While text chatting with classic Hangouts is still possible today, Google has killed most of the legacy service’s video calling features. Google will soon restore a familiar capability that lets you make direct calls using Meet without having to generate a link ahead of time.
Today, setting up a Meet call involves giving participants a URL. In Google Chat, you can quickly insert an invite like to start a session. This makes sense for group meetings — with video links now normalized — but feels somewhat excessive when you’re just talking to one person.
Direct “Google Meet calling” is the company’s attempt to make “meetings more spontaneous.” In Google Chat, you’ll get a “video” button to quickly start a call. The “phone” icon next to it lets you make audio-only Meet calls without video. This behavior is similar to classic Hangouts, Google Duo, and other consumer video communication apps, with Meet having to increasingly target both casual and enterprise audiences.
This will ring their device running the Gmail mobile app and send a call chip to Gmail running in a web browser, so they can easily answer from any device
It’s rolling out “soon” for one-to-one chats in the Gmail mobile and standalone Chat apps. However, it will come to “other Workspace endpoints in the near future.”
Google today also provided an update on Meet’s upcoming Companion Mode. This second-screen experience lets you use one device for audio/video and another computer to better see what’s being presented, respond to and create polls/Q&A, access meeting chat, and whiteboard. You can also share/mirror your screen from that second device.
This will begin rolling out in November (previously September), with Google also working on adding the ability to read live-translated captions in Companion Mode by year’s end:
We’re currently working on translating meetings in English to French, German, Spanish and Portuguese, with many more languages coming in the future.
Gmail on the web is set to get a navigation revamp this summer, while the Android app is now beginning to roll out a Material You redesign.
It starts on the homescreen, with the top of the page seeing a pill-shaped search field that features a hamburger icon on the left and profile avatar/account switcher at the other end that fits the curvature. The layout of the navigation drawer is unchanged with this revamp, while various buttons in Gmail are now rounded.
At the bottom, we get a taller bottom bar — like we enabled in Google Play — that makes use of a pill-shaped indicator to highlight what tab you’re currently viewing. The selected icon is also filled out, while Gmail leverages a rectangular Compose FAB just above it — similar to the one in Google Contacts.
The other big change today is the use of Dynamic Color to hue the background of Gmail for Android. This includes the main email list, all tabs, and the compose screen. The bottom bar, search field, and buttons leverage a darker shade, while the overflow menu also sees some theming.
Gmail’s Material You redesign is coming with version 2021.08.24.394054613, as spotted by Artem Russakovskii and XDA this morning. That new release is rolling out via the Play Store, but it’s not yet available for all users.
Meanwhile, sideloading does not guarantee you’ll see these changes as there is a server-side component, but you might get lucky. This new update does seem to widely rename “Rooms” to “Spaces” — as expected — in the bottom bar.
While Chrome has been visually refreshed over the years, Google has kept the core user experience intact to avoid “disorienting” users. Over the past few weeks, however, Chrome for Android has been testing a redesigned New Tab page that changes quite a few things for the worse, but fortunately you can get back the old version.
Usually, new features added to Chrome do not change the fundamental design. For example, if you don’t use Tab Groups, most aspects of the mobile browser’s tab grid are unchanged.
The same cannot be said about the redesigned New Tab Page. The Google logo still appears at the top, but is much smaller and fits in the app bar. Next to it is your profile image and overflow menu, but there is no tab switcher button (or open page count).
That is part of my biggest gripe with this redesign. In removing, Google has fundamentally elevated the New Tab Page (NTP) — ironically — out of being a tab. If you imagine the tab switcher/grid view as Chrome’s underlying structure, then all open pages fit within it. Previously, the NTP was just another card alongside websites.
Now, it’s an entirely new screen and piece of browser chrome that exists on top of Chrome’s existing layout. It’s more akin to settings, history, bookmarks, and other pages that have a close “x” in the top-right corner.
Google’s intended replacement is an unfamiliar “View all” button that’s part of the “Continue browsing” carousel — one of two that happen to be stacked right on top of each other. The other is for recent/frequent pages and replaces the previous 4×2 layout, which was more efficient.
We first encountered this New Tab Page redesign in late June. Over the past week, it’s been appearing for most users. While the NTP revamp is not yet widely available, it could be an indication that Google is closer to launch.
Fortunately, you’re able to change it with the #enable-start-surface flag. The dropdown offers a slew of different iterations. Some do not even have an NTP, which is somewhat indicative of the new design’s lack of purpose/importance.
Selecting “Disabled” at the very bottom and Relaunching the browser will bring you back to the old Chrome New Tab Page — for now.
The process of shutting down classic Hangouts for Workspace users is almost complete, as Google this week enables the integrated Gmail with Chat and Rooms for even more paid accounts.
Following on Google in late 2018 confirmed that it was shutting down classic Hangouts for Chat and Meet. The legacy service is being split into standalone messaging — with a group productivity focus that will soon have a new name — and video calling apps. This deprecation was always slated to happen first for enterprise G Suite, now Workspace, customers.
Google has a five-part plan for this, and we’re now in “Phase 4” where companies using the “Chat and classic Hangouts” setting will be moved to the “Chat Preferred” option by default. That started this week and will occur for “most organizations in Q3.”
