The Pixel 3a Excel: A Budget-Friendly Option with a Twist

I've always been fascinated by this phone and its unique blend of features that make it an attractive option for those looking to upgrade their smartphone experience. The big thing everyone is talking about, which I love, is the camera system on this device. It's a single lens 12.2 megapixel f1.4 aperture 28 millimeter equivalent optically stabilized camera with 1.4 micron sized pixels and dual pixel autofocus. This setup allows for impressive shooting capabilities, including 4K at 30 frames per second with electronic image stabilization enabled and the ability to shoot in various modes such as panorama, portrait mode, Night Sight, which is Google's version of night mode for brighter low-light shots using a long exposure time lapse, Google Lens Photosphere Photo Booth and Playground, which are their AR lens features.

However, there's one notable aspect that sets this device apart from its more expensive counterparts: water resistance. Unfortunately, the Pixel 3a Excel lacks any IP rating or equivalent in terms of water resistance specifications on the inside. This is a trade-off that Google has made to keep costs low and make the phone more affordable for consumers.

On the technical side, the Pixel 3a Excel boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 chipset paired with 4 gigs of RAM and 64 gigs of storage. While this might seem like a decent setup, it's worth noting that the Snapdragon 670 is a mid-range chipset compared to the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 found in the Pixel 3 XL. In benchmark tests, such as 3DMark, the difference between these two chipsets becomes apparent, with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 offering noticeable improvements in frame rates and performance.

Despite this technical trade-off, the Pixel 3a Excel still manages to deliver a smooth user experience, thanks in part to the minimalistic version of Android that comes pre-installed on all Pixel devices. This software is one of my favorites, with a clean and responsive interface that's perfect for everyday use. The phone also features the Google Launcher as its homescreen, which is both intuitive and visually appealing.

One area where the Pixel 3a Excel truly shines is in terms of battery life. With a 3000 milliamp battery, it performs well, although not spectacularly. This means that while you can expect to get through an entire day with moderate use, heavy users may find themselves running low on power before reaching their destination. However, this is comparable to the Pixel 3 and other devices in its class, so it's not necessarily a deal-breaker.

The final aspect of the Pixel 3a Excel that sets it apart from more expensive options is its price. With an initial retail price of $399 compared to the Pixel 3 XL's $799, this phone represents a significant cost savings. Additionally, thanks to ongoing sales and promotions, you can often find the Pixel 3a Excel for even less – I've seen it available for as low as $2.99, which is an incredible value given its specs.

