[Google Pixel 4a Questions & Answers] PGHammer:
The question isn't whether the 4a will survive

The Pixel 4a will do just fine; after all, the 3a certainly did. (Point of order - I own a 3a, which is headed into its first anniversary with me.)

The REAL question is "why are folks still beating on it"?

Here are several things to consider.

1. The length of support. (Most Android smartphones - priced either at or above even NEW Pixels - let alone used Pixels, run out of support before the 3a will; the 4a will be supported until - at minimum - 2023. The 3a will run dry one year earlier. Name ONE smartphone - from anyone - including Apple - that will be supported as long as the 3a will - let alone the 4a.)

2. Not everyone is a slave to Apple. I have nothing against Apple; if I did, why would I support their hardware? (I do; including their smartphones.) However, you DO pay a price to own an iPhone - I'd rather not get that bill, thank you.

3. Not everyone - even on Android - is camera-driven. Did the camera even matter when I bought my 3a? Surprisingly - and I said so here - absolutely NOT! Support mattered; the camera - despite its strengths - didn't matter a whit. (While I AM doing a lot more with the 3a than I have with all my previous smartphones combined; that is being driven by external events - not me. Therefore - rather surprisingly, #whatcamera? still flies.)

4. What REALLY drives mainstream users? That likely is not a question that most of xda-developers can even answer; developers/tweakers/those that root/etc. are NOT mainstream Android users. The Pixel 3a - and now the 4a - are the "set it up and forget it for three years" midrange mainstream phones that sell; witness the takeup of the 3a. (I called the 3a a "utility infielder" Android smartphone - and likened it to Anthony Rendon (of the MLB Washington Nationals when the 3a launched; now he is with the Angels of Anaheim via free agency; that means they need a new third baseman. That is what the 4a is to Google; their Carter Kieboom (the "next man up" in the Nationals farm system; he knew it - so did Rendon).

---------- Post added at 12:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:04 AM ----------

Pixels have never (as in ever) been feature-driven in terms of hardware (until the Pixel 4) - however, the selfsame Pixel 4 could actually be said to one of the biggest duds in Google hardware history - and the ONLY dud since the Pixel 2 as far as Pixels themselves went. Maybe Google has decided to "return to their last" and making solid "utility infielder" mainstream-type smartphones (ala Nexus and previous Pixels) works for them. (Note the interest in GCam (the Google Camera software) among non-Google Android users/developers/ODMs; it sure sounds that Google got a lot RIGHT with it!) The scary part is that even Google admits that it's almost entirely software; except for Soli (which is a hardware feature unique to the Pixel 4 - and one that GCam doesn't even use) and which has cost the selfsame Pixel 4 sales in quite a few markets (and jacked up the price everywhere else), why are folks suggesting that Google should repeat- if not compound - the errors that resulted in the Pixel 4?

I've had a Pixel 3a for nearly a year - and it wasn't the camera (software) that drove the deal; my mom (who is more into pictures than I am) REJECTED a NEW 3a XL (which I would have bought for her); instead, she got herself a refurbished original Pixel - which got the same camera features as my 3a did in its last Pixel feature drop - she isn't moaning OR groaning. One reason for the guy behind GCam leaving may well have been "where do you go from up"? Yes; camera features in terms of HARDWARE are improving; however, software apparently STILL matters - and nobody has caught up to GCam yet; otherwise why is the interest in it as high as it is? In other words, hardware is NOT everything.