Early Google Pixel 4a benchmarks leak and they look promising

The Google Pixel 4a has been subject to a steady stream of leaks, with new information on the phone dropping almost daily. Now, we have a glimpse of how the device will perform thanks to a benchmark leak, and the results seem to be quite promising.

YouTuber Julio Lusson from the TecnoLike Plus channel has been responsible for many of the Google Pixel 4a leaks so far, including early photos from its camera. Now he has put the phone to the test to see how powerful it is in various benchmark analyses.

While we already know that the Google Pixel 4a is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 SoC, it’s interesting to see how that chip performs with the upcoming phone. XDA Developers took the data from Lusson’s video and compared it with other popular phones, including Google’s Pixel 4, Pixel 3a XL, Pixel 3 XL, and a Qualcomm Reference Device (QRD) with an 865 as a higher-end baseline.

In all of the tests, the Pixel 4a performed quite well, especially for a phone with a rumored price of $399. It scored approximately 70% as high as the original Pixel 4 in an AnTuTu benchmark. It’s on par with the Google Pixel 3 XL in terms of performance, and it handily beats the Pixel 3a XL, which is to be expected since the Google Pixel 4a is a generation newer.

The 4a also keeps up with the more expensive devices in almost every category except gaming. In PCMark’s Work 2.0 test, it was just a bit behind the Google Pixel 4 and was even closer to the Pixel 3 XL. As expected, it handily outperformed the Google Pixel 3a. This means that for users looking to do basic image editing and writing on their phone should be entirely happy with the performance of the Google Pixel 4a. As for gaming, though, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 underperformed according to the video, managing to slightly edge out the Pixel 3a XL while getting crushed by every other device in the test.

As expected, the Pixel 4 offers the best performance of the devices tested (except for the Qualcomm Reference Device, which is used just as a baseline).

Overall, Google looks to have a solid mid-range smartphone on its hands. It didn’t blow away the results in any category, but it certainly performed well within expectations for a device at this price. The tests were done with pre-release hardware, so there could be some improvements when the final device hits the market as Google makes some final tweaks to the software and hardware.