Leaf&Core

In Which an iPhone User Reviews the Google Pixel 5a

Danielle from Leaf and Core
Reading Time: 10 minutes.

Google Pixel 5a with Google's case and a few background objects. Did I ditch my beloved iPhone 13 mini for an Android phone? No, I’m just an Android developer. Despite using Android all day for work, I just don’t like the platform very much. Google’s spying on everything, touch targets are smaller and require more precision, apps are clunkier and waste screen space with menu bars and “up” buttons, they don’t receive updates for very long, nothing is as smooth or responsive, and I just don’t care for the increased security concerns.

That said, I do use an Android phone all day, and I know what makes a good phone. I bought a Google Pixel 5a for work a few months ago, and I’ve mostly been using it for work. It’s more affordable than many other phones, at $450, and Google will support it with updates for at least three years of OS and security updates. I only needed a phone that could let me test new versions of Android OS and get an idea of what a mid-range phone could do with the apps I work on.  Still, it is my phone now. For the sake of a review, I also installed some of my frequently used iOS apps on it. What I found was a better experience than I was expecting, but still an Android experience. Despite that, Google has managed to make this Android phone break the mold… all while looking like the Google Pixel 5.

Specs and Dimensions

Design 5/10

Coming from an iPhone 13 mini, which is thinner, lighter, and smaller in every way than the Pixel 5a, I held this new phone in my hand and laughed. It’s ridiculous! A giant 6.34-inch screen? Who needs it? Thanks to the texture, which can be slick in dry hands, the curved edges, and the massive size, and of course it needs a case. Of course you have to make it even bigger just to hold it right. I went with Google’s case and a phone loop to provide grip. It’s passable, but, like any phablet, you’ll have to either use two hands to do anything with it, or plan your touches carefully.

The design itself is incredibly basic, borderline uninspired at that. It’s not an ugly phone, but it’s not a design marvel either. The subtle green accent on the slightly green black phone case is a nice touch, even if it is the only color option Google will give you. In fact, the color is the most interesting part of the design. In most indoor lighting, it’ll appear as black with a slight green tint. However, bright or outdoor light can make it look more green. Outside of the color, the hardware design itself? It’s a little bland. It’s just there. The design is based on the Pixel 5, only sized up, because, of course it is. Of course they had to make the already large Pixel 5 even larger for the Pixel 5a. This has limited case options too. Case manufacturers who made designs for the Pixel 5 weren’t about to make special versions for Google’s “in-between” Pixel 5a. Instead, they focused on the Pixel 6.

I don’t want to say the design is bad. It’s not. It’s just plain. On a table with many other mid-range and flagship phones, you wouldn’t pick the Pixel 5a. It’s just not exciting. You buy a Pixel for longevity and a surprising feature set that outperforms its price and specs. You don’t buy it because it looks good, and Google knows that.

Hell, I bought it so I wouldn’t have to buy another Android device for work for at least four years.

Performance 7/10

Despite the rather mid-range Snapdragon 765 system on a chip (SOC) from last year’s Pixel 4a, it’s not a sluggish device. The Adreno 620 GPU helps with that a bit in games, as does the 6GB of memory. These days, mid-range is no slouch. The Snapdragon 765 SOC is an octa-core processor with one high performance core at 2.40GHz, one at 2.21GHz, and six cores at 1.80GHz. This gives it performance, with a focus on battery life.

However, there are times it will frustrate you. The phone will hang while processing video or photos, so if you want to quickly snap a shot and edit it or delete it, expect to wait a while. If an app is loading or taking up processor time, expect the swipe up gesture to simply not work. It’s not perfect, but the Pixel 5a is usually responsive.

The camera shows how limited the performance on the Pixel 5a really is. It has a serious overheating problem. I covered it before now, but, months down the road, Google has no fix. The phone simply can’t handle 4K video at 60fps. You can do short, perhaps under 1 minute videos with these settings, but try anything longer and your camera will shut down. You’ll have to wait for it to cool to record video. It’s worsened with the flash on. This shocked me, coming from iOS, where there are no such limits. However, it can be common among Android devices, especially mid-range devices.

You don’t get a device like this if you’re using your device for hardcore… anything. It’s not a flagship phone. It simply can’t do the things flagship phones can do. However, Google sells it as a 4K phone that can record 60fps, and that’s just dishonest. Can it? Yes. Can it work for more than a few minutes? No, absolutely not. This is why Apple will frequently hold features back from new devices. They don’t put out something that’s broken for the bragging point of having it.

For everyday tasks, or, in my case, for testing apps, it’s plenty snappy enough. But for anything serious, you’re going to notice it’s a slower device.

Benchmarks

HTC U11, Google Pixel 5a, and iPhone 13 mini Geekbench scores, respectively.

