GooglePixel 4a - Unlocked Android Smartphone - 128 GB of Storage - Up to 24 Hour Battery - Just BlackEPEAT

So I have had zero issues with the fingerprint reader. It is actually been really good for letting me in and nobody else in. I even put a case on mine and I can still reach the finger reader so I actually think it's really great it's much easier for me to get into my phone compared to my old one. What I like about this phone too is that it is thinner. I used to have the Moto x charge and that was definitely much wider and I didn't realize how much more uncomfortable it is. Now when I pick that one up to try and compare to this one it's such a beast in such a tank. Whereas this new phone it's thinner and slimmer and can actually like fit in my palm so it's in my hand and then it can sit nicely on my finger like if I'm holding it like cut. Which is very nice and I can reach everything on it with my thumb. The fact that the screen is the entire phone face is still giving me the exact same size as my old phone just I no longer have a big phone because it didn't take up the whole screen it had sides on it before so I really like that this one is the whole screen and that it's slimmer. I have a nice case on it and I have a screen protector on the front and I'm still able to use everything the same and everything is functioning fine. My only thing is yes the battery does last all day, my old phone my battery could last a couple days but it was an ex-charge and the battery was supposed to do that. But the bonus about this phone here is it does tell me if I keep continuing using it at the rate that I am it tells me about when my phone will die the estimated die time for the battery. So that's easy for me to be like oh okay well I'm going to be going and doing this so maybe I should charge it now. But I typically only charge it at night when I'm going to sleep. it does have a spam detection for calls which I didn't realize was a thing and I've had a couple phone calls like pop up but never ring and then they go away and I am notified that they were spam and then I have verified and they actually are indeed spam. So that has been really nice. I also like that I can give names to my group chats. Everything seems to be running very smoothly and fast at least faster than what I'm used to. it did take a little getting used to for me to do the back button cuz there was no back button I couldn't figure it out but if you just hold off to the side a little bit it is actually much easier to go back and forth between things I've found. my screen now has five icons across compared to my old one that had only four icons across so for me that's fine because I can see them fine I haven't looked to see if I can change that. So if you are maybe hard on seeing that might not be a benefit but otherwise for me since I don't have that problem this is great I really also like that I can just click on the time and date on the phone and it pulls up my calendar or the weather I don't have to go search for a different app I just click on it on my phone and it just takes me to that app.my other favorite thing is that it is still an Android phone I absolutely love the Android app I even have my tablets in Android because I'm just so used to Android and I prefer Android over the counterpart. Like I really dislike Apple and Apple I think is so much more expensive.another fun thing is the night mode I set a bedtime for me and when it's my bedtime if I'm staying up it goes into a black and white scale mode so everything is in black and white so then I go all right fine yep it's bedtime. I also like the do not disturb because I can have things blocked for when I'm sleeping so my phone isn't ringing or anything and I don't have to remember to put it on silent it was automatically does that. Unless of course it's emergency it is set to if somebody calls back within a 10-15 minute window that it will ring because it's a priority call and I have that turned on. I haven't even come close to using all the storage space that I have on my phone. Whereas my old phone I was constantly having to delete things to get a new app if I wanted to and it was very hard to do, so I like the extra space I like how fast it works and I like the thinness of it actually. As for phone calls and stuff I don't have an issue with the speaker or the earpiece very simple to use and my camera is still working nicely I I still get really nice pictures.this one does say that it's for all carriers and I have Xfinity mobile, and when I got the phone I checked the number against their oh is your phone compatible on the website and it wasn't. I was very frustrated I even set up to start a new return with this but then, I was on with the people on chat and I was trying to figure it out and I even said I was going to try and go somewhere else. But here's the thing even though that they wouldn't help me and they kind of have some sucky customer service. I have a very cheap bill with them I just have to have my cable with them to get them and then each month it's just I think it's like $12 per gigabyte of data that you use and since I don't use data I don't have a bill each month because my phone is paid off I have nothing else going on there so I have a really great deal with them so I want to keep with them so. So before I decided to actually ship it back I pulled my chip card out of my old phone and slid it into this one here and eureka! My phone actually works really well I didn't have to change anything with my carrier all I had to do was change my SIM card and the phone is compatible even if they tell you it's not compatible So I would say give that a try if you do have Xfinity, and then if it works great if not I'm sorry you'll have to look for something else considering the stage shouldn't work but mine works and I've been doing it for two months now and haven't had any disruptions with my service everything has been great and I haven't had to change my billing at all so I have really enjoyed having this phone.I hope my review has been helpful. If it has been helpful, please hit the helpful button.

