New 3a owner...

[AsItLies]

Due to the recent price drop and my long time desire to find out if band 71 and the camera would make much of a difference, finally got one yesterday.

I've been using an LG V30 (rooted) for quite a while (2 yrs?), and have to say, very happy to have switched. The major differences for me;
1) The camera is much better. I tried various gcam ports on the V30, and some of them had almost all the functionality, but even the best of them didn't result in the pictures the 3a gets. The lens / micron size is the reason for that, I think. It's very evident in any low light situation.
2) T-mo band 71 is alive! I didn't know if it was or not, so pretty big surprise when my LTE data is about twice as fast as before. I've not measured with speedtest but simply observing the chunk size when updating in playstore. Of course that varies with how busy their servers are, etc etc. But 'overall', having done it enough times with ea phone, the 3a is clearly much faster via 71.
3) While the V30 is better in numerous other respects, one has to decide; what's the most important to you? For me, the 3a suits my needs very well.

Cheers

 

[AsItLies]

Using speed test (ookla) and another called speed check (both from playstore), download was 102.5 Mbps and 105 Mbps respectively, and up was 12.5 Mbps for both. I never bothered to check the speed with my V30 (with these apps), so can't compare, but this result I think is very good.

 

[mrtomaso]

I concur 100%! I was truly dedicated to the v20, did make some fantastic phones v20 and v30.

I made the to switch back to 3a xl and definitely agreed with everything you said.

 

[PGHammer]

Sargo a Year In

Using speed test (ookla) and another called speed check (both from playstore), download was 102.5 Mbps and 105 Mbps respectively, and up was 12.5 Mbps for both. I never bothered to check the speed with my V30 (with these apps), so can't compare, but this result I think is very good.

I came from the Galaxy S7 a year ago (it wasn't broke; it is Sargo's backup) and while folks STILL think it was *all about the camera*, as good as Sargo's Camera app is. it didn't even figure (at all) in my decision to change phones; you have to take enough pictures for a camera (or Camera app, for that matter) TO matter. Yes; to put it bluntly, the camera (AND app) on the Pixel 3a flat-out smacks the camera app on the S7 with an overlarge trout - hard. (However, the same is true of most phones - regardless of price - and that was BEFORE the recent price drop.) Still, the camera is just BARELY in the top five of why I recommend it as a phone; other thigs are - quite honestly - further up the list. The three years of OS upgrades - direct from Google - is the BIGGEST reason why. (That means 2022 is when upgrades from Google run out.) The ONLY other phone ODM that plays in this turf is Apple - and - other than the iPhone SE - do they play in this end of the price turf?

 

[crackedvenom2]

Glad you're enjoying the phone. It's pretty great.

 

[casabel]

Pixel 3a is a great phone , one of the last of its generation without punch holes and other terrible implementations.
Fingerprint and headphone jack present , i feel sorry that we will not see same phones in the future

 

[captain sideways]

Same. Didn't get it for the camera but it is nice to have the option in my pocket if I need it. For me, I wanted vanilla android and I am very happy with it.

I came from (mostly) custom roms and I imagine that by the time the official updates end that both twrp and the custom rom scene will have advanced a fair bit so I'll be using it for a good while yet. I treat my phones like my cars; I runs them till they don't run no more. This is actually the first new phone I've had in over a decade as I usually score a pass-on from friends when they upgrade.

I'm not into that "got to have the latest phone" deal so I'll be getting as much life as I can out of my 3a