Google’s latest cut-price Pixel offers the best bang for your buck in Android phones and is arguably better in many areas than some models costing twice the price. The Pixel 9a starts at the same £499 as last year’s model, making it £300 less than the regular Pixel 9 and placing it against mid-rangers such as Nothing’s Phone 3a Pro and Samsung’s Galaxy A56.
The 6.3in OLED screen is crisp, smooth and bright, with slightly thicker bezels than the Pixel 9 but a premium-feeling aluminium band. The back is high-quality plastic rather than glass, but it’s difficult to tell. The 9a has full IP68 water resistance, matching the best in the business. The standout camera bar is gone; instead, twin cameras sit almost flush in a small black oval, making the phone sleeker but more generic.
Inside, the 9a has the same top-tier Google Tensor G4 chip as the rest of the Pixel 9 line but with 8GB of RAM rather than 12GB. Performance is snappy and markedly faster than most mid-range chips. Battery life is the longest of all Google Pixels, lasting up to 57 hours between charges with light use, rivalling the longest-lasting handsets.
The smaller RAM limits some on-device AI features; the 9a uses a smaller version of Gemini that can only process text locally, precluding tools like Pixel Screenshots and Call Notes. Web-based Gemini features work great, as do photo editing and image generation tools. The rest of Android 15 matches other Pixel phones, with seven years of software support.
The 9a has a new main 48-megapixel camera and a 13MP ultrawide, capable of shooting better photos than many full-price flagships, only slightly behind the Pixel 9 in low light. A new macrophotography mode can produce great shots but sometimes struggles to focus. The selfie camera is solid, and video capture is equally good. AI features include Best Take, Add Me, Magic Editor, unblur and audio magic eraser.
The battery should last about 1,000 full charge cycles with at least 80% of original capacity. The phone is repairable by Google and third-party shops with genuine replacement parts.