[May 7, 2021 thoughts on Pixel 4a, ordered November 8, 2020 and used daily ever since]PROS:Form factor and weight-This is the best marriage I have found. Fantastic screen real estate, sensible (ideal?) resolution, and just terrific dimensions for me. This thing is light weight for its size, and I love that more than I can possibly express. Hand fatigue has been all but completely eliminated. Give me plastics, baby! I have no desire for metals that don't add to functionality (and apparently, from something I saw on YouTube, this phone is insanely rugged, even with a plastic shell). Glass is always heavier and less durable than other materials choices, and it's just altogether not well suited for the backside of a mobile handset, IMO. I think Apple charges $550 to replace the back glass on most modern iPhones. This Pixel 4a is the total package and stickers for $200 less than the price of Apple's back glass repair.Price:Performance-While I can't compare this phone to another of its kind with a higher performing Qualcomm, I am never wanting for speed. This phone has been wonderfully fluid and performant for my day-to-day needs. The lean Android experience on the Pixel line really lets its mid-range Qualcomm shine. I most recently carried both an iPhone 7 Plus and 2020 SE, and both proved plenty fast for anything I do; this 4a is no exception.Background app refreshes seem to be on par with what I had using 3GB iPhones. No real surprises. My day-to-day habits seem mostly unaffected by any background app refreshes I've noticed. I think the 6GB of memory strikes a good balance for the 4a.I don't game. Well, I play some chess now and again, including occasional analysis using very demanding engines (Stockfish, etc), but in general I can't comment on gaming performance.Battery-Battery life and charging time have been lovely. I seldom charge to 100-percent, instead I prefer to just give little 5- to 15-minute charges periodically during the day, while keeping the battery in the 30- to 70-percent range where possible. This thing charges way, way faster than my older 7 Plus and 2020 SE iPhones and overall battery life is likely comparable or better from what I can gather (very unscientifically). I leave it to the readers to determine how important battery life is and do some research of their own.Camera-It's so good it doesn't even make sense. Shooting stills, the 4a smashes my old iPhone 7 Plus my a wide margin and the 2020 SE couldn't hold a candle either. I think that's being objective. I've had quite a bit of low-level, professional photography training at University level and time behind the lens of DSLRs, and I'm quite astonishing that I can get such quality images from the 4a. The software image processing is pure magic.I have kids, and they're the important subjects for me. I'd guessed the 4a might struggle with motion, particularly in lower light, which would have been a deal-breaker for me, but this thing takes "keepers" practically every single time. Glorious. Most already know how well Pixel phones shoot non-moving subjects, so I won't carry on about that. It's an exciting camera experience. Concerning video, the 1080p 30- and 60-frame shooting has not disappointed either, and the image stabilization is truly excellent. I don't mess with 4k on phones (yet), so no comment there. I don't take selfies, so I won't comment on the front-facing camera either.Android-The gesture navigation is fantastic, particularly the ability to go back by swiping in from either the left- or right-hand side of the display. Massively convenient and easy on the hands.Updates/security patches are crucial for me, and with a Pixel, scorching fast updates are what you get, and support duration bests most Android-based OEMs.Fingerprint recognition-Works as well and as fast as any I've experienced. Thought the rear placement would bug me. It absolutely does not. Rear placement is probably my preference now. Well executed. I like.CONS:Audio volume/intensity-The 4a just doesn't get as loud as some other modern handsets. It's tricky to listen to a podcast or whatever when I'm doing dishes, for example. That said, the audio quality is perfectly satisfactory, to me.Google Search-There's a Google search bar installed by default on the home screen. I leave mine there and find it useful. When tapped, you're presented with the ability to "search apps, web, and more..." (much like the search on iOS when you pull down from the top). Google/Android learns over time, so that eventually it can quickly present you with what you're most likely to want. Works great, more often than not. But the problem for me is that it's inconsistent with regards to displaying apps. It must be that about 20-percent of the time it doesn't display apps, so I'm forced to swipe up from the bottom of the display to close the interface, then tap the Google search bar again before it populates apps in the query. I can't figure out what causes this for the life of me, and I've owned an IT MSP for years, so this ain't my first rodeo with tech devices! Frustrating, but muscle memory makes this only a half-second affair to correct.Dependability-I've long used the same MVNO for cell service, which I mention only because there exists a small possibility that it's of importance here: I've found a few occasions where I can't place phone calls. To fix, for some reason, a reboot was required. I haven't had any issues in the past few months, but it's probably because I've changed habits; now, whenever there's an update to something low-level from Android (not just a basic app update), I reboot the phone. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?? Anyway, I'd have a "need" to reboot an iPhone maybe once every six months, outside of forced reboots from doing an iOS update. To have had to monthly (or maybe even more frequently) reboot this 4a in order to connect phone calls (with no warning as to any trouble, unless I attempted to place a call and "connect the dots") is unfortunate. I don't like to have to think about mitigating critically buggy behavior by rebooting my phone from time to time.OLED-I'm sensitive to flicker, so I basically hate OLED. My daily driver laptop is a ThinkPad T480s LARGELY because its 1080p IPS is flicker-free (no PWM). This 4a gives me viewing fatigue after a relatively short while. On the 4a, unless you're at max brightness (exactly 100-percent), you can expect flicker in the ~122 to 255Hz range. That's too low for me. I would prefer an LCD, like the ones I had in my iPhone 7 Plus or 2020 SE. I could view those endlessly without fatigue- read books on them, you name it. But the industry does trend, and trend it does for the contrast ratio specs and inky blacks the kids rave about these days {rolls eyes}.Overall:This is probably the finest overall set of compromises I've ever found in a cell phone, and I've owned many of them since 1994. I'm highly satisfied with this handset, and I think very little could realistically be done today to improve upon the formula that is the Pixel 4a. Google has made a proper phone for adults.9/10 DO recommend!