Google Pixel 9a review: the best candidate for your $500?

Pixel 9a Intro

Google’s “a” series phones are quite exciting to wait for each year. They launch about halfway into the flagship Pixel phone lifecycle and they offer a pretty good package — a Pixel “a” will have the same processor as the most current Google flagship phone as well as, at the very least, a comparable main camera. All of that is packaged in a more economical build, so the phone is at a reduced, very competitive price.

The good news is that it has the biggest battery on a Pixel phone ever (5,100 mAh). The even better news is that there’s no price hike. The Pixel 9a starts at $499, expect slight price drops during various sales events.

Table of Contents:

Pixel 9a Specs

What matters, where it matters

The keen eyed may have noticed that there is a bit of a price hike here. Technically, the base Pixel 9a costs as much as before. However, the 256 GB tier used to cost $559, now it’s $599 — a full $100 above the base price. That’s more in line with how the other Pixel phones treat storage upgrades. So, if you always buy more storage, the Pixel 9a will be more expensive for you this time around, by $40.

Just like in previous iterations of the “a” series, the Pixel 9a has a plastic composite back that will try really hard to convince you that it’s glass with some clever etching. The frame itself is aluminum, and this is the combination we prefer in a budget phone that tries to “imitate” a more premium build.

However, the recycled materials of the Pixel 9a don’t really feel incredibly premium. They get warm fast and the plastic back collects grime easier than glass. It is what it is, we understand it’s a midranger and it’s not fair to compare it to the $700 and $1,000 premium builds of other phones.

The front panel is covered by Gorilla Glass 3, instead of the latest-and-greatest Victus 2. When going to older generations of Gorilla Glass, manufacturers opt for 3. Opinions on the Gorilla Glass 3 are that it is slightly (emphasise slightly) more prone to scratches than its successors like Glass 4 or Glass 5, but has better shatter-resistance. No official data on the matter, so it could just be a budgeting choice.

The bezel around the 6.3-inch screen is kind of thick and unsightly, sorry. That’s a crazy statement to make with these all-screen phones that we are getting nowadays, but just looking at side-by-sides with the Pixel 9, the 9a does have just a bit more of a frame, if that matters to you at all.

You will also notice that the camera bar on the back is now gone, instead there’s just the dual-lens camera module plopped there in a horizontal pill shape. It kind of feels like the Pixel 9a has shed a bit of that signature Pixel look, and that tiny bump is just going to make the phone wobble a bit when placed on a table. We are mentioning this because Pixel fans do like how a full horizontal camera bar on the back made the phones lie stable when placed on a desk.

The Google Pixel 9a comes in four colors, as its predecessor, those being Obsidian, Porcelain, Iris, and Peony. In normal speak, those are Black, White(ish), Blue, and Pink.

The 6.3-inch panel on the front seems to be the same one we get with the Pixel 9. It’s rated to hit 2,700 nits peak brightness, it has the same 60-120 Hz dynamic refresh rate, and the Actua branding. It’s a bit odd that our unit was set at 60 Hz by default, so if you get that — don’t dispare. Just fix it in Settings.

The Pixel 9a will have an optical fingerprint scanner under the glass, no surprise there, but also face unlock with the selfie camera. A reminder here that ever since Google boosted the AI chops of the Pixel phones, its face unlock is considered incredibly secure — to the point where banking apps accept it as a biometric lock. So, it’s not a simple 2D selfie picture unlocker.

The Pixel phones are known for good photos, so what’s pulling the Pixel 9a camera score back (not by a lot, you may be wondering about the results, though). Some oversharpening artifacts and less detail than more premium cameras. Also, a lack of premium features like a good Portrait Mode preview in the viewfinder and a hi-res shooting mode. Otherwise, we do like the photos we get from the Pixel 9a.

The specs themselves — the Pixel 9a comes with a 48 MP main camera under an F1.7 aperture lens. Google says it supports Super Res up to 8x, which is the same level the mainline Pixel 9 can hit. This also means we get sort of optical-level zoom at 2x with sensor crop-in and some digital trickery. There’s a true 120-degree 13 MP ultrawide camera, and a 13 MP selfie camera.

In general, great handling of dynamics and colors. The greens in the grass and the blues in the sky look quite realistic, and details are represented well. The contrast is a bit flat, probably due to the algorithms working overtime to both boost shadows and tame highlights. Great for visibility, not amazing for realism. We specifically caught it doctoring our photos with selfie 1, where the face is in the shadows. However, the Pixel 9a boosted the exposure on the face so much that the shade is entirely gone from it (but can be seen on clothes and the ground).

Video Quality

When recording video, the Pixel 9a footage looks very, very close to the mainline Pixel 9. Some slight drifferences in contrast can be spotted, with the Pixel 9a looking a bit flatter, but colors and details are pretty close.

By this point, it’s no secret that Google’s Tensor chips are not extreme powerhouses. Putting them through benchmarks that are meant to strain their CPUs and GPUs show us as much, consistently lagging behind the competition in raw power. However, Tensor chips are designed with custom NPU cores and image processing that Google has engineered for its own phones. That point where software and hardware go hand in hand is a valuable intersection that can alleviate the lack of horsepower for your real-life day-to-day use.

That is to say, Pixel phones do feel snappy and responsive, and very clearly tailored to do what Google wants them to do. Currently, that’s being chock-full of exclusive Google Assistant features and AI apps and tricks. Well… the Pixel 9a does cut corners around the AI, but more on that in a bit.

Oddly, the Pixel 9a scored a bit better than the more premium Pixel 9. Mayhaps it has something to do with how much room there is inside the phone plus how easier it is for the components to cool down through the plastic back. In any case, here’s an interesting takeaway — when the iPhone 16e with the Apple A18 throttles during the 3DMark test, it hits about the same score as the Tensor G4 at its peak. When the Tensor itself throttles, it loses about 20% of performance.

In other words… not bad, not bad for a $500 phone actually!

Pixel 9a Software

However, there’s a caveat. Not all Pixels are made the same — the Pixel 9a comes with a smaller model of the Gemini Nano called Gemini Nano XXS versus Gemini Nano XS on the other Pixel 9 phones. Yes, we keep adding adjectives to denote how small these AI models are.

This means that the Pixel 9a does not support Call Notes (the feature where the AI automatically creates a bullet list of what was discussed) and the new Screenshots app (where the AI annotates and arranges all your screenshots for easy finding later). This is because Gemini Nano XXS only works on-demand, due to the RAM limitations of the Pixel 9a. Gemini Nano XS runs continuously in the background. So any future features that require the AI to be always on will probably not come to the Pixel 9a.

In fact, Google is proud of it, saying its the biggest battery in an a-series Pixel to date and stated 30 hours of power time. OK, let’s take it through our gauntlet of tests: 

Those are some very good numbers. Beating the iPhone 16e, which we already liked the endurance of. 

By all means, the Pixel 9a seems like it will be another no-frills, core experience phone at a very reasonable price. The only thing that would keep me from recommending it hands-down is the fact that mainline Pixel 9 phones often drop in price by $200, bringing it down to a 9a price tag, but giving you just a little bit extra.

Of course, it can be argued that the Pixel 9a itself drops in price during those promo seasons. So, if you are looking for bang for your buck and a strong-core smartphone — you can’t go wrong with this. I admit, it looks a bit bland with the new design, but at least the back is almost-flat? It doesn’t feel like a premium lifestyle accessory, but again — that’s not the target audience’s desire here. It gives you a bit of the good AI features, it gives you that Google camera quality (although not its top-tier work), and it gives you a long, long battery life. Hard to beat that!