Google's new budget phone, the Pixel 6A
This is Google's new budget
phone, the Pixel 6A. What
we're getting with this Google budget phone is, and this may sound familiar, a
new chip, the same one that's in the flagship models, the same software
experience as the flagships, but just with some cheaper hardware surrounding
it. You know, kind of like the iPhone SE, but Google's version and so the price
here is $449. It looks just like any other Pixel 6 phone. I mean, that's the
one thing I like about the whole lineup. They're unmistakably Pixel. You've got
the two-tone colors.
The camera bar across the middle
is recognizable as a Pixel from a mile away. The only difference here is, well
it's a slightly new color. This one is sage green. But also the camera bump
isn't as tall. So it's a bit slimmer. It doesn't protrude out of the phone as
much. So I don't use the ledge as a grip as much anymore as I used to on the
other phones. Everything else though on the outside is pretty much the same.
It's got the aluminum rails, the same power and volume buttons on the right
side with a notch between them, the speakers, and the slightly off-center USB-C
port at the bottom. It's all back. On the inside though, this phone is IP67,
not IP68, and there is no wireless charging. That to me was kind of a bummer. I
know we're probably saving a couple of dollars here, but this phone still has a
glass back, and I don't know if you've used wireless charging before, then it's
kind of worth noting that this one won't have it. And then also the Pixel 5A
had a headphone jack.
This Pixel 6A does not have a
headphone jack. So again, if you use that, then that's another thing to note. But
really around the front here is where the Pixel 6A most reflects its price. So we've got a 6.1-inch 1080p
OLED display at 60Hz with a top center hole punch and an in-display fingerprint
reader. Visually, it's an okay display.
It's decently sharp with good
color, and it gets bright enough to support HDR and not suck outdoors, but also
it has some pretty serious off-access rain bowing, the auto-brightness is a
little finicky, and the fingerprint reader is slow. It's on the slow side just
like it was on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. Now, this may be forgivable stuff in a
budget phone. We've seen stuff like that around this price. But what makes it a
tier down for me is the 60Hz, specifically because this one feels slow. Let me
be more specific. So there's a 60Hz display.
There are several other phones
with 60Hz displays available. Tensor chip, a somewhat expensive internal
processor, should ensure that the phone continues to feel quick and that apps
open quickly. And that's still mostly the case here, but for some reason, this
is not smooth in terms of response or real visual smoothness. Therefore, I
believe that this will be something that either you feel and notice right
quickly or you never notice at all. For example, I believe that many
individuals who are upgrading from an older device, a low-cost device, or
another 60Hz phone will be eager to purchase a Pixel 6A. Like, I believe that
many individuals who are wanting to upgrade from an older phone, a budget
phone, or another 60Hz phone will consider the Pixel 6A, and they will likely
find it to be a good fit.
The 6A buyer won't typically come
from a world of 120Hz or 165Hz flagship phones or gaming phones, but the moment
you use a phone with 120Hz, you are much more likely to notice the dropped
frames in animations all the time, even at 60Hz. However, even among 60Hz
phones, I feel like this is one of the choppiest ones. Simply scrolling,
pulling down the notification shade, launching, and closing apps, and other
common tasks are all occasionally jerky.
Even though things are
technically launching quickly, you aren't lagging, and you are launching apps
at a normal speed, depending on who you are, even this may be acceptable.
However, I'm combining all of this with my knowledge of what I've just
witnessed happen with the last year of Pixels, which is that they haven't aged
particularly gracefully. Because of what happened to the 6 and 6 Pro, I'm
concerned about how this phone will hold up over time given how it currently
functions. Software updates are promised for three years, but how will this
phone appear then? The good news is that every other aspect of the Pixel is
precisely how you would anticipate. With
Material You, Google's widgets, dynamic colors, and stock apps like the calculator,
settings, camera, etc.
