Review on 📱 New Unlocked Google Pixel 4a Smartphone - 128 GB Storage - 24 Hour Battery Life - Just Black by Bud Crabtree

If you're looking to buy an Android smartphone in the US with minimal firmware, a headphone jack, a fingerprint sensor, a great camera, and an unlockable bootloader, there's only one phone out there that fits those criteria. the Pixel 4a. I personally need these features on my smartphone, but manufacturers have been removing them from their flagship smartphones for a while. I used to only buy flagship smartphones and was always happy to upgrade. I bought my first Google Pixel XL on launch day in 2016 and it was the best phone I have ever used. I liked my Pixel XL so much that I tried replacing it twice but ended up selling newer phones because I felt they were inferior. My Pixel XL stopped receiving software updates from Google a while ago, but I was able to extend its lifespan by booting LineageOS on it. Subsequent Pixel flagships have removed some features I need from my phone or added features I don't need. The Pixel 2 series ditched the headphone jack, the Pixel 3XL had an ugly notch mimicking the iPhone X, and the Pixel 4 series (not A) lacks fingerprint sensors. It doesn't really make sense that the Pixel 4a would offer more features than the Pixel 4, but that's the reality we live in. I want to quickly run through what I like about this device before I start criticizing. I like that it has a headphone jack. I don't have a problem with wireless technology, but Bluetooth in 2020 still delivers worse sound quality than a wired connection. When I'm in the car or listening to headphones, I need a wired connection for the best possible quality. Wired headphones are also battery-free, which means they're a lot more eco-friendly and don't require battery replacement. I also like that this phone has an unlockable bootloader. If you want this phone to last through the 3-year software support window offered by Google, you can download an aftermarket ROM like LineageOS onto your device. This is also a plus if you want to root your device. Many smartphone manufacturers (Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, Motorola and many more) either don't allow this or limit the functionality to certain models, which I don't find acceptable. Can you imagine if you bought a Windows 7 computer but weren't allowed to download Windows 8 or Ubuntu on it? You don't have to imagine that, that's essentially what most smartphone manufacturers do. Don't google and I appreciate it. While an unlockable bootloader is a good thing, I would argue that most people would like to use their new phones with finished software for as long as possible. The Google version of Android is the best you can get for being clean and malware free. There are no duplicate apps (except YouTube/YouTube Music) and almost everything can be uninstalled or disabled instantly. I had the T-Mobile app, which I found strange since it's an unlocked phone, but I was able to uninstall it. I like to see that. Other brands like Samsung have gone so far as to create duplicate app stores, calendars, email apps, assistants and internet browsers that cannot be removed from their phones. Others, like OnePlus, are now installing Facebook services on phones instantly. I'm glad Google hasn't adopted this practice and still leaves app choice to the phone's owner. As with all Pixel phones, the camera is fantastic. Excellent low light performance and amazing detail, contrast and colour. No other smartphone on the market can match the Pixel phones when it comes to cameras. Both the front and rear cameras take great pictures, but I hate the front camera for reasons I'll cover later. So what are the trade-offs? It's cheap, rough plastic that leaves fingerprints. To be honest, I hate all plastic. Plastic is what single-use products are made of. I don't want a plastic cell phone. Make it out of aluminum, steel, glass, whatever. But plastic is not acceptable on any 2020 smartphone, even a budget one. As soon as I took this phone out of the box, I immediately hated the feel of it in my hand. Feels like a childish poison reminiscent of the iPhone 5c. You might think that's a little too stiff for a $350 phone, but the iPhone SE 2 is made of aluminum and costs the same. The aesthetic design of the phone is not bad, if it were aluminum it would be a beautiful phone, that is if it weren't for what I'm going to cover next. The screen is terrible. It's just the 1080p equivalent (my 2016 Pixel XL is 1440p, it's not wide enough for my liking, and instead of having a bezel on top of the phone like the Pixel 4, Google opted for a punch-style front camera design Hole style instead popularized by the Samsung company. Whenever you look at this phone, you see this camera. It sticks out like a sore thumb, a huge black spot on the screen. It's even worse when you watch videos in portrait mode. The display is darkened to mimic an artificial edge .When the video you are watching is dark, what you see is the camera instead of the beautiful, perfectly black scenes that can be achieved with an OLED screen.This is also distracting when you view a wide landscape photo or video Huge black dot on the side like a fly has landed on the screen I spend a lot of time watching videos on my phone, u and that is unacceptable. In Dark Rooms The camera bezel is also highly reflective and really shines in your eyes, adding an extra distraction. The only thing I can praise is that at least the hole is on the side and not in the middle. It's still terrible. I am not satisfied with the fingerprint sensor. It's plastic so feels awful but doesn't seem to read fingerprints well. To its credit, it reads quickly, much faster than my Pixel XL, but I have to read my printout three or four times to unlock it. I prefer under-screen optical fingerprint sensors like those found on OnePlus series phones, but can accept a rear fingerprint sensor if it's accurate and fast. The sensor at 4a doesn't seem to be accurate. The battery is small at 3140 mAh. There are budget Indian and Chinese phones that pack 4000mAh batteries in similarly sized smartphones, Google lags behind the competition. They advertised this as "adaptive" battery optimization, and while it seems to be working pretty well, how well will it work after a few big upgrades and a few hundred charge cycles? One of my last jobs was with batteries, and one of the things I learned is that with Li-ion cells, higher capacity + lower depth of discharge = longer lifespan. Even if this phone can last from dawn to dusk with 10-15% capacity of a 3140mah battery, you are left with a battery that runs less than if you had a 4000mah battery ending the day at 30% , before you leave. back to the store. Lithium-ion cells also degrade during cycling. After 100 cycles, a lithium battery can lose up to 5-10% of its capacity. If you start with a larger cell, this degradation becomes less of a problem as you age. Needless to say, Google misrepresented the battery size. I think it's the best new Android phone out there, but at the same time I think it reflects badly on the Android smartphone market. You may think my criticism is harsh given the phone's low price, but I didn't buy this phone because it was cheap. I bought it because it has the features I need. If I could buy a flagship smartphone with a headphone jack, fingerprint sensor, metal/glass body, great camera, large battery, no punch or additional software, I would buy it. I can't buy a new flagship smartphone like that, so that's next. I'm not even asking about luxury features like wireless charging. Basically, I don't feel guilty about criticizing device failures because my desires as a consumer are not met by the companies I buy from. I would recommend this device if you need its features.