With the recent unveiling of the Google Pixel 6a, which would be the search engine giant's latest, competitive mid-range smartphone, it's time to pit it against the competition.
Samsung's Galaxy A-series has been dominating the mid-range market forever, so does the new Pixel 6a match up, or even surpass the similarly-priced and similarly-sized Galaxy A53?
Let's do an early comparison of the two and find out!
The Pixel 6a made its official debut just recently, during Google's I/O developers event on May 11. Pre-orders for the Pixel 6a will open on July 21, with shipping starting on the following Thursday, July 28, 2022. Its starting price – $449 for the base 128GB model.
The Galaxy A53 5G itself is pretty new too. Samsung released it back on April 1, 2022, so you can have it as soon as today or tomorrow. The A53's price is exactly the same $449, and comes with 128GB of storage too.
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Design and colors
The visual design of those two phones differs quite a bit, and whether you prefer the look of one or the other is up to you – subjective.
The upcoming Pixel 6a has about the same design as the flagship Pixel 6, minimal bezels on the front, a holepunch selfie camera, and on the back – a glossy two-tone style, with a wide, signature camera module.
The Pixel 6a also comes in three color options: Sage, Chalk and Charcoal.
The Galaxy A53, however, is what we could pretty much consider a minimalist-looking phone. While the front is the same, with minimal bezels and a holepunch camera, the back is all one color, with a matte finish resistant to fingerprints, and a camera module that definitely isn't trying to draw attention to itself.
The Galaxy A53 offers the more vibrant colors. You can find it in: White, Black, Orange and Awesome Blue.
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Display
We're yet to measure the Pixel 6a's screen, but it's reasonable to expect it to be just like the Pixel 6's screen, since the specs are essentially the same.
The Pixel 6a packs a 6.1-inch OLED display with a 1080p resolution and a traditional 60 Hz refresh rate.
As for the Galaxy A53, it has a bigger 6.5 inch OLED display, again 1080p, but with a higher refresh rate of 120 Hz. So if you're into bigger and smoother displays, that would be the better choice for you.
For reference, we have our display benchmark of the Galaxy A53 against the Pixel 6a's predecessor below:
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones, the better.
The Pixel 6a comes powered by Google's own Tensor GS101 processor and 6GB of RAM. We're yet to give it a test run, so stay tuned for our review and benchmarks.
The Galaxy A53 is running Samsung's Exynos 1280 processor, combined with again 6GB of RAM. When we were testing it for our Galaxy A53 5G review, we found it to struggle a bit with gaming, exhibiting the occasional frame drops in games like Minecraft. However, for casual tasks like watching videos and browsing the web, navigating through the phone is perfectly smooth.
For reference, we have the A53's performance benchmark against the Pixel 6a's predecessor below:
If the T-Rex HD component of GFXBench is demanding, then the Manhattan test is downright gruelling. It's a GPU-centric test that simulates an extremely graphically intensive gaming environment that is meant to push the GPU to the max. that simulates a graphically-intensive gaming environment on the screen. The results achieved are measured in frames per second, with more frames being better.
Inside that signature camera module, the Pixel 6a sports a 12.2MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide one. On the front we have the 8MP front camera from the flagship Pixel 6.
The Galaxy A53 has four sensors on the back – a 64 MP main camera, 12 MP ultra-wide, 5 MP macro and an additional 5 MP depth sensor. It's safe to say that the A53 would offer more versatility to someone who loves taking creative photos and videos, but we'll let our camera samples speak for themselves:
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Battery
Google's Pixel 6a comes packing a 4410mAh battery, and is capable of fast charging at up to 18W. No wireless charging.
The Galaxy A53 5G has a bigger battery, 5000mAh, and higher fast charging speeds at up to 25W. While testing it for our review, this beefy battery was able to last us a comfortable day of heavy use, and we can't forget that this phone's screen has twice the refresh rate – 120Hz.
A light user can easily choose to drop it to 60Hz and get even longer battery life out of the A53. In any case, no wireless charging on this phone either.
For reference, we have our Galaxy A53 battery benchmark against the Pixel 6a's predecessor below:
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