The annual refresh of Google’s A-series is here, and the Pixel 9a follows a tried-and-tested formula – scale the Pixel experience down to a more accessible price point, cutting a few corners wherever required. Yet, with rising competition, are its strengths enough to justify its price?
Unboxing the Pixel 9a is a rather barebones experience, typical of modern Pixels – just the phone and charging cable, and even the soft silicone case is an extra three grand. From the front, it looks like the compact Pixel 9 with the color-matched aluminum frame, albeit with slightly thicker bezels on the flat display.
Flip it around, and you’ll see the big changes – gone is the camera visor, replaced by a nearly flush pill-shaped camera island. While this does mean that the phone doesn’t wobble on flat surfaces and is sleeker in the pocket, it also leaves the 9a a little more generic looking and, save for the Peony (pink) and Iris (blue violet) colors, a tad bland and less Pixel-y.
In the hand, the phone feels premium and wonderfully compact, even as the high-quality plastic back (not glass) and the ageing Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the screen are clear signs of the corners cut, though you do get an upgrade to full IP68 water resistance (the 8a had IP67).
Redemption comes by way of the 6.3-inch, 2424x1080 resolution pOLED display, which is not only bigger, brighter and higher resolution than the 8a’s screen, and bests phones like the budget iPhone 16e by a country mile. Heck, it’s an excellent panel in and of itself, with good color accuracy, good screen brightness for the outdoors, a fluid 120Hz refresh rate, and unlike some of its peers, offers an excellent always-on display. That said, the 9a lacks the snappier ultrasonic fingerprint scanner and Dolby Vision support, but it checks the boxes for a strong multimedia experience, including speakers and haptics that only feel bested by the pricier Pixels.
Inside, the 9a has the same Tensor G4 chip as the rest of the Pixel 9 line, but with only 8GB of fast LPDDR5X memory as compared to the 12GB on the rest of the range. This curious downgrade doesn’t impact the 9a in daily use – it feels sprightly and responsive, multitasking doesn’t feel compromised unless you intentionally start pushing the limit of the 8GB memory with heavy apps, and gaming performance is reasonable, though gamers will find better graphics performance on similarly priced Snapdragon-powered smartphones.
The lesser memory does limit the phone from running Google’s full suite of AI systems locally on the phone, which means some of the Gemini-powered AI features, like Pixel Screenshots and Call Notes, aren’t supported. Note that it doesn’t impact the internet-driven AI tools like Gemini Live and Pixel Studio, and if the aforementioned apps don’t matter as much to you, you won’t miss much of the Pixel experience on the 9a, including the famed and category-leading seven years of software support.
Where the 9a sees a massive improvement is in battery life, and the 5100mAh cell pushes it safely past the single day mark, going well into the second day on moderate use. Charging speeds are glacial at 23W USB-PD fast charging and 7.5W Qi-wireless charging, and the 9a is best charged overnight with just about any charger you have handy – this is not a phone you charge in a hurry.
Is the camera any good, you ask? The dual camera setup – a 48MP primary and a 13MP ultrawide – capture what you could objectively describe as good shots, with plenty of detail…but lacking in vibrancy and the contrasty character that Pixels were known (and loved) for – though, in all fairness, folks who crave that would find an easy fix in Google’s AI editing tools. Low light shots see a big improvement, as do macros, and Google manages to pack in an ultrawide in the package too, something one particular price segment peer would do well to take note of.
The Pixel 9a does the things most folks would care about in the Pixel 9 lineup, for two-thirds the price. If you’re rather big on AI or absolutely must have the telephoto lens, head to the pricier Pixels, but for those looking for something from Google that’s reliable and affordable, the 9a is the phone to buy.
Rating: 8/10
Price: Rs. 49,999 (8GB/256GB)