It
offers the same software experience as its bigger brethren. All of Google's
greatest features, including Assistant, are present. Awesome call screening
includes live translation. They're all very fantastic, including the sorcery of
quick speech-to-text on this phone thanks to the tensor chip. Along with the
stereo speakers in this phone, it's great to notice that the haptics is also
quite good. The only factors that would have potentially surprised us were the
battery or the cameras. The battery on the Pixel 6A is roughly 4410mAh, and it
worked just well. Because it's a tensor chip, a more expensive processor that
needs more power, there were some worries. Perhaps with a smaller phone, that
would be a problem, but it turns out that 60Hz kind of balances that, so my
battery life was decent. I was only a little irritated because there was no
wireless charging. However, there are also cameras. This Pixel does not share a
camera with its more costly brothers, the 6 and the 6 Pro, unlike earlier
Pixels, which did. However, this is the outdated Sony IMX363 sensor, which some
of you nerds will already know is the same sensor that was in the Pixel 5, as
well as the Pixel 4, the Pixel 3, and the Pixel 2. Instead, it has a downgraded
12-megapixel camera setup for both the standard and the ultrawide, which might
look disappointing on paper. In other words, even though it has an older,
smaller, and lower resolution sensor, Google's expertise in computational
photography makes it a tried-and-true fantastic smartphone camera. I,
therefore, valued the fact that the images produced by this camera are just as
clear, contrast, and assured as they were with the earlier Pixels, even with the
lesser number with the tensor chip processing things quickly. The colors are
also perfect. There isn't much over-processing going on. With close-up
subjects, there is also not much fringing at the edges, and the dynamic range
and how it handles highlights are advantages. The fact that this is still among
the top two inexpensive smartphone cameras makes it understandable why they
persisted with it for so long. It also captures decent-looking 4K films up to
60 FPS and features the ultra-wide that the iPhone SE lacks. They are like
pizza, these cameras. Even while they aren't particularly novel or
ground-breaking, they don't particularly stand out on paper.
There are some more that are
truly excellent. To make it simple, I believe you should get the Pixel 6A if
you place high importance on the Google software experience, those features, or
the camera in general.
Google Pixel 6a - Full phone specifications
| NETWORK | Technology | GSM / HSPA / LTE / 5G |
|---|
| BODY | Dimensions | 152.2 x 71.8 x 8.9 mm (5.99 x 2.83 x 0.35 in) |
|---|
| Weight | 178 g (6.28 oz) |
| Build | Glass front (Gorilla Glass 3), aluminum frame, plastic back |
| SIM | Nano-SIM and eSIM |
| | IP67 dust/water resistant (up to 1m for 30 mins) |
| DISPLAY | Type | OLED, HDR |
|---|
| Size | 6.1 inches, 90.7 cm2 (~83.0% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~429 ppi density) |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| | Always-on display |
| PLATFORM | OS | Android 12, upgradable to Android 13 |
|---|
| Chipset | Google Tensor (5 nm) |
| CPU | Octa-core (2x2.80 GHz Cortex-X1 & 2x2.25 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4x1.80 GHz Cortex-A55) |
| GPU | Mali-G78 MP20 |
| MEMORY | Card slot | No |
|---|
| Internal | 128GB 6GB RAM |
| | UFS 3.1 |
| MAIN CAMERA | Dual | 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm, (wide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
12 MP, f/2.2, 17mm, 114˚ (ultrawide), 1.25µm |
|---|
| Features | Dual-LED flash, Pixel Shift, Auto-HDR, panorama |
| Video | 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; gyro-EIS, OIS |
| SELFIE CAMERA | Single | 8 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1.12µm |
|---|
| Features | Auto-HDR, panorama |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
| SOUND | Loudspeaker | Yes, with stereo speakers |
|---|
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| COMMS | WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct |
|---|
| Bluetooth | 5.2, A2DP, LE |
| Positioning | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Radio | No |
| USB | USB Type-C 3.1 |
| FEATURES | Sensors | Fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer |
|---|
| BATTERY | Type | Li-Po 4410 mAh, non-removable |
|---|
| Charging | 18W wired, PD3.0 |
| MISC | Colors | Chalk, Charcoal, Sage |
|---|
| Models | GX7AS, GB62Z, G1AZG |
| Price | $ 299.00 / € 335.29 / £ 298.00 / ₹ 30,740 / C$ 472.83 |
