Google Pixel 9a review: compact, capable, and classic Pixel experience

The Google Pixel 9a was announced globally and in India in March, but the company had to delay the phone’s release to investigate a “component quality issue.” Google seemingly fixed the issue and the device, priced at Rs 49,999, went on sale April 16th. The Pixel 9a, much like its predecessor and Pixels in general, promises to deliver impressive camera performance along with reliable performance and a clean software experience with a long support cycle. Read our review to find out if the Pixel 9a improves on its predecessor to take on rivals like the OnePlus 13R (review), Vivo V40 Pro (review) and OPPO Reno 13 Pro (review) in its segment or if it’s more of the same.

Verdict

The Google Pixel 9a sticks to the tried and tested formula, albeit with some design changes. The overall result is a compact and handy design with a great display, a decent set of cameras, an improved battery life, and a solid software cycle with usable AI features. However, its performance isn’t the best in the segment and charging the device remains comparably slow.

Design and display

The Pixel 9a appears to draw more inspiration from the older Pixel 5a than from recent Pixel phones, at least in terms of design. Since the Pixel 6 series, Google has adopted a camera visor – a protruding, edge-to-edge module that houses the cameras. However, the Pixel 9a ditches this design in favour of a pill-shaped cutout that holds two rear cameras and sits flush with the rear panel. As a result, there’s no camera bump, meaning the phone doesn’t wobble when placed on a flat surface.

With a small rear camera module, an LED flash, and a G logo, the Pixel 9a looks clean and minimalistic – an aesthetic many users may prefer. That said, the absence of a distinctive camera visor makes it feel less like a traditional Pixel compared to more recent models. The Pixel 9a is very much a compact phone, similar to the Xiaomi 15, being only a couple of millimetres taller and wider. It is, however, lighter, weighing just 185.9 grams compared to the Xiaomi 15’s 191 grams.

Much like the Xiaomi 15 in the flagship space, the Google Pixel 9a stands out as one of the few compact phones in the sub-Rs 50,000 segment. It’s easy to handle one-handed, and the in-hand feel is excellent. The matte glass back and brushed metal frame are soft to the touch and, thankfully, not as slippery as I had anticipated.

Compared to its predecessor, the Pixel 9a’s display is evidently bigger and brighter.

It features a 6.3-inch pOLED display that’s just big enough for everyday tasks like messaging, checking and replying to emails, and browsing social media. However, the screen may feel a bit small for an immersive streaming experience, especially due to the noticeably thick bezels around it. If the screen size doesn’t bother you, you’ll likely find the display quite appealing, as it delivers vivid, punchy colours and crisp details. It supports a peak brightness of 2,700 nits, and we were able to achieve 1,473 nits by manually setting the brightness to maximum.

Cameras

In a market flooded with triple and quadruple camera systems, phones like the Pixel 9a and iPhone 16e prove you can get good photos with fewer cameras as well. The Pixel 9a is equipped with a 48MP primary sensor with an f/1.7 aperture and a 13MP wide-angle lens. With just the two sensors, the Pixel 9a delivers impressive photos in daylight and indoor settings. Photos captured using the primary camera offer good exposure, attractive colour reproduction and fine details. The autofocus is fast and reliable, and videos have good stability and dynamic range.

However, the camera doesn’t do extremely well in low light conditions, lacking details and allowing more noise than other phones in this price range.

Here’s a closer look at how the Pixel 9a performed against the iPhone 16e in daylight and low-light scenes.

Daylight

The Pixel 9a delivers excellent colour reproduction in daylight scenes, offering pleasing stills with quick autofocus and good sharpness. Its performance is on par with the iPhone 16e, with both smartphones delivering almost identical photos in daylight. The Pixel 9a delivers a slightly cooler-looking photo with balanced exposure. As a result, the latter may appear more aesthetically pleasing.

Close-up

While the Pixel 9a doesn’t have a dedicated macro camera, it can capture decent close-up shots with fine sharpness. Macro mode automatically activates when you move close to a subject (you’ll see a flower icon at the top left corner). In our comparison with the iPhone 16e, the Pixel 9a’s close-up shot of a flower (seen below) may look duller, with colours appearing more muted compared to the iPhone’s shot, but the Pixel 9a delivers better clarity and depth of field.

Portrait

Another area where the Pixel 9a’s camera shines is in portraits. This was a great surprise since the Pixel 9 series struggled quite a bit with applying consistent bokeh across subjects.

Its photos in portrait mode look attractive, with the subject appearing sharp, featuring pleasant skin tones and fine edge detection. The iPhone 16e aims for more accurate colours, which can look dull in comparison, while edge detection and background blur are largely similar to the Pixel 9a.

Selfie

In selfies, too, the Google Pixel 9a delivers pleasing shots. Selfies look bright and sharp, with pleasing colours and exposure (sometimes slightly on the higher side), along with good background blur. The same selfie taken with the iPhone 16e delivers more natural-looking colours, which may not seem as social media-worthy.

Low-light

The Pixel 9a isn’t exceptional in low-light conditions, with noticeable noise and some dynamic range inconsistencies, but in my experience, it outperformed the iPhone 16e. In the comparison shot below, the Pixel 9a captures a brighter overall image, with sharper details in the trees and the monument in the background. The iPhone 16e, by contrast, delivers a darker image with more natural colour reproduction but loses out on finer details.

