Google Pixel 4a review

Android 10, soon to be 11

It's interesting that Google released the Pixel 4a this close to the release of Android 11. We're expecting it next month along with the new Pixels, so we'll skim over Android 10's most prominent features.

Upon setup, you'll be offered the chance to transfer data from another Android device, iOS device, or restore from a Google Drive backup. You do have the option to transfer via a USB cable (via the adapter included in box), iCloud download, or Google Drive backup, but this won't be as thorough as the other two methods.

Copy data from an old phone

Keep in mind if you skip the initial setup, you won't be able to transfer from another device unless you reset the Pixel, so skip wisely.

Next, the setup prompted us to set up a screen lock and register a fingerprint. This process is quick, simple, and the fingerprint scanner unlocks the 4a in a pinch, and every time.

Screen lock • Fingerprint setup

In case you haven't opted for Android 10's gesture navigation by now, you're offered a quick tutorial on how to use it. You can always switch the setting if you prefer the classic navigation bar. You can also adjust the back-gesture sensitivity here.

Classic navigation bar • Gestures

The home screens are clean and uncluttered. A weather and date widget are at the top, with a dock, Google Search bar and Google Assistant shortcut at the bottom. The app drawer pops up with a swipe upwards. A swipe to the right opens your Google feed. As before, there are plenty of pre-loaded and downloadable wallpapers for the Pixel launcher.

Home screen • App drawer • Google Feed • Wallpapers

You can change the look of the UI's icon and quick toggle shapes, fonts, and accent color.

Customize UI Style

All Android 10 phones have universal live captioning that is accessed from the volume menu. Be advised that this feature will consume more battery when it's enabled. Since its launch, English is the only supported language.

Dark Theme is easy on the eyes if you primarily use your phone at night. It can also be set to switch between light and dark with your local sunrise and sunset.

Live caption • Dark Theme

Google's Personal Safety app combines an emergency contact page, a page with your health information, a Safety Check feature, and an automatic car-crash detection feature.

Personal Safety app

Always-on display is available in the Display settings. The 4a doesn't have the Motion Sense hardware that the Pixel 4 has that woke up the phone with a wave, but it does have "Tap to check" and "Lift to check" options to make checking the time or notifications easy. Ambient Display will also briefly show notification as they arrive.

Now Playing • Always on settings • Tap to check

With every passing year, Google's software is more solid, polished, and keeps getting deeper integration with Google Assistant. Android 11 is coming next month, so we're expecting a slew of new features to come. The Pixel 4a is expected to be among the first in the queue to receive the update.

The Pixel 4a doesn't stutter, slow down, or take a second to really think about what it needs to do. It handles multitasking like a champ thanks to those 6GB of RAM.

Synthetic benchmarks

The Pixel 4a gets a modest performance update over its predecessor (which used a Snapdragon 670 chipset built on the 10nm process). It runs the Snapdragon 730G chipset built on the 8nm process with a total of eight cores. There are 2 high-power Kryo 470 Gold cores clocked at 2.2GHz, and 6 efficient Kryo 470 Silver cores clocked at 1.8GHz. Powering the graphics is the Adreno 618 GPU.

The Pixel 4a uses UFS 2.1 storage, which is vastly superior to the 3a's eMMC 5.1 storage. In Androbench, we saw significant improvement in storage speeds over the Pixel 3a's. Otherwise, UFS 2.1 is suited well in this class, glad to see Google catching up. 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM makes the Pixel 4a feel like it isn't breaking a sweat when trying to juggle a bunch of apps. Day-to-day usage is great.

Androbench results: Pixel 4a • Pixel 3a XL

Jumping into benchmarks, the CPU-intensive GeekBench test shows the Pixel 4a has improved its single-core performance over last year, gaining roughly a 50% improvement. Overall, multi-core results show a marginal improvement. The Pixel 4a won't be getting any impressive performance scores from here on out. This chipset was built for efficiency.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  3332
• Apple iPhone SE (2020)
  3237
• OnePlus 7T
  2858
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  2721
• Google Pixel 4
  2542
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  2141
• OnePlus Nord
  1953
• OnePlus Nord (Fnatic)
  1945
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  1927
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  1898
• vivo X50
  1827
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  1781
• Motorola One Fusion+
  1705
• Realme 6 Pro
  1666
• Google Pixel 4a
  1626
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  1413
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  1307
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  1175

