Google launched the Pixel 9a, the company’s latest mid-range Pixel phone, recently as the successor to the Pixel 8a. This has flat sides, doesn’t have a camera bar, gets the latest Tensor G4 SoC, and a huge 5100mAh battery. Is this a good upgrade to the Pixel 8a? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Display, Hardware and Design |
| Camera |
| Software, UI and Apps |
| Fingerprint sensor |
| Music player and Multimedia |
| SIM and Connectivity |
| Performance and Benchmarks |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- Pixel 9a in Obsidian colour
- USB-C to USB-C Cable (USB 2.0)
- Quick Start Guide
- SIM Ejector Tool
Starting with the display, the Pixel 9a has a 6.3-inch Full HD+ OLED display with a pixel resolution of 1080 x 2424 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 421 PPI. The display is bright, and has HDR support. Outdoor visibility is good as well. This has up to 2700 nits peak brightness, 35% brighter than Pixel 8a.
The phone has a 120Hz refresh rate display, similar to the predecessor. It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and Netflix. Under the display options, there are different options to adjust colours based on your preference. There is also a night light option that lets you reduce the display’s blue light emission, so it doesn’t cause eye strain when you are reading at night.
There is Dark mode and an always-on display option for the lock screen, but it doesn’t offer a lot of customization. It doesn’t have MEMC or DC Dimming option. The phone still has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, compared to Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection in the Pixel 9.
The phone has a tiny centre punch-hole that houses a 13-megapixel camera, same as the Pixel 8a. Above the display, there is an earpiece on the top edge, which also doubles up as a secondary speaker.
The phone has an optical in-display fingerprint scanner which is present almost near the centre area, similar to Samsung. You can also notice a small bezel below the display, which is slight bigger than the bezels on the sides and the top. The bottom bezel is slightly smaller than the Pixel 8a, but not as small as the Pixel 9.
Coming to button placements and ports, the power button and volume rockers are present on the right side. The single SIM slot is present on the bottom, and the phone has eSIM support for the second SIM. The USB Type-C port, microphone and speaker grill are also present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is present on the top.
The phone has a flat metal frame compared to a curved design in the Pixel 8a, and you can see the antenna bands. Compared to the glass back on the Pixel 9 series, the Pixel 9a still uses a plastic back, but this has a smooth matte finish that looks and feels good, and it doesn’t attract fingerprints, but it might get scratched easily.
In addition to the usual Obsidian colour that we have, the phone also comes in Iris and Porcelain options in India.
The phone is just 8.9mm thick, almost similar to the Pixel 8a, but weighs 185.9g grams, making it about 2 grams lighter than the predecessor, even with a large 5100mAh battery. The phone has IP68 ratings for dust and water resistance, finally, matching the Pixel 9 and the 9 Pro series.
Camera
- 48MP rear camera with 48MP 1/1.95″ Samsung GN8 sensor, f/1.7 aperture, LED flash, OIS
- 13MP 120° Ultra-wide camera with Sony IMX712 sensor, f/2.2 aperture
- 13MP front camera with Sony IMX712 sensor, 96.5° ultra-wide lens, f/2.2 aperture
The camera UI is simple with options for night sight, portrait, camera, video, panorama, photo sphere and Google Lens. There is no expert or pro mode, but there is a RAW option, which you can enable from the advanced settings.
Other features include, Astrophotography, Night Sight, Top Shot, Magic Eraser, Real Tone, Face Unblur, and Long Exposure mode. The Action Pan from the Pixel 9 series is missing. The new Add Me lets you take a photo of a group, then trade places with someone and take a second photo with you in it.
Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well with brilliant dynamic range from both the cameras. After pixel binning, you get 12MP output from the main camera. For ultra-wide, you get 13MP output. It finally adds macro option with a main camera instead of ultra-wide in the other Pixel models, so the quality is good. The 13MP front camera is good.
Even though the phone only has digital zoom up to 8X, the computation photography makes the image look clear. Edge detection is good in portrait. Lowlight camera performance is also good, and the night sight helps in places where there is minimal light.
Check out the camera samples.
It can record videos at 4k resolution at 60 fps from main and 4K 30 fps with ultra-wide, and the front camera also gets 4k 30 fps option. You can also switch between the main and ultra-wide cameras when you record in 4K 30fps.
The main camera has standard, locked, active and cinematic pan stabilization options. Standard is enough for most cases, and the active mode uses the ultra-wide camera, and zoom in for better stabilization. It also has 120 (1/4) and 240 (1/8) fps options in 1080p. Video quality is good from both the front and rear cameras. Even though it has the same Tensor G4 chip from the Pixel 9, there is no HDR video option.
Software, UI and Apps
It runs Android 15 out of the box. The company has promised 7 Android OS updates, feature drops and security patches to match the other Pixel 9 models. You don’t get any bloatware.
