Tech

It took a few years, but Google’s Pixel phones have risen to the top of the Android ranks, and its new Pixel 9a keeps most of what has made flagship Pixel phones so good, including the slick software and versatile cameras. Despite a revamped design and larger battery, Google has maintained the $499 price point of last year’s phone, undercutting other “budget” devices like the iPhone 16e.

However, hitting this price point involves trade-offs in materials, charging, and—significantly—the on-device AI capabilities compared to its pricier siblings. None of those are deal-breakers, though. In fact, the Pixel 9a may be coming along at just the right time. As we enter a period of uncertainty for imported gadgets, a modestly priced phone with lengthy support could be the perfect purchase.

A simpler silhouette

The Pixel 9a sports the same rounded corners and flat edges we’ve seen on other recent smartphones. The aluminum frame has a smooth, almost silky texture, with rolled edges that flow into the front and back covers.

On the front, there’s a sheet of Gorilla Glass 3, which has been a mainstay of budget phones for years. On the back, Google used recycled plastic with a matte finish. It attracts more dust and grime than glass, but it doesn’t show fingerprints as clearly. The plastic doesn’t feel as solid as the glass backs on Google’s more expensive phones, and the edge where it meets the aluminum frame feels a bit more sharp and abrupt than the glass on Google’s flagship phones.

Were it not for the “G” logo emblazoned on the back, you might not recognize the Pixel 9a as a Google phone. It lacks the camera bar that has been central to the design language of all Google’s recent devices, opting instead for a sleeker flat design.

The move to a pOLED display saved a few millimeters, giving the designers a bit more internal volume. In the past, Google has always pushed toward thinner and thinner Pixels, but it retained the same 8.9 mm thickness for the Pixel 9a. Rather than shave off a millimeter, Google equipped the Pixel 9a with a 5,100 mAh battery, which is the largest ever in a Pixel, even beating out the larger and more expensive Pixel 9 Pro XL by a touch.

The camera module on the back is almost flush with the body of the phone, rising barely a millimeter from the surrounding plastic. The phone feels more balanced and less top-heavy than phones that have three or four cameras mounted to chunky aluminum surrounds. The buttons on the right edge are the only other disruptions to the phone’s clean lines. They, too, are aluminum, with nice, tactile feedback and no detectable wobble. Aside from a few tiny foibles, the build quality and overall feel of this phone are better than we’d expect for $499.

The 6.3-inch OLED is slightly larger than last year’s, and it retains the chunkier bezels of Google’s A-series phones. While the flagship Pixels are all screen from the front, there’s a sizable gap between the edge of the OLED and the aluminum frame. That means the body is a few millimeters larger than it probably had to be—the Pixel 9 Pro has the same display size, and it’s a bit more compact, for example. Still, the Pixel 9a does not look or feel oversized.

The OLED is sharp enough at 1080p and has an impressively high peak brightness, making it legible outdoors. However, the low-brightness clarity falls short of what you get with more expensive phones like the Pixel 9 Pro or Galaxy S25. The screen supports a 120 Hz refresh rate, but that’s disabled by default. This panel does not use LTPO technology, which makes higher refresh rates more battery-intensive. There’s a fingerprint scanner under the OLED, but it has not been upgraded to ultrasonic along with the flagship Pixels. This one is still optical—it works quickly enough, but it lights up dark rooms and lacks reliability compared to ultrasonic sensors.

Probably fast enough

Google took a page from Apple when it debuted its custom Tensor mobile processors with the Pixel 6. Now, Google uses Tensor processors in all its phones, giving a nice boost to budget devices like the Pixel 9a. The Pixel 9a has a Tensor G4, which is identical to the chip in the Pixel 9 series, save for a slightly different modem.

While Tensor is not a benchmark speed demon like the latest silicon from Qualcomm or Apple, it does not feel slow in daily use. A chip like the Snapdragon 8 Elite puts up huge benchmark numbers, but it doesn’t run at that speed for long. Qualcomm’s latest chips can lose half their speed to heat, but Tensor only drops by about a third during extended load.

However, even after slowing down, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is a faster gaming chip than Tensor. If playing high-end games like Diablo Immortal and Genshin Impact is important to you, you can do better than the Pixel 9a (and other Pixels).

In general use, the Pixel 9a is more than fast enough that you won’t spend time thinking about the Tensor chip. Apps open quickly, animations are unerringly smooth, and the phone doesn’t get too hot. There are some unavoidable drawbacks to its more limited memory, though. Apps don’t stay in memory as long or as reliably as they do on the flagship Pixels, for instance. There are also some AI limitations we’ll get to below.

With a 5,100 mAh battery, the Pixel 9a has more capacity than any other Google phone. Combined with the 1080p screen, the 9a gets much longer battery life than the flagship Pixels. Google claims about 30 hours of usage per charge. In our testing, this equates to a solid day of heavy use with enough left in the tank that you won’t feel the twinge of range anxiety as evening approaches. If you’re careful, you might be able to make it two days without a recharge.

As for recharging, Google could do better—the Pixel 9a manages just 23 W wired and 7.5 W wireless, and the flagship Pixels are only a little faster. Companies like OnePlus and Motorola offer phones that charge several times faster than Google’s.

The low-AI Pixel

Google’s Pixel software is one of the primary reasons to buy its phones. There’s no bloatware on the device when you take it out of the box, which saves you from tediously extracting a dozen sponsored widgets and microtransaction-laden games right off the bat. Google’s interface design is also our favorite right now, with a fantastic implementation of Material You theming that adapts to your background colors.

