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This week’s top stories: Google Pixel 4a vs iPhone SE, Camera Go hands-on, more

Kyle Bradshaw | Apr 18 2020 - 10:31 am PT

In this week’s top stories: we compare the Google Pixel 4a against Apple’s new iPhone SE spec-for-spec, our Damien Wilde goes hands-on with the Google Camera Go app, and much more.

This week, Apple announced the second generation iPhone SE, which puts iPhone 11 level performance into an iPhone 8 style body for the same leaked $399 retail price as the Pixel 4a. That fact has many of us wondering which of the two phones is better and why. Our Ben Schoon took the time to compare the iPhone SE against the upcoming Pixel 4a in nearly every aspect imaginable.

Apple’s iPhone SE is using a 4.7-inch LCD display that’s not even HD (1334×750). Meanwhile, Google’s Pixel 4a will offer up a 5.8-inch 1080p OLED display. That will offer not only more viewing space, but also better contrast and, possibly, better brightness too. OLED is the same type of display Apple uses on its high-end iPhones.

Elsewhere in low-to-mid-range phone news, our Damien Wilde got the chance this week to check out the Google Camera Go app that is set to be bundled with the upcoming Nokia 1.3 phone based on Android Go. For an app that’s designed to bring high-end features like portrait mode to low-end phones, the results are surprisingly good!

On the ironic side of things, the creator of the love/hate Google fansite “Killed by Google” publicly shared that Google expressed interest in hiring him. This, of course, lead to many readers humorously speculating that Google simply wants to “kill” Killed by Google.

For his part, Ogden seems to be disinterested in the offer, opting instead to poll for humorous responses to Google’s email. Further, he added that his only relevant experience for working at Google “is disappointment.” With that in mind, it’s safe to say that Killed by Google will continue to catalog the company’s failures for the foreseeable future.

Three months after launching then pulling a similar update, Xiaomi has officially rolled out a stable version of Android Pie to owners of the Mi Box S. The highlight of this update, of course, is support for the Amazon Prime Video app, along with fixes for a variety of bugs.

Chromecast not working

Some apps playback freeze

Special H264 decode error

BT audio is not sync with video

HDMI compatibility

Pop sound when STB in standby mode

Gboard not working when connecting an external keyboard

Finally, Samsung made waves this week by launching a more affordable tablet in the form of the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. The tablet, as you would expect, has a great deal in common with the Tab S6, including the built-in S Pen stylus, while cutting back some components to reduce cost.

Under the hood, Samsung says the Lite offers a 1.7GHz octa-core processor (with 2.3GHz boost), but it’s not named. Presumably, though, it’s an Exynos processor. That processor is backed up by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There’s also a microSD card and a USB-C port for charging and data transfer. There’s a 7,040 mAh battery inside, too, which Samsung says should last around 12 hours.