Is there a noticeable difference between the two (performance wise)?
I just got a 3a, but I'm still within the return window.
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Google Pixel 3a / 3a XL announced (available today $399 / $479 ; headphone jack)
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Is there a noticeable difference between the two (performance wise)?
I just got a 3a, but I'm still within the return window.
It has better performance specs... but the Pixel 3a has better battery life and lighter software. That's about it.
Question:
What happens if I return the phones after I get my $259 trade-in refund? Will I get the full $479?
What happens if I return the phones after I get my $259 trade-in refund? Will I get the full $479?
Anecdotally, I'm getting 5-6 hours of SoT from my Pixel 3a. It definitely doesn't go two days between charges like my Moto X4 did.
You'll get store credit, I believe. (A restocking fee may also apply.) There's only a 15 day return period as well, so you might not get your refund first anyhow.
You'll get store credit, I believe. (A restocking fee may also apply.) There's only a 15 day return period as well, so you might not get your refund first anyhow.
Sometimes USPS forget to scan it at departure. When they scan it at destination it will show up.
Maybe that's the case? I dunno though. I see that first class is supposed to be 1-3 days? I think that's what it said on the box
I see, thanks. Did you get your $100 gift card? It' didn't come in the box, not for me.
Not yet. You will receive an email when the $100 GC is ready. You will see the balance in your account. It could take a maximum of 6 weeks.
Legit. Coming from a 6t there is no appreciable speed difference imo.
Also the screen is brighter outside than a 6t and I don't notice any color shift
Looks like I may finally get my hands on
one of these. Long story short, ordered a pixel 3a 3 weeks ago. FedEx lost it and after a back and forth, got confirmation google is sending a replacement.
one of these. Long story short, ordered a pixel 3a 3 weeks ago. FedEx lost it and after a back and forth, got confirmation google is sending a replacement.
recieve mine.
Got questions :
how to have the screen wake up and be ready to get unlocked without pressing the side button ?
anyway to get rid of the lower bar and summon it when needed by sliding up from the bottom ?
no night theme yet ?
Got questions :
how to have the screen wake up and be ready to get unlocked without pressing the side button ?
anyway to get rid of the lower bar and summon it when needed by sliding up from the bottom ?
no night theme yet ?
You can double tap the screen to wake it. You may have to turn this on in the settings.
The navigation bar auto-hide is possible only with the classics navigation bar (Back, Home, Recent buttons). But those buttons were removed from Android P on the Pixels. But they are returning in Android Q to the Pixels (in August).
Night time is also coming in Android Q.
There's also raise to wake or just putting your finger on the sensor.
I'm liking it. Coming from an s9 and a Razer phone. Don't really notice the speed unless next to each other.
Having had a phone with a front and much slower finger print reader for a few years, I find I'm sometimes unlocking my 3a by accident when putting it in my pocket - apparently by the way I'm handling it and I suppose brushing the sensor with my finger. I'm going to have to work on that, lol!!
The 3a is a downgrade in just about every way from my Moto X4 except for the camera (and performance, but that's close in day to day usage). Lackluster battery life, awful screen, back fingerprint reader, lack of hand-waving gesture, no water resistance, etc. That I'm using a TPU case doesn't help (have a slim case on order).
The thing is that having a decent camera is really important to me (for taking candid/active photos of my kid), so I'm willing to put up with the downsides.
OP
OP
Aren't the soc and display on the 3a better? Surprised you'd have worse performance.
That seems super odd with a newer SoC and more ram on stock Android, could it be the X4 has some more lengthy UI transitions that make it feel smoother?
My wife's has been working out great so far, been very impressed with how snappy it is, and the random doggo pictures she sends me are great looking, gotta borrow it and go take some pictures of the trees outside blooming at the moment.
OP
OP
I think it might have less ram (x4 is 6gb iirc) so not sure. And I think lengthier animations usually have the opposite effect lol.