Admins can opt out, but this is the last step before the mandatory upgrade currently set for “late 2021.” At that point, all customers will be migrated and Google will “fully replace classic Hangouts with Chat.”
In terms of what end users experience, the primary change occurs in Gmail. On the web, they will be prompted with a yellow banner at the top of the screen to reload the tab. Afterwards, they will see classic Hangouts in the left/right sidebar replaced by “Chat” and “Rooms,” which is Google’s Slack and Microsoft Teams competitor. Once capability lets you open Google Docs/Sheets/Slides directly in the page next to a message thread for live collaboration.
On Android and iOS, Google Workspace customers will be prompted with a “Chat and rooms are now in Gmail” banner to “Relaunch.” The app adds two tabs to the bottom bar. The Hangouts mobile apps and website will continue to work, but the classic service’s days are numbered.
Google has yet to announce when classic Hangouts will disappear for free Gmail users, but it’s under way. These users have been able to turn on the integrated Gmail since June.
If you’ve downloaded one of the following, you might want to check your account
Google has a lot of moving parts behind the scenes, trying to keep malware off of the Play Store. But with seven figures of apps posting and updating constantly, even it doesn’t have a perfect record. Such is the claim from a security researcher last week, which said they found ten apps with variations on a trojan horse program. The apps are fairly innocuous based on their title and description, but each is designed to scrape a user’s phone for Facebook login credentials.
Dr. Web Anti-Virus said that variations of the Trojan were detected in the following publicly available apps:
PIP Photo by developer Lillians — 5,000,000+ downloads
Processing Photo by developer chikumburahamilton — 500,000+ downloads
Rubbish Cleaner by developer SNT.rbcl — 100,000+ downloads
Horoscope Daily by developer HscopeDaily momo — 100,000+ downloads
Inwell Fitness by developer Reuben Germaine — 100,000+ downloads
App Lock Keep by developer Sheralaw Rence — 50,000+ downloads
Lockit Master by developer Enali mchicolo — 5000+ downloads=
Horoscope Pi by developer Talleyr Shauna — 1000+ downloads
App Lock Manager by developer Implummet col — 10+ downloads
The researchers alerted Google to their findings, and as of Monday morning, it looks like all the apps and developers have been removed from the Play Store. Even so, the Play Store’s basic metrics report that the apps were installed on approximately six million Android devices, on the low end. A similar app, “EditorPhotoPip,” had already been removed from the Play Store but was available on alternative download sites.
Dr. Web reports that all of the apps it found were fully functional for their advertised purpose, making them particularly effective as spyware. This serves as yet another lesson to keep your guard up, even when downloading “vetted” apps directly from Google.
Similar-sounding privacy details, but more and better information when it comes to your security
Last year, Apple rolled out a new set of what it called Privacy Labels for the App Store. These disclaimers were sort of like privacy-oriented nutrition information attached to each app listing, with developers supplying the details regarding exactly what data their apps collect and precisely how it’s used — assuming you trust them to be honest. The moment that news landed last year, expectations swung our collective attention at Google: When would Android and the Play Store get something similar?
The answer is “next year,” assuming the tentative schedule Google for the new “safety section” announced today holds up. And based on the details provided, it might beat Apple when it comes to caring about your security instead of just your privacy.
We don’t know what the new safety section will look like in action, and Google is still ironing out some of the particulars with developer feedback, but the overall strategy has been outlined in broad strokes.
A (chunky) example of a Privacy Label on the App Store.
The new safety section will offer similar data to Apple’s Privacy Labels (example visible above), with developers stating on their app listings exactly what type of data an app collects or stores and how that data is used. While we don’t know how Google will organize that information or if it will offer the same super-granular approach Apple does, it does sound like Google could intentionally going for something a little simpler — skeptics might claim that’s because Android cares less about your privacy, but to be honest, the way Apple shows that data does start to feel a little overwhelming and overcomplicated for big, monolithic apps with deep cross-service integrations, which are all the rage these days.
As in the case of Apple, Google will require that developers be honest and responsible for declaring what their apps use, and if they try to scoff the rules, they’ll have to either fix it or be subject to further “policy enforcement.” Though precise terms of enforcement haven’t been described, we have to assume it’s similar to violating other Play Store policies, which could mean things as simple as holding back updates, or potentially as extreme as app delisting for extreme violations. And Google is making itself and all its own apps subject to this same policy, so there isn’t a double standard, matching Apple.
However, in a few very significant ways, Google is also one-upping Apple, like security. This new safety section will also explain if an app follows specific security practices, like data encryption. Furthermore, these sorts of labels are only accurate so long as developers are honest about what they’re doing. To that end, Google will let apps declare if their privacy and security claims have been verified by an independent third party.
Apps on the Play Store will also explain if the permissions are required or optional, rather than just listing all possible permissions they could declare. For example: If you’re cool with a third-party photo app accessing your camera but not your microphone and it can take photos either way. Or, if a workout-tracking app can access your physical activity history but not your location directly and still follow your calories burned, etc.
Apps will also declare if they meet Google’s Families Policy, presumably making it easier to pick out family-friendly apps for the kiddos — though hopefully doing a better job of it than the kid-friendly section of YouTube. This would build upon the “teacher approved” badges that rolled out last year for the Play Store and policy changes in 2019 regarding apps that target specific age groups and which child accounts can be limited to with Family Link.
