A little Pixel’ do ya

I may have changed carriers, but I’m sticking with Google for my next phone.

A couple of days ago, I ordered a new smartphone, the Google Pixel 4a with 5G. I have been very happy with my last two Pixels. The 4a/5G, a brand new update and upgrade to the 4a, is not Google’s flagship phone; that would be the also brand-new Pixel 5. But I just couldn’t justify the cost of the 5, and some of the differences between the two are things I don’t use anyway, like wireless charging.

In my recent blog post about changing phone carriers, I implied that 5G hadn’t made it here to Shelbyville. It turns out that’s not true, and I should have checked. My Mint Mobile plan operates on the T-Mobile network, and T-Mobile’s maps indicate that they have 5G here in the city — it’s the most basic of T-Mobile’s three different flavors of 5G, which means it’s not *that* much faster than LTE, but it is a step up. So I wanted a phone with 5G. I was considering getting a TCL 10 (that was the phone that I used to illustrate my previous blog post). But it turns out that the 5G version of the TCL 10 is right now exclusive to Verizon (the carrier I just left). So I think the Pixel 4a/5G will be a good choice, and an improvement on my aging Pixel 3. I’ve read good things about it, including the camera (which, for me, is often the most important function on the…