In conclusion, while the Pixel 3a Excel has its drawbacks, including a lack of water resistance and a mid-range chipset, these trade-offs are largely mitigated by its impressive camera system, minimalistic Android software, and affordable price tag. If you're not planning to game extensively or need more powerful performance for demanding tasks, the Pixel 3a Excel is an excellent choice that offers an unbeatable combination of features and value.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enand his rising move google has released a cheaper version of the pixel 3 and the pixel 3 Excel maybe it wasn't that surprising because it was kind of leaked all over the internet so we kind of knew it was coming but it still it was a surprising move gnar needed in the live video where I tested its camera out against other devices check to see how long the battery lasts and all that other fun stuff throughout a day you can check that out at the link below in this video however let's do a more detailed dive on everything the pixel 3a is and do a complete walkthrough first especially it's a pure VPN for sponsoring this video pure VPN is one most affordable VPN solutions out starting at just three dollars and 33 cents a month their service installs seamlessly on Windows Mac Android or iOS and allows you to browse the web anonymously as well as have all your data encrypted no more worrying about people spying on you or gathering data as you surf beyond that though you can also use it to tell sites and services that you're browsing from a different country of your choosing than the one you are in which removes whatever country based restrictions they might have allowing you to access content that you couldn't otherwise and if this sounds like something you might be interested check out ahead of the link in the description below and if you use that link to purchase you'll get pure VPN for an even lower price the first up let's talk about the hardware the new pixel 3a and 3a Excel are half the price of the pixel 3 and 3 Excel and because of this there were some sacrifices less than you'd think but we'll get to that later the verse of them being that instead of glass the pixel 3a is made out of plastic it is still this soft touch plastic on the lower section of the back and a glossy or plastic for the top to further resemble the 3 and the 3 Excel style and I'll say while the pixel 3 and the 3 Excel back feels great you'd have a hard time telling anyone that the pixel 3 a feels just half as good we have another even less noticeable difference in the materials the front glass is not Gorilla Glass like we're used to on most phones nowadays instead it's dragon trail glass a similar product from a rival company that is much cheaper presumably but feels just as much like glass as the monkey variety now of course we'll have to see how this other type of glass stands up over time but for now you're not gonna notice a difference the screen is an 18 point 5 by 5 aspect ratio 5.6 inch screen with a 2220 by 1080 resolution something to note about the screen is the fact that it will not support daydream which Google's VR platform as according to Google it has quote resolution and framerate issues that make it incompatible above that screen we don't have two front cameras like on the pixel three and three excel instead of the nineteen millimeter and twenty eight millimeter equivalent cameras we had on those we have one camera basically in the middle of all that at twenty four millimeters that camera by the way is an 8 megapixel f 2.0 aperture camera with one point one two micron sized pixels working around the device we have our USB 2.0 type C port at the bottom along with one of our two dual speakers the other is in the earpiece now that USBC port has support for USB power delivery 2.0 in the form of 18 watts we also lose support for Qi charging compared to the pixel 3 and the 3 XL on the right we have a volume rocker and our power button on the left there is our nano SIM slot there is no micro SD card slot or dual SIM by the way at the top we have a welcome difference between the 3a and the 3 a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack on the back we have our fingerprint sensor that just like on other pixels can be used to pull down the notification shade which I love above that we have the big thing everyone is talking about this phone and that's the fact that it has the same camera as the more expensive pixel 3em3 excel that have been praised even to this day is one of the best cameras on a smartphone now as a refresher it's a single lens 12.2 megapixel f1 pointed aperture 28 millimeter equivalent optically stabilized camera with 1.4 micron sized pixels and dual pixel autofocus now they also shoot at up to 4k at 30 frames per second with some serious electronic image stabilization enabled and can do 1080p up to 60 frames per second weave modes for panorama portrait mode nitesite which is Google's version of night mode for brighter low-light shots using a long exposure time lapse Google lens photosphere photo booth and playground which is there AR lens another thing they sacrifice here is water resistance there is no IP rating or even any equivalent in water resistance specs on the inside we have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 chipset paired with 4 gigs of ram and 64 gigs of storage there are no other choices for storage RAM or chipset the only other option you have is the larger screen and more battery in the Excel version that Qualcomm 670 is a mid-range chipset and when compared to the Snapdragon 84 5 on the pixel 3 in 3dmark the difference is noticeable now this means that there might be a noticeable difference in frame rates when playing games and honestly the games