The Google Pixel 3a XL Review: Does Mid-Range Make Sense?
by Andrei Frumusanu on June 27, 2019 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Snapdragon 670
- Pixel 3a
- Pixel 3a XL
Camera - Low Light Evaluation
Google’s Night Sight feature was a primary marketing point for the Pixel 3a: Google last year did raise the bar in terms of computational photography and it managed to save the Pixel 3 from otherwise ending up with more mediocre low-light results.
In general there’s no too much new on the Pixel 3a, and the night-time scenes between the new phone and the flagship predecessor are identical, so I’ll skip the detailed evaluation as we’ve covered things extensively against the current line-up over the last few months.
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 3a ]
[ OnePlus 7 Pro ] - [ OnePlus 6T ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ Honor 20 Pro ]
[ G8 ] - [ Oppo Reno ] - [ iPhone XS ]
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 3a ]
[ OnePlus 7 Pro ] - [ OnePlus 6T ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ Honor 20 Pro ]
[ G8 ] - [ Oppo Reno ] - [ iPhone XS ]
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 3a ]
[ OnePlus 7 Pro ] - [ OnePlus 6T ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ Honor 20 Pro ]
[ G8 ] - [ Oppo Reno ] - [ iPhone XS ]
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 3a ]
[ OnePlus 7 Pro ] - [ OnePlus 6T ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ Honor 20 Pro ]
[ G8 ] - [ Oppo Reno ] - [ iPhone XS ]
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 3a ]
[ OnePlus 7 Pro ] - [ OnePlus 6T ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ Honor 20 Pro ]
[ G8 ] - [ Oppo Reno ] - [ iPhone XS ]
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 3a ]
[ OnePlus 7 Pro ] - [ OnePlus 6T ]
[ S10+ (E) ] - [ S10+ (S) ]
[ P30 Pro ] - [ Honor 20 Pro ]
[ G8 ] - [ Oppo Reno ] - [ iPhone XS ]
Low-Light Camera Conclusion
As with the Pixel 3, the Pixel 3a is saved by the Night Sight mode which still is among the best computational photography implementations out there in current phones. Since the Pixel 3, Google was beaten in low-light by various Huawei and Honor phones, and more recently Samsung’s new night mode looks to perform better than Google’s.
The Pixel 3a however remains quite unique in its price range in regards to low-light photography, and the only real competition here is from mid-range Huawei phones, as other manufacturers haven’t yet caught up with their camera algorithms. Unfortunately I don’t have more mid-range phones on hand to contextualise the Pixel 3a’s performance against other such mid-range devices, but I expect the phone to still perform extremely well.
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jjj - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
400$ and up is high end by any standard, not mid range.Megatomic - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
In a world where flagships cost ~$1K USD you believe $400 USD is high?RSAUser - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
Yes, 400 is starting flagship if you look at what's currently in the "mid range" section. Just because Apple made everyone up flagship prices, doesn't mean all our budgets went up.Hrel - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
Couldn't agree more, $400 still stands as my absolute max. Sony offers vastly superior products for the price, granted you gotta wait 3-6 months after release but legit, who cares?I have no idea why Anandtech doesn't review Sony phones, especially when they're so vastly superior to so much else, especially Huwai which they shouldn't even be mentioning on here. Chinese crap.
Huwaii is communist evil crap, get it off this site!
piroroadkill - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link
You're thinking relative - that's meaningless - thinking in absolute terms in this case is much more useful. Yes, phones that cost more than 400 USD could easily be considered expensive.The fact flagships cost a grand is irrelevant - the pricing they've decided on is beyond ridiculous - it doesn't mean our window should shift
sonny73n - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link
“In a world where flagships cost ~$1K USD you believe $400 USD is high?”In your small world maybe. I still can’t believe that this day and age where we have all the infos on the internet, most people in the West still have their heads stuck in the toilet. Not many of them how much, say an iPhone cost to manufacture. They only instantly believe the phone worth at its retail price. When something only costs about $350 to manufacture, labor and all, but sell to you for more than $1k is nothing but a rip-off. Capitalism at its finest.
Yoi can get a flagship phone for less than &400. You just have to get your head out of the toilet first.
tuxRoller - Thursday, July 4, 2019 - link
Yes, ONLY in the West=_=AdditionalPylons - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
High end refers to the statistical distribution of prices. For smartphones nowadays, $400 is definitely not the high end.As the prices have gone up over the last years, so does the level which depend on the distribution, such as the terms "high-end", "mid-range" and "low-end".
That said, I agree that $400 and can still be described with the words "expensive", "a lot of money", "not worth it" etc., but then we're more into subjective terminology.
warreo - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
Obvious troll is obvious.PeachNCream - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
Agreed, pricing is way out of line and there are many, many more affordable options out there. Just because the maximum price for a phone is far north of $1k these days does not mean that dividing by two results in mid-range. That is a delusional state of mind the industry would like to promote and only a few people are mindless enough to buy into.