Google Pixel 6a: mid af

**The Pixel 6a: A Mid-Range Phone with Compromises**

Regardless of how much you're doing on the phone and with five years of guaranteed security updates for people who run their phones for years and years to the ground, it will probably hold up for quite some time too. The pixel 6a is mid-range; it's a midship phone with compromises to fit a certain price point for most normal people who might not care about cutting-edge specs. It's all a phone they'll probably ever need without having to fork over flagship money at $450 bucks msrp. It's priced very well in a vacuum; it's consistent with its predecessor, the pixel 5a, which many people consider to be at the time the best deal in Android phones.

However, the 6a is launching at a very interesting time. Last Prime Day, we saw the pixel 6 hit the $500 mark, and if that discount becomes more of a common occurrence, you might as well shell out the extra bones to get the bigger better brother. Yeah, I know comparing promotional sales to retail pricing might not be the fairest thing on paper, but it's still a real-world shopping scenario. Also, I'm sure we're gonna see discounts on the pixel 6a down the line anyways because its main competitor is already on heavy discount four months into its release.

**The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G: A Mid-Range Phone with Its Own Compromises**

This is the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G, and if you're in the market for a mid-range phone, this one's pretty hard to beat. It does come with its own fair share of compromises just like the pixel. The A53's mostly plastic construction certainly doesn't look or feel as premium or comfortable to hold but it's still exceptionally solid quality and even shares some design ID with the higher-end Galaxy S line to help quell any FOMO that you might feel buying the cheaper phone.

Where the A53 really shows its value is in its feature set, and especially the price. Samsung gives you a 6.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display, and while it's not as sharp or bright as the pixel, it does have a 120Hz refresh rate. It doesn't just make navigating the UI buttery smooth but perceptually it's quick and snappy compared to that pixel even though the A53 is rocking a mid-range Exynos processor.

I've noticed the A53 stutter occasionally or take an extra second to load something, but when you spend a lot of time scrolling through Twitter or web pages, and your touch inputs feel very quick and fluid; that's what I think the higher refresh rate makes a difference to the Galaxy feeling faster and more powerful even when it's not.

Samsung also offers a great set of cameras front and back on the A53 5G. As always, color and processing on smartphone shooters are subjective; I actually prefer the pixel software touches a bit more. However, the 64-megapixel sensor on the A53 gives you more detail, there's also a macro lens which is fun to play around with, and on the front, there's a 32-megapixel selfie camera that's definitely cool on paper and it's certainly sharp.

**The Battery Life of the Galaxy A53**

Oh, the battery on this thing is also kind of nuts - 5,000 milliamp hour capacity; it's basically good for a day or two depending on how you use it which is amazing when you're used to power-hungry flagships that always seem to have relatively small batteries.

**The Price of the Galaxy A53**

In all the A53 offers a different formula of compromises compared to the pixel 6a, but I wouldn't be here talking about it in length if it wasn't for its price. Even though it launched in March of this year for $450 msrp, four months later in July, you can buy this thing for $350. And if I hazard a guess, judging by the international white-box version that's on Amazon for like $316 dollars; the A53 can possibly go even cheaper during more aggressive retail holidays.

Again, I know to some of you it's not quite fair to measure up promotional deals with msrp but until the 6a gets discounted, I think it's worth considering the A53 or at least playing the waiting game for if or when a sale comes around.