Are you buying the Pixel 4a or the iPhone SE? [Poll]

Kyle Bradshaw | Apr 15 2020 - 12:11 pm PT

This spring, two of the world’s biggest tech heavyweights, Apple and Google, are releasing mid-range smartphones, reportedly even starting at the same $399 price point. With that in mind, will you be buying either the iPhone SE 2020 or the Google Pixel 4a?

For the past few months, we’ve been reporting the details, including an exclusive look at the spec sheet, of the Google Pixel 4a, the company’s latest mid-range Android phone, expected to launch in the next few months. This morning, Apple made a splash in the tech world, if an expected one, by announcing the second generation of its iPhone SE, a phone that brings the best parts of modern iPhones with an older design and a ridiculously affordable price for an iPhone.

Importantly, by comparing the new iPhone SE with the rumors and leaks of the Pixel 4a, it seems as though there’s almost no contest between the two devices spec-wise. Where the iPhone SE uses Apple’s latest and greatest A13 Bionic chip, the Google Pixel 4a is poised to use the distinctly mid-range Snapdragon 730. Worse, it seems the Pixel 4a, like the 3a before it, will not support Qi wireless charging, while the 2020 iPhone SE does.

That said, Google still has the advantage in the camera space, which it will surely flaunt on the Pixel 4a, and it remains to be seen what we can expect to be new or different on the camera by comparison to last year’s Pixel 3a. And while many may have moved on, some will surely prefer the Pixel 4a’s inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack, which the iPhone SE does not offer.

Despite the abundance of differences between the two phones, they’re both reportedly launching with the same starting price of $399, according to a leaked Pixel 4a ad. As our own Seth Weintraub put it, the iPhone SE is perfectly poised to make for stiff competition against the Pixel 4a and possibly even tempt some folks away from Android.

iPhone SE 2020 is really setting a high bar this year, particularly matching the Pixel (a) series price points. From what we’ve heard so far about Google’s Pixel 4a, it sounds like Apple might be winning this round. For me, a lot of the stuff like longevity and trade in value and little things like Qi charging are making a Pixel 4a purchase harder to justify.

But more importantly, what do you, our dear readers, think? Let us know in the poll below, and if you have a second, share down in the comments why you like one over the other. What do you think of the blossoming field of mid-range phones, arriving as the world is in the middle of a financial crisis?

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