While forgoing the classic Pixel look, the Google Pixel 9a continues to be Google’s mid-range heavy hitter.
Starting with the Pixel 3a back in 2019, Google’s A-series Pixels are technically the budget Pixels of the range – with this year’s new Google Pixel 9a sitting alongside the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
That said, starting at $849 and packed with features, you certainly wouldn’t describe the Pixel 9a as budget – except perhaps compared to Apple’s $999 iPhone 16e.
Instead of a “budget” tag, Google’s Pixel 9a is designed to go head-to-head with rival mid-range powerhouses like the Samsung Galaxy A56 and tough competition from the likes of Nothing, Oppo, OnePlus, Motorola and others.
The Pixel 9a thankfully hasn’t undergone an Australian price hike since the Pixel 8a, although this year Google charges a higher Australia tax than some Android handset makers. For example, the Pixel 9a and Samsung Galaxy A56 both sell for US$499, but the Pixel 9a is $140 more expensive here in Australia than Samsung’s handset.
Price aside, Pixel fans tend to be loyal. They’ve long relied on the iconic rear camera bar to ensure their handset sticks out from the Android crowd – something which Google has surprisingly sacrificed with the Pixel 9a redesign.
Table of contents
- First impressions
- Specifications and price
- Hardware features
- Software features
- Quality
- Who is it for?
Google Pixel 9a first impressions
The Google Pixel 9a looks and feels a little more bulky and boxy than you might expect. From the front or side, you could easily mistake it for an iPhone – which won’t sit well with some people.
The look is not helped by the transition away from a curved screen for straight edges and rounded corners, which began several generations ago. Yet, even compared to the standard Pixel 9, the Pixel 9a looks a little clunky, being a fraction taller, wider and thicker.
The clunky look is partly due to a thicker bezel than the Pixel 9, similar to the Pixel 8a versus the standard 8. Yet the bigger change is the loss of the signature Pixel camera bar on the back – introduced with the Pixel 6 series back in 2021.
Admittedly, the distinctive camera bar wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but abandoning it just on the A-series is an odd design choice by Google. It’s likely to frustrate the Pixel faithful who like that it makes it clear to the world that they’re holding a Google smartphone.
Reportedly, the design change was necessary in order to equip the Pixel 9a with a larger battery – which no one will complain about – and improved thermal performance.
Camera bar aside, Google has stuck with the standard Pixel configuration of the power button on the top right, with volume buttons beneath. The handset relies on an onscreen fingerprint reader, which is placed a little higher than on some Android handsets to help keep it within reach – but arguably isn’t as convenient as the old rear fingerprint reader in the early Pixels.
There’s no sign of an additional Action button, or a Camera Control button as found on the iPhone 16 range or Android rivals like the Oppo Find X8 Pro.
At the bottom of the handset, you’ve got a USB-C port and a SIM slot, but, as expected, there’s no old-school 3.5 mm headphone jack.
Flip the Google Pixel 9a over, and the lack of a camera bar is rather confronting. Were it not for the subtle G icon, you could mistake it for any old phone. While the handset has a metal frame, opting for the A-series Pixel still means forging a glass back in favour of polycarbonate with a matte finish.
That boring-looking rear camera array features a 48 MP wide and 13 MP ultrawide lens, stepping down from the standard Pixel 9’s 50 and 48 MP lenses. Both Pixels support 2x optical zoom and Super Res Zoom up to 8x, using software to create clearer images when zooming in.
While some of the 9a’s design aspects are underwhelming, when you flip it back over and power it up, you’re presented with a premium 1080 x 2424 pixel, 6.3-inch OLED display. It offers a little more real estate than the Pixel 8a’s old 6.1-inch panel, plus it’s brighter and delivers more colours.
Thankfully, the Pixel 9a’s display is the same as the standard Pixel 9. You’ve got 16 million colours, a maximum brightness of 2,700 nits (1,800 nits typical) and a variable refresh rate of 60 to 120Hz. The only difference is the 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, which the standard Pixel 9 ups to 2,000,000:1.
Google Pixel 9a specifications and price
| Display size | 6.3-inch, 20:9 aspect ratio |
| Display resolution | 1080 x 2424 pixel, 422.2 ppi |
| Display technology | OLED Actua display Up to 1,800 nits (HDR), up to 2,700 nits (peak brightness) 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio Full 24-bit depth for 16 million colours |
| Bands | 5G Sub-6 GHz, 4G LTE, 3G UMTS/HSPA+/HSDPA, 2G GSM/EDGE |
| Chipset | Google Tensor G4, Titan M2 security coprocessor |
| Rear cameras | 48 MP wideQuad PD Dual Pixel with OIS & CLAF ƒ/1.7 aperture 82° field of view 1/2″ image sensor size Super Res Zoom up to 8×12 Optical + electronic image stabilisation |
| 13 MP ultrawide camera ƒ/2.2 aperture 120° field of view 1/3.1″ image sensor size |
|
| Front camera | 13 MP selfie camera ƒ/2.2 aperture 96° ultrawide field of view |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Onboard storage | 128 or 256 GB |
| microSD slot | No |
| SIM | Dual SIM (Single Nano SIM and eSIM) |
| Charging | USB Type-C 3.2 |
| Battery | 5,100 mAh |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6E with 2.4GHz + 5GHz + 6GHz, 2×2 MIMO |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth v5.3 with antenna diversity for enhanced quality and connection |
| Operating system | Android 15 |
| Security | Fingerprint, Face Unlock |
| Ruggedness | IP68 |
| Dimensions | 154.7 mm (height) x 73.3 mm (width) x 8.9 mm (depth) |
| Weight | 185.9 gm |
| Colours | Iris, Peony, Porcelain, Obsidian |
| Price | from $849 RRP |
| Warranty | 2 years |
| Official website | Google Australia |
Hardware features
As you’d expect, the Google Pixel 9a runs Android 15 out of the box. Google promises an impressive seven years of Android OS updates, security fixes and “Pixel Drop” updates. This pips the six years offered for Samsung’s Galaxy A-series handsets, as the South Korean smartphone giant only offers seven years for its flagship Galaxy S range.
