Google Pixel 3A at your fingertips: the only Pixel phone to buy

Google has finally unveiled the Pixel 3A at Google I / O this week. This is a cheaper plastic version of the Pixel 3 with the same camera and the same Google software support.

There is really not much to say about Pixel 3A. The phone is so incredibly similar to Pixel 3 that it can be hard to tell from afar. Both devices have the same design, but the 3A is just made of plastic and (in the case of the XL version) significantly lighter. It sounds a bit like one of those plastic demonstration phones you'll see in stores: a perfect copy, but lighter and cheaper.

The body of Pixel 3A does not feel bad. The back features the Pixel 3's two-color design with a hard, shiny plastic around the top of the camera and a soft-touch plastic coating. The back surrounds the sides with rounded corners easy to hold. The screen and the screen cover rest on the top of the body. The 3A is not a bonus, but at only $ 400, it is not required to be.

The OLED screen is not as bright as that of a flagship smartphone, but it looks like it's going to go. The cover is not Gorilla Glass, but rather "Asahi Dragontrail Glass".

The phone seems relatively fast up to now. You do not get a flagship performance, but for a $ 400 smartphone, it's really good. The Snapdragon 670 is an eight-core SoC, but instead of four big hearts and four usual hearts, you have two big hearts "Kryo 360 Gold" at 2Ghz and six little hearts "Kryo 360 Silver" at 1, 7 GHz. The SoC is built on a 10nm process, so it should not be a big problem.

In addition to the plastic back and the slower SoC, the 3A has been further reduced in cost. You are missing the wireless charge, the water resistance and the second wide angle front camera. There are still stereo speakers (the earpiece and a bottom-trigger speaker), but they do not sound as clearly as the flagship device. Of course, if you do not like the speakers, you can easily plug in your 3.5mm headset because Google has decided to bring the headphone jack back to this cheaper device.

The big surprise of Google's unveiling was the 3700mAh battery of the Pixel 3A XL. It's bigger than the rumors suggested and even bigger than the 3430mAh battery in the XL 3 Pixel much more expensive. We have not yet had the time to test the device, but on paper, the battery life looks very promising.

Probably the only Pixel phone to buy

It was feared that a mid-range Pixel 3 couldnibalize Pixel sales more premium, and well Yeah. It does not seem like there is a lot of room on the market for the more expensive Pixel now that the cheaper version has arrived. The main strength of the Pixel range lies in the camera and Google software. When you can get both devices on a device at half price, I see no reason to buy the pixel, more expensive.

Let's hope that the Pixel 3A represents a more value-oriented approach to Google in the future. At the present time, we are in a strange period of limbo when the product line of Google opposes the Pixel 3A, focused on the value, against the material Pixel 3 upscale and not very competitive. There is a faster SoC, but the Pixel 3A does not seem slow. After that, you have … Wireless charging? A second front camera? Resistance to water? None of this makes me want to shell out another $ 400.

When I looked at the top quality Pixel 3, I had problems with Google's dated design and petty 4G allocation of RAM. I think Pixel 3 says a lot about the fact that these two things can be transferred to a smartphone that costs half the price. The compromises that really stung the $ 800 Pixel 3 are much easier to swallow on a $ 400 phone. The Pixel 3 is about 6 months old now, so maybe the Pixel 4 will put more distance between the premium and mid-range versions of the Pixels.

For people who do not care about the differentiation in the range of Google, the Pixel 3A takes all the qualities of Pixel 3 and makes them available at half price! It's hard to argue with that. We will dive into the phone later, but the 3A seems like a good deal.