Pixel 6a

[...] There is nothing one do in a flagship that you can't do - albeit maybe with less quality or slower - than a lower end one. [...] To be honest, I am clumsy and break stuff easily so I have never spent more than $200 on a smartphone, my current one is a pixel 6a running grapheneos that I bought for 180€ 2.5 years ago. It makes very good photos actually and is fast enough for everything I do. [...]

I had a Pixel 6a last year bought not too long after it came out. [...] The screen died over the course of a couple of hours due to water ingreess.

I had a Pixel 6a with Graphene OS for a year before the phone started to glitch and eventually die. [...] This sounds like your phone may have been one of the Pixel 6a models with a defective battery[1]. It was a major problem for which Google pushed out an update that nerfed the battery life. There is a tool online where you can check if your particular 6a was one with a battery from the bad production batch[2]. [...]

I had a Pixel 6a with Graphene OS for a year before the phone started to glitch and eventually die. [...] I could not get a replacement as I bought the phone in a foreign country (Google doesn’t sell Pixels here in Brazil). [...]

[...] Been using it for 3 years on a Pixel 6a. [...]

[...] The "a" model are more in the 550€ area and still have super decent camera, especially if you aren't a selphie addict. [...] I bought my Pixel 6a last year for around 200€.

[...] my pixel 6a battery got swollen with less than 3 years. [...] I also had a pixel 3a that I couldn't find a screen replacement for luckily for me -- google accepted a trade in when the 6a got released. the pixels have a overheating problem -- this you can google for. oh yeah, when automatic android updates happen a bunch of your settings are reset even something simple as UI-theme.

Loved my 6a for 4+ years and just traded it in for a 10a, which I also love.

Nokia and Motorola have been good android non pixel phones I've had. [...] I've been on a pixel 6a for 3.5 years and it had the battery issue recall last year, and has been doing fine since then, touch wood.

I'm using pixel 6a from nov 2022 till now.now I'm in the middle east there is no heating issue.everything feel perfect

I currently use the 6a, a refurbished device replaced by Google after my 5a abruptly died due to a faulty motherboard. I miss the 5a(larger screen, headphone jack), but after using the 6a for 3 years, I've been very happy with this device. Pictures load so much faster than the 5a, and the smaller form factor is something I'll miss moving forward. [...] I will keep the 6a until next year when security updates are gone and I'll see what the 11a/12 have to offer. [...]

using it since 2023....and i don't intend to replace it unless it stops working totally 🎉✅

have fun with it! i got a pixel 6a a few years ago and it’s been so much better than my older iphone

I refuse to spend over $500 for a phone, I got a Pixel 6A and it does the job for me. Got it for $300 2 years ago.

I'll Google has really effed up with an update. I've had my Google pixel 6A for 3 years. For three years I've been able to turn the phone vertical or horizontal and the home screen turns vertical and horizontal. [...]

i got my pixel 6a pretty much on release three years ago to replace my broken af phone and normally i would keep my phone for way longer but this pixel 6a has AWFUL overheating issues and im super temperature sensitive. it is downright Uncomfortable to use due with hot it gets

For some reason I tend to break screens way before the battery dies usually. I am not afraid to replace a battery or even a screen if phone is not totally out of date. [...] Knocking on wood my pixel 6a still going strong after 2 years.

I had a Google Pixel 6a. It was a pretty decent phone, but it barely lasted 2 years of use before it started to become pretty unusable. [...]

TBH I don't think I've ever bought a new phone because there was something new and fancy that I could justify. Every phone I've bought has been because my previous phone stopped receiving software updates, or in the case of my Pixel 6a, had a hooped battery.

What the hell are you doing to your phone to make it slower after only 3 years? I am running a pixel 6a, so lowest end and 5 generations behind current models and it doesn't feel slow, even compared to the phone my partner bought new last year. [...] Given the price increase in storage chips, are 2026 phones even coming with more storage than 3 years ago?

I recently switched phone (Pixel 6a with swollen battery to Xiaomi 13 (Shizuku solves most of the issues without installing custom ROM, which they made impossible through bootloader unlocking process)) and for now decided to not install Cromite yet, but keep Firefox which was offered in browser choice at beginning, still feel very annoyed by the new (not customizable) context menu, but they keep making it even more annoying like with blue persistent for telling you you had downloaded something as if regular notification wouldn't be enough and of course there is no way to get rid off the blue dot besides deleting download (record), just another annoyance or now they finally semi fixed home page with 8 pinned shortcuts, but despite not having anything else on home page you must still tap Show all, to see other shortcuts, why can't I show all the shortcuts directly on home page is beyond me so much for Firefox customization...

