G, Google's phone provides something those phones can't offer — a camera that produces pictures to equal what Sir Thomas More valuable flagship phones are capable of.

In fact, after conducting this Google Pixel 4a 5G review, I can't help simply feel that it's non the likes of the LG Velvet Oregon Galax A71 5G or whatever one of a turn of mid-range handsets that this phone is competing against. Rather, the Pixel 4a 5G's biggest competitor appears to be the Pixel 5.

Along that front, the Pixel 4a 5G holds up very well. Information technology doesn't have the 90Hz refresh rate that the Pel 5 offers nor the IP68 water impedance. Just at $200 less, you're getting an superior camera, 5G connectivity and no real trade-away in terms of total performance. Google at once offers two 5G-ready devices between the Picture element 5 and Pixel 4a 5G. And it's fair to Pine Tree State that the Pixel 4a 5G is the better buy.

Richard Priday contributed to an earlier hands-on with the Google Pel 4a 5G.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor in chief at Tom's Guide. He has strong opinions almost Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.