Pixel 9a Review: It’s Not Love at First Sight, But Give It a Week…

Truth be told, when I first came across the leaked renders of the Pixel 9a, I had a very negative reaction to it. Even compelled to make a story on how Google is deliberately botching their most beloved series. But after having the phone in hand and using it for a week, I think I have made a complete 360 on my initial thoughts on this $499 smartphone. So what led to this change of heart? Let me answer it in this complete Pixel 9a review.

Pixel 9a Review: Key Specifications

On paper, the Pixel 9a doesn’t seem too far off from its older, and more expensive sibling, the Pixel 9. But to make it clear for you, here are all the key specifications of the Pixel 9a highlighted for you.

Pixel 9a: Design That Doesn’t Need a Visor to Shine

At first glance, the Pixel 9a’s design seemed like all the hard work Google did for the 9 series went down the drain to launch this sub-par device just because they had to. But seeing and holding the phone in person made me realise that it’s far from the truth. Google kept what worked for the flagships while cutting down in some non-essential areas.

The Pixel 9a carries the same industrial design as the 9 series, with flat aluminium rails and a matte-textured back. However, it is plastic instead of glass. The 9a is a shy wider and taller than the base Pixel 9. But it doesn’t weigh as much, coming in at only 186 grams, making it so comfortable to use throughout my usage.

It’s one of those rare phones that I didn’t feel the need to put in a case to protect its sensitive areas because it doesn’t have one. The design feels secure as it is, and the IP68 dust and water protection means I can just wipe off any spillage or drops of water. The lack of a camera visor, as seen on the rest of the Pixel 9, makes the 9a appear to be the black sheep of the family. But, realistically, I don’t care for it, and its absence means one less item to worry about.

The almost flush camera window of the 9a caught more attention than expected. Even tempted strangers to approach and ask me which device I am using, and be amazed at its simplicity. Before this, I was using the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, whose camera bump was almost half the thickness of the 9a. Now switching to this simple piece of hardware just feels relaxing to my hands and my pocket.

Let’s Address The Elephant in the Room – Bezels

The only thing off-putting on this phone is its large bezels. They’re a sore to the eyes but only for the first few days. Unless you are coming from a device with a curved screen or relatively thin bezels, you’ll adjust to the 9a in no time. Heck, I got used to it pretty quickly, possibly because I had the phone in dark mode and used dark wallpapers. This made the bezels less interruptive.

The rest of the screen is on par with what you get with the Pixel 9. It is a 6.3-inch pOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has the same resolution and brightness, which is a plus, because it gets adequately bright in direct sunlight. I quite enjoyed taking photos in in scorching April summers of Delhi. While enjoying revisiting some nostalgic cartoons on my commute to work.

For display protection, the Pixel 9a comes with Gorilla Glass 3, and it does the job. But apart from the bezels, the only thing I have to point out is the speakers. It’s a stereo setup, and I feel it doesn’t get quite as loud and sounds pretty flat, to be honest. Google could have tweaked it better, and I know for a fact they can.

The Tensor Troubles Continue on the Pixel 9a

On the performance front, the Pixel 9a shares the same Tensor G4 CPU as its predecessors. So, using vanilla Android 15 feels just as excellent, with smooth app animations and no stutters or lags. It delivers the same quality Pixel experience as a Google-branded device should. The benchmark results also reflect the same. However, this illusion only holds if you avoid gaming.

Since I have been grinding ranked on Call of Duty Mobile, I installed the game and played a few matches. The Pixel 9a can do 120FPS at low graphics, so that is what I went with. Two matches in, and I think the phone was possessed. Not only did it start heating, but the brightness went haywire, going low to dark and then back again. The FPS dipped from 120 to 100 to barely touching 90.

That was when I realized that any hopes of playing demanding titles on the Pixel 9a were futile. Even when I wasn’t gaming, I noticed the phone becoming a little warm to the touch during normal use. I’d be browsing through my X feed, only for the phone to suddenly feel heated. Perhaps it is a background process or something else. However, this has been a long-standing issue with Pixel smartphones, and Google should look into it.

