Google Pixel 6a Review

The Pixel 6a is Google’s less expensive version of Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones. The 6a still keeps most of the devices’ expensive features in affordable price. It is a compact device with incredible camera and excellent performance. With few missing and altered specs it is one of the best phones you can buy at this cost as still the Pixel 6a is the total package.

Also Read: iPhone 14 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

Google Pixel 6a specs at a glance:

• Body: 2 x 71.8 x 8.9 mm, 178g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 3), plastic dual-tone back with horizontal camera bar, aluminum frame; IP67 water and dust resistant.
• Display: 1″ OLED, 60Hz, HDR, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 429 ppi.
• Chipset: Google Tensor (5 nm): Octa-core (2×2.80 GHz Cortex-X1 & 2×2.25 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G78 MP20.
• Memory: 128GB 6GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 12.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm, (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 17mm, 114˚ (ultrawide), 1.25µm .
• Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1.12µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; gyro-EIS, OIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 4410mAh; Fast charging 18W, 24 hour battery life (advertised), USB Power Delivery 3.0.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC; stereo speakers; nanoSIM + eSIM;

Price and availability

Google Pixel 6a was launched in Pakistan in July, 2022 and presently its price is Rs 86499/- with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. Google Pixel 6a is available in Chalk, Charcoal and Sage colours.

Design

Pixel 6a is similar in design to Google Pixel 6 phone which measures 152.2 x 71.8 x 8.9 mm and weighs in at 178g.

Rear built: The rear having double-tone design with a horizontal camera bar. The difference in 6a from Pixel 6 is that the two camera sensors are on small pill-shaped blob on the left of the horizontal black bar and on the right side is the circular flash. On the other Pixel 6 models, the lenses are spread out across the length of the bar. The rear of Pixel 6a features “thermoformed composite back”, which is fancy name for plastic. We can see where Google is saving the cost.

Front built: Pixel 6a is a bit of a compact version of the regular Pixel 6 with flat screen rather than curve edged, the slender bezel encompassing display and the punch-hole cut out for the selfie camera in the center top of the screen. The cover glass on top is Gorilla Glass 3 less durable than Gorilla Glass Victus on Google’s flagship phone.

Controls: The Pixel 6 design has a distinctive look in a world of similar looking smartphones. Physical buttons are on the right side, a USB-C port on the bottom, and a single nanoSIM tray is on the lower-left edge of the device. There are loudspeaker ports on the bottom of the frame and top-edge of the screen, but there is no headphone jack.

Resistance: The Pixel 6a has IP67 water and dust resistance, which is good enough.

Display

The screen is a 6.1in AMOLED. Google continues to use OLED panels which offer deeper blacks and better contrast for watching video or playing games, better than the 720p display on the iPhone SE 2022.

Refresh rate: That screen sadly has a only 60Hz refresh rate. Other phones such as the Nothing Phone (1) the OnePlus Nord 2T are offering higher refresh rate at the same cost.

Brightness: Despite of low refresh rate, the display of the 6a is still amazing offering great brightness results. The peak brightness is at 778 nits with adaptive brightness turned on. However, it is hard to see in the harshest direct sunlight.

Colours: Colours are undeniably more precise on the Pixel 6a’s display, where the Delta-E rating varies between 0.25 (adaptive) and 0.2 (natural), better than Galaxy A53’s 0.3-plus rating. In its color-boosting adaptive mode, the Pixel 6a captures 131% of the sRGB color spectrum, compared to 115% for the iPhone SE.

Audio: The sound system speakers can play sound at a nice lucidity and volume and are sufficient for listening to podcasts or making video calls. Speakers can be muffled when you’re holding the Pixel 6a horizontally to play a game.

Cameras

The Pixel 6a accompanies the two-camera setup same as Pixel 5a but with 6a uses a 12.2Mp f/1.7 Sony IMX363 sensor with optical image stabilisation, as compared to 16MP on the Pixel 5a. There is no zoom lens, so you have to depend on digital zoom from the main sensor.

Ultra-wide: The ultrawide 12Mp f/2.2 Sony IMX386 lens is the same one used in more expensive models like Pixel 6. The sensor is large enough to let in more light in for good result.

Results: The photography results even with the modest camera specs, are still good and can undoubtedly compete with more expensive phones, keeping up with the notable photo processing software and computational photography of Pixel A series.

Front-Cam: The 8Mp f/2.0 selfie camera has a decent 84 degree field of view and takes solid selfies, though the portrait mode gives bit of hard time with the details.

Videos: The camera records 4K video at 60fps and it’s a well-featured camera app. There’s even a speech enhancement mode on the selfie camera that isolates vocal audio and cuts out background noise so which is an incredible feature no doubt.

Front Cam: The 32Mp selfie camera sensor is the same one as in the OnePlus 10 Pro with excellent results and it’s more than good enough for video calls.

Performance and software

Where the Pixel 6a shine is in performance because of the same chip used in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, that is the Tensor processor, with genuine flagship performance.

Internal storage: The Pixel 6a is available with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage which is quite enough for usage but there is no microSD slot for expanding storage if you want to.

Sim: Like all other Pixel phones, this is also only a single SIM phone, which is a downside as various Android phones have dual SIM slots and so Google must add in Pixels too because it is the need of time.

Software: The Pixel 6a ships with Android 12, and you get three years of software updates. That means you’ll get Android 13 when it arrives later this year.

Battery and charging

The Pixel 6a unquestionably doesn’t appear to be a logical contender of best phone battery duration despite Google’s promise of up to 24 hours of regular usage from the phone, and in an Extreme Battery Saver Mode expanding the timings to to 72 hours by turning off features and pausing many apps.

size: The Pixel 6a battery is actually smaller than it was on the Pixel 5a. Pixel 6a battery has 4,410 mAh while Pixel 5a has 4,680 mAh.

battery life: The Pixel 6a lasts an average of 6 hours and 29 minutes, with full usage which is more than 3 hours behind the Pixel 5a’s result. Moreover, after four hours of taking photos and gaming, a fully charged Pixel 6a had dropped down to 70%. Still, in everyday use, you can go from sunrise to sun-down without charging your telephone.

Charging: Moreover, there is no charger in the box, only a USB-C to C cable, so you’ll have to buy a charging brick with a USB-C output, or use another charger. There is no wireless charging.