Very importantly, Google’s policy will also let apps highlight if customers can delete their data should they stop using an app. So if any of your data for an app is stored off your device (which plenty of apps do), you’ll know if that’s going to be someone else’s property for time immemorial or if you can tell them to toss it out when you decide you’re done playing Clash of Crush or whatever.
I honestly assumed that if Google rolled out its own version of Privacy Labels, they’d just be a straight clone of Apple’s system. But this policy is set to beat Apple when it comes to security and accountability, not just privacy.
There is one kind of major snag, though, and that’s Google’s timeline for this new Play Store safety section — outside the kind of “eh” name.
While it’s subject to change, this new section isn’t set to show up until next year, sometime in Q1 2022. That’s coming up on two years after Apple announced its privacy disclosures back in June 2020, which rolled out to phones last December. The formal policy details also won’t be standardized until Q3 of this year, and developers can start putting that info in their app listings around the end of the year.
The ultimate deadline by which all new and existing apps must declare details for the safety section is Q2 2022, and it isn’t immediately clear what might happen to the (probably millions of) apps on the Play Store that have been basically abandoned and will never be updated to honor this new policy — if, for example, they might still be available with a prominent warning and blocked from delivering updates until they do, or if they’ll be outright unlisted.
Developers hoping to participate in the conversation for the new safety section going forward are invited to review their apps and see what data is collected, saved, and where and how it’s sent anywhere. At the same time, they should review best privacy practices and best security practices, raising a stink as required should they run into any issues or questions Google might want to be aware of before the new rules are set in stone.
Several users have taken to social media to report that the Google app on their Android phone is constantly crashing. While there’s no clear reason why this is happening, a new update seems to be causing the problem.
The issue doesn’t seem to be limited to just one version of the app. I faced the problem with version 12.23.16.23 on my Redmi K20 Pro whereas one of our tipsters experienced it with the beta version 12.24.7.29. Lens, Podcasts, and the Assistant are also affected by the crashes as they’re bundled into the Google app.
Google‘s Twitter account has suggested a soft reboot to fix the issue, and it seems to be working for some users. However, the fix isn’t universal and you might need to resort to other steps to stop the crashes. For me, uninstalling the update via the Google Play Store did the trick, but you could also try clearing cache and data.
A similar problem with tons of crashing apps plagued Android phones back in March, though that time around, the Android System WebView was the culprit.
If you’re experiencing a bunch of apps suddenly crashing on your recent Samsung phone, you’re not alone. This afternoon US time, reports from dozens, then hundreds of users on the Samsung subreddit started coming in, complaining of apps crashing on their phones, constantly and seemingly at random. It’s causing some major headaches. You can quickly fix the problem by disabling the Android System WebView app, or updating it via the Play Store or APK Mirror.
Users of recent Samsung phones—Galaxy S20 and S21, Note 20, A50 and A70 series, among others—seem to be the most heavily affected. There are scattered reports of the same problem happening to Pixel, Motorola, and OnePlus phones, though those may be coincidental issues unrelated to the primary problem. Owners of some older Samsung devices, including one J7, are reporting similar issues. The app crashes aren’t limited to any specific subset: applications with more or less any function, from any developer, are crashing repeatedly and without warning.
A few users have reported success with a relatively simple method: uninstalling the latest version of Android System WebView, a small tool that allows apps to render a web page using Chrome without leaving the application. It’s used in a lot of different ways, including secure logins and viewing support documentation. Reddit user /u/WatfordHert detailed their method, which is fairly straightforward.
How to Fix the Recent App Crashes
To use WatfordHert’s method, go to the main Android Settings menu, then tap “Apps & Notifications” (just “Applications” on some phones). Find Android System WebView in the list and tap it. (If you can’t see the app, check the three-dot menu and tap “show system apps.”) Do not disable the app.
Tap the three-dot menu at the top right of this screen, then select “Uninstall updates.” This won’t uninstall Android System WebView completely—it’s an essential component, and many apps will cease to function without it. Instead, it will remove the updates installed from the Play Store and restore it to the version that came with your phone. This isn’t ideal, but it’s better than having a phone that can’t go thirty seconds without an app crash.
Tap “OK” on the warning that pops up, and you should be done. If you’re still seeing constant app crashes, try a reboot of your phone.
We can’t personally test this method on all the phones being affected, but multiple Reddit users are reporting that it’s working for them. If you see the app crashing problem return, try repeating the steps above—the Play Store may have automatically updated the app without alerting you. According commenters like Jorell, this method may not work on devices running older versions of Android—try uninstalling the updates from the Chrome browser itself instead.
Update Android System WebView
If you want a more permanent solution, Google quickly issued an update to the Android System WebView application in the early hours of March 23rd. It should be rolling out on the Play Store right now, but if you don’t want to wait, it’s available on APK Mirror as a direct download. The version number you’re looking for is 89.0.4389.105.
According to a service update posted to the Google Workspace Status Dashboard, this version of the app should fix the problems with other reliant apps crashing. Note that users who are already on the developer previews for Android 12 shouldn’t need this—they’re already running early versions of Chrome 90, and WebView gets updated along with its.