Another familiar issue here is cell reception. For the most part, everything was fine, but there were times when the other person couldn’t hear a word I was saying over the phone. It became so frustrating for the other person that my mother simply hung up and requested me to call her on WhatsApp. I blame the Exynos modem, which Google continues to employ in its Tensor chipset. And, judging by the leaks, I’d be happy when Google ditches Samsung components for their future CPU.

If I look past these issues, the rest of my experience with the phone was quite pleasant. It is technically the first Pixel to come with Android 15 right out of the box. And it will get support for 7 years of updates down the line. It also gets the AI chops like the Pixel Studio, the Add me feature in the camera app, and the new Weather app.

What’s missing from this roster is the Pixel Screenshot app and Call notes, which require more on-device capabilities. You’d be wondering why it’s omitted when it has the same processor.

Well, the reason is that the 9a comes with on 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The absence of an extra 4GB of RAM means it is not running the more powerful version of Gemini Nano like the rest of the Pixel 9 devices.

Pixel 9a Camera: The Love-Hate Post-Processing

When it comes to cameras, Google hasn’t strayed away much from what it typically offers in the A series. There’s a new 48MP shooter, which is sort of a downgrade from the 64MP lens from the Pixel 8a. Then there’s a 13MP ultrawide and a 13MP selfie shooter in the front. For a phone that costs $500, I think it takes quite good photos for the price.

The main camera samples are really good, and something we have come to expect from a Pixel phone lately. They have a good dynamic range and take quite close to natural photos, be it during the day or night. On my Sunday adventure to the Tibetan roots of Majnu ka Tila, the Pixel 9a managed to gracefully capture the busy but well-lit streets.

I am honestly impressed by how the post processing managed to extract so much detail in the night shot of KOFI cafe. Just look how clearly you can make out each strand of the tree above. Each shot is rich with detail, but it also feels over-processed at the same time. It’s a love-hate relationship where you sometimes love the clarity on display, but also get annoyed by the over-sharpening in the shot.

The ultra-wide shots fare similarly, albeit a little less detailed. You’d be hard pressed to take a “bad” photo with this phone, as it does most of the work in post processing. The selfie photos also carry that clean look, and the edge detection in portraits is accurate. But if there are multiple subjects, then the portrait mode can fail to identify, blurring the one in the background. I also noticed a slightly reddish tone with darker skin tones, but it doesn’t ruin the look of selfies whatsoever.

On the video front, the Pixel 9a can record 4K videos at 60FPS, and the recorded footage comes out well-handled. There are no focus hunting issues to speak of, even when I was recording my weekend getaway from a tuk-tuk rickshaw. The footage was stable, and the scenes came out well. So the camera capabilities of the 9a are quite impressive, and on par with a $500 smartphone.

Battery for the Long Haul, But Needs Patience at the Plug

The battery was one of the least concerning things about the Pixel 9a for me. The 5,100 mAh cell is the biggest one we have seen, even larger than the Pro XL models. On average, I got about 6-8 hours of screen-on time, and throughout the week, I couldn’t kill the device in a day. It went on well over the next day, where I found the need to charge the device.

The only way to drain this phone in a day is if you do heavy gaming (which I recommend you not to) or take lots of photos and videos. As big as the battery is, it is also a pain to charge. In my review period, I found the Pixel 9a takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge to full.

The 23W bump in charging speed is helpful, but not by much, and the wireless charging speed will leave your phone stuck to the charger for the runtime of a movie. So my advice would be to put this phone on charge when you hit the bed, so you can start the morning with a full 100.

Pixel 9a Review: Don’t Knock It ‘Til You Try It

Overall, the Pixel 9a offers compelling value for its price, especially for the U.S. market where a good sub $500 phone is rare to find and pickings are slim. So with 9a, you get a good build, ergonomic design, better display, and long-lasting battery life. With Google’s promise of even longer software updates.

It has its flaws, especially with performance and cell reception. But the latter seems to be a region-specific issue. I have not heard any network-related problems with the US carriers. The 9a also puts things in perspective on how much of a better value it is to another “budget” option. The one that costs $600 and is full of compromises.

So, performance potholes aside, the Pixel 9a navigates the budget landscape well. If you are still on the fence, then I suggest you check out the device in real life and don’t go by YouTube videos.