The Pixel 5’s Make is quite simple; It is white, has a Google logo, and name of the phone. Below this image would be the product photo with corresponding color version.
Inside the box was a user manual, a SIM removal tool, a charging cable “USB Type-A to Type-C”, and an 18W charger which are similar to other Pixel phones that once again don’t provide the device with headphones.
Design
Google Pixel 5 is the smartphone made from recycled aluminum. A manufacturer does not necessarily be a plastic or glass-equip for wireless charging capability; this is what Google must be approved for.
Use of aluminum brings Pixel 5 as the first 5G mobile with a metallic body construction. Google claims that it has used this kind of body-more than plastic or glass options-to make the phone as thin as possible. The gripping has also been designed that solid feeling user experiences possible when holding it.
It’s furnished by the same Gorilla Glass 6 as we have with the Pixel 4a at the display. Underneath the earpiece, the proximity sensor can be seen, high light on the back of the screen. A small dot manages to give the phone a really thin border.
The SIM card tray has only one nano-SIM capacity and is on the left side. Pixel 5 also has an eSIM internally fitted inside, which makes it possible into using dual SIM feature. Right-side volume rocker and power button.
Google also included a fingerprint sensor on this phone in the back and a camera cluster that does not protrude so that this phone does not wobble when placed on a flat surface.
In fact, Pixel 5 also does not have a 3.5 headphone jack , so the USB-C port will do the job and it can charge the device at the same time, which is nice. On the left side , you get the microphone and on the right you’ll find the speakerphone. Also, there is a little camera placed in the rear camera cluster, not the main one though.
The overall design of the Pixel 5 isn’t really that far from the Pixel 4 , but it does come with a bigger screen. It also has smooth edges and it is built using a grippy kind of material, which are good things to have in a smartphone like this.
90Hz display
So the new Google Pixel 5 comes with a flexible OLED screen, it has a Full HD+ resolution (1080×2340) and the ratio is 19.5:9. The display is 6 inches, it measures that much, you know, and it also supports HDR playback which makes it feel more sharp for daily use and around-the-house stuff. Also, in a way it is like a Pixel 2020 kind of upgrade, because it features a panel with a 90Hz refresh rate too, which is kind of the main deal.
It has an excellent color accuracy. Colors appear quite deep with an excellent contrast in the default “Adaptive” mode. Users can switch modes, depending on their taste and perception of color. It is under the “Natural” or “Enhanced” mode.
Before the Pixel 4a was launched, brightness often didn’t reach what the manual slider maximum could set such that even when “Adaptive Brightness” was enabled, it was less than that actually possible under sunlight. With the Pixel 5, it will boost screen brightness even beyond the upper manual slider limit when exposed to sunlight.
Pixel 5 and Charging Speed
When compared to its predecessors, Pixel 5 has something rich in batteries of about 4,080 mAh. Along with these things, a processor chip that consumes less power; hence, battery life of this device has improved. Up until the launch of this device, Pixel couldn’t compete with the best regarding battery life.
The feature on the Pixel 5 wakes the 90Hz screen to carry out usage with fingers tapping the display to reserve more batteries.
With the 60Hz screen setting, the Pixel 5 has around 26 hours of calling time, 12.5 hours of web-surfing, and around 18 hours of full video playback.
To make an accurate battery consumption test, I’ve turned on developer options so as to force display always at 90 Hz. From then on, Pixel 5 delivered more than 12 hours on the web and just below 17 hours in video playback these values are not much different from those for the 60Hz monitor setting.
The Pixel 5 arrives with an 18-watt USB-C Power Delivery charger, it boosts the phone by around 41% in just half an hour, and then finally reaches a full charge in 1 hour and 35 minutes.
It also supports fast charging over the Qi wireless standard, delivering up to 12 watts, plus reverse charging at 5 watts for things like Pixel Buds or, other Qi-enabled smartphones.
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Performance and OS
With the Pixel 5, Google kinda put a mid range chip in there, not that Qualcomm high-end 800 series processor. So it’s no more racing through specs , well kinda, but more like a device that should feel steadier, without those strange little hiccups, using the Snapdragon 765G.
A powerful processor chip in 7 nm gives a great performance, runs very powerless, and enables compatibility with 5G networking.
The performance cluster has two ARM Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.4GHz and 2.2GHz processing speed, more or less. The power-saving cluster meanwhile it is made up of 6 ARM Cortex-A55 cores, maxing out at 1.8GHz. Depending on the CPU load used, each core can end up working at a different frequency, kind of.
As for the graphics part, the Adreno 620 chip brings graphics processing capabilities that are about 20% higher than the Adreno 618 found on the Snapdragon 730G inside the Pixel 4a. Also it’s not just that, Pixel 5 feels quite strong.
On top of that, the Pixel 5 comes with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, which sounds solid. There is only one memory option available, though sadly the device doesn’t include a memory slot so you cant expand storage capacity later on.
But through some small tests, I confirmed that the Snapdragon 765G processor chip is not really doing the needful in the Pixel 5, not at its full potential.
Google’s Baby comes pre-installed with Android 11, so you won’t have to stress about OTA updates needing carrier or OEM approval before it is available in the device because it is software directly from the giant. The company promises at least three years of major OS updates and security patches for the Pixel 5.
Camera
Google equipped Pixel 5 with dual camera clusters, including a 12.2MP wide-angle lens with an f/1.7 aperture, and a 16MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide camera. Going by user feedback, it seems that google decided to embed in Pixel 5 this time with an ultra-wide-angle camera instead of a telephoto camera, which it had with the Pixel 4.
The main camera’s image in good brightness is quite fine and has a lot of contrast and the details are quite sharp.
Even if the ultra-wide doesn’t have autofocus adjustment, the pictures are still quite detailed with pretty impressive sharpness.
Super-Res zoom was built to offset the fact that there is no telephoto lens at all. Enlarged images lose detail and sharpness.
Photos taken using the Pixel 5 are not too great in portrait shots but are good to satisfy an image quality user.
Outdoors, the photos taken with Pixel 5 are very much good quality within the low-light conditions. Colors and exposures are natural, although sometimes there is an effect on white balance. The ultra-wide-angle proves to be a little weaker than the main camera, but there is still some tool provided by the device to assist users while taking photos in low light, which is night mode.
Night mode would be up after a certain threshold of light, and sometimes turning it on worsens the quality of photos. Applying this mode in scene shooting would lessen the noise of the image much more.
The device boasts an 8-megapixel, f/2.0 selfie camera that provides images riddled with detail and vibrant colors.
Conclusion
Generally, the Pixel 5 is a device representing the future targets of other devices from Google. It has dealt with battery issues and changes in material and overall looks.
While Pixel 5 thrives on a number of aspects, there are a few others where it falls flat, such as the performance of Snapdragon 765G on board and less storage.
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Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.