and those who care use Vivaldi it other alternatives anyway I recently switched phone (Pixel 6a with swollen battery to Xiaomi 13 (Shizuku solves most of the issues without installing custom ROM, which they made impossible through bootloader unlocking process)) and for now decided to not install Cromite yet, but keep Firefox which was offered in browser choice at beginning, still feel very annoyed by the new (not customizable) context menu, but they keep making it even more annoying like with blue persistent for telling you you had downloaded something as if regular notification wouldn't be enough and of course there is no way to get rid off the blue dot besides deleting download (record), just another annoyance or now they finally semi fixed home page with 8 pinned shortcuts, but despite not having anything else on home page you must still tap Show all, to see other shortcuts, why can't I show all the shortcuts directly on home page is beyond me, so much for Firefox customization

Honestly I just don't really care to anymore. I used to flash custom ROMs on all my phones because I could only afford cheap (100-200€) phones that were filled with bloatware, but ever since I started being able to afford a decent mid-range phone (Pixel 6a was the first one I didn't reflash) I just found out I wasn't actually missing anything, and I definitely enjoy things like contactless payments, and not having something randomly break every time I update.

I have better battery life on Furi FX1s than any of my Android devices (Pixel 6a, Fairphone 4). This is with closing applications when I no longer need them on all devices.

I have 1Gb for 12€/300CZK per month in Prague (it could be 10€ but fiber infrastructure is not directly from my carrier, so they gave to pay fee to other company, but I know in other places they can go down to 10€/250CZK), why would I go for the lower speed it it cost the same or even more? I was watching yesterday F1 practice and qualification in some German channel worth German ads and couldn't believe the advertised prices, they were advertising 100Mb for 36€, only 30 times more expensive, the other ad was like 250Mb for like 24€, 8 times more expensive, what are these people smoking? I've had before upgrade 250Mb, but without fiber installed in different room, so the speed where I needed it was max 120Mb, now this was quality of life improvement, while movie download within minute instead of waiting 10-20 minutes, work attachments almost instantaneous and my kids are not using the internet yet. Funnily in speed test I'm able to reach slightly higher top speed on my Pixel 6a with wifi 6e than on laptop directly connected with gigabit cable to router, but it's almost same like 960 vs 950 Mb.

Well, eBay does not work on my Pixel 6a. I don't have it with me, by Play store says that it is incompatible with my device. Google searches indicated that this is a common problem.

[...] till I got the abomination that was a pixel 6a. fucking overheated - then finally battery exploded. Other pixels suffer the same problems as well - overheating n display being finnicky.

that depends what you consider a healthy resale value, I bought my Pixel 6a with no issues for 100EUR :-) (and not because I care about Google's business, I don't have gapps in my phone, I just like good deals/VFM)

The small form factor phones simply do not sell. yeah, clearly nobody buys Samsung Galaxy S series for years, they are like the least popular Android phone model... /s I'm running Pixel 6a (which was followed bu successors with worse screen:body ratio for years and only now the new Pixels finally matched and slightly improved the ratio, what a progress), but considering all the HW issues (baterries and displays) with Pixels I'd rather avoid it, the worst case will buy as next phone Xiaomi and hopefully somehow unlock it, if there is no suitable Motorola edit: added HW issues explanation since I am rate limited on comments

you better not look at screen:body ratio since Pixel 6a, it decreased for few generations and only now it's finally back on par, that's not what I call evolution/progress same with Amazfit Bip from like 2018, you can't buy small THIN <10mm watch with battery requiring charging once a month and always readable MIP display (the more sunlight the better)

I loved my pixel 3a - it did the work then I upgraded to a 6a - overheating, battery exploded - google refused to change it coz it was bought in the uk - while I'm now in the US - as if I didn't trade my US bought 3a for a pixel 6a in the UK - some android version brought 2 photo apps - so I recovered some via the cloud - lost others finally gave up and moved back to using an iPhone - transition was easy - I recovered everything that was left intact on my iPhone SE before switching to a Pixel 3a so yeah fk google phones

The only system where I had this happen was a Google Pixel 6a, where a system update irrecoverably corrupted all (encrypted) data which made it not boot on top. It's particularly great Monday morning on your phone if you require 2FA to sign in to work.

Learn by doing, I used iFixit to replace my Pixel 3 screen/body, Pixel 6a screen, and a bunch of other mac fixes. You just get better from doing it.

[...] Used RCS on a Pixel 6a and a Pixel 8 before switching to an iPhone. [...]

[...] I have a Pixel 6a connected to $40USD bone conducting headphones and the range and punch-through are incredible; the phone is sitting in the living room playing music and I can almost make it to my mailbox at the end of the block (about 3 houses away) before it starts to degrade or cut out. [...]

Their cameras have been terrible for a long time (comparatively speaking). I switched from a Pixel 6a to an iPhone 16 and was shocked at how bad my pictures are now. I get the feeling that iPhone users just don't know any better because they've always had an iPhone.

