With the recent unveiling of the Google Pixel 6a, which would be the search engine giant’s latest, competitive mid-range smartphone, it’s time to pit it against the competition.
Samsung’s Galaxy A-series has been dominating the mid-range market forever, so does the new Pixel 6a match up, or even surpass the similarly-priced and similarly-sized Galaxy A53?
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Price and release date
The Pixel 6a made its official debut just recently, during Google’s I/O developers event on May 11. Pre-orders for the Pixel 6a will open on July 21, with shipping starting on the following Thursday, July 28, 2022. Its starting price – $449 for the base 128GB model.
The Galaxy A53 5G itself is pretty new too. Samsung released it back on April 1, 2022, so you can have it as soon as today or tomorrow. The A53’s price is exactly the same $449, and comes with 128GB of storage too.
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Design and colors
The visual design of those two phones differs quite a bit, and whether you prefer the look of one or the other is up to you – subjective.The upcoming Pixel 6a has about the same design as the flagship Pixel 6, minimal bezels on the front, a holepunch selfie camera, and on the back – a glossy two-tone style, with a wide, signature camera module.
The Pixel 6a also comes in three color options: Sage, Chalk and Charcoal.
The Galaxy A53, however, is what we could pretty much consider a minimalist-looking phone. While the front is the same, with minimal bezels and a holepunch camera, the back is all one color, with a matte finish resistant to fingerprints, and a camera module that definitely isn’t trying to draw attention to itself.
The Galaxy A53 offers the more vibrant colors. You can find it in: White, Black, Orange and Awesome Blue.
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Display
We’re yet to measure the Pixel 6a’s screen, but it’s reasonable to expect it to be just like the Pixel 6’s screen, since the specs are essentially the same.
The Pixel 6a packs a 6.1-inch OLED display with a 1080p resolution and a traditional 60 Hz refresh rate.
As for the Galaxy A53, it has a bigger 6.5 inch OLED display, again 1080p, but with a higher refresh rate of 120 Hz. So if you’re into bigger and smoother displays, that would be the better choice for you.
For reference, we have our display benchmark of the Galaxy A53 against the Pixel 6a’s predecessor below:
Display measurements and quality
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Hardware and performance
The Galaxy A53 is running Samsung’s Exynos 1280 processor, combined with again 6GB of RAM. When we were testing it for our Galaxy A53 5G review, we found it to struggle a bit with gaming, exhibiting the occasional frame drops in games like Minecraft. However, for casual tasks like watching videos and browsing the web, navigating through the phone is perfectly smooth.
For reference, we have the A53’s performance benchmark against the Pixel 6a’s predecessor below:
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Cameras
Inside that signature camera module, the Pixel 6a sports a 12.2MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide one. On the front we have the 8MP front camera from the flagship Pixel 6.
The Galaxy A53 has four sensors on the back – a 64 MP main camera, 12 MP ultra-wide, 5 MP macro and an additional 5 MP depth sensor. It’s safe to say that the A53 would offer more versatility to someone who loves taking creative photos and videos, but we’ll let our camera samples speak for themselves:
Pixel 6a vs Galaxy A53: Battery
Google’s Pixel 6a comes packing a 4410mAh battery, and is capable of fast charging at up to 18W. No wireless charging.
The Galaxy A53 5G has a bigger battery, 5000mAh, and higher fast charging speeds at up to 25W. While testing it for our review, this beefy battery was able to last us a comfortable day of heavy use, and we can’t forget that this phone’s screen has twice the refresh rate – 120Hz.
A light user can easily choose to drop it to 60Hz and get even longer battery life out of the A53. In any case, no wireless charging on this phone either.
For reference, we have our Galaxy A53 battery benchmark against the Pixel 6a’s predecessor below:
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