Google has finally unveiled the Pixel 4a: a lower-cost, mid-range phone that is high quality, long-lasting and fairly small, with a great camera.
It slots under the higher-priced £669-and-up Pixel 4 series, replacing last year’s Pixel 3a and 3a XL with only one size of phone, taking the design of the 3a and expanding the screen to fill the front of the device.
The Pixel 4a has a 4.5% bigger screen than its predecessor but its body is 5.8% smaller overall. At only 144mm in length, 69.4mm in width, 8.8mm in thickness and weighing 143g, the Pixel 4a is one of the smallest phones you can buy in 2020.
The top of the Pixel 4a features a headphone socket, while the bottom a universal USB-C socket for powering the phone. There’s no wireless charging, nor official water-resistance rating. The Pixel 4a has stereo speakers. No headphones come in the box, however.
The Pixel 4a uses the upper-middle range Snapdragon 730G chip from Qualcomm, which is one of the last remaining new processors not to feature 5G and a significant step up from Snapdragon 670 used in the Pixel 3a last year. It comes in a single version with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
The Pixel 4a ships with an 18W fast charger that takes 90 minutes to fully charge the phone, hitting 50% in half an hour.
There’s a soft-touch finish on the back, which is made of polycarbonate, so no glass. Google says this means it’s durable and won’t shatter, and it makes the device extremely light to hold. It’s not flashy, however, Pixel devices rarely are.
The Pixel 4a has Google’s excellent single-camera system. It lacks the second camera for optical zoom from the Pixel 4 but keeps most of its software features including Google’s industry-leading Night Sight for super low-light photography, an astrophotography mode to shoot the stars, live HDR+ allowing you to tweak the light and dark areas in real time, plus portrait mode for people and pets.
There are some other snazzy features that come with the Pixel range. The Live Transcribe feature which debuted on last year’s 4 is available here which lets you record voice notes and see the transcription in real-time.
You can now start, stop and search voice recordings by using Google Assistant as well. Google is also expanding its Live Caption feature so you can see automatically caption phone calls and videos — if you’re doing this on a call then it will alert the other person. All captions are processed locally on the device and stored here so they don’t make it up to Google’s cloud if you’re worried about security.
The Google Pixel 4a is available to pre-order for £349, making it cheaper than OnePlus’s new Nord smartphone. The wait list is open now at store.google.com, and pre-orders will open in September before finally being on sale from October 1.
It’s worth noting there will be a Pixel 4a 5G version at some point in the future, maybe even by October, which will start at £499 in the UK, along with the Pixel 5 which will also have 5G. Google isn’t saying much more now but it’s worth keeping in mind if you’re ready to make the 5G jump.
Google Pixel 4a Specs
| Google Pixel 4a | |
|---|---|
| Software | Android 10 |
| Display | 5.81″ FHD+ OLED -19.5:9, 1080×2340, 443ppi |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G Adreno 618 GPU |
| Memory | Storage: 128GB RAM: 6GB LPDDR4 |
| Battery | 3140mAh 18W fast charging |
| Camera | Rear: 12.2MP (F/1.7, 77° FOV, OIS) Front: 8MP (F/2.0, 84° FOV) |
| Size | 144×69.4×8.2mm 143g |
| Connectivity | 802.11ac WiFi Bluetooth 5.1 NFC |
| Other | USB-C (USB 3.1) Titan M Security Stereo speakers 3.5mm headphone Fingerprint reader |
| Colors | Just Black |