that I played still ran and I was still able to play them it doesn't mean that there's actually a big difference in your normal day-to-day activities opening apps are a hair slower scrolling is as well and image processing too but the truth is thanks in part to the very minimalistic version of Android on all pixel devices you won't notice it too much especially if you don't have both phones sitting next to each other like I do for battery we have a 3000 milliamp battery that performs ok not amazing but not bad it's similar though to the pixel 3 and then I don't expect this to last me a full day with heavy use but normal use it'll dive probably right before I get home you can check out again my real-world tests for the battery and how it lasted throughout a typical day moving out of the software we have what you'd expect from any pixel device while it's technically not really stock Android and there's not really such a thing anymore it's basically the closest thing we have to anything that would resemble stock Android that means that it has the basic Android build which is one of my favorite versions of Android by the way with a very minimalistic look the Google launcher for your homescreen and it's super responsive and very clean because of that like all pixel devices it'll be upgraded to the latest versions of Android faster than any other device out since there is no added software that needs to be added on top of Android like with other manufacturers it's a lot easier for them to just roll out the updates and Google iam promises three years of software support finally the crazy thing about this device is the price as mentioned the pixel 3a is half the cost of the pixel 3 399 compared to $7.99 and at the time of writing is you can find an extra $1 and credits on so many different places to buy it from that it's basically $2.99 which is even more nuts honestly I'm having a hard time with this device I feel like it's all of the good things and the bad things about the pixel 3 and the 3 Excel but because of the price being so drastically different and lower I'm more impressed by the good things and I'm less annoyed by the bad ones if you aren't planning to game a lot and again it can handle games just not as well I I'm having a really hard time being able to recommend to anyone the pixel 3 and the 3 excel over the 3a or the 3a Excel and that's it's kind of blowing my mind right now there guys hope you enjoyed that video if you did please let me know in the comments it's not a video to think of a pixel 3a always loved to hear from you guys if you like this video though please subscibe it or share it it's greatly appreciated also check out the rest of my channel if you like what you see there please subscribe to think about nice or subscribe so you get notified when I do new videos also if you check in the description below you'll find a link to my email newsletter that goes out every week you'll get all the videos that I don't want to do but also you get tips and tricks and other things I don't necessarily make it here to video on the channel as always though regardless thanks for watchingand his rising move google has released a cheaper version of the pixel 3 and the pixel 3 Excel maybe it wasn't that surprising because it was kind of leaked all over the internet so we kind of knew it was coming but it still it was a surprising move gnar needed in the live video where I tested its camera out against other devices check to see how long the battery lasts and all that other fun stuff throughout a day you can check that out at the link below in this video however let's do a more detailed dive on everything the pixel 3a is and do a complete walkthrough first especially it's a pure VPN for sponsoring this video pure VPN is one most affordable VPN solutions out starting at just three dollars and 33 cents a month their service installs seamlessly on Windows Mac Android or iOS and allows you to browse the web anonymously as well as have all your data encrypted no more worrying about people spying on you or gathering data as you surf beyond that though you can also use it to tell sites and services that you're browsing from a different country of your choosing than the one you are in which removes whatever country based restrictions they might have allowing you to access content that you couldn't otherwise and if this sounds like something you might be interested check out ahead of the link in the description below and if you use that link to purchase you'll get pure VPN for an even lower price the first up let's talk about the hardware the new pixel 3a and 3a Excel are half the price of the pixel 3 and 3 Excel and because of this there were some sacrifices less than you'd think but we'll get to that later the verse of them being that instead of glass the pixel 3a is made out of plastic it is still this soft touch plastic on the lower section of the back and a glossy or plastic for the top to further resemble the 3 and the 3 Excel style and I'll say while the pixel 3 and the 3 Excel back feels great you'd have a hard time telling anyone that the pixel 3 a feels just half as good we have another even less noticeable difference in the materials the front glass is not Gorilla Glass like we're used to on most phones nowadays instead it's dragon trail glass a similar product from a rival company that is much cheaper presumably but feels just as much like glass as the monkey variety now of course we'll have to see how this other type of glass stands up over time but for now you're not gonna notice a difference the screen is an 18 point 5 by 5 aspect ratio 5.6 inch screen with a 2220 by 1080 resolution something to note about the screen is the fact that it will not support daydream which Google's