
The OLED display has the same 60Hz refresh rate of the Pixel 5a, which may disappoint some people. The plastic back of the Pixel 6a is easy to smudge with fingerprints, marring the model’s pristine looks, but you should tuck it in a case for protection anyway. the Pixel 6’s tougher Gorilla Glass Victus, and a “3D thermoformed composite back” instead of Gorilla Glass 6. In terms of build quality, the Pixel 6a is made of slightly fewer premium materials: a Gorilla Glass 3 front panel vs. In the meantime, here’s a closer look at what it’s like to use the Pixel 6a. It supports 5G low- and mid-bands, but to work on Verizon’s 5G Ultra millimeter wave (mmWave) network, you’ll need to buy the $499 Verizon-specific model. The phone is available now for preorder in gray (“charcoal” Amazon, Best Buy), white (“chalk” Amazon, Best Buy), or green (“sage” Amazon, Best Buy) and comes with 6GB of memory and 128GB of internal storage. We won’t know for sure how the model stacks up to the competition until we purchase one at retail for testing in our labs. The smaller sensor doesn’t perform nearly as well in poor lighting conditions, so that’s worth considering when debating between the Pixel 6a and other low-priced phones.
#The wirecutter pillow pro
While the rear camera on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro boast a large 50-megapixel sensor, the one on the Pixel 6a has the same 12-megapixel sensor found on the 5a-and all models dating back to the 3-plus-year-old Pixel 3. In particular, you won’t find the Pixel 5a’s headphone jack, which one of my colleagues laments as a betrayal.Īnd, unlike previous A-series phones, the Pixel 6a doesn’t have the same camera hardware found on Google’s flagship models. Overall, the experience was positive, but it’s worth noting the compromises Google made to hold fast to that $449 price.

Over the course of a week, I used the Pixel 6a alongside the Pixel 6, the inexpensive Samsung Galaxy A32, and the high-end Galaxy S21 Ultra. While I enjoyed test-driving the clever AI capabilities-particularly removing people from photos and translating Spanish tapas menus into English-what I really wanted to know was how well the phone performed everyday tasks like capturing my kid and dog on camera, streaming Netflix, scrolling through social media, and screening role-playing games.

#The wirecutter pillow update
We’ll update this review with the final results as soon as they’re available. I asked Google for a press sample of the phone to see some of those tricks firsthand and get an overall impression of the user experience ahead of the official July 28 release date.Īs always, the test samples evaluated in our labs will be purchased at a retail store, so they will be no different from the Pixel 6a you might buy.
#The wirecutter pillow android
Tensor also gives the Pixel 6 line of phones a few exclusive Android skills, magically erasing people and objects from photos, instantly translating text conversations and videos (to and from English in a handful of select languages), and generating captions from calls and videos.