You can choose from a set of new, curated lock screen templates for fonts, widgets, colors and formats that best match your style. These options also use AI to adjust your screen based on your situation.
The new Pixel Studio app lets users create images from scratch with an on-device diffusion model and Google’s Imagen 3, featuring an intuitive interface for easy prompting and editing. The Pixel Weather app now offers precise forecasts with AI-generated reports using Gemini Nano for enhanced accuracy and engagement.
Unlike other phones in the Pixel 9 series, the Pixel 9a doesn’t get Pixel Screenshots that organizes and recalls screenshots by analyzing content, including links and summaries, for easy retrieval. Call Notes feature is also not available in the Pixel 9a. This is due to 8GB of RAM in the Pixel 9a, since it needs at least 12GB of RAM to provide Gemini Nano with reserved memory without impeding performance.
The Pixel 9a gets 8GB LPDDR5X of RAM. Out of 8GB RAM, you get 7.55GB of usable RAM, and about 3GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It doesn’t have memory extension or virtual RAM. Out of 256GB, you get about 228.6GB of free storage. It still has UFS 3.1 storage, same as the Pixel 9 Apart from the Google apps, it doesn’t have any third-party apps.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an in-display optical fingerprint sensor, compared to other Pixel 9 series phones that have moved to an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. I didn’t notice any delay when using the fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone. There is also face unlock option.
Music Player and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default music player. It doesn’t have Dolby Atmos or any other custom audio features. Audio through the stereo speakers is clear and loud, and there is no distortion even at full volume. Audio through the headphones is good as well. The phone has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming apps. You also get HDR playback on Netflix, in addition to YouTube.
SIM and Connectivity
The Pixel 9a has single physical SIM and an eSIM support, so you can use it as a dual SIM phone. The phone has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with support for n1/2/3/5/7/8/12/20/26/28/38/40/41/66/75/77/78/79 bands, dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS + GLONASS and NFC support.
It also has USB OTG support. We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good, even though it is present on the top edge. There are occasional 4G connectivity drops in some places, common with the modem that Pixel uses. I also couldn’t get 5G to work all the time, since the phone was in 4G mode most of the time on Airtel. This might be due to the use of the same modem from the Pixel 8 even though Pixel 9 has moved to a new modem.
The Pixel 9a’s body SAR is 0.93W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.06/Kg which is almost similar to the Pixel 8a, and it well under the limit in India, which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
The Pixel 9 is powered by the new Google Tensor G4 SoC, an upgrade from the Tensor G3 in the Pixel 8 series. It has 1x Cortex-X4 @ 3.1GHz; 3x Cortex-A720 @ 2.6GHz; and 4x Cortex-A520 @ 1.92GHz with Mali-G715 MP7 GPU and also has Titan M2 security chip. This still uses Samsung’s 4nm process tech.
The performance is smooth without any lags. When you play graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact, or use the camera for a long time for recording videos, it gets hot quickly. I did not receive an overheating warning on my Pixel 9a, but games throttle a lot when the phone gets hot.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 59.9% which is average. The temperature increased from 30 to 45 degrees, since it doesn’t have an efficient cooling solution. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see, the Tensor G4 chip is decent, but it can’t compete with Qualcomm or MediaTek’s chips in the range.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5100mAh (typical) built-in battery, which is way bigger than the 4492mAh in the Pixel 8a. It lasted for more than a day even with mixed use on 120Hz. I got over 5 of screen on time with 2 days of use. With heavy use, it will last less than a day.
It has 23W fast charging, and takes 30 minutes to charge up to 50%, and about one and half hours for full charge, which is better than the Pixel 8a even though the competitors are way ahead. There is wireless charging support, but it maxes out at 7.5W, so it will take several hours to charge the phone.
Conclusion
Overall, the Pixel 9a is a worthy upgrade to the Pixel 8a in terms of display, performance and the battery life. At a price tag of Rs. 49,999 that too for the 256GB model, way cheaper than the Pixel 8a’s launch price, this is definitely a good option even though there are several phones with powerful SoCs, and way bigger batteries in the market.
Google still offers Rs. 3000 instant discount on HDFC Bank Cards and EMI as a part of limited-period offer, so the effective price is Rs. 46,999. If you want to get the phone for the camera and the software support, you can wait for the price cut.
Alternatives
OnePlus 13R and iQOO 13 offer better displays, faster SoC and better charging. Later this yet, the Pixel 9 should be available at cheaper rate.
Pros
- 7 OS software updates and security updates
- Reliable cameras
- Smooth performance
- IP68 ratings
- Wireless charging
Cons
- Gets heated on intensive tasks and intensive gaming
- Misses Pixel Screenshot and Call Notes from Pixel 9