Back in 2019, Apple, Amazon, and Google teamed up with the Zigbee Alliance to announce the “CHIP” alliance for promoting smart home devices that work across multiple platforms. As the first devices certified by this alliance are expected to hit stores in 2021, the companies behind “CHIP” announced today that the project will have a new name: Matter.
In order to get Matter’s certification, the product needs to adopt a new royalty-free standard that makes it compatible with Amazon’s Alexa Smart Home, Apple’s HomeKit, and Google’s Weave protocols. The alliance will embrace devices such as smart light bulbs, video doorbells, door locks, smart speakers, and more.
Tobin Richardson, chief executive of Matter, told CNET that every device certified by the new alliance will have a unique logo to indicate that it works with the Apple, Amazon, and Google ecosystems. “He expects the logo to become as ‘ubiquitous’ as the Wi-Fi logo currently is,” says the report.
The Matter logo has three arrows pointing toward the center, representing the partnership of the three companies behind the alliance. Customers will see this logo on the boxes of compatible products and even on the devices themselves once they become available.
“As these different devices become more complex networks, it’s all the more important that they’re all talking the same language,” Richardson said. “That mark will be a helping hand to make sure that you can add whatever lightbulbs, whatever door locks, whatever you want to add.” Richardson made the comment in an interview ahead of a Matter press event on Tuesday.
Concept shows a smart light bulb with the Matter logo. Image: CNET
According to Michelle Mindala-Freeman, head of marketing at Matter, compatible accessories will have setup codes to let users easily pair them on any platform. The main idea of the Matter alliance is to break the barrier between smart home devices so that the user does not have to worry about which platform the accessory is compatible with.
The report says that the first Matter-certified accessories should be available later this year, but a more detailed schedule is still unclear. Developers interested in working with the Matter protocol can check out the GitHub page of the Zigbee Alliance.
Whether a $499 smartphone can qualify as “budget-friendly” is up for debate. But after extensive testing, what’s not up for debate is that the Google Pixel 4a 5G is the absolute best budget smartphone you can find in the price range. A 3,800mAh battery, a better-than-decent camera, a sleek design, and a powerful processor help catapult the Pixel over most of its competitors.
In fact, it’s got most of the same features as the $699 Pixel 5, though they diverge in several small but meaningful ways. It’s not water-resistant, it doesn’t have wireless charging, the battery is a tad smaller, and its display is 0.2 inches larger. It also sports a polycarbonate body, while the Pixel 5’s is aluminum. Despite the weird official naming, the Google Pixel 4a 5G is a totally different – and much better – phone than the Pixel 4a. The 4a is physically smaller, with a smaller battery, a slower processor, and (obviously) doesn’t have access to 5G.
While Google did release a “flagship” Pixel 5 this year, I think the more budget-friendly Pixel 4a 5G has stolen its thunder. The sleeper-hit is basically a bigger Pixel 5 that’s missing a few features, but $200 cheaper. That means skipping out on an IP rating, 90Hz display, a bit of RAM, and a metal (ish) build, but you get a bigger screen and a headphone jack, paired with with the same camera, internals, and the Pixel software experience. At just $500, this is my favorite phone of 2020.
The Pixel 4a 5G was announced on September 30, 2020, alongside the Pixel 5, the Google Nest Audio, and the latest Chromecast.
The Pixel 4a 5G is, in essence, the 5G-enabled version of the regular Pixel 4a, which came out on August 3. However, there are more upgrades to the Pixel 4a 5G. The phone has a bigger screen, features a faster Snapdragon 765G processor, and comes with a bigger battery.
Pixel 4a 5G is a value-oriented phone made for people who don’t want or need a flashy high-end phone. Like the Pixel 4a, the 4a 5G model’s strong points are its cameras, smooth software, and rock-solid update policy.
Google Pixel 4a 5G – Design and Features
It might sound a bit hyperbolic, but the Pixel 4a 5G is one of the best feeling phones I’ve ever held. The size is perfect for my hands. At 2.9 x 0.3 x 6.1 inches (W x D x H), it’s on the larger side – a full half-inch taller than the iPhone 11 Pro. But the Pixel 4a 5G can hide its size behind a weirdly sleek plastic frame, one that makes it feel sturdy, relatively high-quality, and much grippier than something like the aforementioned iPhone.
The Pixel 4a 5G could be confused with the smaller Pixel 4a at a glance. It has the same matte plastic unibody design, rear capacitive fingerprint sensor, hole-punch front-facing camera, and even identically sized bezels. The cutouts for microphones and speakers on the top and bottom, buttons on the right, SIM tray on the left, and ports on the bottom are all in exactly the same positions as the smaller phone. It’s impressively consistent. However, there are a few key changes, like the wider camera hump, which houses an extra wide-angle camera module, and the overall larger design.
As with the smaller phone, the Pixel 4a 5G’s matte plastic finish is a bit too finely textured and easily picks up oils from your hands. Though the plastic seems durable enough, it does accrue wear more quickly than metal or glass would; mine’s already marked up with a handful of barely-visible scratches from normal use in the last week. The fingerprint sensor itself is also too shallow when the phone is naked, though that’s probably a non-issue, because you’ll use a case. Outside that, it was entirely reliable.
