Tech

Everything About the New Google Pixel 4A, The Value-for-Money Phone with Live Caption for Phone Calls

2020-08-04 , 5:58 pm

Is it possible to have the cake and eat it too?

By that, I mean get a smartphone that cost lesser than $500 (without contract) and yet, is able to compete with giants typically worth $1,000 or more?

Believe it or not, that’s exactly what Google is trying to do with their new Google Pixel 4A, the phone that will sub your phone call.

The inner video editor in me is screaming for joy right now.

What’s Most Important To A Smartphone User?

The camera, the display, the processor and the battery life, no?

And the Google Pixel 4A is able to give you all that, and more.

For just $499, you’re getting a phone:

Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 with Octa-Core
5.8-inch bezel-less screen with a pinhole front camera
6GB RAM
128GB worth of storage
And a 12.2 MP dual-pixel rear camera

A Good Camera

Unless you’re an avid photographer who sells your smartphone pictures, you don’t need the best camera on your smartphone, you just need it to do a good enough job.

And that’s what Google Pixel 4A is giving you.

Instead of charging you exorbitant prices for a camera that you likely wouldn’t use to take professional shots with anyway, they’re giving you a camera that can work well in low light, take great portraits and panoramic scenes, or at least good enough to upload onto Instagram.

There are the usual stuff like Live HDR+, dual exposure controls, pet mode, super res zoom and fused video stabilisation as well.

Overall, nothing great but good enough for daily use. What were you expecting for $499? A 644MP telescopic lens?

Speaking of which, there’s no telescopic lens in the Google Pixel 4A, unlike the Pixel 4.

A Good Battery Life

Here’s where the good stuff starts coming.

Quick quiz: Why do we run out of battery so fast? Either because it’s time to change your phone or you have too much going on…in the background, I mean.

The Google Pixel 4A uses machine learning to predict which apps we use lesser of, and limits their background run time.

It’ll also take note of when you usually charge your phone.

So say you usually charge your phone at 9pm. It’s only 7pm and you’re running a bit low.

The phone will start to reduce power usage so that you can last all the way until 9pm.

And if the phone knows it can’t last that long, it’ll notify you.

Funny how that’s reassuring and scary at the same time. iRobot flashbacks, anyone?

Live Caption

Next time you’re watching a video or a webinar and you really want to put it into words, you don’t have to frantically scribble on your notebook anymore.

Just let the Google Pixel 4A do the heavy lifting for you.

The phone can automatically caption any audio, video, podcasts, etc on your phone in English, which can then be saved locally or in your Google Drive.

Initially meant for users who are hard of hearing, this feature was expanded to a lot of other situations.

Wouldn’t it be cool if the feature can caption and translate at the same time? If it can do that, we don’t have to wait for the experts to translate the subtitles for our favourite Korean shows anymore.

The Google Pixel 4A brings this feature even further by having the ability to caption any audio or video conversation with others through the phone.

For safety’s sake, however, the person on the other side of the line will hear a notification sound, telling them that the live captioning service is in progress.

The captions are all processed within your phone so unless you choose to save it in the cloud, it’s all local.

Other Important Stuff

For one, the Google Assistant on the Pixel 4A is touted to be more responsive than the other versions, so if you’ve always wanted to play Hello Siri with Google, this phone will make it possible.

Because Google has to make the phone cheap, don’t expect to look at your phone and expect it to unlock by itself.

The phone doesn’t come with any facial recognition or authentication feature; instead, you have a fingerprint sensor at the back of your phone.

You’ll also get free stuff like a three-month Google Membership free which gives you a whopping 100GB storage and many more.

You’ll also get to try out YouTube Premium for free and let’s not forget, when it comes to powerful free software, Google’s the way to go.

So if you’re a Google nut, the Pixel 4A, being the phone on the market that’s the most integrated with Google Services might just appeal to you.

When Can You Buy It

You can pre-order the phone from the Google Store, and retail partners Courts and Challenger from today (4 Aug 2020).

Amazon Singapore will be selling it online from 10 Sep 2020.

Courts and Challenger will also start selling the Google Pixel 4A in-store from the mid of October this year.

So don’t say we bojio hor.