The Perfect Smartphone for 2020? (Premium)

The Google Pixel 4a 5G occupies a confusing spot in Google’s confusing 2020 Pixel lineup. It’s boring, bland, and unexceptional. And I love it.

Next week, I’ll publish my review of this most recent Google handset. Here, I’d like to just focus on how it meets my own needs. What’s most curious about the affection I have for this device is that I’m not sure I’d have felt the same way about it two, four, or six months ago. But being confronted with the various compromises in the far more expensive and luxurious Samsung Note 20 Ultra, Apple iPhone 12, and OnePlus 8T was a nice level-set. At the end of all that, I was ready for something a little boring. Something that just worked like I wanted it to.

The Pixel 4a 5G is that phone.

No, it’s not perfect. But it is the right phone for me right now.

And I don’t necessarily mean that in a pandemic sense, though it’s not hard to make the argument that a $500 handset with a great camera system, 5G compatibility, and a durable polycarbonate body is, in many ways, the right choice for many during these uncertain times. I won’t argue otherwise. But this handset meets my needs by hitting at an interesting intersection of some of the things I really care about. And those needs aren’t entirely about the here and now of this horrible pandemic year.

First, I should just note the odd juxtaposition of my job as a reviewer and my needs as an individual. Were I not reviewing smartphones and other products, I would certainly have far fewer of them coming through my house every year, and I’d likely just stick with a single handset for years at a time. I know this because that’s how I do things elsewhere. I like things that last, and I use many things past the point where it even makes sense. I respect and appreciate when others do the same.

But for me, that’s not the case with smartphones. Each year, I review several handsets, moving from one to another throughout the year. And that changes the dynamic of the relationship a bit. I don’t really need to choose something that lasts since I’ll be trading in most phones for their successors a year later anyway and using several other phones in the meantime. Oddly, I usually do end up buying or getting the most expensive model of whatever handset, but the goal is usually to buy the one I’d pick regardless in those instances where it’s up to me to acquire the device.

Usually. But thanks to the odd positioning of Google’s 2020 smartphones, that’s not what happened here. None of the three handsets that Google released this year---the Pixel 4a, Pixel 5, and Pixel 4a 5G---are truly flagship-class products. Each has mid-range processors, two have small displays, and the most expensive of the three costs just $700. Nothing about these products makes any sense, even if you understand how badly Google has done in the smartphone market.

If you look back at my Google Pixel 4a review, you’ll see that I lauded it for...