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Comment by robotmay | Hacker News Reader

Bit confused as to why mtgx's comment has been voted into oblivion, as it's a legitimate complaint with the Pixel line. My girlfriend has a 3a and it has taken about 3 months for the battery life to start being a minor issue; i.e. she makes sure to charge it during the day if she has somewhere to be in the evening.

It's really the only complaint I have about an otherwise good phone, and it doesn't look like the 4a really addresses it. It appears Google is looking for a software solution to battery life, which I don't disagree with, but that whole approach is basically pointless if someone happens to install Facebook on their phone.

On the positive side, the 3a has a great camera and it looks like the 4a is continuing that. I've been particularly impressed by the 3a's low-light capabilities, such as taking good photos indoors, and it's especially good considering its price.

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Interesting, my partner and I both have Pixel 3a and I find their battery life amazing. I charge it once a day, but not fully. But maybe I don't use my phone as much as other people, just some redditing here or there and scrolling youtube and casting what I want to watch.

Only gripe I have with Pixel 3a is the "crackling" noise when volume is at max. Seems to be software because sometimes it doesn't happen. Everyone I know with the Pixel 3a has it.

Maybe it's anecdotal? I've had my 3a for a year and the battery feels just as good as when it was new, I only have to charge it every other day.

I suspect it does vary quite a lot based on usage. We live in a fairly cold place (Wales) and my girlfriend's phones tend to suffer more than mine do, as she spends a few hours in an exposed place most days. Towards the end of its life her iPhone SE was suffering from some truly impressive battery woes when she ventured outside. My current phone (an S8 Edge) is doing relatively fine by comparison, but my last Nexus device really struggled here too and I ended up with poor battery life within a few months.

The problem I have with the software approach to battery optimisation is that it doesn't accomodate for environmental issues like that, whereas a bigger battery does.

I have a pixel 2 which is approaching 3 years of age at this point. (2700mAh) I generally finish the day with 50-70% battery life, unless there's some specific reason I'm actively using it all day. (last time was because my flight got delayed and I was sitting in the terminal for several hours and had packed my charger in my checked bag)

I'm perfectly happy with a 3100mAh battery. The only feature I'm missing with this phone is the "squeeze button" (I forgot the real term) -- it's a much better snooze function than trying to figure out which direction to swipe to snooze when you're sleepy enough to want to snooze. All too often on my old phone I'd just shut the alarm off instead of snoozing.

This is probably the firstest first world problem I've ever had.

The Pixel 4a battery is bigger than that of the Pixel 4, and it has a much less energy intensive screen. I think it would be enough for most regular phone users that the Pixel 4a targets.

It's pretty absurd that their cheaper offering for the same major version of the hardware has both better battery life and a headphone jack. Both of those things are way more important to most people than a fancy camera or pointless machine learning features.

The 4a has extra storage over the base 4 as well. I don't know what Google was thinking.

I'm probably gonna sell my Pixel 4 at a loss and get one of these instead. Can anyone explain why I shouldn't? I have no need for a decent camera, prefer fingerprint unlock, and loathe that I can't use my headphones easily. I also use my phone a bunch so battery is super important to me. Don't play mobile games either.

Is it going to be an extremely slow experience or something? Should I expect apps to be laggy?

4a camera is the exact same one as on 4. It's a bit slower to process the photos due to missing extra chip, but it will take identical photos.

It'll be a bit slower but I wouldn't think laggy. I'm happy with my 3a performance.

Then it's settled. Thanks.

It probably largely depends on the apps you have on your phone. My 3a lasts 2 days easily between charges, but I don't have Facebbok or Messenger installed (known battery hogs and wakelocking abusers).

Coming from a Xiaomi with a 4500mAh battery packed in the same size phone as the 3a, the 3a is definitely lacking in battery life if you're a heavy phone user. The 3a will not last me from when I wake up until I go to sleep, where the Xiaomi will last almost 2 days of wake up/sleep.

I still like the 3a and use it as my daily, I just wish Google would find a way to put 3500-4000mah batteries in these.

Try the Moto G, I bought one through Google Fi since it wasn't much more than a screen replacement and has significantly better battery life, though I do miss some of the other features.

This started with the 3, which I returned for that reason, opting to stick with my Pixel 2 XL. I bought it at launch, and it still lasts me over a day with full charge.

Zoom is my cellphone's battery killer.

kills my laptop battery too

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