I recently got the Pixel 6a, also looking for a smaller handset at a similar price (think it was around 300). It's not quite perfect for one-hand use but a lot of the other models seem to be worse (I remember one actually hurt my hand to hold it to my ear to make a phone call. Seriously, who are these giant-fingered people, and how do they expect me to take a selfie at the top of a route now??)
A few thoughts, from someone very untechnological and easily grumpy:
- Better battery than my previous Samsung A40, but could still be better. Runs down within the day with a lot of use but may not bother you if not using too much. Nb the A40 is far from cutting edge, so I would expect an improvement.
- Camera OK. (Not great in low light, but better in good light than the A40.)
A few gripes:
- No dual SIM slot or headphone jack, though I'm told those are no longer common for any phones (gah).
Some things I've found annoying in moving to a Google phone though, rather than another Android, which may or may not bother you.
- No longer having an email app which isn't Gmail. I don't use Gmail as my primary email account, the Outlook app which I downloaded is so bad as to be almost unusable (no working search function), and other apps seem to be all ads.
- Don't seem to be able to make photo albums on the phone itself rather than immediately on Google drive. This means that if you're then trying to upload photos somewhere like Facebook, it doesn't recognise your albums. Might not be an issue for people who don't take a lot of photos, but for me having everything mix together in a massive soup that's hard to sort through really winds me up (and if you upload from the photo album, it changes the order).
If those don't bother you, it might be fine for you.
The new OS Maps now takes five years to load (almost useless to use on the go), but I'm pretty sure that must be an OS problem.
Phones seem to last months rather than years for me, but that may be due to my habit of doomscrolling UKC in steamy bathrooms...
Post edited at 01:15