Google Pixel 4a Battery & Charging Test Complete: nothing to brag about

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Google Pixel 4a Battery & Charging Test Complete: nothing to brag about
The Google Pixel 3a was one of the best midrange smartphones released in 2019 but its battery life was often a let-down. Google’s Pixel 4a seems to be no less impressive – some say it’s even better value for money – but has the battery life been improved?

Our PhoneArena battery life test is designed to show off how good battery life really is. The process consists of three components, which you can read about in length here, but in a nutshell, it involves some light browsing use, then slightly more demanding video playback, and lastly a bit of 3D gaming.

The Google Pixel 4a boasts a 3,140mAh battery coupled with a 5.8-inch OLED display and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 chipset. Here’s how well the midrange phone did in our extensive battery life test:

PhoneArena Browsing Battery Test Results


hoursHigher is better
Google Pixel 4a
9h 27 min
Google Pixel 3a
9h 48 min
Apple iPhone SE(2020)
9h 5 min
Samsung Galaxy A51
11h 35 min
Nokia 7.2
8h 20 min
Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
12h 3 min

With a run time of almost 9 hours and a half, the Pixel 4a performed decently in our web browsing battery test. It outlasted the iPhone SE (2020) and Nokia 7.2, despite the latter’s bigger battery, but fell just short of the results achieved by the Pixel 3a last year.

Google’s latest phone also falls short of the Galaxy A51 and Moto G 5G Plus, although that was to be expected considering their respective 4,000mAh and 5,000mAh batteries.

PhoneArena YouTube Video Playback Battery Test Results


hoursHigher is better
Google Pixel 4a
6h 48 min
Google Pixel 3a
6h 30 min
Apple iPhone SE(2020)
4h 45 min
Samsung Galaxy A51
8h 35 min
Nokia 7.2
7h 29 min
Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
10h 2 min

The new Google phone fared well in our YouTube video streaming test when its tiny battery is taken into account, yet that is admittedly pretty common with Pixel smartphones. The Pixel 4a lasted just under 7 hours on a single charge.

That is almost 20 minutes better than its predecessor and over 2 hours more than the similarly priced iPhone SE (2020). The Galaxy A51 and Moto G 5G Plus lasted longer, but again that is down to their drastically bigger batteries.

PhoneArena 3D Gaming Battery Test Results


hoursHigher is better
Google Pixel 4a
4h 51 min
Apple iPhone SE(2020)
4h 59 min
Samsung Galaxy A51
6h 40 min
Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
6h 23 min

3D Gaming is the toughest test of all and the small battery inside the Pixel 4a struggled to keep up with competing smartphones. It only lasted around 4 hours and 50 minutes during our testing, putting it slightly behind the iPhone SE (2020).

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Motorola’s Moto G 5G Plus and Samsung’s Galaxy A51 again kept going for longer. But considering the massive difference in battery capacity, we expected the gap between results to be quite a bit larger.

Charging Test Results


One of the upsides about the Pixel 4a’s small battery is that it charges faster than most other phones in this price category. The stock 18W charger included inside the box can fully charge the phone from 0% to 100% in 95 minutes.

hoursLower is better
Google Pixel 4a
1h 35 min
Google Pixel 3a
1h 30 min
Apple iPhone SE(2020)
2h 30 min
Samsung Galaxy A51
1h 45 min
Nokia 7.2
2h
Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
2h 15 min

Google Pixel 4a Charging Test (18W in-box charger):

  • in 15 minutes: 22%
  • 30 minutes: 44%
  • 45 minutes: 64%
  • 60 minutes: 81%
  • 1 hour and 15 minutes: 92%
  • 1 hour and 30 minutes: 99%
  • 1 hour and 35 minutes: FULL CHARGE

Conclusion


Google seems to have done a good job optimizing the Pixel 4a so that it gets the most out of its small 3,140mAh battery. A bigger battery would undoubtedly be welcome, but the numbers are enough to get you through a day without very heavy usage.

You can read more about the Google Pixel 4a here. You can see all the phones we have tested here.





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