[...] The $250 Motorola can add a $50 1 TB SD Card, which is enough to fit your entire music collection, all of wikipedia, and an offline ad-free routable map of the world from OSM, and still have probably like 700 GB left over for photos/videos. Google meanwhile charges $100 for a 128 GB storage upgrade. [...] Phone cameras are also absolute trash anyway, and pulling up some comparisons in Google Photos right now, I'm fairly certain that my Pixel 6a takes obviously worse photos than my Nexus 5x did 10 years ago, even comparing high light for the 6a to low light for the 5x. I'll probably buy a Motorola when my current phone dies because the only ostensible reason to buy a Pixel is the camera. [...]

I waited until they were phasing out the pixel 6a, so there were loads of great sales to clear out the old inventory. I managed to get a pixel 6a new for $94 total. [...] Unless you're running games on your phone, there is nothing of value in newer/more expensive phones. We've long past the point where the cheap phones are powerful enough to have a completely smooth experience. My tech illiterate parents spend $1k on phones with fragile plastic screens. [...] They claim "I love that it folds so it protects the screen" and yet the screen breaks in a year. [...]

- Gesture navigation steals user input when swiping on the left/right edges of the screen, Well I've seen even 1B+ dl apps failing to handle that (on a Google Pixel), so at this point I'm putting the blame on Google. I've switched back to three button navigation. Though even some trivial OS gestures like screen unlock fail reliably on my Pixel 6a. (As in, I do the gesture, it fails to register the gesture, i try to make the gesture "with more conviction" through the whole screen and it still fails, and after few minutes it ends up okay somehow)

For me, the battery swap interest is down to using CGMs and uploading that data to a mesh of local "follower" devices belonging to family members, as well as to my Nightscout server. [...] We've had blackouts here before, and it's those moments you really value stuff like battery banks, however, keeping them charged and making sure others don't siphon your juice from time to time can be annoying (lol!). Would be nice to keep an additional battery just for my device in my pouch of diabetes-related paraphernalia. Once upon a time, I had a Motorola A920 in the early '00s that came with a dock to put a second battery into to charge it (pre-CGM era of course), but something like that would be lovely when combined with a foldable or flip phone. After Google pushed a firmware update to my Pixel 6a today, it definitely gives a feeling of vulnerability. [...]

This is great news! I have been waiting and waiting for something that would allow me to run Word and PowerPoint on my Pixel 6a!

[...] The only ones that were exempt were the oldest iPhones that did not receive iOS updates anymore such that they never received an update that throttled the CPU when the battery was degraded. Had Apple given users documentation on its throttling patch and visibility into battery health upfront, there would never have been any controversy. The current issue affecting Google Pixel 6a phones is a safety defect, which is quite different than Apple’s throttling controversy. [...]

My Pixel 6a (my current phone) has no battery swelling. On the other hand, it takes over a minute to decide that it's confirmed a GPS location. [...] The utter failure of the GPS on the Pixel 6a (and possibly other related phones?) seems to be a known, common issue. I do have overheating problems. [...]

[...] But I have a Google Pixel 6a for dev and testing reasons. And Google Gemini for the voice assistant is excellent fun! Just being able to ask it weird and wonderful whilst on a road trip with the kids is worth the cost of a cheap Pixel phone alone!

I'm (we all are) constantly reminded to update our phones to latest available updates, but sht like this is what teaches users to instead disable and ignore updates indefinitely, under the premise of "if it works don't touch it" (addendum: "... because most probably an update will break it") And here I am, ignoring updates on my Pixel 6a since October 2024 (there were reports of crashes or bricking, what a surprise) and planning to keep doing that for the foreseeable future. Sucks having to choose between a potentially (even likely, seeing the trend) broken device or an unsecured one. [...]

I just bought 6a for 40€ and yeah it had a crack at the bottom but functions perfectly and doesnt have any other damage. It will be siginificantly faster and better than my a32 5g. I will post an update after I get it

I should do that too! I got a Pixel 6A which is compatible. I hear the latest pixels aren't.

I feel like I am becoming my mother by thinking that the websites are hacking a virus to blow up my computer but for real the dialect quiz completely fucks up my phone Pixel 6a, tried twice, after question 25 the entire OS freezes for a few minutes unresponsive to interrupts and reboots

[...] Still holds a charge, I use it for playing music. [...] I'm on a Pixel 6a right now. If it died and I couldn't afford another Pixel I'd definitely go with another Moto G.

Alright folks it's that time again - my phone is starting to glitch out a bit and I've already replaced the battery and screen to try to stretch it, but I think it's time for a new phone. I have a Pixel 6a. I've had Pixels since the Pixel 1 and have always been an Android user since my first […]