SEPTEMBER 2020 PCWorld 15iPhone SE (go.pcworld.com/12th)—have
brought extreme value to the non-premium
smartphone market.
Since the Pixel 3a (go.pcworld.com/pl3a)
launched in May 2019, midrange
smartphones have gained bigger screens,
better cameras, and more premium features,
making it easier for customers to resist the call
of the four-figure titans. Android phone
makers have also gotten much better at
pushing updates. So while there’s enough
about the Pixel 4a to make it a very intriguing
addition to the Pixel family, it might need to
offer a little more to lure buyers. Namely, a
months-ago release.
CHEAP PRICE AND
CHEAP PLASTIC
The Pixel 4a is the first Pixel phone to feature a
hole-punch camera. It certainly looks better
than the bezel-heavy Pixel 3a. The camera is
located in the upper-left corner rather than
the center, so it’ll mess with the status icons,
but it’s still a huge step forward for the Pixel
aesthetic.
But the Pixel 4a is basically playing
catch-up. Even in the $400 price range,
hole-punch displays are old hat. Had the Pixel
4a released in May 2020, that might have
been a different story. But after the A71 and
the Nord and a slew of other Chinese
handsets, buyers expect the slimmest
possible bezels thanks to cameras built into
the screen, even for $400. Plus, the Pixel 4a
sports a long-in-the-tooth fingerprint scanner,
one of the few remaining phones among its
peers that haven’t gone the optical route.
The Pixel 4a’s plastic back makes it feel
more like a budget phone than a midrange
one, thanks to its newer competitors. Even if it
didn’t come in just one bland color (black),
Google hasn’t done anything to dress it up
like Samsung’s glossy patterns or Motorola’s
shimmer. Based on the pictures I’ve seen, it’s
extremely prone to smudges and scratches,
which isn’t ideal, and it pales in comparison
to the luscious glass on the iPhone SE or
OnePlus Nord. Altogether, the Pixel 4a looks
and feels cheaper than it should.ONE IS THE
LONELIEST CAMERA
Google has decided to go with just a single
camera on the Pixel 4a, which probably won’t
matter in practice. Google works wonders
with its processing and on-device AI, so
portraits and zooming will be impressive even
with the lack of dedicated hardware.
But there could be a perception issue. Last
year’s Pixel 3a was a standout in a sea of
single-camera phones and high-priced
multi-camera arrays, but now dual- and
triple-camera are the norm across the
spectrum of Android tiers. The Galaxy A
and the Oneplus Nord each have four
cameras with dedicated macro and depth
lenses. Even the $200 Doogee N21 Pro (go.
pcworld.com/dn21) has a triple-camera