The Google Pixel 5: A Mini-Review - Small Package, Small Value?
by Andrei Frumusanu on January 22, 2021 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Pixel 5
Battery Life
Although the Pixel 5 is a small phone, Google still managed to with a rather large 4080mAh battery – which notable given the 151g weight of the device. Coupled with a 1080p 90Hz screen which seems to be of good quality, the Pixel 5 should do alright in the battery tests.
Indeed, in our web-browsing test, the Pixel 5 ended up lasting 12.5h, which is an excellent result for a device of this calibre. The phone seems to be significantly more efficient than the Pixel 4 XL last year, and it also does better than even some newer flagships this year which use less power-efficient displays.
In the more SoC power dominant PCMark battery test, the Pixel 5 also does very well at 11.1h runtime. The similar-specced LG Velvet beats it, but only due to a larger battery as well as a 60Hz display.
In general, the Pixel 5 does very well in terms of battery life and it seems to be amongst the most power-optimised devices in the market – usually small phones have to compromise on battery life compared to their larger battery siblings, however the Pixel 5 here does not.
It’s actually a stark contrast to last year’s Pixel 4 devices which had large power consumption issues – whatever compromises Google had to make, such as a different SoC, dropping Project Soli, or just overall power optimisations, it seems to have worked well in favour of the Pixel 5.
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Flunk - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
Correction, the US version of the Nord uses the slightly inferior Snapdragon 690 SoC so it should be slower. It's still crazy cheap.Fulljack - Sunday, January 24, 2021 - link
snapdragon 690 uses newer cortex-a77 while snapdragon 765g still uses cortex-a76, clockwise it's slower by 16,66% but the ipc gain is 20%, so snapdragon 690 are actually faster. qualcomm products naming are weird, I knowiphonebestgamephone - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link
The gpu would probably be slower on 690.Spunjji - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link
@iphonebestgamephone - correct, the 690 uses the Adreno 619L which is actually around 50% slower than the 620.Qualcomm's naming system is b a n a n a s
eastcoast_pete - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link
For how long does OnePlus guarantee software (system and security) updates for? That's an important part of a phone's value proposition. And, while it pains me as an Android user, not leaving owners of older phone models behind is something Apple actually does well. I was, however, pleasantly surprised when Xiaomi made an OS update for my decidedly middle-class (at time of purchase) phone available even after >2.5 years of ownership. I took note of that, and it might help convince me to buy another phone from them.Arbie - Saturday, January 23, 2021 - link
The Pixel 5 also has a much larger battery than the 4a. Which is why I would have considered it as an eventual replacement for that.Except they removed the headphone jack so no dice.
rahvin - Saturday, January 23, 2021 - link
Those aren't the only differences, the battery is quite a bit longer lasting (owing to the extra 200mah deleting the 3.5mm jack). The glass is also GG6 versus GG3 like on the pixel 2/4a5G, it's the smoothest glass I've ever encountered, if I set the pixel 5 down (screen down) on a table that is even slightly out of level it will slide off. It's like I'm carrying around an air table puck. The GG6 is also significantly harder to scratch based on what's happened to mine since I got it. I honestly wouldn't have expected that much improvement in glass between GG3 and GG6 but IMO there is.Spunjji - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link
Same conclusion I came to. The 2GB of RAM isn't really useful. The 90Hz screen would be *nice*, and the same goes for IP68 rating - but you can get most or all of those with other companies' $400 phones. I haven't used wireless charging since my Palm Pre 2 🤷♂️BrokePeopleBuyBadStuff - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link
...yeah that stuff isn't free and it's faster than last years BUDGET phone. Don't get me wrong, it's still a budget phone but yeah...broke people get broke joke phones I guess.Great_Scott - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link
The Chart says that the Pixel 4a (5G) is the phone to get of the three.