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Google Pixel *a/*a XL

Aneres11

Aneres11

macrumors 601
Oct 2, 2011
4,353
9,551
Fille84 said:
Well Im looking forward to hear it myself. The speakers on Pixel 3 were extremely bad in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Ok cool.

In other news, battery of the 3a is miles better than the regular 3. With the reg Pixel, I leave it in my locker all day and come to it at the end of the day and the battery is on around 59% everyday. That's just idle drain.

The 3a today (same scenario) had 75% battery left. So drain is not as bad on this.

I'm tempted to do a factory reset on the regular 3 and see if it helps it.
 
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Cnasty

Cnasty

macrumors 68040
Jul 2, 2008
3,336
2,106
Samsung displays confirmed in the 3A IFixit teardown and also a slightly weaker haptic motor as mentioned but not that much of a difference. Great to see on the displays vs LG!
 
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Aneres11

Aneres11

macrumors 601
Oct 2, 2011
4,353
9,551
Decided tonight that I'm going to return my 3a.

When swapping between both the 3 and the 3a, the feel and materials of the 3 are just that much more premium.
It's slightly heavier, but I think it feels heavier due to weight distribution as it feels just right to me, whereas the 3a being not only lighter, but bigger too made it feel even cheaper. Couple that with its polaycarbonate body and it just felt too much of a downgrade.

Speakers were not as good on the 3a either, I felt like the front facing just sounded much better.

Performance wasn't an issue at all. I know it's difficult to tell after one day but everything seemed extremely fast and fluid on the 3a.

I think had I have not bought my Pixel 3 just before this launched then I could have bought the 3a and been really pleased with it. But as it stands I prefer the smaller size of my regular 3 along with all of the additional extras like wireless charging, better materials, use of the Pixel Stand which I'll be picking up, and nicer screen to bezel ratio.

I will miss the better battery though! Although I have wiped my 3 from scratch tonight (twice, actually :rolleyes:) the first time to install the Q beta (which was buggy as hell) and second time to opt out and get a fresh install of Pie!
So I'm hoping that might sort it.

Absolutely zero performance issues so far from it though which is good, as out of the box from new it's been a bit juddery.

Definitely the right decision for me though. The 3a is an amazing option of a top range, mid tier handset. But when I've had fillet steak I don't want rump. :D lol.
 
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AustinIllini

AustinIllini

macrumors G5
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
12,699
10,567
Austin, TX
Thanks for the review. I think you're right on the money. Honestly, the 3a strikes me as a phone for someone who reluctantly needs to replace their old iPhone and aren't thrilled about the giant screen on the XR or the high price of the XS.

If she wasn't afraid of Google, I would at least suggest my mother-in-law try the Pixel 3a.
 
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slitherjef

slitherjef

macrumors 65816
Feb 8, 2012
1,402
1,189
Earth
Where was this phone when I soft bricked my XL 2 :confused::(

I've dabbled a bit with picking this up but why? It's new? It's purplish? I could get 2 for the price of one 3 XL.

Having two flagship Pixel devices it's not really logical to grab this lite version :( maybe because it has a headphone jack? Still will need root because low headphone volume I've noticed on every Pixel and Nexus phone I've had. I've needed to change the mixer paths which no longer seems to exist.

Still haven't completely ruled it out however, just getting harder and harder to justify yet another phone. I know, it's crazy to say that :eek::p
 
jamezr

jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
16,073
19,070
US
Google's latest advertisement

3d65caad03035e2008341c4d494240f8.jpg
 
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T

trfc54

macrumors regular
Jan 12, 2019
106
59
Just picked up the 3a today, I used tmobiles $400 trade in get it for free lol. The XL was a little bit too big to hold with one hand, so I opted for the smaller variant.

This thing is pretty dang smooth. I have a 7 plus to compare it too and it feels just as good holding it, and I must say I think android has surpassed iOS now. Being able to customize my UI completely and add additional gestures and controls through the nova launcher are things you overlook being in iOS world for so long, but they are very refreshing.

The fingerprint scanner is just as quick (I prefer this to FaceID personally), and the camera is truly great. Display is vivid and clear. Overall I'm a happy camper, apple is really dropping the ball with their latest overpriced offerings.
 
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Tsepz

Tsepz

macrumors 601
Jan 24, 2013
4,888
4,698
Johannesburg, South Africa
ramram55 said:
Another classic case of doing sneaky trick to make your device slow down and upgrade, remember Nexus 6P boot loop some are blaming Huawei the hardware maker, not Google, what a joke.
Click to expand...
The 6P rocked the troubled Snapdragon 810 SoC if I remember correctly? Both that and 808 were troublesome, I know the LG phones with Snapdragon 808 had major bootloop issues to. Not surprised at faulty devices using the 808 and 810.

Both Huawei and Samsung did not use either chip (808 or 810) on their own devices, that was the year Samsung made all its devices with Exynos even in North America and China.
 
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A

Awesomesince86

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2016
2,482
3,302
Bought one for my wife you just shattered the screen on her S8. For the average, non-tech non-power user, this phone is a no brainer. I had reservations mostly due to thinking it would be priced similar to the XR, but at this price point the Pixel is easily the best mid range phone for the average consumer.

