Google Pixel 5a battery test results: monster in disguise

The Pixel 5a features the biggest battery size on the budget series and with a massive for its size, 4,680mAh battery, it aims for the title of the budget phone with best battery life. 

But does it really live up to the hype? And how long does the Pixel 5a really last?

Let's start with some real-life experience: even with more intense use, I couldn't drain the battery of the Pixel 5a in one day, which is remarkable. I'm not saying it's not possible, if you spend a lot of time gaming or recording 4K video, but with even heavier use I would end the day with around 20% to 30% battery left. On days when I didn't use the phone as much I could finish the day with 40% and up to 50% charge left. Is this a 2-day phone? Not quite, but it did last me comfortably around a day and a half, which is more than I can say for most other phones I have tested this year. It is possible to stretch the battery life into 2 days if you don't use your phone much and/or enable the battery saver mode, in case you are wondering.

But my anecdotal experience is not quite as good as actual battery testing. Luckily, that's exactly what we do here at PhoneArena, and the Pixel 5a has gone through our 3 different and demanding battery tests.

Pixel 5a battery test results

We run three different battery tests measuring slightly different things: our web browsing test is the lightest one and is a great measure for casual use, then we have our YouTube video streaming test for those of you who watch a lot of videos or stories on your phones, and finally, the 3D Gaming test is a specialized test that taxes the GPU rather than the CPU of the phone and is great for well... gamers.

The Pixel 5a stands out from the very first benchmark. This one is web browsing which simulates just reading things in your browser, and it's a great test to show casual use. The Pixel 5a crushes it with a score of more than 15 hours, one of the best scores of any phone in 2021. You can see that it lasts a full 3 hours more compared to the already long-lasting Pixel 5, which is impressive.

Interestingly, it's not quite the longest lasting phone on this test. That honor currently goes to the Galaxy A52 which lasts a tiny bit longer, but both these phones are absolute battery life champs.

This phone really shows its battery longevity in the other tests: it could stream YouTube videos for nearly 11 hours! No other mainstream budget phone recently has even reached 10 hours, so this shows that the Pixel 5a is indeed special.

The long battery life will also come in handy for gamers. Sure, you might not have the fastest GPU here, but the Pixel 5a is decently powerful and it will give you long hours of gaming. It scored another above 10hr result in 3D gaming, beating the competition handily. Just look at the poor iPhone SE: it cannot even last 5 hours while gaming, and the Pixel 5a keeps the lights on for more than 10 hours!

Above, you can also see what comes in the box with the Pixel 5a, and yes, there is a charger included. These days you seem to be getting more features with budget phones compared to flagships that typically don't have a charger included in the box. This particular one has a USB-C input and provides up to 18W of power. Considering the large battery inside the Pixel, it takes around 1 hour and 45 minutes for a full charge.

The Pixel 5a does not support wireless charging, in case you were wondering.

Overall, the Pixel 5a delivers one of the longest lasting batteries on a budget phone (and really any phone for that matter). While it's not the fastest charging phone, it is not the slowest either, so overall we can only recommend this phone if battery life is a priority.