36 PCWorld OCTOBER 2020REVIEWS GOOGLE PIXEL 4A
phone. Night Sight and Live HDR+ bring a
high-end feel to photo-taking that rivals
anything Apple brings with the iPhone 11 Pro
(go.pcworld.com/i11p). And while I’ll admit
that I miss wireless charging, wired charging
is plenty fast out of the box.
For a third of what Samsung charges for its
new Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (see page 42), the
Pixel 4a nails the bare necessities: a
lightweight phone with a nice design that’ll
take great pictures and last all day. Put it all
together, and you’re getting the most
practical Android phone ever made and the
easiest buying decision you’ll ever make. You
don’t even need to pick a color—it only
comes in black.A GOOGLE PHONE THAT
ACTUALLY LOOKS GOOD
I’ve never been a fan of Google’s overly
utilitarian design language, but it’s done an
admirable job with the Pixel 4a. The giant
bezels around that have been present on
nearly every other Pixel have been
dramatically thinned around its screen to give
the phone a high screen-to-body ratio (83
percent). The Pixel 4a’s small size means it has
a relatively small display as well—5.8 inches,
which is smack dab in the middle of the
5.6-inch Pixel 3a and 6-inch Pixel 3a XL.
The 2340x1080 display is essentially the
same one you get in the Pixel 4, so the same
frustrations are present. Colors will be muted
even in Boosted mode and
system text has an ever-so-
slight glow around it. Still, it’s
a good size for a phone in this
price range that’s basically in
the sweet spot for whatever
you want to do. Videos and
games look good, text is
plenty big, and apps have
plenty of room to operate.
And since it’s basically all
screen on the front with nicely
rounded corners that match
the contours of the body, the
screen feels even bigger
than it is.
Part of that optical illusion
And Pixel 4a is Android’s yin to the iPhone SE’s yang. is due to Google’s use of a