My only reservation is how the SOC will hold up after a year or so, especially with 4GB of RAM. I noticed lag on my regular Pixel 3XL after only a couple of months.
 
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kwk1

kwk1

macrumors 6502
Aug 30, 2008
257
26
Canada
Awesomesince86 said:
Bought one for my wife you just shattered the screen on her S8. For the average, non-tech non-power user, this phone is a no brainer. I had reservations mostly due to thinking it would be priced similar to the XR, but at this price point the Pixel is easily the best mid range phone for the average consumer.

My only reservation is how the SOC will hold up after a year or so, especially with 4GB of RAM. I noticed lag on my regular Pixel 3XL after only a couple of months.
Click to expand...
Hi, not sure what you do on your phone but is the lag unbearable?
Is it always lagging or just an annoyance sometimes?
Thanks!
 
burgman

burgman

macrumors 68030
Sep 24, 2013
2,798
2,385
Aneres11 said:
Ok cool.

In other news, battery of the 3a is miles better than the regular 3. With the reg Pixel, I leave it in my locker all day and come to it at the end of the day and the battery is on around 59% everyday. That's just idle drain.

The 3a today (same scenario) had 75% battery left. So drain is not as bad on this.

I'm tempted to do a factory reset on the regular 3 and see if it helps it.
Click to expand...
So you put your phone in a steel faraday cage and wonder why the battery drops? Try airplane mode and see how the battery does.
[doublepost=1557794644][/doublepost]
kwk1 said:
Hi, not sure what you do on your phone but is the lag unbearable?
Is it always lagging or just an annoyance sometimes?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Lag after owning an Android phone seems to be a feature over the years, various causes from software or hardware.
 
A

Awesomesince86

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2016
2,482
3,302
kwk1 said:
Hi, not sure what you do on your phone but is the lag unbearable?
Is it always lagging or just an annoyance sometimes?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

The lag wasn't unbearable, but it was inexcusable from a 2019 flagship phone. Especially when it was because the manufacturer decided to cut corners on RAM. I sold the phone after 4 months or so and switched to the S10 Plus. No hints of lag on this after several months. The best phone I've ever owned by miles.

burgman said:
So you put your phone in a steel faraday cage and wonder why the battery drops? Try airplane mode and see how the battery does.
[doublepost=1557794644][/doublepost]
Lag after owning an Android phone seems to be a feature over the years, various causes from software or hardware.
Click to expand...


This is the kind of nonsense you hear from anti Android people. Completely untrue.
 
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kwk1

kwk1

macrumors 6502
Aug 30, 2008
257
26
Canada
Awesomesince86 said:
The lag wasn't unbearable, but it was inexcusable from a 2019 flagship phone. Especially when it was because the manufacturer decided to cut corners on RAM. I sold the phone after 4 months or so and switched to the S10 Plus. No hints of lag on this after several months. The best phone I've ever owned by miles.
Click to expand...
Thanks for replying!
Maybe I'll wait for the Pixel 4.
 
Aneres11

Aneres11

macrumors 601
Oct 2, 2011
4,353
9,551
burgman said:
So you put your phone in a steel faraday cage and wonder why the battery drops? Try airplane mode and see how the battery does.


[doublepost=1557794644][/doublepost]
Lag after owning an Android phone seems to be a feature over the years, various causes from software or hardware.
Click to expand...


I'll let your condescending comment off seeing as you clearly don't frequent these boards much so won't have read other posts about this. But I'll repeat myself.
Every other phone I've owned recently (and there's been a few) has had absolutely no battery drain or issue being in the locker. The signal coverage at work is full 4g and it does not drop in the locker. When I return to the phone all notifications are present and correct.

Even out of the locker, the Pixel 3 battery drain is a thing. Just Google it.
 
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burgman

burgman

macrumors 68030
Sep 24, 2013
2,798
2,385
Awesomesince86 said:
The lag wasn't unbearable, but it was inexcusable from a 2019 flagship phone. Especially when it was because the manufacturer decided to cut corners on RAM. I sold the phone after 4 months or so and switched to the S10 Plus. No hints of lag on this after several months. The best phone I've ever owned by miles.




This is the kind of nonsense you hear from anti Android people. Completely untrue.
Click to expand...
Maybe you are new to Android, before 4.3 without trim encoded lag was a real thing even on flagships. Today many low end phones and some models that the trim encoding doesn't work correctly suffer from lag.
[doublepost=1557869967][/doublepost]
Aneres11 said:
I'll let your condescending comment off seeing as you clearly don't frequent these boards much so won't have read other posts about this. But I'll repeat myself.
Every other phone I've owned recently (and there's been a few) has had absolutely no battery drain or issue being in the locker. The signal coverage at work is full 4g and it does not drop in the locker. When I return to the phone all notifications are present and correct.

Even out of the locker, the Pixel 3 battery drain is a thing. Just Google it.
Click to expand...
Must be a magic steel locker then. Or you own magic phones that process signal dropouts differently. How do you fit insde your locker to read signal strength by the way, I'm impressed.
 
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