Pixel 6a vs. the competition: The mid-range gets better with Tensor power

Google

While flagship phones continue to be expensive, many phone manufacturers now offer mid-range options that are far more affordable. Today, Google announced the Pixel 6a, the latest of its “a” line of phones that are designed to fit that need. It looks and feels a lot like the Pixel 6, but it has a smaller footprint roughly the size of the Pixel 5 and a smaller display. It also has the same 5G as the 6 and the 6 Pro, Titan M2 security, and the same Tensor SoC as the P6 Pro. But it’s certainly not the only mid-range handset on the market. Here, we’ve compared it with the iPhone SE 2022 as well as the Samsung Galaxy A53 to give you an idea of how it stacks up against its rivals. Be sure to check back soon to see how the Pixel 5a fares in our review.

None

Pixel 6a

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G

iPhone SE

Pricing

$449

$450

$429 / $479 / $579

Dimensions

152.2 x 71.8 x 8.9 mm (5.99 x 2.83 x 0.35 in)

159.6 x 74.8 x 8.1 mm (6.28 x 2.94 x 0.32 in)

138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm (5.45 x 2.65 x 0.29 inches)

Weight

178 g (6.3 oz)

189 g (6.67 oz)

144g (5.09 ounces)

Screen size

6.1 inches (156 mm)

6.5 inches (165.1 mm)

4.7 inches (119.4 mm)

Screen resolution

1,080 x 2,400 pixels (429 ppi)

1,080 x 2,400 pixels (405 ppi)

1,334 x 750 (326 ppi)

Screen type

OLED, 60Hz

Super AMOLED, 120Hz

Retina HD LCD

Battery

4,410 mAh

5,000 mAh

Up to 15 hours, mAh unknown

Internal storage

128 GB

128 / 256 GB

64 / 128 / 256 GB

External storage

None

Up to 1TB microSD

None

Rear camera(s)

Wide: 12 MP, f/1.8

Front camera(s)

8 MP f/2.0

32 MP f/2.2

7 MP, f/2.2

Video capture

4K at 30, 60 fps

4K at 60 fps

4K at 60 fps

SoC

Google Tensor

Exynos 1280

Apple A15 Bionic

CPU

Octa-core 2.8 GHz

Octa-core (2.4 GHz & 2.0 GHz)

3.23 GHz hexa-core

GPU

ARM Mali G78

Mali-G68

quad-core Apple GPU

RAM

6 GB

6 / 8 GB

4 GB

WiFi

802.11 ax

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

802.11ax

Bluetooth

v5.2

v5.1

v5.0

NFC

Yes

Yes

Yes

Operating system

Android 12

Android 12

iOS 15

Other features

IP67 certified, USB-C

IP67 certified, USB-C

IP67 certified, Lightning port

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