The 4a 5G has a good heft to it, with a similar feeling of density in-hand when compared to the smaller Pixel 4a. The curved edges yeild a comfortable and ergonomic shape to hold, even for extended periods, though it’s a little less easily gripable than the smaller phone. I’d consider this the upper-limit of easy one-handed use.
Mid-range phones always have to strike a balance when they cut corners, and screens usually get the short end of the stick. Even last year’s Pixel 3a and 3a XL had pretty mediocre panels. But this year, Google seriously stepped up the quality of its displays. Like the smaller Pixel 4a, I have no complaints about the screen in the 4a 5G. It gets bright enough outside, dim enough at night, it’s visually quite sharp, and it doesn’t have any issues with uneven backgrounds or “green tint” in dark themes. Google tells us it hits up to 700 nits of brightness at peak and 2 nits at its dimmest, though there are a lot of ways to measure that which makes it hard to compare numbers with other phones. Sure, I’d prefer if it had a higher refresh rate or greater than 1080p resolution, but at this price, it’s hard to get too picky.
Like the Pixel 4a, you don’t have any IP-rated water resistance. While there are gaskets in its design, like around the SIM tray, there’s no way to know how aggressive the ingress protection is throughout the phone without an actual rating, so better to err on the side of caution and refrain from underwater photography or phone calls in downpours.
The stereo speakers work as usual via the top earpiece and bottom-firing speaker, and they sound slightly different compared to the 4a, just a little less shrill/treble-heavy with a more rounded sound and marginally more bass (though these are smartphone speakers and they’ll never thump). Haptics aren’t the best that Google‘s done, and a clear step back compared to the Pixel 4, but they’re marginally better and stronger than the 4a. At least, as a non-“flagship,” you get an actual headphone jack — score one over the more expensive Pixel 5.
In fact, I think it might make more sense to compare the Pixel 4a 5G to the Pixel 5, even though it shares a name with the Pixel 4a. It’s equipped with the same Snapdragon 765G and dual-camera configuration with a new wide-angle secondary. While the outward design and materials resemble the Pixel 4a, inside, this is basically a Pixel 5. Google even has a separate mmWave version of the 4a that will be sold by Verizon, bringing it almost to network parity with the Pixel 5 model sold in the US (minus a handful of Sub-6 bands). From a particular perspective, the phone would be better named the “Pixel 5 Lite.”
In more pure hardware terms, you get 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, which is good enough for a mid-range phone to last a few years. I’m glad that Google has stepped up and realized that’s the minimum these days, and I hope other manufacturers follow in its footsteps.
In the box, you get an 18W USB PD Type-C charger, a three-foot cable, a Type-C to Type-A adapter, a SIM-ejector tool, and the usual warranty cards and manuals.
Software, performance, battery life
Some disagree, but consider Google‘s vision of Android on the Pixels among the best out there, especially on Android 11. With the number of exclusive features Pixels get, we can’t quite say it’s “stock” anymore, but it’s probably the closest you can get with the deep changes most manufacturers implement now. And while it’s very, very hard to express why I like Pixel software so much, I’ll try.
First: The Google Assistant. I’m not as all-in when it comes to smart home hardware as my fellow Android Police editors — I don’t have any Nest cameras (yet) or thermostats — but I still use the Assistant daily on smart speakers, displays, and my phone to control lighting, play music, remotely harass my roommate, and enjoy a remote-free TV life. While I can do all that regardless of the phone in my pocket, Google‘s extra Pixel-exclusive Assistant features are so useful, I’d probably pay a subscription to get them on other phones.
Automatic call screening is among my favorite features. While some of the folks calling me don’t like it too much, spam calls are still a serious issue regardless of whatever progress carriers claim to be making. So the fact that the Assistant can automatically screen calls that come my way and filter out the junk is fantastic, saving me from multiple interruptions a day.
The Pixels also get Google’s snazzy “new” Assistant, with faster on-device recognition and Continued Conversation. That last feature means, once you’ve triggered the Assistant, you can issue follow-up contextual commands and not have to preface them with the hotword either. I use it quite a lot while driving, and I miss it on other devices; although it’s weird Google still doesn’t turn it on during setup.
Beyond the Assistant itself, there are other software perks to Pixel ownership. Google’s Recorder app, for example, comes in handy for us bloggers when taking notes at an in-person event (if we ever have those again). But if you’re the sort that likes dictating notes to yourself, it can just as easily be used for that. The Pixel Launcher is so simple and good I go out of my way to install an improved clone of it on other phones. And, from my perspective, Pixels are mostly free of bloatware; every app they come with is something I’d install myself on another device anyway because I’m so deeply integrated into Google’s ecosystem.
While Google’s software design can still be a little inconsistent across first-party apps (I can’t believe YouTube still refuses to fit in), it’s generally more cohesive than most other Android skins, and it meshes better with third-party apps since many follow Google’s Material guidelines. In total, that makes for a less jarring or disruptive visual experience when you use a Pixel compared to almost any other phone.
