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
Battery Life
Battery life on the Pixel 3a XL should be good: The Snapdragon 670 SoC is manufactured on a 10LPP process node and the microarchitecture should be in line with the Snapdragon 845. In effect, I expect the unit to have similar efficiency as the S845 generation of flagships.
The battery capacity of the 3a XL is also relatively large: 3700mAh. It’s to be noted that Google here is advertising the rated capacity, whilst some other vendors in the last few years have started to advertise the typical battery capacity, which can be 100-150mAh higher than the rated one. Props to Google to remaining honest in their marketing numbers here.
In the our web-browsing test, we indeed see the Pixel 3a XL perform extremely well with a result of 11.3h. As I mentioned, the phone falls very closely to the efficiency of S845 devices with similar battery capacity: the OnePlus 6T being the closest comparison point to the 3a XL.
The phone is able to showcase much better battery life over the Pixel 2 XL and the Pixel 3 in the charts because these two phones suffer from inefficient LG panels and DDICs. Unfortunately we don’t have a Pixel 3 XL to compare to.
In PCMark we again see equality with S845 devices of similar capacity: Again the 3a XL falls in almost the same range as the OnePlus 6T here.
Overall, the battery life of the Pixel 3a XL is excellent. Google did well with opting not to go with LG for this line-up as I fear it would have resulted notably worse battery life results, and I hope the company does the same for the Pixel 4 phones.
Whilst we don’t have a review unit at hand to test, we expect the regular Pixel 3a to perform 15-20% worse, in line with the 23% smaller battery capacity of 3000mAh.
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Threska - Sunday, June 30, 2019 - link
How many of the "dropped phones" will have alternative firmware (implying unlocked boot-loaders)?MadManMark - Monday, July 1, 2019 - link
I went with those four reasons plus one more:5) When it came out the Google Store offered a deal where you could get $250 trade-in for an iPhone 6, and on top of that give you a $100 googel store credit. I didn't have an iPhone 6s, but bought a refurb for $60 and mailed that in. So net cost of new Pixel 3a was $210, and a $100 google store credit came with it.
voicequal - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
Pixel is as much about the software value as hardware. Samsung phones are getting cluttered with unwanted or inferior software (e.g. Bixby). It's even worse if you buy from a carrier and get all the shopping apps, fortunately some can be uninstalled. The pixel direct from Google is the best way to get a clean Android phone.Ratman6161 - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
On Samsung phones, Package Disabler Pro is your friend :)Oyeve - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
There has not been "carrier bloat" in years.Ashinjuka - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
Nor software updates.tuxRoller - Thursday, July 4, 2019 - link
Sure, buy a slower phone that's over two years old, has worse battery life and camera. Who wouldn't sign up for that?UtilityMax - Thursday, August 1, 2019 - link
The Best Buy price is 500 without activating a new line (I don't do business with sketchy people out of ebay) and Android Pie is the last update this phone will receive.Also don't forget that the Pixel 3A has MSRP exactly at 400 bucks, will receive updates for three years.
Sparkyman215 - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
I still use an OG Pixel XL and this 3a looks like it has pretty similar specs, but with a better camera, better screen ratio, larger battery, and better CPU. While not huge jumps, at $480, it's neat to see how it's better than my ~$900 3 year old phone.Quantumz0d - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
In NA also this will fail. Most of the NA market is based off Carrier financing options then there is a mindset of iPhone esp the SE and the latest 7.Then we get to the Samsung phones S9 all being available at Bestbuy for $400 to 500 Brand new unlocked. LG G7 is also there unlocked at less
Although LG is not great in numbers but after Apple, Samsung, LG sells a lot. Then perhaps OnePlus and Honor.
Ebay, Exynos Note 9 is at $550 and far cheap for all flagship phones from Sammy and LG again. Impossible to beat any of these Discounted flagships.
Then we have Zenfone 6, all these phones have UFS + SD slot which is mandatory. Even Motorola has them in all phones.
Google is just too fucking greedy. Stupid SoC and cheap build. The OLED is not bright, no SD slot. Priced at $500.
Asian market this is DOA.