Welcome along to our review of the Google Pixel 6a. This Pixel 6a is the latest budget offering from Google starting at around £399. It’s quite different to the previous versions of the Pixel a-series so let’s get into it.
We have a pretty standard unboxing experience with the 6a. Like most phones these days we get the phone, in our case in charcoal, along with USB-C to USB-C cable and a SIM ejector tool. It’s also available in chalk white and sage green.
Hardware-wise the phone has the same design language as its more expensive siblings. We’ve got a more compact device at 6.1” that feels great in the hand. The screen is a 1080p 60hz OLED that’s nice and punchy. It’s not the brightest display but it will be fine for most people. The fingerprint reader is now also inside the screen and does the job just fine.
“Nothing else in the Pixel 6a’s price bracket comes close to what you get here.”
We’ve got six gigabyte of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage and performance overall is outstanding. This is due to Google’s exclusive Tensor chipset which brings you the exact same amount of power that you will get in the Pixel 6 and the 6 Pro. Nothing else in the Pixel 6a’s price bracket comes close to what you get here.
All of the smart features like Live Translate and Live Transcribe are available and they’re all better than before – you can even use them without an internet connection. That’s right, you can actually do all these things on the device.
To summarise, performance will not be an issue and for years as well.
There is one trade-off with this performance of course and that is battery life. This is probably the main difference to previous Pixel a-series phones.
It’s still enough to easily get me through a day and that’s as somebody who is a heavy user. For most people it should not be a problem.
“You will always get great pictures from a Pixel.”
We’re back with dual 12 megapixel sensors on the back – that is one wide and an ultra wide. The wide also has optical image stabilisation.
These are tried and tested sensors, we’ve had them on previous Pixels and with the Tensor now giving extra smarts such as Magic Eraser and Camouflage, you’ve got even more features that you will find even more useful and believe me Magic Eraser you will use that a lot more than you think you will.
As you can see with the shots in our full video review – you will always get great pictures from a Pixel, it’s almost guaranteed every time you take a photo. Nothing in this price range comes close. It’s outstanding and amateur photographers, you cannot go wrong.
The video is another strong point – you can do 4K 60fps on the main sensor on the back and it looks fantastic. Every other phone in this price ange tops out around 4K 30fps so it’s good to know that you will have some of the best looking video around from your ‘budget blower’.
On the software side, Google will provide the Pixel 6a with at least three years of OS updates and five years of security updates. Now this is a phone that will last you years and because of that Tensor SOC you will also get a lot of new features along the way which you do not get with other brands.
Overall there’s there’s so much that this phone can do that makes it perfect for most people. I’ve had two weeks with the phone and I absolutely adore it.
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