For some reason Google continually put inadequate batteries in their devices — over and over again. This year, according to leaks and rumours, the Pixel 4a will arrive with a 3,080mAh battery which once again is small.
Now you would think that if anyone knew how to get the most out of a combination of Android and a small battery it would be Google but last year’s Pixel 4 belies that. Considering last year’s Pixel 3a had just a 3,000mAh battery while the 3a XL had a 3,700mAh battery it seems par for the course — although the Pixel 4a will arrive with a display bigger than the 3a (5.6-inches) but smaller than the 3a XL (6.0-inch).
There is one YouTuber who is running through a pre-release Pixel 4a in videos on his YouTube channel and today he has released a video running through the performance of the Pixel 4a in a series of benchmarking tests — you can see them all in detail over at XDA if you wish to deep dive into them.
In a nutshell, not that we put too much credence in benchmark tests these days, and considering that the software on the leaked Pixel 4a is not just pre-release but also looks to be hacked or altered in some way, the Snapdragon 730 chipset in the Pixel 4a compares well to others of the same ilk.
It performed better than the Pixel 3a XL, as you would expect 12 months on given the improvement in hardware in that time but not as good as the flagship devices — Qualcomm reference device, Pixel 4 and Pixel 3 XL. In fact its performance is significantly below these flagships so do not expect miracles from the new mid-ranger from Google.
Of course all this is running pre-release software so we expect it to improve with final software and Google will once again make it buttery smooth to provide the full Pixel experience. Unfortunately that Pixel experience often results in a less-than stellar battery life for some reason.
The benchmark video above also shows the battery performance of the Pixel 4a and it shows that while the results are not like some super 6,000mAh phone from Asus or even the mid-range, multi-day phone from realme they are still decent. The battery results in the video above show the battery life after running the benchmark tests so while they are not especially indicative of real world usage they give some indication that the Pixel 4a battery will be decent, but still not the best.
The Pixel 4a is now expected to launch at next month’s Android 11 Beta event. That is going to be a long three weeks but given we know so much about it already the final thing to test out will be real-world testing. One thing I have no doubt of, it will behave how Android should and will be buttery-smooth like all good Pixel phones. What more do you want?
Yes , every year google makes strange choices with their smart phones hardware and feature list.
It is just annoying that only slight no brainer adjustments to hardware choices google makes could make the difference between an ok phone and a really great phone.
Surely it is always better to have more battery than you need rather than barely adequate.
I don’t know what they are thinking .
Google are idiots. So annoying how much better they could be.
Google had an opportunity to put a 4000-4500 mAh battery in this phone to make it even more appealing to mid-range phone hunters in the Samsung A51/A71 area. As we usually say with Google, there’s always next year…