Google makes it easy: Pixel 5 is the finest mid-range

Google's new Pixel 5 is not an expensive upper-class smartphone with all the baffles, but a mid-range smartphone that has everything you need. It's compact, can do 5G, has a great camera and a strong display – what more could you want?

It's a bit unusual that Google isn't launching a high-end smartphone this year. But the company is actually spot on in 2020. "The world doesn't seem to need another $ 1,000 smartphone right now," said Google's hardware boss Rick Osterloh after the presentation of the Pixel 5. And so the company has expensive technology such as the 3D face recognition or the radar sensor of the Pixel 4 thrown overboard. The result is a mid-range smartphone for just under 613 euros that can do everything a current device needs to be able to do. In addition, the Pixel 5 is wonderfully compact and not a glass mimosa.

Nice display, rough shell

The Pixel 5 conjures up beautiful bokeh in portraits.

(Photo: kwe)

Google did not save on the display. The Pixel 5 has a six-inch OLED panel with a sharp pixel density of 432 ppi. It offers a high refresh rate of 90 Hertz (Hz) and is protected by Gorilla Glass 6. And because the screen, in contrast to the display of the Pixel 4, takes up almost the entire front, the Pixel 5, which weighs around 150 grams, is a handy smartphone that has not been seen in the Android world for a long time.

The rough lacquered aluminum housing is a real treat, which is not only more handy, but also more stable than the glass covers of other smartphones. Google only left a small gap in the metal under the paint to enable inductive charging. And of course, the robust newcomer to the Pixel is protected against dust and water in accordance with IP68. The fingerprint sensor, which replaces the Pixel 4's face recognition, is also located on the matte back. This is still a simple but very effective solution and it also works when you wear a mask – in 2020.

Sufficient power, strong camera duo

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(Photo: kwe)

Under the hood, Qualcomm's more economical, but still powerful 5G chip Snapdragon 765G, which has more than sufficient 8 gigabytes of RAM to the side. In the test, there was practically no difference to devices with a more powerful drive. Much more important is that the Pixel 5 is finally a durable Google smartphone. This is due to the frugal chip, sophisticated software and the battery that holds 4080 mAh. In the test, the battery was still half full after 14 hours and an activated display for around 2.5 hours. In a pinch, the device can be quickly refueled with the 18 watt charger, and there is a very effective "super energy-saving mode" to bridge the gap.

A lot of software magic is also involved in the camera on the back, with which Google gets more out of two lenses than many manufacturers can do with three or more snaps. The optically stabilized 12-megapixel main camera with an aperture of f / 1.7 not only takes very detailed photos with strong contrasts and natural colors during the day. It is also one of the current top cameras at night. It records videos in Full HD resolution at up to 240 frames per second (FPS), and 4K recordings at 30 or 60 FPS.

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(Photo: kwe)

There is also a super wide-angle camera with 16 megapixels and an aperture of f / 2.2, which produces sharp images right into the edge areas and is just as true to color as the main camera. And as a team, the two Pixel 5 snaps produce zoom shots that don't miss an additional telephoto camera with optical magnification. Portraits also look really good, which the software gives a very nice artificial bokeh – and that even works at night.

After all, Pixel smartphones are guaranteed to receive operating system updates for three years. After the Pixel 5 was introduced with Android 11, buyers will also experience the update to version 14. There are usually no more than two major operating system updates in the Android world.

Google Pixel 5 Test-2.jpg

Pixel 5 on the left, pixel 4a 5G on the right.

(Photo: kwe)

The bottom line is that the Pixel 5 is a smartphone that many users have been waiting for – even without Corona. It's the right size, durable and stable, has a fine display and a great double camera. Only the price could be a bit cheaper, for 500 euros the Pixel 5 would be a real blast.

Pixel 4a 5G is cheaper and bigger

If you are more economical and maybe also need a little more screen space, you can also use the Pixel 4A 5G. The device, which costs around 486 euros, has the same chip and the same camera equipment as the Pixel 5, but like the Pixel 4a (340 euros), which was introduced in the summer, is not waterproof and cannot be charged inductively. Its 6.2-inch OLED display with 413 ppi also looks very good, but does not offer a refresh rate higher than 60 Hz.

Like the simple 4a, the 5G variant has a plastic housing with a jack socket, but is not waterproof. Its main memory is only 6 GB, but it also has 128 GB of flash storage. At 3885 mAh, its battery has a significantly higher capacity than the battery in the simple Pixel 4a.

In the test, the Pixel 4A 5G proved to be about as durable as the Pixel 5; the lower RAM made no difference. The plastic back feels a bit more comfortable than the metal dress of the "flagship" in cool temperatures. Otherwise, the bigger display is the most noticeable difference. 0.2 inches is not much on paper, but in reality it is quite a lot.

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