The Pixel version of Android 15 also comes with a raft of thoughtful features, like the anti-spammer Call Screen and Direct My Call to help you navigate labyrinthine phone trees. Gemini is also built into the phone, fully replacing the now-doomed Google Assistant. Google notes that Gemini on the 9a can take action across apps, which is technically true. Gemini can look up data from one supported app and route it to another at your behest, but only when it feels like it. Generative AI is still unpredictable, so don’t bank on Gemini being a good assistant just yet.

Google’s more expensive Pixels also have the above capabilities, but they go further with AI. Google’s on-device Gemini Nano model is key to some of the newest and more interesting AI features, but large language models (even the small ones) need a lot of RAM. The 9a’s less-generous 8GB of RAM means it runs a less-capable version of the AI known as Gemini Nano XXS that only supports text input.

As a result, many of the AI features Google was promoting around the Pixel 9 launch just don’t work. For example, there’s no Pixel Screenshots app or Call Notes. Even some features that seem like they should work, like AI weather summaries, are absent on the Pixel 9a. Recorder summaries are supported, but Gemini Nano has a very nano context window. We tested with recordings ranging from two to 20 minutes, and the longer ones surpassed the model’s capabilities. Google tells Ars that 2,000 words (about 15 minutes of relaxed conversation) is the limit for Gemini Nano on this phone.

If you’re the type to avoid AI features, the less-capable Gemini model might not matter. You still get all the other neat Pixel features, along with Google’s market-leading support policy. This phone will get seven years of full update support, including annual OS version bumps and monthly security patches. The 9a is also entitled to special quarterly Pixel Drop updates, which bring new (usually minor) features.

Most OEMs struggle to provide even half the support for their phones. Samsung is neck and neck with Google, but its updates are often slower and more limited on older phones. Samsung’s vision for mobile AI is much less fleshed out than Google’s, too. Even with the Pixel 9a’s disappointing Gemini Nano capabilities, we expect Google to make improvements to all aspects of the software (even AI) over the coming years.

Capable cameras

The Pixel 9a has just two camera sensors, and it doesn’t try to dress up the back of the phone to make it look like there are more, a common trait of other Android phones. There’s a new 48 MP camera sensor similar to the one in the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, which is smaller and less capable than the main camera in the flagship Pixels. There’s also a 13 MP ultrawide lens that appears unchanged from last year. You have to spend a lot more money to get Google’s best camera hardware, but conveniently, much of the Pixel magic is in the software.

Google’s image processing works extremely well, lightening dark areas while also preventing blowout in lighter areas. This impressive dynamic range results in even exposures with plenty of detail, and this is true in all lighting conditions. In dim light, you can use Night Sight to increase sharpness and brightness to an almost supernatural degree. Outside of a few edge cases with unusual light temperature, we’ve been very pleased with Google’s color reproduction, too.

The most notable drawback to the 9a’s camera is that it’s a bit slower than the flagship Pixels. The sensor is smaller and doesn’t collect as much light, even compared to the base model Pixel 9. This is more noticeable with shots using Night Sight, which gathers data over several seconds to brighten images. However, image capture is still generally faster than Samsung, OnePlus, and Motorola cameras. Google leans toward keeping shutter speeds high (low exposure time). Outdoors, that means you can capture motion with little to no blur almost as reliably as you can with the Pro Pixels.

The 13 MP ultrawide camera is great for landscape outdoor shots, showing only mild distortion at the edges of the frame despite an impressive 120-degree field-of-view. Unlike Samsung and OnePlus, Google also does a good job of keeping colors consistent across the sensors.

You can shoot macro photos with the Pixel 9a, but it works a bit differently than other phones. The ultrawide camera doesn’t have autofocus, nor is there a dedicated macro sensor. Instead, Google uses AI with the main camera to take close-ups. This seems to work well enough, but details are only sharp around the center of the frame, with ample distortion at the edges.

There’s no telephoto lens here, but Google’s capable image processing helps a lot. The new primary camera sensor probably isn’t hurting, either. You can reliably push the 48 MP primary to 2x digital zoom, and Google’s algorithms will produce photos that you’d hardly know have been enhanced. Beyond 2x zoom, the sharpening begins to look more obviously artificial.

A phone like the Pixel 9 Pro or Galaxy S25 Ultra with 5x telephoto lenses can definitely get sharper photos at a distance, but the Pixel 9a does not do meaningfully worse than phones that have 2–3x telephoto lenses.

The right phone at the right time

The Pixel 9a is not a perfect phone, but for $499, it’s hard to argue with it. This device has the same great version of Android seen on Google’s more expensive phones, along with a generous seven years of guaranteed updates. It also pushes battery life a bit beyond what you can get with other Pixel phones. The camera isn’t the best we’ve seen—that distinction goes to the Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL. However, it gets closer than a $500 phone ought to.

You do miss out on some AI features with the 9a. That might not bother the AI skeptics, but some of these missing on-device features, like Pixel Screenshots and Call Notes, are among the best applications of generative AI we’ve seen on a phone yet. With years of Pixel Drops ahead of it, the 9a might not have enough muscle to handle Google’s future AI endeavors, which could lead to buyer’s remorse if AI turns out to be as useful as Google claims it will be.

At $499, you’d have to spend $300 more to get to the base model Pixel 9, a phone with weaker battery life and a marginally better camera. That’s a tough sell given how good the 9a is. If you’re not going for the Pro phones, stick with the 9a. With all the uncertainty over future tariffs on imported products, the day of decent sub-$500 phones could be coming to an end. With long support, solid hardware, and a beefy battery, the Pixel 9a could be the right phone to buy before prices go up.

The good

• Good value at $499
• Bright, sharp display
• Long battery life
• Clean version of Android 15 with seven years of support
• Great photo quality

The bad

• Doesn’t crush benchmarks or run high-end games perfectly
• Missing some AI features from more expensive Pixels