We have often been critical of DxOMark, especially of how some manufacturers seem to be able to game their testing systems. We’ve seen phones get great scores from them but in real world usage they are average at best. Google though have never played the DxOMark game which undoubtedly has led to them being considered by most to have one of the best smartphone cameras around and yet score only average marks on DxOMark.
This is why it is even more impressive that the single lens camera system in the Google Pixel 4a has scored a very decent 111 on DxOMark. Although it has been released a while ago DxOMark have only today released their mark for the Google Pixel 4a.
The score includes impressive results for exposure, colour and autofocus but it suffering areas such as the dynamic range, depth of field and long range zoom images. The score is an improvement over the Pixel 3a which sports the exact same camera system signifying the large improvement that Google have made in image processing since then (of course given Google has updated the Pixel 3a to the same software you would it would also score the same as the 4a now).
In the end the result is impressive given the single lens system of the Pixel 4a and although it of course trails the ultra premium devices in most areas you do have to remember it is a cheap mid-range device with a single lens. It certainly seems to out perform its price, something we have found with all of these mid-range Pixel devices ever since the Pixel 3a last year.
The best thing is that obviously the Google Pixel 4a photography quality is obviously largely reliant on software and thus given Google’s update policy it will improve even more in the future. This is something you don’t normally expect from a mid-range device, thus making a Pixel 4a (or a Pixel 4a 5G) purchase an attractive option.