Performance and software

The same Tensor G4 chipset that powered last year’s Pixel 9 series also powers the Pixel 9a, a trend similar to the Pixel 8 series. From a raw performance perspective, we already had a good idea of what to expect, having tested the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL last year. The chipset didn’t impress in synthetic benchmark tests, being soundly outscored by last year’s flagship processors like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and MediaTek Dimensity 9300. While this may have disappointed buyers in the flagship segment, these scores look more competitive in the sub-Rs 50,000 segment where the Pixel 9a sits.

As you can see, the Pixel 9a doesn’t win against its rivals in synthetic benchmarks, but its numbers aren’t too bad either. In real-world usage, the Pixel 9a handles day-to-day tasks almost as well as any other phone in this price segment, though you might notice some stutters while scrolling through the UI or certain apps. This is largely due to Google forcing a lower refresh rate, perhaps to save battery life, which tends to make the phone feel a little sluggish. While the Pixel 9a supports up to 120Hz refresh rates, it largely limits the UI and apps like Gmail to 60Hz.

Notably, the Pixel 9a delivered solid numbers in our 90-minute gaming test. It consistently maintained high FPS (frames per second) in demanding titles like BGMI, COD Mobile, and Real Racing 3, while keeping battery consumption in check. After 90 minutes of intensive gaming, the battery dropped by just 6 per cent, on par with most rivals in the segment. In BGMI, it averaged 39 FPS over 30 minutes with HDR graphics and Ultra frame rates.

Software has always been the Pixel’s strong suit, and that doesn’t change with the Pixel 9a. You get Android 15 out of the box with a promise of seven years of major software updates and seven years of security patches, ensuring the phone is protected and relevant until 2032, as far as software is concerned.

The Pixel 9a’s Android 15 interface is as clean and stock as it can be. You get a total of 36 pre-installed apps when you set up the phone, with no third-party apps whatsoever. This will seem more impressive in the table below, which shows the number of pre-installed and third-party apps that you get out of the box on rival phones.

The Pixel 9a comes with only 8GB of RAM, which is sufficient for daily usage but may fall short for certain processing-heavy AI features. This is why Google hasn’t included its full suite of AI capabilities in the Pixel 9a. Due to its lower RAM capacity, the Pixel 9a misses out on features like Pixel Screenshots and Call Notes – AI tools available on the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro. However, you still get access to Gemini and Gemini Live at the click of a button, along with select photo editing and image generation tools, including the Pixel Studio app.

Battery

Google has bumped the battery in the Pixel 9a to a 5,100mAh cell from the Pixel 8a’s 4,492mAh unit. Meanwhile, charging speed has been marginally improved to 23W from 18W, which is still considerably slow compared to today’s standard. Rivals in this segment offer charging speeds of around 80W to 120W. In the real world, this translates to over 80 minutes to charge the Pixel 9a from 20 to 100 percent. Plus, Google does not ship an adapter with the device, though you do get a Type-C cable in the box.

Battery life of the Pixel 9a is quite reliable thanks to a bigger battery cell. The phone can comfortably last a full day with enough left in the tank to stay alive overnight. You will need to plug it in once before bed or when you wake up for the day ahead, but you won’t face the same battery woes you did if you used the Pixel 8a.

Final verdict

The Google Pixel 9a remains true to the Pixel A-series philosophy – delivering a clean Android experience, dependable cameras, and long-term software support at a relatively affordable price. Priced at Rs 49,999, it offers a solid package for users who prioritise simplicity, camera quality, and software longevity over raw performance or flashy hardware features.

What works for the Pixel 9a is that it is compact, comfortable to hold, and ideal for one-handed use, something not commonly found in the sub-Rs 50,000 segment. The pOLED display is vivid and bright enough for outdoor visibility. Its dual-camera setup doesn’t try to do too much but delivers where it counts: in daylight, portraits, and even in low light, where it edges out more expensive rivals, such as the iPhone 16e, in some scenarios.

Performance-wise, the Tensor G4 doesn’t break new ground, and the phone’s limited 8GB RAM means you won’t get the full suite of AI tools that Google is pushing with its premium flagships. Phones like the OnePlus 13R and Vivo V40 Pro deliver better performance, especially if you consider numbers. That said, day-to-day tasks are handled smoothly, and for most users, the Pixel 9a won’t be a dealbreaker. The 5,100mAh battery is a welcome improvement, comfortably lasting a full day with ease, though the sluggish 23W charging speed feels dated in comparison to what rivals offer.

Where the Pixel 9a really pulls ahead is its software promise – seven years of major Android updates and security patches. Add to that a bloat-free interface, timely updates, and a growing list of AI features (albeit limited on this model), and you have a phone that should age well.

Editor’s rating: 7.9 / 10

Reasons to buy:

• Its compact design offers a good in-hand feel and comfort.
• The dual-camera system is reliable in daylight, portraits and low-light scenes.
• Battery life has improved from the Pixel 8a and should last you a full day on a single charge.

Reasons not to buy:

• Does not get the full suite of AI features as the higher-end Pixel 9 phones, likely due to lower RAM.
• Tensor G4 isn’t as powerful as other chipsets in this segment, and it throttles under stress.
• 23W charging speed is significantly slower than what rivals offer in 2025.