(NEW) Google Pixel 4A

[May 7, 2021 thoughts on Pixel 4a, ordered November 8, 2020 and used daily ever since] PROS: Form factor and weight- This is the best marriage I have found. Fantastic screen real estate, sensible (ideal?) resolution, and just terrific dimensions for me. This thing is light weight for its size, and I love that more than I can possibly express. Hand fatigue has been all but completely eliminated. Give me plastics, baby! I have no desire for metals that don't add to functionality (and apparently, from something I saw on YouTube, this phone is insanely rugged, even with a plastic shell). Glass is always heavier and less durable than other materials choices, and it's just altogether not well suited for the backside of a mobile handset, IMO. I think Apple charges $550 to replace the back glass on most modern iPhones. This Pixel 4a is the total package and stickers for $200 less than the price of Apple's back glass repair. Price:Performance- While I can't compare this phone to another of its kind with a higher performing Qualcomm, I am never wanting for speed. This phone has been wonderfully fluid and performant for my day-to-day needs. The lean Android experience on the Pixel line really lets its mid-range Qualcomm shine. I most recently carried both an iPhone 7 Plus and 2020 SE, and both proved plenty fast for anything I do; this 4a is no exception. Background app refreshes seem to be on par with what I had using 3GB iPhones. No real surprises. My day-to-day habits seem mostly unaffected by any background app refreshes I've noticed. I think the 6GB of memory strikes a good balance for the 4a. I don't game. Well, I play some chess now and again, including occasional analysis using very demanding engines (Stockfish, etc), but in general I can't comment on gaming performance. Battery- Battery life and charging time have been lovely. I seldom charge to 100-percent, instead I prefer to just give little 5- to 15-minute charges periodically during the day, while keeping the battery in the 30- to 70-percent range where possible. This thing charges way, way faster than my older 7 Plus and 2020 SE iPhones and overall battery life is likely comparable or better from what I can gather (very unscientifically). I leave it to the readers to determine how important battery life is and do some research of their own. Camera- It's so good it doesn't even make sense. Shooting stills, the 4a smashes my old iPhone 7 Plus my a wide margin and the 2020 SE couldn't hold a candle either. I think that's being objective. I've had quite a bit of low-level, professional photography training at University level and time behind the lens of DSLRs, and I'm quite astonishing that I can get such quality images from the 4a. The software image processing is pure magic. I have kids, and they're the important subjects for me. I'd guessed the 4a might struggle with motion, particularly in lower light, which would have been a deal-breaker for me, but this thing takes "keepers" practically every single time. Glorious. Most already know how well Pixel phones shoot non-moving subjects, so I won't carry on about that. It's an exciting camera experience. Concerning video, the 1080p 30- and 60-frame shooting has not disappointed either, and the image stabilization is truly excellent. I don't mess with 4k on phones (yet), so no comment there. I don't take selfies, so I won't comment on the front-facing camera either. Android- The gesture navigation is fantastic, particularly the ability to go back by swiping in from either the left- or right-hand side of the display. Massively convenient and easy on the hands. Updates/security patches are crucial for me, and with a Pixel, scorching fast updates are what you get, and support duration bests most Android-based OEMs. Fingerprint recognition- Works as well and as fast as any I've experienced. Thought the rear placement would bug me. It absolutely does not. Rear placement is probably my preference now. Well executed. I like. CONS: Audio volume/intensity- The 4a just doesn't get as loud as some other modern handsets. It's tricky to listen to a podcast or whatever when I'm doing dishes, for example. That said, the audio quality is perfectly satisfactory, to me. Google Search- There's a Google search bar installed by default on the home screen. I leave mine there and find it useful. When tapped, you're presented with the ability to "search apps, web, and more..." (much like the search on iOS when you pull down from the top). Google/Android learns over time, so that eventually it can quickly present you with what you're most likely to want. Works great, more often than not. But the problem for me is that it's inconsistent with regards to displaying apps. It must be that about 20-percent of the time it doesn't display apps, so I'm forced to swipe up from the bottom of the display to close the interface, then tap the Google search bar again before it populates apps in the query. I can't figure out what causes this for the life of me, and I've owned an IT MSP for years, so this ain't my first rodeo with tech devices! Frustrating, but muscle memory makes this only a half-second affair to correct. Dependability- I've long used the same MVNO for cell service, which I mention only because there exists a small possibility that it's of importance here: I've found a few occasions where I can't place phone calls. To fix, for some reason, a reboot was required. I haven't had any issues in the past few months, but it's probably because I've changed habits; now, whenever there's an update to something low-level from Android (not just a basic app update), I reboot the phone. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?? Anyway, I'd have a "need" to reboot an iPhone maybe once every six months, outside of forced reboots from doing an iOS update. To have had to monthly (or maybe even more frequently) reboot this 4a in order to connect phone calls (with no warning as to any trouble, unless I attempted to place a call and "connect the dots") is unfortunate. I don't like to have to think about mitigating critically buggy behavior by rebooting my phone from time to time. OLED- I'm sensitive to flicker, so I basically hate OLED. My daily driver laptop is a ThinkPad T480s LARGELY because its 1080p IPS is flicker-free (no PWM). This 4a gives me viewing fatigue after a relatively short while. On the 4a, unless you're at max brightness (exactly 100-percent), you can expect flicker in the ~122 to 255Hz range. That's too low for me. I would prefer an LCD, like the ones I had in my iPhone 7 Plus or 2020 SE. I could view those endlessly without fatigue- read books on them, you name it. But the industry does trend, and trend it does for the contrast ratio specs and inky blacks the kids rave about these days {rolls eyes}. Overall: This is probably the finest overall set of compromises I've ever found in a cell phone, and I've owned many of them since 1994. I'm highly satisfied with this handset, and I think very little could realistically be done today to improve upon the formula that is the Pixel 4a. Google has made a proper phone for adults. 9/10 DO recommend!