Google, the granddaddy of Android. Their OS has been powering phones from various manufacturers for almost a decade now. But what about their own phones? Fret not, Google has been manufacturing their in-home phones titled "Pixel" for 4 years now, since its inception with "Google Pixel" in 2016. There's a catch though. Unlike the Nexus phones Google made in partnership with HTC and Huawei were solid phones with great affordability. But Google's own Pixel phones: Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2/2XL and 3/3XL, were, good phones, but the performance they booted for their asking price were a bit middling.
Enter Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL, the more budget and incremental version of the more expensive 3. They are almost identical looking to their expensive brothers, with some sacrifices, to reach their affordable prices. But the sacrifices themselves are so minimal that users will hardly notice, and even if they do, its a vacuum difference. The usual tradition is to start off with the specs. So, here's the specs for you performance geeks out there: Snapdragon 670, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC storage, 3000 mAH battery, 12 MP single shooter, with an 8MP front camera. What does that mean for the average folk? I'm about to explain to you now.
Pixel 3a and 3a XL are powered by Snapdragon 670 chip, which is a mid-tier processor and a less powerful one than the top-shelf 835 or 845. That means slight (non-threatening and non-dealbreaking) hiccups here and there, an extra two or three seconds to open an app. Does this matter at all? If you are a performance perfectionist, this might not give you your bang for your buck. For everyday users though, it's not going to be an issue. And due to Google's implementation of pure, bloat-free Android OS, the solid performance will remain consistent through years of usage. Google promises two years of OS updates and three years of security updates, which is quite the promise, considering there are a lot of manufacturers who fail to roll out security patches (Looking at you, Samsung). And that promise has been unaltered for all the 9 months I have been using mine, so the three-year stretch might not seem unachievable. Google opted for a poly-carbonate front and back body for the 3a and 3a XL, instead of the glass ones from 3/3XL, which can be seen as a cost-cutting measure. But what does this mean for you? This means you can drop this phone from your hands and not suffer from a heart-attack and a scratched back on the phone unlike the glass-built Pixel 3. (Trust me, I have dropped mine a good number of times, and aside from the finger smudges, its intact)
The front glass is Asahi Dragontrail glass, a Japanese manufactured glass, not your usual Gorilla Glass, which, again, can be seen as a cost-cutting measure.
Speaking of the front glass, the screen! The screen is a 5.6" OLED with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio, 6' for the XL. This signifies that the phone is a good size and easy to hold and use, unlike the 6" upwards phone and phablets sold nowadays. The screen is, not as bright as it should be, but the resolution is amazing, and for a phone that costs under $400, its an amazing screen, I simply can't complaint about it.
Moving on to the subject of memory, Pixel 3a boots only a base storage of 64GB capacity, unlike the Pixel 3, which offered a 64 *and* a 128 GB variant. RAM also remains the same with a 4GB memory. All this means solid performance and you won't have to think twice after buying the phone.
Let's get to the most eye-catching subject now, shall we? The one thing that can make a phone a deal-maker or a deal-breaker.
The camera.
And, oh, my Lord, the camera! Normally from phones under the $500 price range, you would expect solid specs with a half-decent camera, and this is where Google flips the script, with decent specs but a masterclass of a camera. The back camera is a single-lens 12.2 MP primary shooter, with an aperture of f/1.8 with OIS, and the front camera is a 8 MP shooter with a f/2.0 aperture and HDR. Sadly, unlike the expensive Pixel 3, the 3a doesn't have a second ultra-wide lens on the front. So instead of the variable 76 and 94 degrees angle on the 3's shooter, you have to make do with 3a's fixed 84 degrees angle. Additionally, unlike the 3, the 3a doesn't have the dedicated Pixel Visual Core, Google's own handmade picture processing chip, which means an extra 3 seconds to process a photo when you first open it and taking pictures in Night Sight and also using 4 frames of lens instead of the full 5 frames. However, Google has honed their software heuristics to the point where the photos taken on Pixel phones beyond striking and god-tier amazing. Speakers is a sort of decent setup, with one front-facing and one bottom firing speaker, unlike, again, the 3's front firing dual speakers. The only catch is that if you are holding the phone while listening to something, you have to carefully hold it to not block the bottom-firing one, which can be a downer for some. And speaking of audio, there's a headphone jack!! Yes, my friends, headphone jack is a royalty feature found on very few phones post-2016.
Battery is decent, actually, in this case, better than the 3. The 3a has a 3000 mAH battery and the 3a XL boasts a 3400 mAH battery. Both are decent and if you don't go ham on these phones, they are likely to last you evenly throughout the day. But you will have to charge it everyday. While on the topic of charging (I am on a roll with these transitions today), both the 3a and 3a XL ship with a 15W Fast Charger, which charges the phones through USB-C, whose implementation I can't praise enough. Google does a great job of optimizing their software. You have features like Now Playing, Google Lens, Titan M security chip, unlimited storage for high-quality pictures on Photos (sadly not in original resolution), Call Screening (Only in U.S.A), Adaptive Battery and a Pixel-exclusive feature: Squeeze for Assistant, just squeeze the bottom half of the phone's frame from both sides to summon Google Assistant, which might seem like a gimmick, but is a great tool for setting timers or alarms on a jiffy. All in all, if you are looking for a phone that delivers solid performance with a banger camera and a bloat-free software under the $500 range, Pixel 3a and 3a/XL is a solid bang for your buck. As a Pixel 3a owner, I am more than happy with this phone and can recommend it to anyone with closed eyes.