Google Pixel 5

amazon Google Pixel 5 reviews

Open the box

The Pixel 5’s case has a fairly simple appearance with a white background with the Google logo and the name of the phone. Below is the product image with the corresponding color version.

The Pixel 5 has a user manual, a SIM removal tool, a “USB Type-A to Type-C” charging cable, and an 18W charger inside the box. Like other Pixel phones, Google does not include headphones for the device once again.

Design

Google Pixel 5 is a smartphone that uses recycled aluminum. Google deserves praise for proving that a manufacturer does not need to use plastic or glass to equip smartphones with wireless charging support.

The use of aluminum makes the Pixel 5 the first 5G-enabled smartphone with a metal body construction. According to Google, the purpose of using this structure instead of choosing plastic or glass is to keep the phone as thin as possible. The grip of the device also makes the user feel solid when holding.

The company equips the display with the same Gorilla Glass 6 protection as the Pixel 4a. In high light, we can see the proximity sensor placed on the back of the screen, just below the earpiece. This small dot makes the phone border very thin.

The SIM card tray with a single nano-SIM capacity is on the left side. Pixel 5 is also equipped with an eSIM inside to support dual SIM users. On the right side are the volume rocker and power button.

Google also put a fingerprint sensor on the back and a camera cluster that does not protrude so that this phone does not wobble when placed on a flat surface.

Pixel 5 also does not own a 3.5 headphone jack; the USB-C port will do this task and also charge the device. On the left is the microphone and on the right is the speakerphone. In addition, there is a small camera placed in the rear camera cluster.

Overall, the overall design of the Pixel 5 is not too different from the Pixel 4a but has a larger screen. The polished edges and highly grippy material are also some of the strong points of this smartphone.

90Hz display

Google Pixel 5 has a flexible OLED panel with Full HD + resolution (1080×2340) and an aspect ratio of 19.5: 9. The screen has a size of 6 inches and has built-in support for HDR content. The Pixel 5 is also the only Pixel 2020 model with a display equipped with a 90Hz refresh rate.

The device possesses excellent color accuracy. In the default “Adaptive” mode, colors appear very deep with excellent contrast. Users can also choose “Natural” or “Enhanced” mode depending on their preference and perception of color.

Before the launch of Pixel 4a, the Pixel lineup could not reach brightness higher than the manual slider maximum even with the “Adaptive Brightness” setting enabled. With Pixel 5, the screen will increase the brightness to a higher level when exposed to sunlight.

Battery and charging speed

The battery capacity of Pixel 5 is quite high compared to its predecessors when up to 4,080 mAh. Combined with other factors, such as an energy-efficient processor chip, the battery life on this device has improved. Until now, battery life was the weak point on the Pixel line until the Pixel 5 arrived.

Google has equipped the Pixel 5 with a feature that only activates the 90Hz screen when the user touches the screen to save more battery.

At the 60Hz screen setting, the Pixel 5 delivers nearly 26 hours of call time, over 12.5 hours of web browsing, and over 18 hours of continuous video playback.

For an accurate battery consumption test, I have enabled developer options to force the screen to always run at 90Hz. From there, the Pixel 5 delivered over 12 hours of web browsing and almost 17 hours of video playback. These numbers aren’t too different from a 60Hz monitor setting.

The Pixel 5 comes with an 18W USB-C Power Delivery charger, which delivers a 41% charge in half an hour and takes a total of 1 hour and 35 minutes to charge fully.

The Pixel 5 also supports Qi wireless charging with fast charging speeds of up to 12W and can 5W reverse charging for accessories like Pixel Buds or other Qi-enabled smartphones.

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Performance and OS

With the Pixel 5, Google has equipped a mid-range processor instead of Qualcomm’s high-end 800 series chip. Google is no longer racing in terms of specifications but wants to provide users with a stable device with the help of Snapdragon 765G.

A processor chip built on the 7nm process delivers powerful performance, saves power, and supports 5G networks. The 765G includes a performance cluster with two ARM Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.4GHz and 2.2GHz. Meanwhile, the power-saving cluster contains 6 ARM Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 1.8GHz. The cores can run at different speeds depending on the CPU.

In terms of graphics capabilities, the Adreno 620 is 20% faster than the Adreno 618 on the Pixel 4a’s Snapdragon 730G chip.

Besides, Pixel 5 is also equipped with impressive 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Unfortunately, users will only have one memory option and no card slot to expand storage capacity.

However, through some small tests, I confirmed that the Snapdragon 765G processor chip does not work effectively on Pixel 5 and has not shown its full potential.

As Google’s darling, the Pixel 5 ships with Android 11 pre-installed. Since the software comes directly from Google, OTA updates don’t need carrier or OEM approval before reaching the device. The company promises at least three years of major OS updates and security patches for the Pixel 5.

Camera

In terms of imaging capabilities, Google equips Pixel 5 with dual camera clusters with a 12.2MP wide-angle lens, f/1.7 aperture, and a 16MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide camera. After feedback from users, the company seems to include in Pixel 5 an ultra-wide-angle camera instead of a telephoto camera like the Pixel 4.

Image quality captured by the main camera in high light is quite good with great contrast and fine details.

Although there is no autofocus adjustment with the ultra-wide camera, the photos are still detailed with impressive sharpness.

The Super-Res zoom feature was created to compensate for the lack of a dedicated telephoto camera. Enlarged photos suffer a noticeable loss in detail and sharpness.

Portrait photos taken with Pixel 5 are not too good, but the image quality will also make users happy.

In low light, the photos taken by the Pixel 5 are quite good quality. Colors and exposure are quite realistic, although white balance is sometimes affected. The ultra-wide-angle camera proves to be a bit weaker than the main camera, but there is still a tool to support users when taking low-light photos, which is night mode.

Night mode will work after a certain light threshold. Sometimes turning on this mode does not help in improving image quality. The image will be much less noisy when applying this mode in scene shooting.

The device owns an 8MP, f/2.0 camera with selfie capabilities, providing images with pretty great details and vibrant colors.

Ending

It can be said that the Pixel 5 is a phone that represents the upcoming target of other devices from Google. This device has solved the problem of battery life and changed the material and overall look.

However, there are still a few points that Pixel 5 cannot satisfy users, such as Snapdragon 765G’s performance and limited storage capacity.