Teardown: Google Pixel 3a smartphone

Not all mid-range smartphones are the same. At £399, the Google Pixel 3a does not feel that mid-range at all, until you bear in mind that it is a more ‘affordable’ addition to the range than the £739 Pixel 3. It is still a hefty-looking price tag, though, when compared to the highly functional and, for most users, satisfactory handsets offered at between £200 and £250 by brands such as Motorola and Xiaomi.

The Pixel family justifies its higher pricing in several ways, the most important of which is the camera. The 3a features the same 12MP camera as its more expensive sibling, together with its widely praised Night Sight mode, real-time motion adjusting focus, depth editor and colour filters.

The Pixel 3 was the majority pick among reviewers for last year’s best cameraphone, and though recent innovations by Huawei may have put the Chinese company in front for now, the Pixel 3a is tucking in directly behind these two for about £400 less.

The other big selling point of the Pixel 3a is a bloatware-free implementation of the latest Android OS, Pie 9.0, with guaranteed updates for three years from purchase.

So what compromises has Google made to deliver the Pixel 3’s key differentiator at not that much more than half the price?

On the technical side, there’s a less powerful processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 640, an eight-core chip running cores in a big/little 2.0GHz/1.7GHz configuration. The Pixel 3 has a Snapdragon 845 with a 2.5GHz/1.6GHz configuration.

Graphics are also shaved to the Adreno 615 in the Pixel 3a from the Adreno 630 – and the display does not have sufficient performance to support Google Daydream virtual reality.

The company has then chosen not to offer wireless charging as it does on the earlier handset, though it says that the 18W USB charger will add seven hours to the life of the 3,000mAh battery in just 15 minutes.

Some reviewers have said that the battery still seemed to drain quickly if the phone was used for, say, gaming or streaming video. One counter though is that Google has incorporated a battery training feature, though it is not clear how long it takes for that to gather enough data to minimise the drain from inactive or little-used apps. The jury is still out on this compromise.

There is only one 8MP front ‘selfie’ camera where the Pixel 3 has two, and another component shave is the use of a cheaper linear resonant actuator rather than a more advanced haptic motor to provide vibration.

On the physical side, the Pixel 3’s premium glass case has been replaced by a polycarbonate reverse and uses cheaper Dragontail glass over the display rather than Corning’s Gorilla Glass. The Pixel 3a also has no formal rating for waterproofing or other forms of ingress, unlike its more expensive sister.

Then, in terms of support, all Pixel models offer ‘unlimited’ cloud storage but for Pixel 3a owners this covers compressed photos rather than the uncompressed ones Pixel 3s will automatically upload.

Most of the changes, though, are less easy to spot and stem from work by the Taiwan-based handset design team that Google acquired from HTC in early 2018.

In terms of repairability, the iFixit teardown team have praise for “some of the throwbacks to a prior, more repairable era”.

Screws are standard T3 Torx fasteners, stretch-release adhesive makes for easier battery replacement and most of the key components are modular, including the heavily trafficked USB port.

That said, the display does need to be removed to get access and that needs to be done with care. Also, “the myriad long, thin ribbon cables connecting the internal componentry can be obnoxious to work around, and are easy to accidentally tear”.

Still at 6-out-of-10, the Pixel 3a does match its price tag to a promise of what appears to be viable repair and maintenance.

Indeed, the Pixel 3a seems to have been positioned nicely at the entrypoint to the prosumer market for those to whom the camera is probably the key differentiator beyond basic smartphone functionality. The only market quibble, so far, is that camera enthusiasts may prefer the larger screen offered on the Pixel 3a XL. 

Key components: Google Pixel 3a

Exploded view

1. Power assembly

2. Ribbon cable

3. Rail

4. Speaker

5. Headphone jack

6. USB-C port

7. Fingerprint sensor

8. Rear and front cameras

9. Battery

10. Display

11. SIM tray

12. Motherboard

13. Rear polycarbonate body

14. Midframe

Motherboard

15. Midframe Power management, Qualcomm

16. Midframe Flash/DRAM memory, Micron

17. Midframe Apps processor, Qualcomm

18. Midframe Front-end module, Avago

19. Voltage controlled oscillator, Qorvo

Not all mid-range smartphones are the same. At £399, the Google Pixel 3a does not feel that mid-range at all, until you bear in mind that it is a more ‘affordable’ addition to the range than the £739 Pixel 3. It is still a hefty-looking price tag, though, when compared to the highly functional and, for most users, satisfactory handsets offered at between £200 and £250 by brands such as Motorola and Xiaomi.

