Following the Pixel 4a, Google has expanded its 2020 mobile range to include the Pixel 4a 5G and the long-rumored Google Pixel 5. On the surface, the Pixel 5 attempts to right the wrongs of Pixel 4 by ditching the experimental Motion Sense gesture technology and swapping its secondary telephoto camera for an ultrawide sensor. They are also nearly doubling battery capacity so that the phone can last longer than a few hours at a time.
While these improvements may appear apparent, the Pixel 5 and where it stands in the larger smartphone landscape represents a shift in Google’s smartphone strategy and signals. A very different future than the one for which prior Pixel phones were planned.
The most remarkable aspect of the Pixel 5 is not its camera technology or how well the Google Assistant is incorporated into its software experience, but rather its appearance. This is due to two key factors: its size and finishes.
With a few outliers that barely scrape by, it’s fair to say that there haven’t been many decent tiny Android phones in recent years. Most manufacturers have pushed for larger screens to showcase their multimedia capabilities but in most cases. This has come at the sacrifice of mobility, weight, ease of use, and hand comfort.
The Pixel 5, with its 6 display, firmly establishes its spot in the best Small Phones list due to its small footprint. Also combined with a nice hand feel that is entirely unique to this smartphone. It is the only phone with what seems to be equitably bezels along with all four corners of the screen. Also, it has a nicely balanced design.
The removal of last year’s Pixels’ Motion Sense radar array. As well as the usage of an in-display hole-punch front camera is why the Pixel 5’s bezels are so much slimmer; and then there’s the rounding.
It’s a little feature, but both the Pixel’s body and display have rounded edges with proportionately complimentary radii; something you may ignore on paper, but in actuality taps into that part of your brain that’s appeased by the aesthetically consistent. It adds a lovely balance to the Pixel 5’s appearance. This is further enhanced by its comparatively slim 8mm waistline, rounded edges, and extremely low weight.
With a taller, thinner 19.5:9 aspect ratio than last year’s Pixel 4, the Pixel 5 provides a bigger 6in the display without getting any broader in the hand. Google hasn’t pushed the screen on this year’s Pixel too far. But it’s still a satisfyingly vivid and brilliant HDR10+-compliant, 90Hz, Full HD+, OLED offering.
Although the adaptive higher refresh rate uses greater battery life than locking the phone down to 60Hz. It provides a significantly more snappy and premium-feeling user experience as a result. Maximum brightness should be a tad higher, but there’s little that detracts from the Pixel 5’s visual experience, which features attractive colors, contrast, and viewing angles.
You may switch between Natural or Boosted color profiles, or use Adaptive mode. This is active by default, while Night Light warms up the screen color in the evenings to assist in minimizing eye strain. In terms of audio, the Pixel 5 lacks a headphone jack and no in-box 3.5mm adapter or USB headphones, leaving you with the option of paying extra for Bluetooth headphones or sourcing your own USB-C to 3.5mm adapter .If it is a significant factor for you, the Pixel 4a (5G) has a headphone jack.
There was never any question about the software experience that the Pixel 5 would provide right out of the box. Android 11 is the most recent and greatest version of Google’s mobile operating system. Also, the latest Pixel serves to showcase it at its finest. This mostly takes the shape of gradual enhancements to a variety of existing capabilities, with applications such as Google Duo and Google’s Recorder receiving some new functionality.
Hold For Me, the Google Duplex-powered automatic call holding service. Also seems fantastic on paper but isn’t available at launch and won’t be coming to your Pixel phone in the near future if you live outside the US, which is a real bummer. The ability to capture or take on-screen information in a context-aware manner with a single swipe up, support for Live Captions. Also enhanced wallpaper and home screen customization options are just a few of the tiny changes that raise the software experience on the Pixel 5.
The Pixel series has evolved to embody the potential of computer vision on smartphones. Also, this fact has only become stronger over time. The Pixel 5’s primary 12.2Mp detector is the same unit used by the Pixel 4 series and, before that, the Pixel 3 series. It’s a decidedly aging component that’s remained in high regard solely because of what Google’s engineers have able to achieve on the apps and image processing front.
It’s supplemented by a 16Mp ultrawide sensor with a 107° field-of-view; not as wide as its competitors, but still. A terrific method to get a new viewpoint on a topic or fit more in the frame without moving position. The biggest change is that Google has expanded standout features like Night Sight to work across all of the Pixel 5’s various sensors automatically. Rather than swapping out the Pixel 4’s telephoto for this new ultrawide.
There’s also virtual portrait lighting and a slew of additional specialized video stabilization settings. Also the ability to capture at 4K 60fps. All the while, Google appears to have abandoned the usage of a specialized processor, as its predecessors’ Pixel Visual Core and Pixel Neural Core did. In side-by-side testing, the Pixel 5 captured and processed Portrait images as rapidly as, or faster than Pixel 4. Also indicates that Google’s confidence in this decision appears to be justified.
In terms of image quality, the Pixels perform fairly similar to last year’s Pixels. Drop-in and you’ll notice some differences in sharpness and dynamic range. Also and color science, with the Pixel 5’s images being sharper and dynamically wider. Also, a tad cooler in those three areas but the differences between the camera and last year’s Pixel are both extremely subtle and more a question of individual preference than an empirical improvement.
The Pixel series has always been about software and user experiences that outperform and restrict by the hardware that supports them. This is most visible in the phone line’s camera technology. But it’s also true of the CPU powering the Pixel 5.
Google has traditionally used Qualcomm’s flagship CPU in its Pixel phones, but the chip is nearing the end of its life cycle. This was initially due to Qualcomm usually announcing a replacement only a week or so later, or in more recent years. Also because Qualcomm began to push out improved mid-lifecycle updates, such as the Snapdragon 855+ and 865+.
The Pixel 4 was a promising Android phone that was hampered by some of the poorest battery life in recent memory. It was a problem to create mostly by the phone’s short 2800mAh battery. Also, it was towards the top of our wishlist of Pixel 5 enhancements.
Thankfully, Google appears to have heard, and while the increase in battery capacity isn’t revolutionary. It transforms the Pixel 5 into a phone you’d be pleased to live with instead of the one you’d be afraid to use for dread of it dying the instant the screen lights up.
Despite its compact size and thin frame, the Pixel 5 has a much bigger 4080mAh battery than its predecessor. It enables fast charging and up to 12W wireless charging, as previously. In battery benchmark testing, the Pixel 5 performs admirably, lasting 12.5 hours under ideal conditions. In practice, the phone is significantly less impressive, with a fairly unimpressive average of 5 hours of screen-on time per charge. However, this equates to a day’s usage without fear, and with the bar so low. Also, it was all Google really had to achieve. But it’s no battery champ.
Google has withdrawn the Pixel 5 from its official shop now that the Pixel 6 phones have arrived. However, it is still available via third-party sellers while supplies last. The Google Pixel 5 is at £404.95/$278.99. It’s accessible through retailers such as Amazon.
The Google Pixel 5 drops some of the series’ more innovative features in favor of a more focused smartphone experience that embodies some of Android’s finest traits. The hardware isn’t as competitive as devices from Oppo, OnePlus, or Realme, but that doesn’t stop the Pixel 5 from being more than the sum of its parts. This smartphone is a dependable all-arounder, a wonderful long-term investment. Also both in terms of software support and because 5G infrastructure is improving. A superb compact Android phone, and an exceptional photography phone to boot.
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