The push for the most recent gadgets, the largest and the most full of features often leads to so much pressure that the purchase of others can look like auto-Bétray. And although Pixel 9a is technically a new device, its chip is six months old. The same goes for his conception, which is almost a carbon copy of his older brother. To worsen things, this phone is supposed to be a more affordable entry into the family of the Pixel phone, which looks like a death sentence for all those who care to follow the Jones (or simply the most up -to -date specifications). But what do you know? It does not matter because from $ 500, the Pixel 9A offers the best value of any Android phone today.
Design and display: simple but robust
The Pixel 9a is so much like the standard model – especially from the front – that it is difficult to distinguish them until you put them side by side. Once you have done so, you will notice that the 9A characteristics are slightly thicker glasses. But other than that, there is not a ton of differences. You always get a 6.3 -inch OLED screen relatively compact with a 120 Hz cooling rate and a maximum brightness of 2,700 nits, just like on the regular pixel 9. It is pointed, it is colored and it is simply one of the best screens of this price range.
If you take both, you can also notice that the 9a is also a lighter (6.56 ounces against 6.98 ounces). This gap is due to the fact that Google gives up Gorilla Glass 3 for the backpanel in favor of the recycled polycarbonate (plastic alias). That said, you always get a robust aluminum frame (also made from recycled materials) and an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.
The biggest departure of 9a is by far that, unlike all the other pixels dating from the Pixel 6, it has no large bar or visor housing its cameras. Instead, you get a small tear-shaped protrusion that houses the main and ultra-worm shooters. The module is so superficial, it is practically razor against the phone, making it one of the rare combined of recent memory which is really flat on a table. Admittedly, it is a really minor design adjustment, but as a person who does not like cases, I think it’s a nice touch.
Performance: fairly good speed
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Like the rest of the Pixel 9 family, the 9a is powered by Google’s Tensor G4 chip. The major change is that instead of presenting 12 GB of RAM, you only get 8 GB. That said, unless you are frequently tilted between applications or do more intense things like games or video editing, you are not going to notic a huge difference. In Geekbench 6, the two phones displayed very similar results with a multi-core score of 4,294 for the 9A and 4,360 for the Pixel 9 Standard 9. The biggest potential impact of this for most people is that you will not be able to spend an additional time to recharge.
The Pixel 9a also supports almost all the tools powered by Google, including useful stuff such as detection of car accidents and call assistance. You also have access to more advanced tools like Gemini Live (including camera and screen sharing) and the Pixel studio (now with the possibility of generating images of people), the latter can be a fun way to create silly personalized images to troll your friends. Well, that’s at least that I use it.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
However, software management is not quite the same as you get more expensive models. Indeed, an application that I grew up on recent pixels – the Google screenshot application is not available on the 9a pixel. This is definitely a disappointment, because I found that the possibility of using AI to quickly search for all the screen caps that I took is much better than doing it manually. I don’t know why it is not available given some of the other features based on automatic learning that work. But when asked, a Google representative told me that to “maintain a starting price of $ 499, the company had to compromise. Consequently, some [of the standard Pixel 9’s] The features will not be available on the Pixel 9A. “”
Cameras: Best image quality than phones twice its price
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
During his first announcement, Google said that the 9a would have the best cameras on any phone under $ 500. And after having considered the Pedigree of the Pixel family for excellent image quality, I opposed the main camera of 48 MP of the phone and the ultra-large 13 Mp cam against the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to give it a real challenge. And despite a cost of $ 800 less, he acquitted with APLOMB.
On a diurnal photo of a comfortable coffee, the Pixel 9a has kept more details and produced a generally more beautiful image than a similar photo taken by the S25U (although this is due to Samsung’s trend to overcome). But maybe a better example of that was when I took pictures of a kibble. Not only was the pixel 9a shooting more precise, but it had better colors and was generally much more appetizing. And in low light, I obtained similar results with the 9a doing an excellent job with the white balance while capturing net and detailed images despite the difficult conditions.
Although the Pixel 9a does not have a dedicated telephoto lens, Google tries to compensate for this with Super Res Zoom, which uses AI to support up to 8x digital zoom. In addition to that, the phone has a macro focus mode. That said, you will not find a specific parameter for it in the application of the camera, because it activates automatically each time you get closer to something. You will know that it works when you see a small icon of flowers appear in the corner of the screen. I found that this mode gives you a way to capture a little more details, but the development of nail can be a little capricious. I often had to adjust the phone a little forward or back to find the ideal point of the camera.
Battery life: the best to date from any pixel
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Equipped with a 5100 mAh power pack, the Pixel 9a barely beats its biggest brother – the Pixel 9 Pro XL (5,060 mAh) – for the biggest battery capacity among Google phones. In addition, the company affirms that the 9a has the best execution time of one of its handsets, which according to my tests, is not only hot air. During our standard local video dilapidation test, the Pixel 9a lasted a little more than 28 hours on a single load (28:04). It’s half an hour better than what I got from a pixel 9. Not too shabby.
The downside is that the telephone speeds of the phone have not improved since last year, so you always get dull prices when using wired electric adapters (23 watts) or Qi (7.5 Watts). This is particularly slower than what you get a standard pixel 9 (27 watches wired and 15 wireless watts), which is probably one of the most convincing reasons you want to move to the most expensive brothers and sisters in the 9a. To better highlight the lethargic load speeds of the phone, I put it on a buffer compatible with 25% battery and after 10 minutes, it was only 5%. On the 9a, the wireless load is certainly something that you use more for more convenience than speed.
Conclude
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Look, the Pixel 9a may not be full of fanciful features and its raw specifications are not super impressive. I would like to see Google add a real telephoto lens and its load speeds (both wired and wireless) could be better. But for $ 500, Google’s most budgetary phone covers all the bases, then some.
The quality of the 9A camera can remain with flagship products twice its price and it has more than enough performance for all the most demanding players or multitascles. When you add a care of almost all Google software like the recorder application, Pixel Studio and more, you get a really convincing package. In addition, the absence of a large camera bump means that this thing is surprisingly elegant. If my children were old enough to need a mobile phone, that’s what I would buy. For all those who say that everything they want is a simple and solid handset with a beautiful screen that can take high quality photos, this thing is basic in all the best ways.
This article originally appeared on engadget to
