If you’re eyeing a smaller Android phone or still hanging onto a Pixel 4, Google just quietly gave you two very different reasons to pay attention. One is hardware reality: how good the Pixel 4a actually is in lab tests. The other is software freedom: official TWRP support for the Pixel 4 and 4 XL.
Both matter if you care about real-world usability more than marketing blurbs.
A compact OLED that actually holds up in bright light
The Pixel 4a is going against the 2020 (and still ongoing) trend of giant slabs by shipping with a 5.81-inch OLED and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. On paper that sounds almost small by modern standards, and in the hand it genuinely is. When most midrange phones are pushing north of 6.5 inches, the 4a exists for people who don’t want a tablet in their pocket.
Resolution comes in at 1080 x 2340 with a pixel density of 443ppi. That’s firmly in the “no visible pixels” zone for normal viewing distances. The OLED panel delivers the usual deep blacks and high contrast you expect, but the real surprise is brightness.
With adaptive brightness enabled, the Pixel 4a hits 803 nits at peak, while the manual slider tops out at 451 nits. That automatic boost in harsh light makes a very real difference outdoors. This is not a spec-sheet stunt either: it’s the brightest Pixel panel measured so far, and the first to actually go beyond the manual ceiling when auto brightness kicks in.
No high refresh rate, but solid color accuracy options
The obvious spec gap is refresh rate. The Pixel 4a sticks to 60Hz while 90Hz panels are creeping down into cheaper phones. If you’re used to a 90Hz or 120Hz display, you will notice the difference in scrolling smoothness, especially in animations and feed-heavy apps.
But here’s the trade-off: 90Hz is still mostly a visual nicety, not a functional upgrade, and the 4a focuses more on calibration. You get three distinct color profiles: Adaptive, Boosted, and Natural.
Adaptive is the default and targets the DCI-P3 color space with more vivid output. Lab measurements show an average deltaE of 2.8 with a max of 6. That’s already good enough for most people’s eyes. Natural is tuned to sRGB and is the accuracy champion here, with an average deltaE of 1.7 and a max of 2.5. Boosted sits in between: slightly more saturated than Natural, with an average deltaE of 2.2 and max 4.3.
Across all modes, white point stays within 2 deltaE units, which is essentially indistinguishable in day-to-day use. For a midrange phone, that’s serious work on color, not a generic “vivid” toggle.
On top of that, the Pixel 4a is certified for Netflix HDR10 streaming. You’re not getting insane peak HDR levels like some flagships brag about, but you are getting proper HDR support in a compact package, which is rare in its price and size class.
Battery life: enough for a day, but nothing special
Battery is where the Pixel 4a stays firmly middle-of-the-road. Capacity bumps slightly over the Pixel 3a to 3,140 mAh. It also moves to a more efficient 8nm CPU, which theoretically helps offset the display size and modern workloads.
In standardized testing, the phone lands at a 76-hour overall endurance rating. Breaking that down: 22 hours and 45 minutes of talk time, 11 hours and 48 minutes of web browsing, and 12 hours and 17 minutes of video playback. For 2020 and beyond, that’s “fine” — not terrible, not impressive.
Context matters here. Cheaper phones with 4,000–5,000 mAh batteries frequently cross the 100-hour mark in the same testing format. The Pixel 4a doesn’t compete in that league. Instead, it’s a typical “full day and a bit” phone under the assumed mix of one hour of calls, one hour of web, and one hour of video per day.
If you push navigation, camera, and constant data-heavy apps, don’t expect miracles. But under a realistic moderate workload, you’ll get through the day and probably wake up with some buffer.
Charging, audio, and the basics that actually matter
Charging tech on the Pixel 4a hasn’t moved forward. You still get an 18W USB-C Power Delivery charger — the same setup Google has been shipping for multiple generations.
From empty, the 4a reaches 45% in 30 minutes and hits 100% in 1 hour and 37 minutes. That’s acceptable, but with many phones now pushing much faster charge speeds, it’s not a bragging point. There’s no magic here; the last 10% is slow, as usual, to protect the battery.
On the audio side, Google sticks with dual loudspeakers. Volume is solid and stereo separation is there, though distortion creeps in at higher levels. It’s not trying to compete with dedicated media phones, but for video, casual music, and calls on speaker, it holds its own.
As for wired audio output quality, lab testing has been dropped because most phones already perform so well that only measurement gear can see the difference. In practice, that means the Pixel 4a is not going to be your bottleneck if you care about audio fidelity.
Pixel 4 and 4 XL finally get official TWRP support
If you’re still using a Pixel 4 or Pixel 4 XL, the bigger news for you isn’t the 4a’s OLED. It’s official support from Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP). These 2019 devices now show up directly on the TWRP website and app with official builds.
Unofficial TWRP builds have been floating around for a while, but this is the first time they graduate to official status. The delay is partly technical: the TWRP team spent months adapting to Android 10-era changes like dynamic and logical partitions before adding support for devices that launched with Android 10 as TWRP 3.5.0 rolled out.
Official support means you can download the latest builds for the Pixel 4 (flame) and Pixel 4 XL (coral) from a central, trusted source instead of chasing individual forum threads. It also means ongoing maintenance from an assigned developer — in this case, XDA Senior Recognized Developer bigbiff.
Why this matters for modders and long-term Pixel users
Pixels already sit near the top for software longevity thanks to near-stock Android and long support windows. They’re often treated as the reference for how Android “should” feel. But they also double as some of the most mod-friendly mainstream phones because Google still keeps the bootloader unlock path straightforward on supported models.
Official TWRP support adds a second life path for the Pixel 4 and 4 XL. With TWRP 3.5.0 onboard, you can more easily install Magisk for root access, flash custom ROMs, or swap in alternative kernels that focus on more features, performance tweaks, or better battery behavior.
There’s justified optimism here: dynamic partition support was a big hurdle, and now that it’s cleared, the Pixel 4 series becomes a more comfortable playground for tinkerers. But execution still matters. How stable these early official builds are will depend on real-world feedback from users.
If you jump in, you should be prepared for the usual modding caveats: backups, potential bugs, and some trial and error. The good news is that there’s an active maintainer and an existing community around the device, so issues and fixes will likely surface quickly.
Check back soon as this story develops.