There are only a few things I don’t like about the Pixel software experience. For one, Google seems to have re-tuned things like animations to favor higher framerate displays, and something feels just a little bit off on the 60Hz screen on the 4a 5G. (We touched on the same thing in our Pixel 4a review.) I may be alone in this, but I also dislike the effect the hole-punch camera cutout has on software. Google pads it with enough space that its latest Pixels have the largest status bars I’ve seen in years — it’s even bigger than the Essential PH-1. It doesn’t need so much wasted space, and as tall as the screen is already, I don’t like giving it up more of it to empty padding.
Performance on the 4a 5G struck me as odd. The phone is clearly faster than the smaller Pixel 4a — side-by-side with last year’s Pixel 4, which has a higher-end chipset, it loads most apps in almost the same time — but it’s simultaneously more prone to so-called Android “jank” for me, dropping frames more often than the less capable Pixel 4a feels like it does. We know from experience with other phones that the Snapdragon 765G is a capable chipset, and yet something still feels off at times. I have to assume that it’s a software issue, and other curiosities like too-small resolutions for the first-party hole-punch wallpapers imply to me that we might see a sweeping bug-fix update land soon (we’ll update our coverage if and when that changes).
But outside that “jank” — imaginary or otherwise — the phone was plenty fast. The GPU may not be the most powerful, but it was strong enough for some light Fortnite as well as more casual titles. Day-to-day performance was also generally good, and I didn’t notice any issues with app slowdowns or freezes.
5G remains mostly useless, and I usually get slower speeds on T-Mobile’s 5G here in Boston than I do on LTE. If and when 5G becomes truly relevant, the 4a 5G will support it — though there’s 5G and then there’s 5G. While Verizon will be getting a version of the phone with mmWave, the “standard” unlocked version only supports sub-6Ghz 5G. That’s the 5G that actually matters for most of us, but it’s also the 5G that will make the least difference to things like speeds. Ultimately, there’s really no reason to go out of your way to buy a 5G phone right now unless it happens to come with it, but the 4a 5G does.
The 3,800mAh battery in the 4a 5G may not be the biggest you can get in a phone this size, but Google manages to stretch it out to last all day — and then some. While I look forward to putting it through its paces in more circumstances, the phone managed just over eight hours of screen-on time over two days, and this was in mixed use with a few hours of GPS navigation as a standalone Android Auto screen, browsing, reading, and taking photos across Wi-Fi, LTE, and 5G connections. I even tested this on Google Fi, which is notorious for wrecking battery life. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the 4a 5G may break 10 hours of screen-on time in a single day in certain use cases. In short: this is an even bigger battery champion than the smaller Pixel 4a was.
That’s good, because it’s not the most convenient phone to charge. While it can top up at 18W with the universal Power Delivery standard, and that’s enough for the majority of us that plug a phone in overnight, it lacks wireless charging for convenient topping-up during the day, and it doesn’t have an ultra-fast high-wattage charging mode for emergencies. Personally, I think 18W is still fine at this price, but more powerful specs like OnePlus’ Warp Charging have saved my butt in emergencies, and I’d like to see more phones support faster charging speeds.
Camera
Google‘s Pixels are known for having some of the best smartphone cameras you can get. Even with an older sensor, that remains true today — proof that software matters more than hardware in this era of computational photography. While I still prefer the utility of a telephoto, Google did convince me that the wide-angle camera can actually be useful with the Pixel 4a 5G.
The primary camera’s performance seems about equivalent to the Pixel 4, 4a, and prior Pixel phones. That makes sense, It’s using the same sensor and probably the same lens configuration. But there is one notable difference compared to last year’s Pixel 4: Camera processing takes a little longer. I’m told the Pixel 5 suffers the same behavior. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it is noticeable. Otherwise, you get the same hyper-real photos with great clarity, sharpness, and a tendency to favor slight underexposure (which makes for attractive contrast). Some super detailed, super high-contrast scenes can look a bit muddy on a very close crop (like the photo looking through the branches of a downed tree in the gallery above), but Google generally does an exceptional job preserving detail.
This, in tandem with the Pixel 5, is the first time Google has done a wide-angle camera in a Pixel, and it delivered. My biggest complaint is that its minimum focus distance is too far out, somewhere around two feet. That’s not unexpected, but it does mean I can’t use it for quite as many fun shots as I’d hoped. Though I did notice some very slight chromatic aberration (i.e., “purple fringing”) with leaves against the sky, it wasn’t too noticeable or distracting outside a crop, and I was stunned at the dynamic range.
Usually, the smaller aperture you get on wide-angle cameras means worse performance indoors or in poor lighting, and that isn’t the case here. Google’s wide-angle camera is equally good indoors our outdoors, and it even does okay in low-light. It’s definitely noisier in challenging circumstances than the primary, and even a tiny bit muddy with certain textures, but it does a great job. Although overall results are sharp enough, it’s also a little soft on a crop, and more likely to lose fine detail (like the leaves on the forest floor in some of the photos above). While both the primary and wide-angle suffer some unavoidable lens flare if bright lights like the sun are in scene, the long shape of the flare on the wide-angle camera is less pleasing and unexpected. Color balance between lenses in the same scene changed a little more than I hoped, but it was much more consistent than some manufacturers accomplish. For all I know, Google may actually be doing it intentionally to take a better shot.
