Three big-name mid-rangers have landed close together, but how do they compare?
The Google Pixel 4a was one of the most highly anticipated mid-rangers of the year, but then it took a long time to launch, and in the meantime we saw both the OnePlus Nord and the iPhone SE (2020) – two big name handsets that are major rivals to the Pixel. So the Google Pixel 4a has entered a surprisingly crowded market, and you might understandably be deciding between these three phones, rather than jumping straight to Google’s. To help you make that decision we’ve compared their specs and features in every key area, so you can see what’s similar and what’s different. The Google Pixel 4a has a plastic back with a fingerprint scanner in the center and a square camera block in the top left corner. Flip it over and there’s a punch-hole camera in the top left corner of the screen. It comes in black and has dimensions of 144 x 69.4 x 8.2mm, and a weight of 143g. The OnePlus Nord on the other hand has a glass back and a metal frame – albeit with a slim plastic frame running between the two. The screen is flat with a large cut-out for the dual-lens camera in it, and minimal bezels. The phone is 158.3 x 73.3 x 8.2mm and 184g, and it comes in a choice of Gray Onyx or Blue Marble shades. That colorful finish aside the rear is fairly plain, with the main feature being a large oblong camera bump, and while there’s no official water resistance rating, the OnePlus Nord does have some resistance according to OnePlus. Finally, the iPhone SE (2020) has a glass back and a metal frame. Its front looks more old fashioned than its rivals though, as there are large bezels above and below the flat display. The phone is 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3mm, so it’s compact, and it’s also light at 148g. It comes in black, white, and red shades, has just a small camera on the back, and offers IP67 water resistance, meaning it can be submerged up to 1 meter deep for up to 30 minutes. So between the Pixel 4a’s plastic back and the iPhone SE’s big bezels, the OnePlus Nord arguably has the most modern and premium design, but the other two phones are smaller and lighter. The Pixel 4a has a 5.81-inch 1080 x 2340 OLED screen, with 443 pixels per inch and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. That makes it the middle of the three in terms of size and resolution, but the best in terms of pixel density, as the OnePlus Nord has a larger and higher resolution 6.44-inch 1080 x 2400 OLED screen with a 20:9 aspect ratio, but the much larger size means a slightly lower pixel density of 408 pixels per inch. The iPhone SE (2020) meanwhile is the smallest at 4.7 inches, as well as being the lowest resolution at 750 x 1334, and having the lowest pixel density at 326 pixels per inch. It’s also the only one to use an LCD display, which typically offers inferior contrast to an OLED screen, and at 16:9 it is less widescreen than its rivals – though whether that’s better or worse is subjective.
