My Samsung M31S decided to give up on me within 2 years of use. It was a motherboard issue that caused it to reboot multiple times in a day unexpectedly. There were times it kept doing this continuously for half an hour. I tried a few fixes, but it didn't work and shelling over a hundred dollars for a new motherboard was not worth it - it was out of warranty and the Exynos chip had become notorious for this problem, which meant even the new motherboard may have the same problem. Thumbs down to Samsung for not acknowledging this problem and offering a free fix when thousands of phones have been affected out of warranty. 

For about 300USD, the Google Pixel 6A offered me a combination of pure Android and a good camera that was the combination I wanted. It's been a month since I got it, and I'm writing this only to highlight the few misses I've experienced on this phone. Overall I'm pleased with the performance and the camera. 

1. Atypical rear camera bump on the phone: This is a raised horizontal strip, but with no lips to protect the camera. So it lies down weird when you place it on its back and the camera glass cover is prone for smudges and scratches. 

2. No macro camera: To be honest, very few cameras in this price range have a good macro camera. They usually throw in a weak macro camera of about 2 megapixels to tick off a feature box. I was just hoping that there would be a Google magic macro cam on this. The regular camera does not focus close, but captures enough detail in its regular clicks 

3. Misses in the home screen: I don't like the Google search bar at the bottom and also not being able to get a good time display on the main phone homescreen when it is unlocked. Some people suggest using a third party launcher to get your preferences satisfied, but I'm too lazy to try those out. 

4. Lack of Scroll to Top on websites and on the Google screen. This is an annoying Android lacuna which is a default option in iOS, where you tap on the status bar right at the top and the page or homescreen scrolls all the way to the top automatically. In still shocked that Android doesn't have such a feature by default. 

5. Below average battery life: The battery is less than 5000 mAh and it shows. I'm running for a charger by the time I finish work, unlike in my Samsung M31S. It's now 11 and and my charge is down to 60%. 

6. Average fingerprint scanner: Located in screen and just an inch or so above the bottom, it is not the best position and also not the most sensitive. It gives an error once every ten attempts or so for me. 

There are other features that some users are not comfortable with, which don't bother me. These include the smaller screen size (I love the compact 6.1 inch screen) and the lack of a 120Hz display. The more rectangular shape with no curves on the edges may seem old-school, but I don't mind. 

Overall, this is one of the better phones I have had in this budget and much better than my previous 2 budget phones - Samsung M31S and Moto X4. As you can see I'm a pure Android fan!