Google Pixel 3a Review - 6 Months Later

Well , it's been six months since Google sent us our Google pixel three A and in that time , we've gotten to thoroughly test this device .

So in this video , we're going to go over our favorite features of the Google pixel three A , some things we didn't like and our ultimate recommendation on whether or not you should buy it .

Let's dive in the pixel three A has a pretty good and simple value proposition , a smartphone with an incredible camera and software at an affordable price .

Overall , I'd say the pixel three A delivers on that promise .

Even for people coming from an iphone like myself , the phone is very easy to use and let's first talk about that transfer process while it can take a long time to transfer all my data from an iphone to my pixel three A .

Overall , the process was pretty seamless , especially if you already have a Google account .

Pretty much all the apps I had on my iphone were available on Android .

I could go through and decide which ones I wanted to pull over as well as what personal data like photos and text messages I wanted to migrate over as Well , so what do I like about the phone ?

Well , first let's talk about the camera since that's one of the main selling points of this device , Google basically took the camera that can be found in the pixel three and pixel three XL and put it inside the Google pixel three A which means this phone just takes really great photos .

I mean , it takes some of the best photos of any phone and with the phone at this price point , these photos are hard to beat even when you compare the photos to the pixel four XL that I have .

The difference between them is noticeable though not as much as you may expect , the pixel four XL will often look better in auto mode because the pixel four has a second optical lens , an auto white balancing feature and can follow fast moving subjects way better .

And it also has a tweaked processing core that will end up just making the photos look better .

The OLED screen on the three A is also pretty good .

It's not flagship quality , but it's definitely something I could use every day .

Sure , I wish it had a 90 Hertz refresh rate screen .

But at this price point , you're just not gonna get it .

Some other great things about the phone are its surprising snappy performance .

I mean , even after six months going in between apps and the animations on this phone still feel pretty fluid .

Now , I've often heard from owners of other pixel phones over the years that their phones slow down over time .

But so far I have not noticed that happening with my three A , the battery life on this phone is actually pretty good .

Great and has lasted me well throughout the day .

And considering that this phone is not the XL version , uh that's pretty impressive .

Another great thing for a lot of people out there who haven't switched to wireless headphones or ear buds yet is that the three A comes with a headphone jack .

A rarity nowadays for phones .

Now let's talk software with the pixel three A Android 10 on the three A is great .

It feels nappy and pretty fast for phone at this price point .

It's Android the way Google intended it to be .

And with pixel phones , you get updates from Google first , just like when you have an iphone .

As soon as Apple releases a software update , you can download it .

So with the pixel , there's no more waiting for your phone manufacturer or your carrier to push an update to your phone .

Plus , if you're coming from an iphone like I did , you'll find Android's just your navigation to be very similar to I OS .

Also , another great thing about the pixel three A is the integration with the Google Assistant .

If you love using your Google home nest hub or nest mini or any other Google Assistant enabled device you may have at your home , you'll be really happy with the Google Assistant integration on the pixel three A .

It's not quite as good as the pixel four XL because the pixel four XL actually has the running locally on the device , but still with the three A , it's pretty good .

All right .

Now on to some of the downsides of this phone and do keep in mind , some of these are downsides simply because of where the phone is in terms of price point .

First , downside , there's no waterproofing with this phone .

So you drop it in the bathtub or in the shower or whatever like yeah , you're you're putting into a bag of ice and keeping your fingers crossed .

Uh I feel like in 2019 you should have a phone that is waterproof or at least some sort of water resistance to the phone and it's forgivable at this price point .

But I still consider it a downside number two , no face unlock .

Now , of course , we wouldn't expect the pixel three A to have face unlock because the pixel four and four XL came out after the three A did .

But after playing around with the pixel four XL now for almost a month and getting used to the face unlock system , which is so good on the pixel four , the pixel three A S method of authentication .

Well , good just does not , it just seems very inferior compared to the pixel four and pixel four XL .

So I now consider it to be somewhat of a downside , but again forgivable at this price point .

Another downside is now that the pixel four is out , you can see all the cool camera features with the pixel forces camera like shadow and exposure your controls within the camera app and a live preview of H D R plus , which is something you just will not get with the three A .

Also , when the three A has H D R plus enabled , it takes much longer than the pixel four to actually take and process the photos , which could potentially cause you to miss your shot .

All right .

Recommendation time .

Do I recommend the pixel three A ?

Yes , I think it's a great choice for budget conscious consumers who don't need the latest and greatest tech or don't want to spend flagship level prices .

Uh It's great for people who just want a phone to do the regular things .

They're used to , to be good at phone calls , text messaging , reading the news , social media .

And of course , especially with the pixel three A taking photos .

I think it's a great choice for those consumers .

For graphics intensive gaming .

It's probably not going to be as good of a choice for those use cases .

This would also make a really great choice for a first phone for your son or daughter .

If it's finally that time that they need their own smartphone .

So if one of those use cases applies to you , I would seriously consider looking at a Google pixel three A or three A XL .

Now there is a caveat there though and that is we're doing this video six months after this product's launch .

And that means we're already halfway into the product life cycle until there is likely going to be a new version .

Just because that's how phones work .

They have a very short life span in terms of a technology product and technology products typically have very short life spans .

So that means Google is likely to announce a Google pixel four A and four A XL this spring if they decide to keep to the same calendar like they did for this year .

So it may be worth it to you to not get the three A and three A XL and take a wait and see approach if you don't need a new phone right away on the flip side though , with the holidays coming up , there are likely going to be very good deals on the Google pixel three A and three A XL .

And that may be worth it to you to go ahead and jump on one of those deals during the holiday season , whichever way you decide to go .

All I can say is I don't think you'll regret going with the pixel experience so far .

I've been very happy with the Google pixel three A and for the Google pixel four XL , which is actually the main phone I use right now as my daily driver .

Well , anyways , that's it for our review of the Google pixel three A .

Thank you so much for watching .

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And if you like this video , make sure to hit that thumbs up button below for six months later .

I'm Josh Tedder .

Thanks for watching .