When the Pixel 5a first came out, I couldn’t test it with Geekbench. The Google Play store wouldn’t let me download the app. Fortunately, I could download it elsewhere, bundle it back up in Terminal, and sideload it onto my device. It was definitely something only an Android developer or someone who spent enough time researching app bundles could do. Still, I got Geekbench on my device and… it’s not very impressive.

My frame of reference comes from two of my other phones. My iPhone 13 mini and my HTC U11. While the HTC U11 was a flagship phone at the time of its release, it’s now three versions behind on Android. With a Snapdragon 835 processor, including four performance cores, and 4GB of ram, on paper, it might beat out the Google Pixel’s Snapdragon 765G with only one performance core close to the HTC U11’s. However, the newer phone, despite its mid-range processor, beats out HTC’s best from 2017… by a little.

The Google Pixel 5a feels snappy enough, but it certainly won’t be a powerhouse for any processor-intensive tasks. In everyday use for most people, it’ll be a quick device. It’s also worth noting that, despite scoring higher than the Google Pixel 5a in the multi-core test, the HTC U11 was, by far, the last device to finish testing, an indicator that, in everyday usage, the Pixel 5a will feel like the faster device.

Battery Life 10/10

One place this phone definitely excels with is battery life. During everyday usage, you can easily get your battery to last all day. If you’re doing more intensive tasks, like playing games, watching movies, recording video, or just using many apps at once, you could potentially drain the battery in 8 hours or less. But you’d have to really be working for that. For the most part, this is all day battery life. That’s thanks to the large phone having a lower refresh rate screen than many other similarly sized flagships, and a processor using less power. There are certainly trade-offs, but if battery life is your biggest concern, the Google Pixel 5a has plenty of it.

Screen 6/10

The screen is relatively sharp. My HTC U11 has a sharper screen than both my iPhone 13 mini and Pixel 5a, but it doesn’t look as good. The brightness, colors, and contrast just aren’t as good. The Pixel 5a is quite bright, with a screen you can easily read in daylight. The contrast ratio is definitely on the lower side, and if you’re used to a flagship device, you’ll notice it. For example, the iPhone has a contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. Yes, two million to one. However, the Pixel 5a has a 100,000:1 ratio. The color black won’t show up as black on the Pixel display, more of a very dark gray. You won’t notice it much unless you’re comparing it against a much better display.

The display also has a 60Hz refresh rate, which is adequate. The iPhone 13 mini, similarly, has the same maximum of 60 frames per second (fps). This isn’t terrible, but, again, once you use something with 90Hz or more on the display, you’ll really notice the difference when scrolling through content. It’s good, passable, even, but if you’re coming from a faster refresh rate, it may seem slow.

The real problem with this screen is its size. A 6.34-inch screen is just too big. It’s hard to use this phone without something like a PopSocket or Phone Loop. There’s a one handed mode, but the gesture doesn’t always work and isn’t very smooth. Besides, it’s annoying to require a swipe to get to any content that should be within thumb’s reach.

Camera 7/10

Google’s Pixel phones are famous for their superb photos thanks to computational photography. The pixel size on the 12.2 MP camera is 1.4µm, a little smaller than the iPhone 13’s 1.7µm pixels, meaning it collects less light. Still, Google backs this up with computational photography, a bit too much electronic image stabilization, and optical image stabilization, to allow longer photos and more photo stacking for each shot. The end result are surprisingly detailed and color accurate photos. The Pixel still punches above its weight class with photography.

One thing I really don’t like about it, however, is the electronic image stabilization. This feels like you’re using a water lens for your camera. When trying to frame something perfectly, you’ll be frustrated by the electronic image stabilization fighting your minute movements, then suddenly jumping far further from your target. It’s hard to show or share in even video, but the problem is something you can feel. When you intentionally move the camera, the Pixel will fight you on that movement, holding the frame steady, even when you actually want to move the photo. This is likely thanks to cropping a much wider view down, and making use of that secondary ultra-wide lens for image stabilization. You can reduce the image stabilization, but even the lowest level is frustrating.

Night shots are grainy, but not bad. I like some of the low light shots on the Pixel better than my iPhone 13 mini, including the one below. The Pixel simply captured more detail, and with shorter images. This lead to a clearer second hand on this watch in the Pixel 5a photo. One thing the Pixels have always done well is computational photography, and that really shines through with their image stacking for long exposures.

I actually prefer the Pixel’s shot here, which seems to capture more detail and a more accurate color.

Portrait mode seems to use computational photography to do subject detection, and this is an area where it’s not quite as good as Apple’s more depth-focused methods. I noticed that it wouldn’t blur parts of an item that it should because it’s further away. Instead, it seems like it just blurs the background. The lines are sharp, but it seems unnatural.

Notice how the depth is more realistic with the iPhone (left), while the Pixel (right) just identifies the foreground object and blurs the background.

