Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL : The best affordable camera phone

The flagship phone from Google, the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL is still arguably the best camera you can have in a phone as of right now. But the phone is definitely not cheap, so having that kind of camera in everybody’s pocket is not that easy.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

But Google made it easier to have that. Google introduced the two new phones, the Pixel 3a and the Pixel 3a XL. In these two new phones, there are exactly the same cameras we have in the flagship Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL but are now more affordable starting at just $399 making it the best camera phone to buy for the price.

These two phones are very similar to the flagship Pixel phones in design. In fact, you cannot even differentiate the 3a from a regular pixel 3 at first glance. But when you hold it, you can feel the 3a is not that premium since it’s made up of polycarbonate material basically made up of plastic.

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

The Pixel 3a has a 5.6” display and the bigger 3a XL has a 6” display. And the display is not that bad in fact, it’s great. They both are rocking OLED display which is not so common when it comes to mid-range phones. The display resolution is 1080p for both models. And no! The XL variant doesn’t have a notch this time.

The phone runs on Android Pie. And Google has promised to give continuous updates for 3 years. It has USB Type-C port and a headphone jack. Oh god! Where have we come where having a headphone jack is considered an extraordinary feature? The Pixel 3a has 3,000 mAh battery while the Pixel 3a XL has 3700 mAh battery, both with support of 18 W fast charging. Also squeeze the phone to launch Google Assistant is there which might come handy for many people.

In order to achieve this all great features with that price, they definitely need to sacrifice in other areas. Both of the phones have the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 chip with Adreno 615. It has 4 GB of RAM. The internal storage is just 64 GB and there is no SD card slot. It doesn’t have wireless charging. It is not water resistance. Technically, it has stereo speakers but is not front facing because the bottom one fires downward instead. And also like in the regular pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL, you’ll not be able to backup unlimited full resolution original photos in Google Photos for free. You’ll be limited to either unlimited regular high quality backup or 15 GB of original quality.

Overall this phone is easy to recommend. If you don’t want to spend a lot but need a great camera phone, this is the phone you’re looking for. This is undoubtedly the best camera phone. However if you’re looking for powerful phone and speed and performance is your priority then this phone might not be your interest.