The Pixel family justifies its higher pricing in several ways, the most important of which is the camera. The 3a features the same 12MP camera as its more expensive sibling, together with its widely praised Night Sight mode, real-time motion adjusting focus, depth editor and colour filters.

The Pixel 3 was the majority pick among reviewers for last year’s best cameraphone, and though recent innovations by Huawei may have put the Chinese company in front for now, the Pixel 3a is tucking in directly behind these two for about £400 less.

The other big selling point of the Pixel 3a is a bloatware-free implementation of the latest Android OS, Pie 9.0, with guaranteed updates for three years from purchase.

So what compromises has Google made to deliver the Pixel 3’s key differentiator at not that much more than half the price?

On the technical side, there’s a less powerful processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 640, an eight-core chip running cores in a big/little 2.0GHz/1.7GHz configuration. The Pixel 3 has a Snapdragon 845 with a 2.5GHz/1.6GHz configuration.

Graphics are also shaved to the Adreno 615 in the Pixel 3a from the Adreno 630 – and the display does not have sufficient performance to support Google Daydream virtual reality.

The company has then chosen not to offer wireless charging as it does on the earlier handset, though it says that the 18W USB charger will add seven hours to the life of the 3,000mAh battery in just 15 minutes.

Some reviewers have said that the battery still seemed to drain quickly if the phone was used for, say, gaming or streaming video. One counter though is that Google has incorporated a battery training feature, though it is not clear how long it takes for that to gather enough data to minimise the drain from inactive or little-used apps. The jury is still out on this compromise.

There is only one 8MP front ‘selfie’ camera where the Pixel 3 has two, and another component shave is the use of a cheaper linear resonant actuator rather than a more advanced haptic motor to provide vibration.

On the physical side, the Pixel 3’s premium glass case has been replaced by a polycarbonate reverse and uses cheaper Dragontail glass over the display rather than Corning’s Gorilla Glass. The Pixel 3a also has no formal rating for waterproofing or other forms of ingress, unlike its more expensive sister.

Then, in terms of support, all Pixel models offer ‘unlimited’ cloud storage but for Pixel 3a owners this covers compressed photos rather than the uncompressed ones Pixel 3s will automatically upload.

Most of the changes, though, are less easy to spot and stem from work by the Taiwan-based handset design team that Google acquired from HTC in early 2018.

In terms of repairability, the iFixit teardown team have praise for “some of the throwbacks to a prior, more repairable era”.

Screws are standard T3 Torx fasteners, stretch-release adhesive makes for easier battery replacement and most of the key components are modular, including the heavily trafficked USB port.

That said, the display does need to be removed to get access and that needs to be done with care. Also, “the myriad long, thin ribbon cables connecting the internal componentry can be obnoxious to work around, and are easy to accidentally tear”.

Still at 6-out-of-10, the Pixel 3a does match its price tag to a promise of what appears to be viable repair and maintenance.

Indeed, the Pixel 3a seems to have been positioned nicely at the entrypoint to the prosumer market for those to whom the camera is probably the key differentiator beyond basic smartphone functionality. The only market quibble, so far, is that camera enthusiasts may prefer the larger screen offered on the Pixel 3a XL. 

Key components: Google Pixel 3a

Exploded view

1. Power assembly

2. Ribbon cable

3. Rail

4. Speaker

5. Headphone jack

6. USB-C port

7. Fingerprint sensor

8. Rear and front cameras

9. Battery

10. Display

11. SIM tray

12. Motherboard

13. Rear polycarbonate body

14. Midframe

Motherboard

15. Midframe Power management, Qualcomm

16. Midframe Flash/DRAM memory, Micron

17. Midframe Apps processor, Qualcomm

18. Midframe Front-end module, Avago

19. Voltage controlled oscillator, Qorvo

Paul Dempseyhttps://eandt.theiet.org/rss

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/06/teardown-google-pixel-3a-smartphone/

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