Google Pixel 9a review: The mid-ranger to beat makes a comeback

Google's budget-friendly branch of the Pixel family isn't as thrifty as it once was but that's less of an issue this time around. The $500 that now separates Pixel 9a and its siblings means that you're much less likely to find the latter at a cheaper depreciated price this time around.

Where last year's Pixel 8a offered little more than the standard spec bump, its 2025 counterpart goes above and beyond. You're getting a bigger screen, a better camera and a fresh new look. On the inside and outside, these everyday upgrades adds up to something that's almost as easy to recommend as the original Pixel 3a was back in the day.

While the 6.3-inch OLED display (which Google brands as an Actua display) on the Pixel 9a is much smaller than the likes of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it feels like the latest incarnation of Google's budget-friendly smartphone can longer be called a "small phone" in the same vein as something like the iPhone 13 Mini. Despite that inflation though, the thin bezels and slim profile found on the Pixel 9a add up to a form-factor that very easy to like from the moment you get your hands on it.

Thanks to the FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, the screen on the Pixel 9a doesn't feel like much of a downgrade. Even when compared to its more premium siblings, the display on the Pixel 9a is sharp, colorful and smooth in motion.

This part of the equation doesn't miss a beat and the same can be said for the rest of the hardware that accompanies it. The Pixel 9a is lightweight to handle but built to take a hit. It's got IP68 water and dust resistance and aluminum edges that are made of recycled material but feel more polished than you'd expect for something that weighs in at a sub-$1000 price.

In addition, the Google Pixel 9a comes with extended software support of up to seven years of OS updates, feature drops, security updates and customer support. That post-launch promise is a significant step up on older Pixel phones and many of the other mid-range devices that this one is geared to compete against.

More broadly, the overall look of the Pixel 9a feels a lot more clean than its 2024 counterpart. Even if it feels of a kind with last year's Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, Google's latest Pixel phone represents a striking evolution on the overall look attached to last year's Pixel 8a.

A big part of this is down to the smaller camera bump. After years of smartphone manufacturers deciding to sacrifice convenience and sensibility at the altar of camera quality, it feels downright refreshing to handle a device without a massive multi-lens array hanging off the back of it.

Despite that cutback in physical size, there's plenty to like about the camera on the back of the Pixel 9a. With a 48MP main lens and a 12MP ultrawide one, the setup is a close match for the one found on last year's Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It may bring less megapixels to the table than the Pixel 8a did but the camera on the Pixel 9a is poised to deliver superior results with a larger sensor, a wider field-of-view and a greater aperture.

As you'd expect from Google, the Pixel 9a also comes kitted out with an arsenal of AI-powered camera features, including including Best Take, Reimagine, Magic Eraser, Auto Frame and Magic Editor. None of those features - nor the hardware behind them - are new. Largely, they act as the icing on the cake though.

Like the Pixel 8a before it, the Pixel 9a captures sharp and beautiful images in daylight situations and surprisingly decent ones in low-light environments. The difference between what it can deliver and something more premium isn't hard to find if you look for it but when it comes to the mid-range market, smartphone cameras don't get much better than this. Google have been shipping mid-range devices with cameras that swing above their weight for years now and - for better or worse - this is another one of those. The Google Pixel 9a isn't going to blow away any photography professionals (or those who love to work with a good telephoto lens) but it's more than capable enough if all you want are sharp snaps you can throw on your socials.

Even by the standards of smartphone manufacturers, Google tends to play it safe when it comes to specs. It's no great surprise that the Pixel 9a leans into that trend rather than run against it. Under the hood, Google's latest budget-friendly smartphone runs on the same Google Tensor G4 processor last seen inside last year's Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro. 

As usual, this is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, there's only really one other mid-ranger that can claim to include a flagship processor. On the other, Google's Tensor chip rarely comes out ahead of its Apple and Qualcomm counterparts when it comes to comparisons and benchmarks. It's great to see it in a device this affordable but the difference between the hardware inside its rivals might be an potential issue for power users.

The rest of the template hasn't changed either. You're still getting the same 8GB of RAM introduced with the Pixel 7a and you're still getting the two storage variants added to the equation by the Pixel 8a. In practice, this familiar formula yielded predictable results.

Apps loaded fast, the Pixel 9a never struggling with multitasking and there were no unexpected issues or crashes during my time testing the device. As far as games go, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Diablo Immortal and Zenless Zone Zero all ran smoothly and without issues. Given that they ran well enough on the Pixel 9 Pro XL, that's not a huge shock though.

On the other hand, I was a little surprised that the larger battery inside the Pixel 9a didn't yield more of an improvement. It's not bad by any stretch, as I could still comfortably get through a day and a half of regular usage. However, longer and more involved days definitely took their toll.

If there's a silver lining here, it's that the Pixel 9a both supports 23W fast-charging and 7.5W wireless charging. Even if that's not as brisk as what the Pixel 9 can offer, it's still plenty fast for the price involved. It doesn't hurt that most mid-range devices still don't even offer wireless charging either.

My usual testing found that the Google Pixel 9a took 21 hours and 8 minutes of video streaming over WiFi to burn down from a full charge to null. That result represents a significant improvement on what the Pixel 8a offered, though it is short what you'll get from the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion.