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00:00Hey what's up guys, MKBHD here and this is the new Google Pixel 3A.
00:10Don't know yet what the A stands for but we can basically think of this phone as the
00:15budget version of the Pixel 3.
00:17And this is yet another phone that was leaked into oblivion.
00:20We knew pretty much everything about it on paper before it came out.
00:22The 3A name, the design, all the specs pretty much, the packaging.
00:27The only thing we didn't really know was the price.
00:29We knew it would be the budget Pixel but how low could they get the price?
00:33There was some speculation on it but now that it was fully announced yesterday at Google I.O.,
00:37we have that too.
00:38It'll start at $399.
01:00So this is the 3A XL.
01:02There's a larger version of the two phones as well.
01:04And on the outside, as you can tell, it's almost impossible to tell it apart from a regular Pixel 3
01:09just by looking at it.
01:10It shares the design language of its more expensive brothers pretty clearly.
01:14But to me, this is a really interesting and potentially awesome $400 phone.
01:19So when you think of a cheap phone like the Pixel 3,
01:21you think of a phone that's a lot more expensive than the Pixel 3.
01:24This is a really interesting and potentially awesome $400 phone.
01:28So when you think of a typical champion budget Android phone,
01:32in 2018, 2019, that's the one that brings the high-end specs all the way way down in price,
01:36which is amazing, but you know you're going to sacrifice in three main areas.
01:41And that's the camera, always, and the screen, and the build quality.
01:45Like it's so consistent in this world.
01:47Think of the Pocophone F1, for example, budget phone of the year last year.
01:51It turned everybody's heads because it got the latest and greatest Snapdragon 845
01:55and freaking 8 gigs of RAM and a 4000 mAh battery.
01:59So it killed it with the specs.
02:00But again, with those three main things, the screen, you know, it was okay.
02:05It's fine. It was a 6-inch LCD screen, so nothing to complain about, but it's not flagship.
02:09The camera, it was better than actually most people expected for the price,
02:13but it was definitely not a flagship camera either.
02:15And then that build quality is, you know, it's plastic.
02:19This Pixel 3a, in that same world, kind of flips that formula.
02:23It flips the script backwards on its head, where this blatantly sacrifices in the specs.
02:28This is a Snapdragon 670 and 4 gigs of RAM.
02:32It's, you know, obviously mid-range, but it has a killer camera,
02:37and it has a pretty great screen.
02:39I don't think I've ever been able to say a budget Android phone actually legit has an excellent camera.
02:44Like sometimes it's great for the price, you know, like the Pocophone,
02:47but actually competing with flagships, yeah, this would be a first.
02:50So if your priorities are in image quality specifically, this turns into an excellent option.
02:55So build quality, of course, is still what they make sacrifices on.
02:58Like I said, it looks just like the Pixel 3, but as soon as you hold it, you know, it's lightweight.
03:03It's made of this hard plastic instead of glass.
03:05I mean, it's polycarbonate is what they call it, but, you know, plastic.
03:08And then there's some corners cut out with the hardware.
03:11There is no wireless charging coil in this Pixel 3a.
03:14There's also no water resistance.
03:16They didn't spend money on the IP certification.
03:18And there's also, of course, still no expandable storage.
03:21Pixel 3 also had a pair of stereo front-facing speakers,
03:24while the 3a is giving you a single top front-facing speaker up where the earpiece usually is.
03:29And then there's nothing in the chin.
03:30It's still the same size, but you have speakers now at the bottom of the phone.
03:34But that's still more front-facing power than I can say about some flagships.
03:37And then it's down to a single rear-facing and single front-facing camera
03:41instead of the dual front-facing cameras of the bigger brothers.
03:43But it's not all cons, though.
03:44I mean, they did obviously take those shortcuts to save their money,
03:47but there's still some things from the Pixel that have trickled down
03:51and are now top of their class for a $400 phone.
03:53First of all, they're not even trying to go bezel-less,
03:55which some would have argued would have looked cooler, but that means no notch.
03:59So some people will definitely appreciate that in a world where the Pixel 3 XL's bathtub notch still exists.
04:05It also has the same haptic motor, the same excellent vibration motor as the Pixel 3,
04:10which from my experience has been literally the best in any Android phone,
04:14which is great because there are a lot of Android phones that have bad vibration motors
04:18that make them feel even cheaper than they are.
04:20So having an excellent one is a nice touch.
04:22Oh, and it has an extra port.
04:23You see this little small circular 3.5mm circle up here?
04:28That's for headphones.
04:30It's got a headphone jack.
04:34Also on top of that, this is a 1080p OLED display.
04:38A lot of budget phones in this range are rocking IPS LCD displays.
04:42OLED screens generally have looked better, have pitch-black blacks,
04:46and are more common on higher-end phones.
04:48So an OLED display in this one, like OnePlus used to when they made $400 phones,
04:52is a nice-to-have.
04:54And then, of course, the camera.
04:56The Pixel 3a shares the same single-camera sensor and essentially the same camera software
05:02as the current image-quality reigning champ, the older brother Pixel 3, which is incredible.
05:07And that not only makes this instantly the best camera in any budget phone I've ever used,
05:11but arguably right up there as the best camera on any phone, period,
05:16which is awesome for this price.
05:18So that's why I say they flipped the typical formula for a budget Android phone sort of backwards.
05:23It used to always be. It's so predictable.
05:25You know you're going to get some high-end specs brought down,
05:27but you know where the sacrifices are going to be.
05:29But this is very different.
05:32Google is definitely trusting their software to give you a good enough user experience
05:36in spite of the mid-range specs,
05:38but having an incredible camera and having an actually pretty great screen on this phone
05:43is just a very different set of corners to cut.
05:45Now, I do think it makes sense to be concerned a bit about those specs
05:48just because it's a Pixel again,
05:50and even the flagship Pixel 3 with this newest silicon
05:53hasn't had the best time staying fast over time.
05:56So an even lower-end set of specs on the Pixel 3a might suffer the same fate.
06:01And then the 3,000 mAh battery or 3,700 mAh on the XL
06:05are not massive, but I still think they should fall right in line with about average.
06:10Again, considering the more expensive brothers weren't really endurance champs either.
06:14But overall, I'm glad I have this phone in my hands.
06:16It feels like it's going to be a fun one to play with.
06:18And let me know what you guys want to see in the full review.
06:20It's been a while since I've reviewed a sub-$500 phone
06:24thanks to phones getting so expensive lately,
06:26but let me know what you're interested in.
06:28And if you would carry, you know, a phone that makes the right trade-offs like this for 400 bucks,
06:33it's not a bad start.
06:34Let me know what you think.
06:35Thanks for watching.
06:36Catch you guys in the next one.
06:38Peace.