welcome everyone I'm Ricky from Tech Talk and today it's my in-depth review
of both the Google pixel 3a and the Google pixel 3a XL so these are
Google's latest devices and they sit alongside the Google pixel 3 and the
Google pixel 3 XL they're more their flagship devices so these are more
budget ends so the Google pixel 3 a comes in at 400 pounds and the Google
pixel 3 8 XL comes in at £469 pounds so relatively cheaper compared
to their flagship devices but still offer quite a lot of power and punch for
their performance and their price so sit back grab a popcorn and enjoy my
in-depth review so first what we're gonna do is actually take a look around
our devices and delve in what I want you to just say is there is only two key
differences between these devices when we go through spec wise one is the
screen and the resolution that you're gonna find on the two different models
and secondly because you've got bigger screen you've got bigger battery there's
their only main two differences between these devices but otherwise all the
specs I read out on the features you're gonna find on both these devices so now
let's take a look and explore around our device on what we're gonna do is start
off at the top so for this at the top you're gonna find a 3.5 milk egg phone
jack yes they've kept the headphone jack well as in 2019 majority of devices and
manufacturers are actually scrapping the headphone jack and just giving you an
adapter which can be a little bit frustrating you might want to listen to
your music but still need to charge your device so with this device you can do
that also you can sync over data as well but this still means you can add in your
own headphones and listen to your music while charging your device instead of
carrying an adapter around which can be frustrating so as I'm pointing all of
these out they are the same on the Google pixel 3a and the XL version you
will have one of two microphones it does have dual microphone which is really
good and a real helpful thing to have coming down the right-hand side there is
one cosmetic difference you're going to notice between these devices so with the
white model here we have a bright orange vibrant power button then you have
White's volume keys on the black model you've got black power button and a
black volume key so they're very hidden and actually in that unibody design
whereas this one really stands out and with my visual impairment that's a
really nice thing to see down into the bottom of our device you're gonna find
one of two dual stereo speakers that means your content is just going to pop
and come alive with sound which is really cool I'm going to show you
trader a little bit later on also you're gonna find another microphone so that's
one of your two dual microphones and you have USB for syncing and charging up
your device down the left-hand side at the top that's all you're gonna find
your SIM tray this takes a nano sized SIM card but please notice there's no
micro SD card storage option both these devices offer a 64 gigabytes of internal
storage so one thing I want to highlight with these is you can give your phones a
little squeeze if you squeeze down at the bottom you're gonna get actually
Google Assistant there to help you answer all of your questions McGann
delve in and talk about Google System a little bit later on in the setting
options you can change and adjust the strength you need to squeeze your
devices when you lay your devices on top of each other you're going to get to see
the actual thickness so the thickness wise is eight point two millimeters so
they both are the same thickness when it comes to weight as the 3/8 is slightly
smaller that's 147 grams and the XL version is a hundred and sixty grams
just because it has a larger screen a slightly larger battery so moving on to
the front of our devices now and actually talking about the displays this
is where like I said there's a little difference so we're going to do them
individually so talking about the 3a first of all the display size is 5.6
inch is an F HD plus with a resolution of twenty-two twenty by ten eighty
that's an LED panel on here your pixel density it's gonna be 441 pixels per
inch which is actually really high and please remember that price point at 400
pounds is aspect ratio is 18 by 5.9 it has dragon trail glass on this device it
also offers an always-on display so if I actually power it off here there we go
you can see that always-on display there and you can use the google imprint on
the back there the fingerprint sensor to actually unlock in lightning-fast then
moving on to the Excel version so the screen size here is six inch so you've
got point four of an inch difference in screen size it's an HD plus with a
resolution of 2160 by 1080 again it's an LED panel and a pixel density for this
model is 402 it's a little bit less compared to the 3a and that is because
the screen size is a little bit more the aspect ratio is 18 by 9 and again built
into the display is a dragon trail glass for protection and again this offers you
an always-on display so these devices offer hundred thousand to
one super contrast ratio so everything is going to look bright vibrant and just
come alive on these displays they also offer thanks to the O LED displays you
can have them true black levels too when you're watching something if it's black
is actually going to be black on the display looking at the front cameras
here not too much to shout home about you do have an 8 megapixel F 2.0 fixed
focus and it offers 84 degrees field of view so you can get quite a few people
in there for them lovely selfies or you can get everything in that you want to
show if you've been traveling or visiting different things if you want to
take video you can and it offers different levels of resolutions you can
have 1080p 720p or 480p all at 30 frames per second so you can record a video
upload that to social media and share it with everyone you want to so turning
around to the back of our devices this is where it gets a little bit
