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The Pixel 5 is Google’s best smartphone for 2020. It comes with 5G and a simplified design that is very similar to the excellent and cheaper Pixel 4a.
It’s available in black or green and costs £ 599, up from the larger but cheaper 5G Pixel 4a at £ 499 and the smaller Pixel 4a at £ 349.
Google has ditched the high-tech Soli radar system and facial recognition from the Pixel 4 and gone back to basics for a much simpler design. It has a full screen in the front, with a textured coated aluminum body that aids durability and grip.
Next to the slightly smaller Pixel 4a, it is very difficult to differentiate the phones. The Pixel 5 has a larger screen (6 inches vs. 5.8 inches diagonally) that has a faster 90Hz refresh rate, making scrolling and animations visibly smoother. The screen is bright, colorful, and sharp enough, but it can’t match the best of Samsung, OnePlus, or Apple.
Weighing just 151g, the Pixel 5 is lightweight compared to most rivals, making it one of the easiest smartphones to handle.
specs
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Screen: 6 inch FHD + 90Hz OLED (432ppi)
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Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G
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RAM: 8GB RAM
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Storage: 128 GB
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Operating system: Android 11
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Camera: 12.2MP + 16MP ultrawide, 8MP selfie
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Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 5, NFC, Bluetooth 5 (AAC, AptX / HD, LDAC) and location
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Waterproof: IP68 (1.5 meters deep for 30 minutes)
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Dimensions: 144.7 x 70.4 x 8 mm
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Weight: 151g
Lower performance chip with good battery life
The Pixel 5 may be Google’s best smartphone, but it doesn’t have a high-spec processor. Instead, it uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, which is a 5G-capable upper-to-midrange chip that was recently found in the £ 379 OnePlus Nord and the cheaper £ 499 Pixel 4a 5G. Most flagship smartphones use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chip or similar, which is almost twice as fast on paper.
In the real world, the Pixel 5 never felt sluggish or sluggish in everyday use. But when I took a lot of photos in quick succession, the lower performance meant it took longer for the camera app to process them after shooting. Gaming performance dropped as well, but not to a level most will notice.
Battery life is good, with 36 hours between charges when the screen is on for almost six hours and 5G is used for two hours, the rest being spent on Wi-Fi. That means the Pixel 5 should last from 7 a.m. M. From the first day until 7 p.m. M. From the second day. For comparison, last year’s Pixel 4 lasted just 14 hours between charges, while most 5G smartphones with high-refresh rate displays last closer to 32 hours.
Google’s new extreme battery saver system will greatly extend battery life, when needed, by allowing only a select group of apps to run and suppressing all others.
Sustainability
Google does not provide an estimate of the expected number of full charge cycles for Pixel 5 batteries. However, typical smartphone battery life is at least 500 cycles while maintaining at least 80% capacity. The Pixel 5 can generally be repaired. Out-of-warranty repairs cost £ 110 for the screen or around £ 60 for the battery through one of Google’s repair partners, iSmash, or through the Google Store.
The Pixel 5’s casing is made from 100% recycled aluminum, part of Google’s commitment to include recycled materials in all its products that will be launched in 2022. The company publishes environmental impact reports for some of its products, including the Pixel. 5. Google will recycle all Pixel devices for free.
Android 11, Google’s way
The Pixel 5 is one of the first smartphones to launch with the latest version of Android 11 and you can expect a minimum of three years of security and operating system updates, which is still a bit behind the five-year support. from Apple for iPhones.
The Android version of the Pixel is sleek and well optimized. Generally speaking, it’s attractive and simple, and it works like most other versions of Android, with full adoption of the gesture controls, updated multimedia controls, and conversation options built into Android 11.
But there are also some Google exclusives, such as the automatic transcription in the improved Google Recorder application, the new live view for Google Maps, which uses augmented reality to point out where your friends are, improved smart reply suggestions for messages in chat applications. and the new blazing-fast Google Assistant experience.
Camera
Google remains the market leader in adaptive point-and-shoot photography in most lighting conditions. On the back, the Pixel 5 has a standard 12.2MP camera alongside a 16MP ultra-wide camera, but it doesn’t have a telephoto camera for optical zoom. Instead, Google relies on its SuperResZoom technology, which is a type of digital zoom that is arguably capable of matching a 2x optical zoom, but has its limits beyond that.
Still photos are fantastic: full of drama, well-balanced details and colors, and with excellent management of high contrast and difficult lighting, even in low-light environments. The ultra-wide camera is in line with the best of the competition, but is smoother on details than the main camera. Google’s excellent night view now automatically kicks in in low light and can be used on all cameras and while in portrait mode, making it easy to shoot portraits in low light.
A new portrait light editing system also allows you to change the angle and intensity of light around a subject, simply using your finger, with excellent results.
New video recording at up to 4K 60 frames per second and better stabilization are significant enhancements, including fun cinematic panning that slows motion slightly and stabilizes the frame for a movie-like panorama. Samsung and Apple phones are still better for video, but Google is slowly catching up.
Observations
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Indoor 5G reception was weaker than the OnePlus 8T or the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.
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The new bedtime mode lets you turn on Do Not Disturb, turn off the always-on display, and other bits, either on a schedule or when you plug in the phone at night.
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The screen vibrates to produce sound rather than having a separate speaker on top, which is great for phone calls, but mediocre for stereo sound on videos; most of the sound comes from the bottom of the phone.
Price
The Pixel 5 costs £ 599 and is available in black or green.
For comparison, the Pixel 4a has an RRP of £ 349, the Pixel 4a 5G costs £ 499, the OnePlus 8T £ 549, the OnePlus Nord £ 379, the iPhone 12 £ 799 and the iPhone SE £ 419.
Verdict
The Pixel 5 is a great Google phone that goes back to the basics of being a good smartphone while adding useful features and nice touches.
Battery life is solid, the 90Hz display is good and smooth, the fingerprint scanner on the back is simple and fast, and the camera is another masterclass in simple and reliable point-and-shoot excellence. No other phone makes you look as good as a photographer effortlessly.
The size and feel of the device are also very nice; It’s lightweight, with a smooth, textured finish that’s easy to grip and looks durable. If you’re sick of big, heavy, expensive and slippery glass-backed phones, the Pixel 5 will make a refreshing change.
But the processor simply doesn’t compare in raw processing or graphics power to those in the new iPhones or Galaxy S20. Everyday performance is good and the phone feels as nimble as the best on the market, so I don’t think it matters to most users, but gamers looking for the best graphics and frame rates should look elsewhere. .
The Pixel 5 ends up competing with the significantly cheaper £ 379 OnePlus Nord, with the same specs, or the £ 549 OnePlus 8T, with a superior processor. Google is even competing with itself: the £ 499 Pixel 4a 5G has the same chip and camera with a larger screen, while the £ 349 Pixel 4a lacks 5G but is not far behind the rest.
While the Pixel 5 is a great and simple phone, it’s not as good a value as its £ 599 price tag might suggest when you compare it to the Android competition.
Pros: great camera, good screen, excellent software and support for updates, good battery life, relatively small recycled aluminum and quite inexpensive.
Cons: no headphone jack, no flagship processor, no expandable storage.