Overall, really surprised to get this kind of a camera in a mid-range smartphone. I know it’s a lot of computational photography, but Google did a good job with it. A bit noise-heavy, and willing to sacrifice clarity for brightness, but not bad. For the price, the Google Pixel 5a may be the best smartphone camera you can get under $500, rivaling even flagship devices like the iPhone 13.

Burning Video

I split out the video section here for one simple reason: it’s terrible. While Google will claim this is a 4K camera that can shoot 60fps, it obviously cannot. The short videos you can record at this resolution and frame rate will only frustrate you. I recommend recording at 30fps, which will give you more time, or 1080P at 60fps. Don’t expect to take very long videos with this. In fact, I noticed that, even when it doesn’t outright stop you from recording, your phone will warn you that quality will be affected because the phone is too hot. This is a phone that can shut down its own camera by… using it. The camera on the Google Pixel 5a has a triple use: photos, videos, and self destructing.

When I asked customer service about this, I got a non-answer. At best, a claim that it may be fixed in a future update. However, that was months ago. This phone still cannot reliably record video at the full 4K/60fps Google claims. In fact, you will have to be careful with 4K at 30fps, and taking video on a hot day will require even lower settings. Customer service wasn’t very helpful, and Google hasn’t done anything to fix this problem. At this point, I don’t think they will.

The video it does take is sharp, but I didn’t test it thoroughly due to the frustrating issues around recording video. Some of the 4K/30fps video looks a little grainy while shooting, but playback won’t be quite as bad. There are definitely quirks and bugs with Google’s camera app that Google simply hasn’t fixed, and may of them show up when trying to shoot video. Really, any review that hasn’t mentioned the video problem hasn’t really tested this phone. It’s a widespread issue that seems to plague all Pixel 5a devices. It’s why I had to knock off points for the camera score. Stills are shockingly good, but video falls flat.

Odds & Ends

I had a hard time finding a decent case for this phone. There were definitely more cases for the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5. Some companies simply stopped providing cases for Google’s mid-range models with the Pixel 5a. I settled on Google’s case. It looks unique, though it’s quite bulky. It does use a decent amount of recycled material, and it feels durable, so I think it’ll be the only case I get for this phone.

While the phone has 18W fast charging, and comes with a fast charger in the box, it doesn’t have wireless charging. The case is all aluminum, so it simply wouldn’t work. In 2022, a phone without MagSafe feels like it’s being held back, let alone a phone without wireless charging.

At least it has a headphone jack though, right? Unfortunately, I’ve moved to Bluetooth for everything, and I noticed some considerably delayed audio over Bluetooth, even with my headphones that have imperceptible delay on other platforms. Still, I could at least test my wired headphones with my Pixel 5a with just a headphone jack. I preferred to run it through a USB-C to USB-A dongle with a Firefly DAC anyway.

Finally, this is the first of Google’s mid-range devices to feature an IP67 rating. I wouldn’t submerge it, but if it gets splashed or accidentally soaked, it should be fine. Given that water used to be able to completely destroy phones, it’s nice to have something a little safer around something as common as water.

5G

It has 5G. Not the fastest mmWave 5G, but 5G. Go nuts.

Overall 7/10

I struggled to give this phone an overall score. Was it a 6.5 or a 7? For me, the difficulty came in the camera. The overheating problem is one that is impossible to ignore. However, it’s also one you can avoid simply by only recording in 4K at only 30fps. This is an acceptable compromise, as many 4K phones already limit recording to 30fps anyway, likely for the same overheating problem.

Outside of that issue, the phone is surprisingly fast. While it won’t win any benchmarks, and processor-intensive tasks will be slower on it, during everyday use, you’ll find it as quick as most flagships. Apps load quickly, interactions are smooth, and you won’t see much lag except when it’s performing video and photo processing.

The Pixel 5a has excellent all day battery life. There’s a performance trade-off, to be sure, but for those looking for a mid-range device, battery life will be more important than the fastest gaming device or quickest video processing.

As for the design? It’s far too big. It’s difficult to hold and use with one hand. After using the iPhone 12/13 mini, all modern smartphones feel laughable. Still, the Pixel 5a, with its size and weight, just seems absurdly large. I can’t bring myself to use it without a case, and recommend you buy one and a Phone Loop or PopSocket immediately if you get this phone. I’d have preferred that Google kept the size the same as the Pixel 4a this replaces, with a 5.8-inch display

For $450, this is a fantastic value. There are certainly many trade-offs, but you expect that for a mid-range device. For this, priced on the lower end of mid-range, it punches above its weight class. In fact, this may be the best mid-range device you can buy. It’s quick, Google will provide updates for it for at least three years—possibly longer—and it can do everything you’d ask of a mid-range device. Plus, the photos are still top-notch. If you’re looking for an inexpensive Android phone, you really can’t beat the Pixel 5a.

tl;dr:

Good:

Meh:

Not so Good:

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