VR platform as according to Google it has quote resolution and framerate issues that make it incompatible above that screen we don't have two front cameras like on the pixel three and three excel instead of the nineteen millimeter and twenty eight millimeter equivalent cameras we had on those we have one camera basically in the middle of all that at twenty four millimeters that camera by the way is an 8 megapixel f 2.0 aperture camera with one point one two micron sized pixels working around the device we have our USB 2.0 type C port at the bottom along with one of our two dual speakers the other is in the earpiece now that USBC port has support for USB power delivery 2.0 in the form of 18 watts we also lose support for Qi charging compared to the pixel 3 and the 3 XL on the right we have a volume rocker and our power button on the left there is our nano SIM slot there is no micro SD card slot or dual SIM by the way at the top we have a welcome difference between the 3a and the 3 a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack on the back we have our fingerprint sensor that just like on other pixels can be used to pull down the notification shade which I love above that we have the big thing everyone is talking about this phone and that's the fact that it has the same camera as the more expensive pixel 3em3 excel that have been praised even to this day is one of the best cameras on a smartphone now as a refresher it's a single lens 12.2 megapixel f1 pointed aperture 28 millimeter equivalent optically stabilized camera with 1.4 micron sized pixels and dual pixel autofocus now they also shoot at up to 4k at 30 frames per second with some serious electronic image stabilization enabled and can do 1080p up to 60 frames per second weave modes for panorama portrait mode nitesite which is Google's version of night mode for brighter low-light shots using a long exposure time lapse Google lens photosphere photo booth and playground which is there AR lens another thing they sacrifice here is water resistance there is no IP rating or even any equivalent in water resistance specs on the inside we have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 chipset paired with 4 gigs of ram and 64 gigs of storage there are no other choices for storage RAM or chipset the only other option you have is the larger screen and more battery in the Excel version that Qualcomm 670 is a mid-range chipset and when compared to the Snapdragon 84 5 on the pixel 3 in 3dmark the difference is noticeable now this means that there might be a noticeable difference in frame rates when playing games and honestly the games that I played still ran and I was still able to play them it doesn't mean that there's actually a big difference in your normal day-to-day activities opening apps are a hair slower scrolling is as well and image processing too but the truth is thanks in part to the very minimalistic version of Android on all pixel devices you won't notice it too much especially if you don't have both phones sitting next to each other like I do for battery we have a 3000 milliamp battery that performs ok not amazing but not bad it's similar though to the pixel 3 and then I don't expect this to last me a full day with heavy use but normal use it'll dive probably right before I get home you can check out again my real-world tests for the battery and how it lasted throughout a typical day moving out of the software we have what you'd expect from any pixel device while it's technically not really stock Android and there's not really such a thing anymore it's basically the closest thing we have to anything that would resemble stock Android that means that it has the basic Android build which is one of my favorite versions of Android by the way with a very minimalistic look the Google launcher for your homescreen and it's super responsive and very clean because of that like all pixel devices it'll be upgraded to the latest versions of Android faster than any other device out since there is no added software that needs to be added on top of Android like with other manufacturers it's a lot easier for them to just roll out the updates and Google iam promises three years of software support finally the crazy thing about this device is the price as mentioned the pixel 3a is half the cost of the pixel 3 399 compared to $7.99 and at the time of writing is you can find an extra $1 and credits on so many different places to buy it from that it's basically $2.99 which is even more nuts honestly I'm having a hard time with this device I feel like it's all of the good things and the bad things about the pixel 3 and the 3 Excel but because of the price being so drastically different and lower I'm more impressed by the good things and I'm less annoyed by the bad ones if you aren't planning to game a lot and again it can handle games just not as well I I'm having a really hard time being able to recommend to anyone the pixel 3 and the 3 excel over the 3a or the 3a Excel and that's it's kind of blowing my mind right now there guys hope you enjoyed that video if you did please let me know in the comments it's not a video to think of a pixel 3a always loved to hear from you guys if you like this video though please subscibe it or share it it's greatly appreciated also check out the rest of my channel if you like what you see there please subscribe to think about nice or subscribe so you get notified when I do new videos also if you check in the description below you'll find a link to my email newsletter that goes out every week you'll get all the videos that I don't want to do but also you get tips and tricks and other things I don't necessarily make it here to video on the channel as always though regardless thanks for watching\n"