Google Pixel 5 review: specs, battery & used prices

Summary

The Pixel 5 was Google's retreat-and-regroup phone: mid-range Snapdragon 765G instead of a flagship chip, a compact 6-inch 90 Hz OLED, 151 g and an IP68 rating. Our everyday score of 39/100 records the modest silicon honestly; the compactness score of 100/100 records a size-weight combination Android abandoned and never replaced. As a used buy, it is the small-Android-phone play.

Display and design

The 6-inch OLED at 90 Hz with a 700-nit rating is the sweet spot of the era — smooth where the iPhone was not, bright enough, and framed by small bezels in an aluminum body. Screen score: 49/100. At 151 g with IP68, it is lighter than any contemporary of its screen size; nothing in the 2025 catalog matches the ratio.

Performance

The Snapdragon 765G was a deliberate step down: everyday 39/100, gaming 6/100. Google bet on software over silicon, and the bet shows its age — the phone is fluid for ordinary use and no more. The software window closed long ago; this is hardware for the undemanding or the nostalgic.

Camera

A 12 MP main with OIS and a 16 MP ultrawide — no telephoto — carried by Google's processing, which was the point of the phone. The 23/100 score undersells the daylight output: computational photography made this the best camera of its silicon class in 2020.

Battery and charging

The 4,080 mAh cell scores 22/100, which in a frugal chip and a modest panel translated to a reliable day-plus of real use. 18 W charging is the era's baseline slow. The endurance was one of the quiet wins of the small-body engineering.

Verdict

Used supply is thin: a handful of 8/128 listings around $170 (two tracked) — a collector's market more than a liquid one, pricing the compactness premium in. If a small, light Android with clean software and a great camera is the brief, nothing newer satisfies it; that is the entire reason the price holds. For a modern cheap Pixel instead, the Pixel 9a is the same philosophy six years later at a higher tier.