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Google Pixel 4a Android Smartphone -- DEMO & REVIEW
5K views
Jun 22, 2024
Curious about the features and capabilities of the Google Pixel 4a android smartphone? Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ puts one through its paces, sharing sample photos, videos, time lapse, even night sight imagery, while talking about what he likes and doesn't so much like about this new budget phone from Google. Check out the Pixel 4a on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3gfz9v1 and check out the Catalyst case: https://www.CatalystLifestyle.com/ #teampixel
View Video Transcript
0:00
It's the new entry level pixel phone from Google
0:02
Let's check it out. Dave Taylor here
0:11
Oh, hang on. Okay. So Dave Taylor here, and I'm checking out this. This is the Google Pixel 4A
0:17
Now, I've had it for a couple of weeks, and it's pretty sweet. Now, what Google's really trying to do with its pixel line is it's trying to offer full functionality, really powerful phones
0:28
add a little bit more affordable pricing because honestly, not everyone wants to drop $1,000 or $1,100 on their smartphone
0:36
It's a lot of money. So let me give you a quick rundown of its features
0:40
It's a 5.8 inch OLED screen running at 2340 by 1080, and it's 443 pixels per inch
0:49
and the camera, you can sort of see it here. It's just a little hole punch camera
0:53
so it's not the notch and it's not invisible, but honestly, you don't really even notice it
0:59
That's obviously for the forward-facing selfies. For all the rear photos, you have a little box
1:05
with a bunch of different camera spaces, but it turns out that there's just the one camera there
1:11
and then there's the one illumination or flash source. But that works fine
1:15
I'm going to give you a lot of demos of different video and photos. We'll get there. Now, it also features a 3,140-m-amp-hour battery
1:22
which is pretty solid. It gives you, like, honestly, I've found every other day I need to charge it
1:28
It does not have wireless charging. That's one of the few things I'm surprised by with this
1:32
because Google seems to really like it's wireless charging, but not this one
1:37
You're going to have to use the USBC plug at the bottom. The good news is it is USBC, and the box does include a charger
1:45
and a USBC cable and a USBC to USB3 adapter. You can check all that out in my unboxing if you want to see what's in the box
1:54
Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G, I found it was quite snappy and it launches apps and everything
2:02
It just moves pretty darn fast. There not much you have to wait for on this phone which is nice 6 gig of RAM 128 gig of storage and then let talk about the cameras So the rear camera is a 12 megapixel F1 with a 77 view
2:21
It can record 4K at 30 frames per second, or at 1080p resolution, it can do 30, 60, or 120 frames a second
2:30
or at 720p, it can do 240 frames a second. And the front camera, that little hole punch, is an 8 megapixel
2:39
It's an 8 megapixel front camera at F2.0 with an 84 degree view
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That's a tricky one. And it also has, and let the angels sing, it has an actual headphone jack
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So nice to have that 3.5 millimeter jack. But enough talking about specs, let me give you some examples
3:00
So first off, before we go any further, I want to tell you that I have the really nice
3:04
Catalyst impact protection case on this because honestly it is a nice slim phone if I take it
3:11
out of the case you can see it is sleek assuming it comes out of the case here we go
3:18
it is sleek and slim and honestly doesn't give you a lot of protection so for
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3999 Catalyst sent me this really nice case of theirs and you can check it out at
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catalyst lifestyle.com but that That's a side track. Let's get back to the phone itself
3:37
So on the phone, I'm going to bring it back up. And let's see what's happening here
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Oh, there we go. So I have photos and I have video
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So let's start with the photos. So here's an example of just a regular wide angle photo
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And you can see it's crisp and clean and nice colors and good detail
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But when I zoomed in all the way on the phone, you can see it's a whole lot lower
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resolution and it's not a very attractive photo quite honestly but on the bright
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side night site is actually pretty cool so here's a photo I took from my front
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porch last night without night site and you know totally expectedly there's
4:18
really no information in the photo at all but then I turn on night site and it takes a couple of seconds to pull in as much information as it can and then it synthesizes it all and it makes this photo and that pretty remarkable it was
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night time with very poor illumination and you can see that's a pretty credible photo there now
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obviously if you're taking a picture of action it's just going to be a blur because you're literally
4:42
exposing for a couple of seconds but still really neat I'm really fascinated by how well the night modes
4:49
are working on modern smartphones. But let's look at video, because video is really where this shines
4:55
So, first off, I got a nice long shot of a river, and I'm going to zoom in from the widest angle
5:02
to a pretty typical, like I think this is a 2.3x. And then finally, we're going to zoom in all the way
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And again, just like the photo, you can see on full zoom, it's a little rough around the edges
5:15
It's not really that pretty. So while we were there, I thought, well, let's try
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I slow-mo. So slow-mo is actually really fun. Check this out. And then finally, time-lapse
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It's not really what you want to do on moving water, but certainly like traffic from an overpass
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or something. It'd be really fun or someone building something. Time lapse works really good
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And all of that, just from this little budget Google Pixel 4A, I am pretty impressed
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This is a really nice alternative for someone who wants to be deep
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in the Google infrastructure and ecosystem and wants to be running the very latest
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version of Android all the time because the pixel line is where Google tests
5:59
different Android features and stuff so you'll often be able to get things that
6:04
no other Android phone can use I've been using pixel phones for years and they're
6:09
always on the cutting edge in that regard which is pretty slick so they also
6:13
this phone will support 5G but this particular model I have in my hand does not
6:19
The 5G version of the pixel 4A is supposed to be coming out closer to the end of the year
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So if that's something that's really important to you, and it certainly is a smart future hedge against future technology
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then you want to be careful to make sure that the pixel 4A you get does include that 5G support So really that everything I got There so much to like on this phone
6:43
You know, then the back has a nice centered fingerprint scanner so you can unlock it with biometrics
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It's not doing face scan, which arguably is probably a good move anyway. The screen is maybe a little lower res than those $1,000 smartphones
6:59
But honestly, if you want to use this for streaming video or for
7:02
honestly just spending hours watching TikTok or something, this is absolutely perfectly good for that
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So really a lot to like. I really think Google has gotten the whole idea of these pixel phones really down
7:15
And soon we'll get the Google Pixel 5 and we'll get to look and see what that one includes
7:20
But for this, this is a solid budget option for someone that wants a great Android phone
7:26
Yeah, there are some limitations with the camera and everything. But that's sort of to be expected at this price point
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And honestly, that's expected with the technology. You can't just magically have infinite zoom without some artifacting
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It's just the reality of it. So, all this left to talk about is the price
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and I think you'll be surprised at how inexpensive it is. But before we get to the price, I'm going to ask if you can subscribe to my channel
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Really appreciate when you do that. It's just that little red button. Tap it or click it
7:53
Great. Thank you. Now, this is the Google Pixel 4A, and it is $349
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at amazon.com and pretty darn sure that's the unlocked version so you can put in whatever
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sim you want and use it on whatever network you want it is a solid option and if you're looking for
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a sub four hundred dollar android phone that's going to keep you happy for a couple of years
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or your kids or grandma or the spouse then this might be really one to be on your short list
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so i say check it out and with that i will get you in my next video