Goodbye OnePlus 5T – Hello Google Pixel 6A

Today marks the end of a small digital era for me – I am saying goodbye to my beloved OnePlus 5T. It’s the best smartphone that I’ve ever owned and served me very well for close to five years.

The OnePlus 5T smartphone laying on a table
Farewell to the best smartphone I’ve ever owned: OnePlus 5T

Why I Iove the OnePlus 5T

OnePlus is not a very well known brand here in Switzerland. But they managed to catch my attention back in 2018 by creating inexpensive smartphones that delivered rather strong performance. And for me, with the 5T they’ve ticked all the main boxes that a great phone should tick:

  • A good camera
  • Decent battery life and a very quick charger
  • Great software: near stock Android with no unnecessary modifications
  • Solid performance

These are also the main drivers that made me keep it for the longest time that I’ve ever had a phone. And it’s only now that it started to have lags in performance and limited charging capabilities that left me want to let it go.

I think it’s great and important that the smartphone industry has matured as much so a device doesn’t need to thrown away after two or three years.

Google Pixel 6A laying on a piece of wood. The Google logo is shown on screen.
Hello Google Phone

Switching to the Google Pixel 6A

I was thinking quite a bit about switching to an iPhone and possibly specifically the iPhone mini. Since I haven’t owned an iOS device for quite a while I’ve lost touch with the platform a bit. I couldn’t really tell however, if I would have enjoyed the trip back or not: I generally don’t really like their physical phone designs (although the mini form factor is fantastic) and rather dislike their general photo processing.

So long story short: I’ve seen the Pixel 6A in a shop today for 399 Swiss Francs (about 400 dollars) and took it. While it’s not a flagship I’ve checked it out previously and it seems like reasonable middle ground – probably more than enough smartphone for me. And I also imagined it would be a an interesting look into the Pixel series.

What I like about it:

  • It runs Android in it’s latest version and as Google imagines it. So far that is the best version of the OS that I’ve seen. I really enjoy using Android and also the latest Material You overhaul.
  • It’s not too large. It’s actually physically a bit smaller than the 5T although the display size is a bit larger.
  • It’s not fancy but yet seems to do the main things right and to check all the needed boxes.

I hope it will make a fine daily driver for the next years to come – wish me luck! 😉