Never Meant For Flagship

Google Pixel 4a

- Hoots the owl

AT A GLANCE

PROCESSOR Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G

DISPLAY 5.81-inch, 2,340 x 1,080-pixel (443 ppi), OLED

MEMORY/STORAGE 6GB/128GB

BATTERY 3,140mAh

PRICE $499

It took a long while, but the Pixel 4a is finally here. Like the Pixel 3a, the Pixel 4a attempts to offer a premium Android experience at a far more affordable price, cutting out expensive hardware bits and packing everything into a smaller phone.

Compared to the Pixel 3a, the Pixel 4a offers upgraded storage and RAM, faster performance, and an even more attractive price tag. It is available in just one colour – Just Black – but in typical Google fashion, there’s a pop of colour in the form of a contrasting mint-coloured power button.

The design is relatively modern, and this is the first phone from Google to ditch the notch and top bezel entirely in favour of a discreet pinhole camera in the top left corner. This means there’s none of that fancy Motion Sense and Face Unlock tech you see in the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. In their place, the Pixel Imprint fingerprint sensor makes a return, and I may actually prefer it as a way to unlock the phone. It takes seconds to set up and allows for quick and reliable access to the phone. Swiping down on it also lets you pull down the notification shade, which I really missed being able to do on the Pixel 4.