(Pocket-lint) – You might ask why the Pixel 4a 5G basically has the same feature set as the Pixel 5, rather than just being a larger version of the Pixel 4a that was announced earlier in 2020.

That would be a well-placed question too, because Google’s 2020 line-up of Pixel devices isn’t as straightforward as it has been in the past.

The Pixel 4a 5G is the largest device of the lot, with the same core power and same camera as the Pixel 5, but at an even lower price point. So how does that work?

Design

• Dimensions: 153.9 x 74 x 8.2mm / Weight: 168g
• Stereo speakers and 3.5mm socket
• Polycarbonate body
• Finish: Just Black

While there’s much about the Pixel 4a 5G that bears a resemblance to the Pixel 4a, with its polycarbonate back and black colouring – that’s the only option we’ll be getting in the UK – both these phones share a design with the Pixel 5 too.

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The advantage that the Pixel 5 holds is that it uses an aluminium enclosure, so it’s a more premium material, but it’s coated and painted, so doesn’t feel too different to the Pixel 4a models. There’s the soft warmth of plastic here, but with a matte finish, so it stays free from fingerprints. It’s not quite as grippy as the texture of the Pixel 5, not quite as fancy as the ‘Glasstic’ of the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, but it doesn’t feel cheap.

There’s no flex to it and a decent heft to the phone, which brings it closer to the premium end of the mid-range in which this phone really sits. There’s no IP rating on this phone – so it’s not as well weather-protected as the Pixel 5 – but that’s not uncommon in phones in this price bracket – the Sony Xperia being about the only exception.

There’s a rear mounted fingerprint scanner that’s fast, reliable, and on reflection, a lot easier to use than under-display scanners that have adorned many recent devices. So while it doesn’t make for such a seamless look to the back of the phone, we can’t help feeling a sense of relief with the ease of use it brings.

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There’s another major difference that the Pixel 4a 5G exhibits over the Pixel 5 in the audio department. The Pixel 4a 5G, as a cheaper device, has been adorned with a 3.5mm headphone socket. That’s useful for those with legacy devices – or wanting the convenience – but it’s not the most important thing.

While the Pixel 5 hides the ear speaker at the top of the display, the Pixel 4a 5G has a grille in the bezel, like the smaller Pixel 4a, which lets the sound out. That, combined with the main loud speaker on the bottom of the phone, makes for a much better audio experience than the more expensive Pixel 5.

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Calls sound better, the stereo effect is better, and the experience when watching video or playing games is better. It’s a better solution overall, and that plays to this phone’s positioning with a larger display for those more interested in watching video or gaming.

Display

• 6.24-inch Full HD+ OLED display
• 2340 x 1080 pixels (413ppi)
• Punch hole camera
• 60Hz refresh

The big sell of the Pixel 4a 5G is that it has a bigger display – it’s the largest of the 2020 Pixel devices, at 6.24-inches. Google has stuck to a Full HD display and that’s been pretty common on devices in 2020, especially around this price level.

It’s a good display too, using an OLED panel, so it has the colour and vibrancy that you’d expect, meaning nice deep blacks. It supports high dynamic range (HDR), so that will swing in on compatible services like Netflix to give you even better visuals.

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The thing that separates this display from that on the Pixel 5 is that it only has a 60Hz refresh rate. That means that the Pixel 5 can look smoother when scrolling around some content, thanks to its 90Hz panel, but you’ll only really notice if you have the two devices side-by-side.

Arguably, a faster refresh rate on this larger device would be good to support things like games, but there are many instances when a faster refresh rate makes no difference to the experience, like when watching movies, so it’s hardly a deal breaker.

There’s a punch hole in the display for the camera – which isn’t the smallest example of punch holes, but it isn’t obtrusive either.

Hardware and performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage
• 3,800mAh battery capacity
• 5G connectivity

The Pixel 4a 5G owes that next-gen connectivity to the hardware inside, the excellent Qualcomm Snapdragon 765, here with 6GB RAM. It’s the same core hardware that you’ll find in the Pixel 5, a slight step-up from the Pixel 4a which has Snapdragon 730 and only offers 4G connectivity.

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Snapdragon 765 has been all the range in 2020, powering many of the most exciting devices of the year and behind the growth of a more capable and affordable middle range of devices. The performance we’ve experienced from the Pixel 4a 5G in our testing so far is exactly as we’d expect – it’s very fast, smooth, and powerful. This hardware has no trouble playing the latest games and the experience is better than it is on the Pixel 5 – thanks to the larger display and the better sound quality – while the bodywork also doesn’t get as hot.

Side-by-side, we’d pick the Pixel 4a 5G over the Pixel 5 any day of the week when it comes to playing games and watching movies for this very reason – which is great for a phone that’s more affordable. The boosted hardware also means that it’s a better experience than the smaller Pixel 4a too, and more on par with devices like the OnePlus Nord.

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While we’ve been testing this phone in parallel with the Pixel 5, we’ve not been able to fully assess the battery performance. It’s a 3,800mAh capacity – which sounds a little on the small side for a device of this size – and there are some competitor devices, such as the Moto G 5G Plus, that have a much more capacious battery.

There’s no wireless charging here – as found in the Pixel 5 – but you do get 18W charging, with that fast charger included in the box. As we said, we’ll continue to test the battery and will update as soon as we have a full picture of typical performance.

Cameras are a cut above

• Dual rear cameras:
  • Main: 12.2-megapixel, 1.4µm pixel size, f/1.7 aperture, optical image stabilisation (OIS)
  • Ultra-wide: 16MP, 1.0µm, f/2.2, 107 degrees angle of view
• Front: 8MP, 1.12µm, f/2.0

The cameras on the Pixel 4a 5G are, surprisingly, the same as the Pixel 5, leaving the smaller Pixel 4a as the odd model out. It’s also another minor point of confusion around the naming of these devices. The good news is that you’re getting the same experience in the Pixel 4a 5G as you do in the Pixel 5 – and that’s a great performing camera.

We’ve not fully tested the Pixel 4a 5G, but we took most of the same test shots on the Pixel 4a 5G that we used for our Pixel 5 review – and there’s no difference between them, because it’s the same core camera system.

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We will test the Pixel 4a 5G independently, but so far, these phones look to be exactly the same in terms of the results. The Pixel 5 offers audio zoom on video which the Pixel 4a 5G doesn’t, but otherwise the Pixel 4a 5G appears to be the same.

Like the Pixel 5, it also appears to have the same camera bug, where it will sometimes process a 2x digital zoom picture back to being a 1x zoom photo, but you can read more about that in our Pixel 5 review. We’re talking digital zoom, of course, as the 4a 5G lacks any kind of optical zoom lens – that’s something Google has done away with for the 2020 line-up.

A clean software experience

• Android 11
• Pixel extras

One of the advantages in opting for a Pixel device, of course, is that you get to be front of the line whenever there’s anything new coming to Android. That means the Pixel 4a 5G comes with Android 11 out of the box – and while there aren’t huge changes on the surface to Android 10, there are a couple of goodies, like the native screen recording, which are a nice addition.

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It also means that you escape the bloat or pre-installs that you get from many other manufacturers. While there are cheaper devices that offer this level of hardware and comparable specs, there aren’t many, except perhaps Nokia and Motorola, that give you a bloat-free software experience.

Again, it’s essentially the same experience as the Pixel 5 and so far we’ve found it to be slick and fast in operation, but we’ll continue to test the phone before reaching a final conclusion.

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Writing by Chris Hall.