I’ve been an iPhone user ever since the iPhone 6 and I currently own the iPhone 12
Pro Max which I absolutely love because of the premium design with the flat stainless
steel sides, the reliable & very snappy performance and of course, the excellent camera quality.
But when it comes to budget phones, this one obviously isn’t it! So in this video, I’m
gonna take my experience with iPhones and apply it to Google’s brand new Pixel 5a,
because this thing is seriously impressive in terms of what you get for the $450 price
tag.
So before I get into all of that, I wanna take a brief look at some of the best budget
phones for both Android and iPhone over the last couple of years.
Over a year ago, we reviewed the iPhone SE and said it was the best budget phone out
there because of the low $399 price, the overall impressive camera quality, the flagship A13
chip which lead to excellent reliability and of course, the fact that Apple would support
it with iOS updates for many many years compared to the short lifespan for Android phones.
And those were some of the reasons why we also said it was better than the Pixel 3a,
Google’s budget phone that was priced at $350 at the time.
But then last year, Google gave us the Pixel 4a, and I’ve gotta admit that we were very
impressed with the value, with a larger display, a better chip, more RAM, more storage and
more, all for the same $350 price, so because of that, we recommended it over the iPhone
SE for those who aren’t deep into the Apple ecosystem.
A couple of months later, Google released the Pixel 4A 5G, which was much more expensive
at $499, but it obviously came with 5G connectivity, alongside other upgrades like a larger OLED
display, a faster chip and much more.
And now, we finally have the Pixel 5a, which is surprisingly $50 cheaper than the previous
model while adding a couple of upgrades like a slightly larger 6.3” display and a much
larger battery, making it an excellent value.
But looking at it from an iPhone perspective, it’s really hard to find a good rival for
it because the iPhone SE is now extremely outdated in terms of the design, and the display
is just too small to compete with the Pixel 5a, so the extra $100 is definitely worth
paying.
The next step up is the iPhone 12 mini for $600, but we don’t recommend it because
the display is pretty small and the battery life is pretty bad.
Or, for the same price, you can just get an iPhone 11, or you could even go for the iPhone
XR for $500, but I still don’t want to count those as competitors to the Pixel 5a because
they’re outdated right now and they don’t match up in terms of modern features like
5G support.
So because of that, we decided to compare it to the iPhone 12, but since that phone
costs $800, it’s definitely not the best comparison to make, but it does give you a
good idea of the amount of value you get with the Pixel 5a.
For example, we did a blind camera comparison with both of these phones, and the iPhone
12 turned out to be the clear winner in the end, but seeing as it’s $350 more expensive,
it’s kind of what you’d expect.
And the most impressive part is that in many of the shots, especially in the daytime, the
iPhone 12 was only slightly better, which makes the $450 Pixel 5a really impressive!
But in terms of other things like the design, the build quality, the authentication, the
chip, the 5G speed and more, the iPhone 12 definitely came out ahead, showing what that
extra cash is gonna get you.
But with all of that said, I want to now take a look at the Pixel 5a and really evaluate
it’s value and how it compares to iPhones in general, at least from my perspective.
First off, you actually get a charger in the box with the Pixel 5a, which you don’t get
with any iPhone out there, even the older iPhone 11 or XR.
Second of all, the 5a has an absolutely massive 4,680mAH battery, which solves the absolute
biggest issue that Pixel phones have had for years, now giving it much better real-world
battery life than the iPhone 12, which is very impressive!
Another major benefit I found with the Pixel was the hole-punch camera cutout on the front,
making the display much easier on the eyes compared to the current generation of iPhones
with that huge notch.
Now of course, we are expecting a smaller notch to come with the iPhone 13 here in less
than a month, but I honestly still prefer the holepunch, so I’m happy that Google
stuck with that for the Pixel 5a.
I’ve also gotta give them props for keeping the headphone jack around for another year,
making life a bit easier for the common man that doesn’t really care for wireless earbuds
just yet, and of course, having the standard USB-C port is a plus compared to the iPhone’s
lightning port that everyone is getting sick and tired of.
Now to my surprise, when we compared the speaker quality between the Pixel 5a and the iPhone
12, the Pixel actually won in terms of overall sound quality, which I definitely didn’t
expect considering the huge price difference!
So the list of benefits that you get with the Pixel is really impressive, like 5G support
built in, 128GB of storage instead of 64 like you get with the iPhone 12, and you get 6GB
of RAM instead of 4.
So for $450, it’s clear that the Pixel 5a is an absolutely killer value and it’s now
the BEST budget phone out there, but unfortunately, there are definitely some downsides with it.
First off, it’s got a metal frame that’s coated with plastic, so it honestly feels
very cheap and definitely not as premium as many other phones out there.
Second, it gets the same Snapdragon 765G from last year, so it’s definitely not a flagship
chip, which you can see in benchmark tests that we ran in our full comparison, showing
that the CPU is over 2.5x faster in terms of multi-core performance.
And when we tested the graphics performance, there was a massive difference, with the iPhone
12 being around 5x faster, which is obviously gonna affect gaming.
For example, if you’re a Fortnite player, the system won’t even let you choose 60FPS
as the frame rate, even if you turn the graphics settings all the way down, so this phone will
obviously be a no go for higher-end games like this or something like Genshin Impact.
But for mid-range games like COD mobile or PUBG, it seemed to be just fine running at
60FPS with the graphics settings turned down a bit, so if you’re just a casual gamer,
you probably shouldn’t worry too much about this lower-end chip because the UI and everything
else still feels pretty snappy.
Of course, one of the issues with the Pixel 5a is that it only has a 60hz display, so
it’s not as nice as some of the other Android options, but if you consider the fact that
every iPhone has a 60hz display, it’s not that big of a deal and I don’t think the
target market for the Pixel which are average consumers, are gonna care that much.
Another downside is the fact that the Pixel 5a has no wireless charging at all, and this
is a deal-breaker for me personally because I’m addicted to the iPhone 12’s new MagSafe
wireless charging which makes it more convenient than ever to charge my iPhone, since I can
use my iPhone naked without a case and still have it mount magnetically on my desk charger
or my car mount.
Going further, I also love Face ID and I definitely think that it’s the future, since it’s
almost completely hands free and it rarely fails like the fingerprint sensor does every
now and then on the Pixel since it’s on the back of the phone.
And finally, the last issue I have with it is that it does tend to overheat if you’re
recording 4K video for a few minutes, basically forcing you to stop recording and let the
phone cool down.
But I guess if you really think about it, you can’t ask for everything to be perfect
on a phone, especially a budget model for only $450, so that’s why I’m calling this
the best budget phone out there in 2021.
And from an iPhone perspective, the SE doesn’t stand a chance at all, and you could go with
a cheaper iPhone XR or 11, but you’re gonna be missing out on things like 5G and an OLED
display!
And of course, the iPhone 12 is a much better phone overall, but you’re gonna be paying
a pretty penny to get it, so with that, I’ve gotta give props to Google for going this
route with the Pixel 5a, and I’m really excited to see what they’re gonna be doing
with the Pixel 6.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed this video, and if you did, go ahead and click that circle
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in the next video!