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone SE (2020)
  1334
• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  916
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  789
• OnePlus 7T
  776
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  720
• Google Pixel 4
  623
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  616
• OnePlus Nord
  610
• OnePlus Nord (Fnatic)
  605
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  589
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  569
• Realme 6 Pro
  565
• Google Pixel 4a
  553
• vivo X50
  552
• Motorola One Fusion+
  542
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  352
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  315
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  309

The compound results from AnTuTu 8 show the gap in performance above the Snapdragon 670 and MediaTek Helio P65. A smaller gap separates the SD730 from the SD765G. A difference in performance may be noticeable between the 670 and the 730 but we're talking small fractions of seconds.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  538221
• OnePlus 7T
  485585
• Apple iPhone SE (2020)
  462253
• Google Pixel 4
  395351
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  389694
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  318117
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  315641
• OnePlus Nord
  312794
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  299926
• Realme 6 Pro
  268785
• Google Pixel 4a
  268714
• Motorola One Fusion+
  267980
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  261359
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  196545
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  176612
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  170044

How about GPU performance? The Adreno 618 pumped out 30fps in the least-intensive GFX 3.1 Manhattan test. 16fps was achieved in the most-intensive GFX test. Not stellar, but that shouldn't stop you from playing any game on the 4a. All games have software optimizations for general smoothness with some of the crust cut off.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  87
• OnePlus 7T
  79
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  68
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  67
• Google Pixel 4
  62
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  56
• Huawei P30
  54
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  38
• OnePlus Nord
  38
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  38
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  33
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  31
• Google Pixel 4a
  30
• Realme 6 Pro
  30
• vivo X50
  27
• Motorola One Fusion+
  27
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  20
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  13
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  13

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  59
• OnePlus 7T
  59
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  57
• Google Pixel 4
  55
• Huawei P30
  48
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  48
• OnePlus Nord
  34
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  34
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  33
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  32
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  29
• Google Pixel 4a
  27
• Realme 6 Pro
  27
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  26
• Motorola One Fusion+
  25
• vivo X50
  24
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  19
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  12
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  10

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  51
• OnePlus 7T
  48
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  42
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  41
• Google Pixel 4
  39
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  33
• Huawei P30
  29
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  21
• OnePlus Nord
  21
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  21
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  19
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  18
• Realme 6 Pro
  18
• Google Pixel 4a
  17
• vivo X50
  16
• Motorola One Fusion+
  16
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  8.1
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  7.1

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 7T
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  40
• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  40
• Google Pixel 4
  31
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  28
• Huawei P30
  26
• OnePlus Nord
  19
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  19
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  19
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  17
• Google Pixel 4a
  16
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  16
• Realme 6 Pro
  16
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  15
• vivo X50
  14
• Motorola One Fusion+
  14
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  6.9
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  5.6

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  7223
• OnePlus 7T
  6296
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  5462
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  4385
• Google Pixel 4
  4294
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  4279
• Huawei P30
  4055
• Apple iPhone SE (2020)
  4015
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  3294
• OnePlus Nord
  3285
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  3187
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  3031
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  2512
• Realme 6 Pro
  2506
• Google Pixel 4a
  2487
• vivo X50
  2263
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  1630
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  1149
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  1125

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
  6660
• OnePlus 7T
  5540
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  4833
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  4264
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  4258
• Huawei P30
  4163
• Google Pixel 4
  3760
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  3080
• OnePlus Nord
  3067
• OnePlus Nord (60Hz)
  2960
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  2821
• Oppo Reno4 Pro
  2377
• Realme 6 Pro
  2334
• Google Pixel 4a
  2275
• vivo X50
  2082
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  1544
• Samsung Galaxy A41
  1161
• Sony Xperia 10 II
  1121

To give you the skinny: the Pixel 4a will play pretty much any game you want it to. Casual gaming is fine for any smartphone of any price range these days, but if you're looking for a powerhouse with optimized cooling and game-specific settings then the Pixel 4a won't be what you're looking for.

Performance gains over the Pixel 3a aren't too significant, but they are noticeable in the benchmark results. In daily usage, the Pixel 4a performs wonderfully with minimal stutter and without hesitation even after loading many apps and content. The switch to UFS storage should speed up app loading/installation times as well. Even though it isn't the speediest device in its class, the Pixel 4a will deliver reliable performance.