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
GPU Performance
Graphics performance of the Snapdragon 670 is something I admittedly didn’t have too much expectations for. The Adreno 615 of the chipset is a very cut-down version of last year’s Adreno 630 in the Snapdragon 845. In fact you shouldn’t be expecting much of an experience beyond light gaming. However as we’ll see there’s one interesting aspect of mid- to low-end GPUs: Their power consumption and sustained performance.
Starting off with the CPU-bound physics test of 3DMark, we see the Pixel 3a XL again largely fall in the performance category of Snapdragon 835 devices.
Switching over to 3D stressing workloads, we see some pretty mediocre results from the Pixel 3a XL and the Snapdragon 670. Here the phone and SoC is several generations behind even the S835.
Over the rest of the GFXBench benchmarks we continue to see quite lower-end performance. In general the Snapdragon 670’s GPU performance is around ½ to 2/3rd of that of a Snapdragon 835 which puts it about 4 generations behind the top of the line right now.
The interesting aspect of the results is the fact that sustained and peak performance of the phone is essentially identical. There’s a very easy explanation for this: The power consumption of the Snapdragon 670 is so low, that it’s essentially impossible for the device to throttle. In fact, the active system power (load minus idle) of the platform was a meagre 1.5W, a far cry from the 5W+ flagship phones out there. The Pixel 3a merely got luke-warm near the SoC location but otherwise just felt the same as the ambient temperature.
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Death666Angel - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link
The Pixel 2XL which is highlighted has the S835.Ashinjuka - Thursday, June 27, 2019 - link
Thanks for doing this review! When the 3a was announced you guys said you had no plans to review it, so I was really glad to see you take a look at this phone and SoC. This is by far the most interesting phone of the year for me. I know I'm not everyone, but if a device is not getting regular OS updates, it's dead to me.I love the headphone jack, the camera, the battery life, and the updates. If I could change one thing about it, it would be an SD card slot or at least more on-board storage.
LiverpoolFC5903 - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link
Would have been a smashing buy if it had UFS storage instead of emmc. The importance of storage quality in overall usability and perceived smoothness of the phone is often understated. I have a 3 year old LG v20 that feels faster than my new Note 7 pro (SD 675), because of storage.The SOC is fine and the camera is very good. The only issue is the storage and unfortunately for me, I will only buy phones with UFS storage from now on, having experienced fast storage in my V20 and Galaxy S9..
grant3 - Friday, July 5, 2019 - link
As a typical phone user who has no clue about UFS vs. EMMC, I can assert: the smoothness of the 3a XL is just fine.Obviously some people want more storage, faster memory, etc. and for that, they can choose phones which either trade off other features or cost more.
Jon Tseng - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link
Spot on with the US vs. RoW conclusions.Outside of the US at that price this device is DOA - huge bezels, plastic casing, single cam. We can debate single-cam computational photography vs. brute forcing with triple cam but in the eyes of the average consumer more sensors = better.
grant3 - Friday, July 5, 2019 - link
"in the eyes of the average consumer" they care about image quality; they don't care how it happens.That's even if a purchaser is particularly concerned with taking high quality photos on their phone; a huge amount of people are not.
psnosignaluk - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link
I picked up a standard Pixel 3a because I needed a new phone, and frankly, didn't want to drop £1,000 or near enough on a flagship. I'm glad I saved the money. I use my phone for mail/Slack, on call tools, contactless payments, WhatsApp video calls with the wife overseas, uploading photos to Instagram, browsing the web and listening to music or catching up with YouTube channels on the go. It may not be the fastest or most powerful phone, but damn if you don't get everything you need for a pretty low price. I even like the plastic body. Makes my phone nice and light. Looking forward to the Pixel 4a :)Anirudh2FL - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link
The base 3a costs $550 in IndiaThe regular one, not even the XL
So, unfortunately not at all a good value here
fred666 - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link
Here in Canada I had the choice between the Pixel 3a or 3a XL, both at CAD $210, or the Galaxy S10e for CAD $310 (including galaxy buds).I chose the Samsung, but if I wanted a big screen I would have gotten the 3a XL.
I think the prices listed in this review are too high.
Andrei Frumusanu - Saturday, June 29, 2019 - link
We only list a device's full price, not carrier plan or financed deals.