The Google camera also has a couple new features like portrait light, that lets you dynamically adjust lighting for a portrait photo after the fact. It’s technically very cool, but I know I’ll never use it.
While I still lament it, the loss of the telephoto isn’t the end of the world. Google’s Super Res Zoom is probably the best software zoom solution out there, and it plugs the gap well enough. Paired with the wide-angle, the camera is now objectively more versatile, even if I know I would use a telephoto more often, myself.
Night Sight and Astrophotography are both still great features, and they both work with the wide-angle camera, though results are noisier and a bit streaky.
In short, Google made another amazing camera here, wide-angle and all. When the day finally comes for Google to switch to a bigger, more modern sensor in Pixels, the results will probably be incredible. But for now, it still takes the Android crown unless you need a sharper telephoto or wider wide-angle.
The more I ruminated on it over the last few days as I sat down to write this review, the harder I struggled to find things to complain about with this phone, and that’s weirdly high praise. When things are great, and nothing is really wrong, that’s a neutral state for a tool; it’s just doing what it should. It’s when things are bad, or something breaks, you can feel bothered or even frustrated. But the Pixel 4a 5G didn’t leave me complaining — and that’s enough to call it great in my mind.
Buy it if:
You want a Pixel 5 on a budget — it’s basically a bigger, “lite” version.
Camera performance, battery life, and price are your biggest concerns.
You’re so deeply integrated into Google’s services that you honestly can’t see a way out please help me.
Don’t buy it if:
You want The Real Flagship Experience™ and need more power, a smoother screen, and an IP rating.
Budget constraints are either narrower or looser — there are better values at both ends of the spectrum between the baby Pixel 4a and Samsung Galaxy S20 FE.
Google has taken a drastically different approach with the Pixel lineup. They’ve focused on providing a great user experience without maxing out the specs on the processor or the screen. The Pixel 5 maybe this year’s Google‘s flagship, but it’s not a flagship device as we know it.
Google did away with the finnicky radar sensors that enabled Motion Sense features on the Pixel 4 and 4 XL. Motion Sense wasn’t really as useful as the advertisements made it out to be. Because of this, the fingerprint scanner is back. Next, we don’t have the latest Snapdragon chipset on the Pixel, but we do get the capable Snapdragon 765G with support for 5G networks. Finally, the Pixel 5 swaps out the 2X telephoto from last year in favor of a new ultra-wide camera.
The overall form factor is far more manageable with a 6-inch display with a punch-hole selfie camera cut out and compact size. The Pixel 5‘s design is largely based on the Pixel 4a that came just weeks before it, but it comes with the slimmest bezels we’ve ever seen on a Pixel phone. It also has a beefier 4080mAh battery compared to the Pixel 4 XL’s 3,800 mAh. Combined with the power-efficient Snapdragon 765G, the Pixel 5 should also see improvements in battery life, but we’ll get to that.
Google Pixel 5 specs:
Body: 144.7 x 70.4 x 8 mm; 151g; Gorilla Glass 6 front, recycled aluminum enclosure reinforced with plastic; Colors: Just Black and Sorta Sage; IP68
The Pixel 5 does achieve something new. It’s got a housing made of recycled aluminum. However, it still supports wireless charging (and even supports reverse charging this year) – proving that smartphone makers don’t need to make fragile glass sandwiches to achieve the popular feature. Google did this by putting the charging coil on the outside of the housing before applying the texturized coating and ran the coil through holes cut out of the back of the chassis.
We can’t help but think that Google is taking a step backwards with the Pixel 5. However, its lower price and focus on experience may be in Google’s favor. The need for a cheaper headlining 5G smartphone is more urgent than in the past and its price point pins it up against the recently announced iPhone 12 Mini, the OnePlus 8T, and the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE.
The camera hardware stays the same on paper, but we’re curious to see if the software has allowed advancements in imaging. We’ll keep an open mind and let you know if Google has solidified its software and camera experiences with the Pixel 5. Let’s move into the box and see what’s inside.
Unboxing
On the exterior, the Pixel 5‘s box shows the phone’s picture with the chosen coat of color. Our model is the “Sorta Sage”. The Pixel 5 comes with the bare necessities inside the box, which prominently features the #teampixel hashtag and 5G logos.
The phone comes with some documentation, a SIM tool, USB “Quick Transfer adapter”, 18W USB-C PD adapter, and USB-C charging/data cable. Google only included earbuds once with the Pixel 3 (XL) but later removed them for the Pixel 4 (XL) in the US.
Design
The Google Pixel 5 is not your average glass sandwich as it’s got a body made of recycled aluminum. In fact, Google deserves praise for proving that phone makers don’t need to use plastic or glass to get a smartphone to support wireless charging. You see, aside from wireless charging, having a smartphone with glass on the back makes it much easier for RF signals to pass through and makes it more prone to damage. This metal body also makes the Pixel 5 the first 5G-enabled smartphone with a metal body construction (even if it’s partially metal).
As Google explains, the Pixel 5‘s charging coil is placed right on the outside of the aluminum chassis before the assembly is placed in an injection mold. The wiring for the coil passes through the metal shell before getting a layer of “bio-resin,” which is basically a thin plastic layer. After that, the body is smoothened out and coated with either the “Just Black” or “Sorta Sage” exterior coating.
