iPhone SE versus Pixel 6a: Does Google’s newest mid-range phone top Apple’s?

Apple doesn’t make budget phones. The closest thing you can find is the iPhone SE–updated roughly every other year and starting at £419. In the Android world, there are lots of budget phones, where a brand new model is £300 or less. They’re not bad, but most people would be happier with something ‘mid-range’, and that’s where Google’s Pixel a-series phones come in.

Google’s newest budget phone is the Pixel 6a, easily the most comparable thing in the Android world to the iPhone SE: it’s a mid-range phone made by the same company that makes the software ecosystem in which it operates, and with a price of £399 it costs nearly the same. Our sister site TechAdvisor reviewed the Pixel 6a () and loved it, saying it “crams in the best bits from the more expensive Pixel 6 and 6