interesting a couple of little things I want to talk about the Google imprints
fingerprint sensor which is rocket fast so really quick you place your finger on
and it opens up and you're ready to go and also you can actually use it to
swipe through your notifications as well so above that you're gonna notice a
textural differences in the actual body as well the unibody design to the bottom
you've got matte look and then at the top you've got this glossy finish which
looks really nice it does love fingerprints also you're gonna find a
single lens camera up there so it's a 12 point - dual pixel sony IMX 3 6 3 sensor
which has autofocus with dual pixel phase detection
it also offers optical and electronic image stabilisation
and F 1.8 aperture was 76 degrees field of view so a little bit less than what
the front camera was but when you come to video recording you can use their
1080p at 30 60 or 120 frames per second 720p at 30 60 or 240 frames per second
- at 240 frames us where you get a slow motion you should see a video where I
actually done that with a water balloon that looks really cool then also you can
record at 4k that's at 30 frames per second so in the camera as well you're
gonna find loads of different modes and loads of different things to choose from
one I do like that has come from the Google pixel three is the nitesite mode
so you can lose the flash and get the shot that you want
tonight's eye if you've rich detail and color even in the dark and I have
experienced that with that it has been a letdown hasn't been a real good
plus so if I'm out with friends or in a dark sort of table or dark area take my
phone out take a picture and yes it will improve that light in there compared to
other devices so also in the camera application you can find portrait mode
with depth editor that's why it's got dual pixels so it can offer that bokeh
effect so you can choose which depth you want to or you're the only subject that
is shown or you can have a little bit of the background showing then also you
have color pop so you can make them colors come alive and absolutely pop and
look amazing to share on Instagram and share on your social media so then when
it comes to taking all these photographs what's one key benefit of having at a
Google pixel device and that is unlimited storage and save your photos
and videos with free unlimited storage in high quality Google photos and that's
a really positive thing that's a real key highlight to me as UN have 64
gigabytes of internal storage you are gonna potentially need to move
them photographs especially if you're taking it in the highest resolution and
4k video that can all be uploaded to Google photographs and save there for
you and then save and storage on your device for other things like your media
that's a real positive thing having a Google pixel device is having that
unlimited storage there with Google photographs in the photos application
there are so many different options that you can play around we have changed and
adjust and it's been really fun to just do all different things if I want to I
our playground you've also got photo booth mode as well if you want to try
and capture that first kiss with someone if you and your friends are just having
a bit of fun so moving on and talking about the CPU and the GPU the engine
room of a device and let's unlock and take a little look so both them like I
said have 64 gigabytes of internal storage both of them are running Android
9pi but obviously they will get the push to Android cube very very quickly
even you can get the beta on these devices now but let's go through the
power and the performance so the CPU is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 processor a
64-bit octa-core processor the cores running at 2 gigahertz and 1.7 gigahertz
not that high but you've got to remember the price points the GPU comes from a
jar new and this is 615 as a Titan M security module which means your privacy
in your data is locked down and safe on your device but these models come with 4
gigabytes of RAM so remember I said there are two key differences between
these devices this is other one the battery on the Google
pixel 3 a you've got 3,000 million power and on the 3/8 XL you've got 3,700
minutes our is power delivery 2.0 so you get 7 hours of usage with just 15
minutes of charge with 18 watts all-day battery so it's really impressive and it
does charge up really quickly so Google states that it lasts up to 30 hours with
pixels adaptive battery which learns your favorite apps that you use all the
time and reduces the power to those you rarely use also digital well being
Google really focused on this and again it's really key to make sure that we
take care of our digital well-being and improve our lives so when it comes to
connectivity of course it's LTE 4G connectivity for these devices and then
3G and 2g depending where you are and what networks you've got your band Wi-Fi
on these devices 2.4 gigahertz or 5 gigahertz 802 11 ABG NAC got Bluetooth
5.0 also you're gonna find NFC which is really helpful so I like using NFC to
transfer things or for paying for things also built into these devices you're
gonna find a Google cast so if you have a Google chromecast at home you can just
cast away to any devices making it simple and easy to come in you're
watching a YouTube trailer and say I wanna watch it on TV I can do it I can
just flick it over it's so simple and so easy to do so coming into some extras
now so first of all is the color the 3a is in just black the 3a Excel is clearly
white and they also have another color called purple-ish which is available as
well I think that's a really good name and find it quite funny the device
itself is made up of a polycarbonate body the dragon trail glass it has the
pixel imprint fingerprint sensor which is fast fluid and works majority of time
I'd say 9 out of 10 times it works and it's much probably me making the fault
on the 10th time just not lining up my finger they've been on the back it is in