To help the handset live that long, the Pixel 9a steps up from IP67 to IP68 ruggedness rating, meaning it can survive being submerged in water for longer periods.
Under the bonnet, the Pixel 9a packs the new Tensor G4 chip, accompanied by 8 GB of RAM and 128 or 256 GB of storage. The Tensor chips are optimised for AI and underpin a lot of the advanced Pixel features.
All that grunt is backed by a 5100 mAh battery, one of the largest ever in a Pixel. As a result, Google cites a 30+ hour battery life, six hours longer than the 9 and 9 Pro.
There’s support for Qi wireless and fast wired charging, although not as fast as the more expensive Pixel 9 options, and you miss out on Battery Share for charging other devices wirelessly. Keep in mind, these days you get a USB-C to USB-C cable and there’s no AC charger in the box.
In terms of connectivity, the Pixel 9a supports Wi-Fi 6E and sub-6 5G mobile broadband. Meanwhile, the Standard and Pro Pixels make the leap to Wi-Fi 7 when you’re at home and mmWave 5G when you hit the road.
Software features
The Google Pixel 9a inherits a wide range of AI-powered features already enjoyed by Pixel users. One of the key changes is that Gemini is now the default built-in AI assistant.
Only one month of free Gemini Advanced comes included, which makes it easy to have natural free-ranging conversations with Gemini and craft more contextual smart replies in apps like Gmail.
It’s interesting to note that the Pixel 9a runs a slightly limited version of Gemini compared to the rest of the Pixel 9 series, reportedly due to the fact it only sports 8 GB of RAM. This means you miss out on a few advanced features like Pixel Screenshots and Call Notes.
As a result, the Pixel 9a’s AI kung fu is most noticeable in the camera department.
Pixel users already enjoyed the benefits of Magic Editor, Photo Unblur and Audio Magic Eraser. With the Pixel 9a, you gain the benefit of Auto Frame, Best Take and Add Me. The latter of which can combine images – so you can take a photo of a group of people, swap places with someone who then takes a second photo with your phone. AI then seamlessly merge the images, so everyone is in the one shot.
The Pixel 9a also gains a macro focus mode, not through a dedicated macro lens but rather by using AI to enhance images. Plus, you’ve got an AI-powered 8x Super Res Zoom in place of a dedicated telephoto lens such as that of the 9 Pro. Night owls will also appreciate the addition of Night Sight and Astrophotography, a first on a Pixel A-Series phone.
Quality
Geekbench 6 tells a decent story thanks to the fact the Pixel 9a sports the same Tensor G4 chip as its more expensive siblings. Results of single-core 1,716, multi-core 3,895 and GPU (OpenCL) 8,011 see it outperform all but the flagship ranges from rival Android makers like Samsung, Asus and Oppo.
It’s also worth noting that its single-core result is considerably higher than the Samsung Galaxy A56.
| Phone | CPU single-core | CPU multi-core | GPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max | 3,350 | 8,021 | 32,719 |
| Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | 2,360 | 8,911 | 14,671 |
| Apple iPhone 16e | 2,679 | 6,144 | 23,732 |
| Xiaomi Poco F6 | 1,899 | 4,734 | 8,762 |
| Google Pixel 9a | 1,716 | 3,895 | 8,011 |
| Samsung Galaxy A56 | 1,364 | 3,898 | 6,539 |
| Samsung Galaxy A55 | 1,153 | 3,428 | 3,086 |
| Motorola Edge 50 Fusion | 1,016 | 2,937 | 1,802 |
When it comes to photography, results are very impressive for a handset relying on AI trickery rather than adding dedicated extra lenses for the likes of telephoto and macro.
Outdoors, you get great colours and contrast with plenty of detail, forcing you to look hard to see where AI falls a little short of real optical zoom past x2. Likewise, with macro mode, which kicks in automatically when you get up close and personal with an object.
Portraits and selfies offer natural-looking AI-generated bokeh and don’t apply the aggressive beautification features implemented by some handset makers by default. After dark, the Pixel 9a’s low-light capabilities really shine.
Who is the Google Pixel 9a for?
The Google Pixel 9a is in that awkward middle ground where it’s expensive for a mid-range handset, yet still a bargain compared to $1,000+ flagships. The high Australian price tag compared to the US price certainly hurts its value proposition, making it hard to agree with US reviewers who generally consider it the “best value Android handset”.
For Australians on a budget, there is arguably better mid-range value elsewhere – except perhaps if grunt is your highest priority.
That said, the Pixel 9a is great value as part of the Pixel range – holding its head high alongside its more expensive siblings. If your wallet can stretch to “premium mid-range” pricing, you won’t be disappointed with the Pixel 9a’s impressive cameras, excellent display, wealth of AI features, ton of grunt and all-day battery.
The post Google Pixel 9a review: Mid-range makeover appeared first on GadgetGuy.
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