[10] The back houses a capacitive fingerprint sensor centered below the camera lens, which was decently reliable at the time of release.

The display has slim uniform bezels, and a circular cutout in the upper left hand corner for the front-facing camera, with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

Both are expected to receive 3 years of major OS upgrades with support extending until 2023, and have features such as Call Screen and a Personal Safety app.

CNET's Lynn La gave the Pixel 4a a score of 8.4/10, considering it to have the best photo quality among phones in the same price range.

Dieter Bohn of The Verge praised the phone for its excellent camera and acceptable battery life, but criticized the mediocre video recording performance and lack of wireless charging and water resistance.

Brian Chen of The New York Times compared the Pixel 4a with the second-generation iPhone SE, remarking that the Pixel had superior low light photos, and a better display and battery life, but the iPhone had better performance.

Samuel Gibbs of The Guardian stated that the phone operated smoothly and had better battery life than the Pixel 3a XL and the iPhone SE.