an ideal location for you to just put your finger on there tap so a lot and
away you go is so simple and so easy to do I haven't had any issues as of yet
the digital well being we have to be really focused on now I'm really worried
about making sure that we don't use our devices too much and we do take a break
away from them so one thing I really liked about these devices was the option
of a theme so swiping over here you can see this one is in a dark mode and then
the 3a is in a light mode and the dark mode just made
a little bit easier to read a little bit more easier to understand what I'm
looking at so coming home here as well if I bring in my widgets here where you
will notice a difference between the two where one is a dark theme one is a light
theme again that's really helpful and really nice to see that that option is
there for me there's subtle hints and changes throughout the device that
you'll notice when you choose only two different themes so with these devices
coming from Google it does have Google assistant on there and there's multiple
different ways of actually getting to your Google assistants so first of all
you can touch and hold the button that will bring up Google assistant you can
then squeeze your devices that will bring up Google assistant then also in
the search box down here at the bottom if you just tap the little dots here
that brings up Google assistant as well and with Google assistant you know you
can change and adjust so much and you can just really enjoy what you do with
Google assistant you can help it control your life making it easier for you so
say you had lights in your home you can tell it to turn the lights on and off if
you have blinds there's people that have shutter movements for their blinds that
they can raise and lower their blinds there's all different options if you
have a home security camera you could check on that
you can check your battery levels you can change your brightness you can
change accessibility options through Google assistance Google assistance is a
very powerful tool and I'm really pleased to see it on here we are all
really worried about our security and our privacy but both these devices come
built in with a titin em security trick so from partial as to OS Google
custom-made tighten em security chip helps you protect your most sensitive
data and I'm really pleased that's built on here and actually all my data is
going to be kept safe on my device and my privacy is kept key so one thing that
I really like from Google is with a pixel device you are gonna get the
updates as soon as they drop so when it comes to updates we always want to get
the latest update and you always want to be first to get it so with the Google
pixel devices they say you'll get three years of updates or automatic security
and OS updates will make sure that your phone is protected against the latest
threats - three years worth of security and OS updates which means your devices
would have a longevity as well if lasting a long time so coming into my
thoughts and what I've really enjoyed I was actually pleasantly surprised with
both these more so when you look at the cost and look at
the specs and when you actually use it on a day to day basis you wouldn't be
sorry of making a decision to buy over the 3/8 depending on the size that you
want or three axl me personally my mind is always going to the Excel version
because of the larger screen so with that you get a larger battery as well
which is more helpful for me with my social media and ever think I need to do
on a device I need that function there to use all
the time so I don't want to go constantly charging my device or sort of
constantly looking for a charge that that's frustrating haven't done that
I've uses device on multiple different days out when I've used it for testing
of photography day to day usage and battery testing it's been a real good
pleasure for me to use the 3a itself as well it is small is compact but it is a
nice design it all depends what you choose and what's the best option for
you all games have worked I've enjoyed playing games I've enjoyed my social
media I've enjoyed using these devices together at the same time as well as
taking individual ones out and using them separately as well so if you need a
pocket rocket I would say go for the 3a that fits in your pocket you can go away
and use it on a daily basis and won't be upset if you need the bigger screen and
you need the bigger battery you're gonna go for the Google pixel 3a Excel so
sadly both these devices don't offer a micro SD card storage ability but that
really isn't a problem with Google photos and being able to backup your
photos and videos in high resolution and unlimited amounts you're not really that
bothered because that's what's gonna take up most of your storage so you can
use them the storage options of Google Drive and then obviously you can use
third-party cloud storage options as well so mainly on your device is just
going to be your media that you watch and then taking up from apps and that so
64 gigabytes of internal storage is enough if you use the cloud-based
services as well so when it comes into price the pixel 3 8 is at 399 pounds the
pixel 3 8 XL is of 469 pounds it is available on the Google store through
Carphone Warehouse ie mobile phones direct comm Argos and buy Mobile's net
all that links will be in the description so why don't you send out a
massive thank you to Google for sending out both these devices to show on the
channel I haven't spoke about anything you want to know about please leave a
comment down below I'd be more than happy to help if you have any inquiries
as well just drop it below in the scription you're gonna find links to
Google or UK and us and also then third-party retailers as well that I
mentioned for me Ricky thanks always for watching and if you haven't yet
subscribe to the channel and ring the notification bells that dated with all
of my latest videos for me I'll see you very soon
bye for now