Might try one out in person today and see what the screen is like. Still deciding 🤔
Everything I see shows the X4 at 3 gb, unless there is a higher spec variant I am not seeing?
I recall seeing some articles awhile back regarding perceived speed being alot higher with fancier smooth transition animations even when it's actually a longer time, not sure if the X4 might be doing something similar that makes it feel smoother when you don't compare head to head or time it.
Sorry that I wasn't clear. The 3a generally delivers slightly better performance (maybe not for storage-intensive tasks) and has a vastly better camera than the X4. Those are the two positives.
The 3a's OLED is one of the worst on the market. The X4's LCD is reasonably good (minimal color shift, much sharper, easier to see in sunlight). I'd take a good LCD over a poor OLED any day of the week.
I bought my mother the X4 last year. I greatly prefer the 3a's screen to that. I can't really attest to it's battery life, since she doesn't live with me, but I've had great battery life on my 3a(between 5hrs-7hrs of SoT), especially coming from the Pixel 2 XL. As for the fingerprint reader placement, that's subjective. The only thing I miss from my P2XL is water resistance.
I tried pixel 3a, it's a good device but I was a bit surprised how slow it is. It's not unusable or anything like that but it's very obviously slower than a 8xx phone in any task, I was expecting a lot better, I assumed 8xx SoCs must be way overkill but apparently they are not. I tried hearthstone and pubg. You can make pubg run ok but hearthstone was running so poor and there is nothing you can do about it.
The screen is also not that great. It's like bottom of the barrel OLED.
I think if you're looking for a device at this price range you should consider spending like a ~100 more get something like S10e which has come down in price a lot and is a real flagship tier phone and way nicer device, and comes with a good camera with wide angle, or OnePlus 6T or the new ZenPhone 6 also looks great and are just more appealing. I think it's just not cheap enough. I'm expecting it to get big price cut later in the year, for $300 it's great deal.
The camera is good taking photos but video is really not very good. It's so soft compared with S10e. Overall I think for like $570ish S10e sells for you get a whole lot of phone and it's easily worth it over Pixel 3a. Underrated device.
The screen is also not that great. It's like bottom of the barrel OLED.
I think if you're looking for a device at this price range you should consider spending like a ~100 more get something like S10e which has come down in price a lot and is a real flagship tier phone and way nicer device, and comes with a good camera with wide angle, or OnePlus 6T or the new ZenPhone 6 also looks great and are just more appealing. I think it's just not cheap enough. I'm expecting it to get big price cut later in the year, for $300 it's great deal.
The camera is good taking photos but video is really not very good. It's so soft compared with S10e. Overall I think for like $570ish S10e sells for you get a whole lot of phone and it's easily worth it over Pixel 3a. Underrated device.
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really enjoying it. coming from an iphone 5s, it feels like a new world lol
Wife switched from SE, first time android user. Had some issues with android auto but I think I fixed them. She seems pretty happy.
My wife's 3 crapped out of nowhere last week. It turned off and never turned back on. No abuse, no dodgy apps or anything. We tried everything we found on google before RMAing it.
Needless to say, we're not touching one of these again. I guess it's a one in 500 occurrence or something, but it's the first time this has happened to either of us, and between us we must have owned 20 different phones over the past decade.
i made the mistake of trying out a 3a right next to a regular pixel 3....performance difference is definitely noticeable.
if it had 6gb ram i'd feel comfortable with the performance deficit and buying it
if it had 6gb ram i'd feel comfortable with the performance deficit and buying it
It took almost a month but I finally got mine today. Going to check it out in more detail later. Still sticking with my XR as my main phone but I thought I'd give Android a chance since the trade in deal seemed pretty great with my old iPhone 6 collecting dust.
Upgraded from Nexus 5X to Pixel 3a. Starts software in about 5-10% time it took the Nexus 5X, the camera is way better, it charges faster and holds charge better. Couldn't be happier with my purchase.
