Budget 30-40k Moving from OnePlus 5T to Pixel 4a: Will it be a downgrade?

[skoka123]

My ageing 5T is doing good and serving me well except for the battery life. Now that I am WFH it is not an issue for now. I sorely miss the macro photos feature in 5T. The only reason I would move to Pixel 4a is that it has excellent Camera (I really do not care of 48 MP etc) and guaranteed 3 years upgrade along with stock android. My only concern is would it be a downgrade going to a 4a from 5T from a performance standpoint? I mainly use the phone for browsing, Youtube, banking apps and close up (macro if possible) photos of garden and occasional family photos.

Usage:

1. Taking Photos
2. Taking Videos
3. Web Browsing
4. Youtube / Netflix / Prime Videos etc
5. Banking Apps
6. Absolutely no Gaming

Reason for Change:

1. EOL of Battery on the 5T
2. Only 1 sim supports VoLTE and VoWifi

Concerns moving to Pixel 4a:

1. Will it give under performance for my usage?
2. Downgrading from Gorilla Glass 5 to 3. I did drop my 5T at least 10 times with no damage. Will the 4a be as robust? Does putting a Tempered Glass really protect the screen. If so, will effect the screen visibility, brilliance and touch sensitivity?

 

[nRiTeCh]

Wont be a major upgrade but waste of money. You wont find that much difference.

 

[rdst_1]

Only because 'photography' is a major requirement for you, the switch makes sense. Otherwise, there are many better options available like the K20 Pro for just 22k (or less depending upon discount) or even the Samsung M51s (same chipset, 7000mAh battery) which would be available for 22500 during the sale.
But none of these will come close to the camera performance on 4a. For rest of your usage, very much like mine, the 720/730 chipset is more than enough. The low battery at 3140mAh seems like a weak link, but from my experience with the 720 on a 5000mAh battery, the 3000 should easily give 7-8hrs SoT.

 

[skoka123]

Only because 'photography' is a major requirement for you, the switch makes sense. Otherwise, there are many better options available like the K20 Pro for just 22k (or less depending upon discount) or even the Samsung M51s (same chipset, 7000mAh battery) which would be available for 22500 during the sale.
But none of these will come close to the camera performance on 4a. For rest of your usage, very much like mine, the 720/730 chipset is more than enough. The low battery at 3140mAh seems like a weak link, but from my experience with the 720 on a 5000mAh battery, the 3000 should easily give 7-8hrs SoT.

From what I have seen in the reviews the Adaptive Battery is good enough to give a life of more than1 day. I somehow do not like MIUI and Samsung one UI. I really liked Motorola X Force near Stock Android experience. In that perspective even OnePlus is good. Also, it is impressive that OnePlus provided 3 version upgrades of Android.

Wont be a major upgrade but waste of money. You wont find that much difference.

Actually I am not looking for great performance improvement. I just need to be sure that I am not losing any performance that I am used to with the 5T. Every time Oneplus released a new Android version the phone becomes slow for a couple weeks before either I got used to it or somehow the apps are optimized. I am wondering with the promised upgrade for 3 years I am probably looking at 3 version upgrades. Will the hardware become a limiting factor for the upgrades vis-a-vis performance or google will take care of it by Pixel specific optimizations?

 

[nRiTeCh]

Actually I am not looking for great performance improvement. I just need to be sure that I am not losing any performance that I am used to with the 5T. Every time Oneplus released a new Android version the phone becomes slow for a couple weeks before either I got used to it or somehow the apps are optimized. I am wondering with the promised upgrade for 3 years I am probably looking at 3 version upgrades. Will the hardware become a limiting factor for the upgrades vis-a-vis performance or google will take care of it by Pixel specific optimizations?

Why not shift to custom rom having same update?

 

[sauravghosh]

5T had a 835 I see hmm. CPU wise they say it's an upgrade, 730G from 835 but i don't know. But the GPU is a downgrade in any case. I can't speak for 5T but I'm also coming from a 835 device, Pixel 2 XL and i won't consider the 4a an upgrade by any means. Only the camera is better along with video recording and more software update that's it.

For you though, coming from a 5T the camera will so much better that you can't comprehend (till date I'll still call it the best camera for still photography of any phones overall). The software experience will also be better, the optimisation on Pixels are not comparable with other phones, it's the consistency of performance where the Pixels win, not raw or burst performance. For your usage it'll be an upgrade but still, do remember the QC issues of the Pixel devices, the longevity I mean.

 

[rdst_1]

Coming from a Huawei flagship processor of 3 years ago, I didn't feel the 720 to be a let down or a downgrade in any sense. Even my issue was a degrading battery but that was just more of an excuse to change the phone. My mom is still using that phone for her normal usage and I can always get the battery changed when needed.
In your case, if just the battery would have been an issue, then that was easily replaceable. You however, have felt the phone feel sluggish after newer updates. You can always try a custom rom or an older firmware and see if that is enough of a change to not upgrade. If you feel comfortable, then just get a new battery installed after a few weeks. However, the Pixel 4a will not feel like a downgrade in terms of user experience as even a heavy skin like MIUI is running fine on these processors.

 

[skoka123]

Coming from a Huawei flagship processor of 3 years ago, I didn't feel the 720 to be a let down or a downgrade in any sense. Even my issue was a degrading battery but that was just more of an excuse to change the phone. My mom is still using that phone for her normal usage and I can always get the battery changed when needed.
In your case, if just the battery would have been an issue, then that was easily replaceable. You however, have felt the phone feel sluggish after newer updates. You can always try a custom rom or an older firmware and see if that is enough of a change to not upgrade. If you feel comfortable, then just get a new battery installed after a few weeks. However, the Pixel 4a will not feel like a downgrade in terms of user experience as even a heavy skin like MIUI is running fine on these processors.

It is nice to know that it will not feel like a downgrade.

5T had a 835 I see hmm. CPU wise they say it's an upgrade, 730G from 835 but i don't know. But the GPU is a downgrade in any case. I can't speak for 5T but I'm also coming from a 835 device, Pixel 2 XL and i won't consider the 4a an upgrade by any means. Only the camera is better along with video recording and more software update that's it.

For you though, coming from a 5T the camera will so much better that you can't comprehend (till date I'll still call it the best camera for still photography of any phones overall). The software experience will also be better, the optimisation on Pixels are not comparable with other phones, it's the consistency of performance where the Pixels win, not raw or burst performance. For your usage it'll be an upgrade but still, do remember the QC issues of the Pixel devices, the longevity I mean.

Thanks.

I wonder why companies cannot spend a few dollars more and go for Gorilla Glass 5 instead of GG3. Seriously, why should it be a differentiating factor for budget vs Premium? Is it because GG3 is more scratch resistant than GG5? If so, is the logic that budget phone users are less careful about mixing coins and keys with the phone in the pocket?