This is going to be a hard pill for some people to swallow, but I’ll say it: just buy a Pixel 9a if you’re considering a Pixel 10a. You’ll save yourself a few hundred bucks instead of ponying up $500 for Google’s latest A-series midrange phone. Other than the tiniest of upgrades, the Pixel 10a is basically identical to the Pixel 9a.
If ever there was a phone that felt phoned in, the Pixel 10a is it. That may sound really disappointing, but that’s my takeaway after testing the phone for over a week.
Google Pixel 10a
The Pixel 10a is a recycled Pixel 9a with a flat camera bump and not much more.
Pros
Cons
Google sent me a “Berry” Pixel 10a to review. It’s definitely the most playful of the four colors that the phone comes in. The other colors are lavender (blue-like purple), fog (light gray), and obsidian (black). Apple has Cosmic Orange for the iPhone 17 Pros and Google has Berry for the Pixel 10a. I’m into it.
See Pixel 10a at Amazon
I love that Google made the camera bump flat with the plastic composite backside. It looks sleek and it’s refreshing when all other phones are going in the opposite direction with camera bumps (or “islands”) growing larger. Unfortunately, few people will appreciate the flush design because they’re going to put a case over the Pixel 10a anyway. Google didn’t even have to flatten the camera bump, either—the Pixel 9a already had one that barely protruded.
Which brings me to my next point: the main reason why people have been demanding companies make their phones thicker, with flush camera designs, is so that there can be more room to cram in a larger battery. That’s what people really want. But Google didn’t even do that with the Pixel 10a. It has the same 5,100mAh battery as the Pixel 9a.
And it’s not just the battery that’s the same. Almost all of the Pixel 10a’s specs are pretty much copy and pasted from the Pixel 9a. It has the same 6.3-inch OLED display, with the same bezel thickness, and the same 120Hz refresh rate. It has the same Tensor G4 chip with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It has the same cameras on both the back (48-megapixel wide and 13-megapixel ultrawide) and front (13-megapixel).
For the most part, I found no difference using the Pixel 10a and the Pixel 9a. They both feel solid in the hand; the Pixel 10a’s aluminum frame and buttons have a premium feel. The screen is more than bright and sharp enough. Android 16 performance is smooth and responsive, though if you try to play 3D games you’re for sure going to notice frame rate drops. The battery lasts a whole day. And the cameras take good-enough images that look fine if you’re only posting to social media. I really wish Google had improved the cameras because they’re really showing their age, and if you zoom in even just a little bit you’ll see details just don’t hold up anymore.
Maybe this all sounds acceptable to somebody who doesn’t care about having The Very Best Phone, but it’s also not something to celebrate. Usually, a new version of a phone that comes out a year later will last an extra year or more because it comes with faster performance or a larger battery. Based just on the specs alone, the Pixel 10a will age at the same pace as the Pixel 9a, and that just sucks.
Okay, if you really look into it, Google did give the Pixel 10a’s features some upgrades, but they’re so minor that I, honestly, didn’t feel any of them made a difference.
For example, the screen is brighter: 2,000 nits for HDR and 3,000 nits peak brightness on the Pixel 10a compared to 1,800 nits for HDR and 2,700 nits peak brightness on the Pixel 9a. Could I really see an 11% difference in brightness while watching HDR movies on Netflix and Disney+? Not at all.
The glass on the display is also more durable. On the Pixel 10a, it’s made of Corning Gorilla Glass 7i versus the Pixel 9a’s Gorilla Glass 3. In theory, that should mean the screen is less prone to scratches and can withstand drops better. Any extra protection is always welcome, right? Yes, but my review unit also picked up a few hairline scratches, and I didn’t keep it in the same pockets that I do my keys. I never dropped the phone, I just pocketed it in my jeans and jacket every day and the glass still got lightly scratched.
While the battery is the same size, Google did speed up charging. The Pixel 10a supports 45W wired charging; Pixel 9a maxed out at 23W. For wireless charging, the Pixel 10a can charge at 10W compared to the Pixel 9a’s 7.5W with Qi. That’s a 96% increase in charging speed for wired charging and 33% increase in wireless charging. Since I charged the Pixel 10a every night and woke up to 100% battery, the faster charging was mostly lost on me. It’s handy if your battery is about to run out—you’ll get a 50% charge in about 30 minutes—but you also need a powerful enough charger and that’s not included in the box.
What surprised me most was how few new AI and Gemini features there are in the Pixel 10a. I had expected Google to push major Pixel 10/10 Pros Gemini features like Magic Cue, which helps surface important info like event details, photos, and task suggestions, to save you from hopping back and forth between apps, but it appears the Pixel 10a is not powerful enough to handle it. The main AI feature trickled down from the Pixel 10/10 Pros is the “Camera Coach” inside of the camera app. This AI “coach” analyzes your framed shots and then provides suggestions on how to take a better image. It’s good for anyone who struggles with taking a decent photo, but otherwise, pointless for most people.
Look, the Pixel 9a was a hell of a value for $500. Nobody disputes that. And the Pixel 10a is still a solid value, but it feels like a lazy refresh.
You’ll feel Google’s laziness when you look at its biggest tech rival. Apple’s new iPhone 17e is the same price as the iPhone 16e but adds “missing” features like MagSafe and a class-leading A19 chip (even with four GPU cores instead of five in the iPhone 17), while also doubling the base storage. In comparison, Google looks like gave up on its A-series Pixels.
Why didn’t Google add the Pixelsnap magnetic wireless charging that’s on the rest of the Pixel 10 phones? Why didn’t Google boost the Pixel 10a’s performance to the new Tensor G5 chip? Why didn’t it improve the cameras? Google could have refreshed the Pixel 9a in myriad ways, but chose not to. The Pixel 10a is a Pixel 9a in slightly newer clothes. It’s a serviceable phone if you don’t demand too much from your phone, but there’s also nothing special about it. Just get the old one.
See Pixel 10a at Amazon
Source: Gizmodo