How's the screen difference feel like to you. I'm on an S6 Edge and am too worried about moving to a phone that has a much lower resolution.
Basically been my experience too. If you're the type of person that buys a new phone every year or seeks out high end flagship devices I can see why it would be disappointing, but if you're the type to hold out for years on end and would buy a $400 phone to upgrade -- you know, the market it's aiming for -- it's a massive upgrade.
To tell you the truth, I like the screen a lot. I find that colors look just as good on it and there are a couple of settings just like on the Galaxy (vibrant, adaptive). The resolution peak is not as high but I find that I don't really notice the difference. Maybe, maybe if I had them side by side but for me at that point it's me being nitpicky. It's not a 720p screen so it doesn't stand out as bad against the Galaxy more like a 8.25 vs a 9.
I moved from a Pixel 1 to my 3a and it's been a dream, though it really feels like I got a Pixel refresh as the only real difference I noticed was that the 3a doesn't heat up as often.
My brother has gotten every flagship phone from every company for the last 5 years and I was happy with the Pixel 1 the whole time, except when it came to games performance. Thankfully I'm an avid gamer and mobile games do nothing for me.
If you have dabbled with being a few steps behind in phone tech or are perpetually looking for good deals in the budget phone space, buy the 3a.
Hope your not a mobile gamer as its really the only compromise I've noticed.
My brother has gotten every flagship phone from every company for the last 5 years and I was happy with the Pixel 1 the whole time, except when it came to games performance. Thankfully I'm an avid gamer and mobile games do nothing for me.
If you have dabbled with being a few steps behind in phone tech or are perpetually looking for good deals in the budget phone space, buy the 3a.
Hope your not a mobile gamer as its really the only compromise I've noticed.
Android Q really makes using the Pixel 3a a more positive experience. For example, the screen hardware still sucks, but dark mode makes the color shifting less noticable (outside of Gmail, which is still all white). Dark mode and background usage restrictions probably also help with battery life. And the Q gestures are so much better than the Pie navigation (and pre-Pie buttons). Even the ridiculous "pre-lock screen" has been removed.
Yes, some programs are incompatibile, but they'll be fixed in time.
Yes, some programs are incompatibile, but they'll be fixed in time.
Pretty much me, I always go for midrange phones and this is one of the better ones I've had. I got it on a contract though as it was only £8 a month more than my SIM only contract. After the contract is up the extra won't even add up to half the price of the phone so seemed a solid deal, double the data as well.
I had a Mi5 before but the thing just got so fucking slow I'm glad I switched. Best screen I've personally had on a phone, the colours are incredible. Feels snappy. I'm glad I don't have one of those Uber Phones to compare it to in that respect.
it's the kind of phone you really have to put things into perspective on.
$400 for a great camera, smooth android, and 3 years of guaranteed updates.
no other android phone can boast those 3 things at that price point. i'll live with a plastic body and apps opening up a second slower.
$400 for a great camera, smooth android, and 3 years of guaranteed updates.
no other android phone can boast those 3 things at that price point. i'll live with a plastic body and apps opening up a second slower.
I can't take reviewers seriously when they claim that having back made of plastic instead of glass back is in any way related to a lack of wireless charging (or when they call a screen that's obviously exhibiting radical color shifting on camera "excellent").
Here's a more comprehensive review of the display:
I'm annoyed 5.6" is considered "small" now-a-days. I miss when smartphones had sub-5" screens and could be easily manipulated with one hand.
So my 3a xl randomly stopped turning on. I didn't realize TMobile had this ubreakifix agreement, so I already grabbed a G8 from TMobile for $420 because I had a 6s sitting around.
I actually really like the G8. Like I might just sell the 3a after I get it fixed.
I actually really like the G8. Like I might just sell the 3a after I get it fixed.
I contacted support, This is what they responded with:
Code:
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