Google says you won’t be able to feel the coil behind the coating and its reasoning for going with this structure of materials over plastic or glass is to keep the phone thin. This coating feels unlike any other Android smartphone. It feels like granite or sandstone that’s been smoothened out and soft to the touch. The grip here is superb and certainly better than that of any glass.
The 6-inch screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 6, and just like the Pixel 4a, the 5 has a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera. Under strong light, we can faintly see the proximity sensor behind the display, just below the earpiece. We appreciate these little touches that help keep the bezels slimmer than ever.
Compared to the Pixel 4’s 5.7-inch display, the Pixel 5 has got a larger 6-inch screen that fits in a device that’s slimmer in every dimension, even shaving off some weight. This is due to the extra bulk that the radar sensors took up in the previous-gen Pixels. The Pixel 5 weighs 151g and measures 144.7 x 70.4 x 8 mm, and is rated IP68 water resistance.
On the left side is a SIM card tray with space for a single nanoSIM. Remember that the Pixel 5 also supports an internal eSIM for dual SIM connectivity. The right side has a volume rocker and ultra-shiny power key. The accented power key on the Sorta Sage Pixel isn’t painted in a different color as Google has done in the past. It has made this button and the “G” logo on the back shiny, giving them a nice contrast to the soft, textured exterior coating.
The fingerprint scanner can be seen and felt easily at the back. Meanwhile, although there’s a camera hump present, it doesn’t protrude enough to cause the phone to rock back and forth on a table.
There’s no headphone jack on the Pixel 5, just the one USB-C connector at the bottom. The left port is a microphone, and the right port is one of two loudspeakers. There’s also a tiny microphone hole in the camera square on the back.
The overall design very closely mimics the Pixel 4a but with a slightly larger display and, of course, the dual cameras. We are content with the rounded sides and high-grip material on the back of the Pixel 5. We are glad to see more phone makers revert to more compact form factors as things have been getting a little out of hand, pun intended.
Competition
The Google Pixel 5‘s price point positions it in the same space as the newly-announced iPhone 12 mini, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, and the vivo X50 Pro. Although all of them are around the same price, some offer more value than others depending on your needs.
Then other packages offer the same or more for a lower price. The first device that comes to mind is the OnePlus Nord, which has twice as many cameras and runs the same chipset for less. The Nord even has faster Warp Charging, but it does omit wireless charging. The OnePlus 8T is priced like the Pixel 5 but offers high-end performance and 120Hz smoothness.
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini are just arriving on the market, and this is the first year that these iPhones will offer 5G support. Their preliminary reviews reveal that battery life is weaker than their predecessors. Still, the iPhone cameras are top-tier, and iOS is smooth and responsive.
The Pixel 5 has improved video recording this year with its processing tweaks and new stabilization modes. Suppose you’re after something that’s going to give you an even more advanced video recording experience. In that case, the vivo X50 Pro has a micro gimbal built into the camera assembly with some nifty controls and shooting modes.
The LG Wing is an entirely different class. Aside from having a higher price, it’s experimental T-shaped form factor brings a fresh way to interact with a smartphone. Both it and the vivo X50 Pro are running the same Snapdragon 765G chipset with support for 5G networks.
Verdict
The Google Pixel 5 is an evolution of the kind of smartphone that Google wants to offer. It solves the battery life issue that’s plagued all Pixel phones before it, and it’s taken a decision to switch up the hardware materials while keeping Google’s obsession with using non-standard textures and an understated design and overall look. We are also glad to see something more compact and pocketable arriving in a sea of super long glass slabs.
Google was creeping up on $1000 territory with the Pixel 4 XL but pumped the brakes with the Pixel 5 while cutting corners in just the right areas that don’t compromise the overall experience. The midrange processor might be a turn-off for some who would instead go with a cutting-edge chipset, which both Samsung and OnePlus will gladly sell you for the same price. In any case, performance is adequate for a smartphone in this day in age (as my colleague Prasad would attest), and the Snapdragon 765G will age gracefully.
Then there’s the camera, which feels more like a side-step than advancement. Although Google is adamant about the features and improvements to the camera, the software side of photography can only improve so much. We feel that this ceiling has been reached, and Google is due to put out a new Pixel with a more advanced camera. The Pixel 2’s camera was ahead of its time, but today the Google Pixel 5 is really just playing catch-up with the new ultra-wide camera. The selfie camera is also due for an update.
Google’s implementation of Android 11 on the Pixel 5 is smooth and consistent – perhaps the best stock Android has ever gotten. It will be interesting to see Google’s next step from here, but the Pixel 5 is a great first move for a lineup that’s bound to benefit from a future high-end Pixel 5 “Pro” model if there ever is one.
Pros:
Less bezel, more screen, more pocketable
Plastic-reinforced metal build with two-directional wireless charging
Much-improved display brightness over Pixel 4
Speakers are loud
Superb battery endurance
Pixel-only features like Hold for Me and Robo Call-screening
Finally, an ultra-wide camera on a Pixel
Cons:
Snapdragon 765G performance is severely handicapped in this phone
Recycled main camera hardware with incremental improvements to image quality
