For years now, smartphone manufacturers have been enlarging the camera on devices in order to continue camera improvements. While this type of design makes cameras better, it sometimes creates usability issues. With the Pixel 10a, Google took a new approach of removing the camera bump entirely and creating a flat phone that sits entirely on surfaces.
While it’s a nice change in the world of big camera shocks, Google hasn’t made any major design changes to its new budget smartphone. The Pixel 9a looked pretty much the same, with a very small camera bump.
I have the old black unit, but Google offers the phone in Lavender (a mix of bright blue and purple), Berry (coral), and Fog (a gray-green tone).
The 6.3-inch screen size is the same as last year’s device, but the screen is now brighter at 3,000 nits. Google is using the Actua Display series of screens that it has used with other Pixel 10 devices to make it more usable in bright conditions. The screen is capable of hitting a 120Hz refresh rate, but the device comes with a 60Hz setting, so you’ll have to change it manually via the phone’s settings.
In terms of build and specs, the Pixel 10a goes toe-to-toe with the Pixel 10, with a few differences. For example, the Pixel 10 has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back, while the cheaper 10a has a plastic back and Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection on the front. The budget device also has a larger 5,100 mAh battery, compared to 4,970 mAh on the base Pixel 10. The Pixel 10 Pro XL has a 5,200 mAh battery.
There are only small differences between the Pixel 9a, Pixel 10a, and Pixel 10, most of them related to performance and computing power. The obvious hardware difference is that the budget phones use the Google Tensor G4 chip, compared to the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5. The Pixel 10 charges at 30W via USB-C, compared to the Pixel 9a’s 23W charging capability. Wireless charging is supported at 7.5W for Pixel 9a, 10W for Pixel 10a, and 15W (magnetic) for Pixel 10.
The battery capacity and faster charging speed helps because the battery easily lasts throughout the day, including typical apps, a few hours of video watching, and light gaming. Additionally, the brighter screen makes the device better for a complete experience in different lighting conditions. Yes, the 10a has bigger bezels than its more expensive cousins, but they don’t make much difference in everyday use. After all, you get the device at a much lower price than a flagship.
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The Pixel 10a uses the Tensor G4 chip, which was also used in the Pixel 9a. That means there’s no performance gain this year, which you might notice if you switch between lots of apps. Due to the older chip and its 8GB RAM combination, the Pixel 10a cannot run the updated Gemini Nano AI model, meaning it has fewer AI features on the device than the Pixel 10a series.
The list of features not available on the Pixel 10a includes notification summaries, the Pixel screenshot app, Magic Cue (a feature that offers contextual suggestions in apps like Gmail, Messages, and Maps), call notes, and on-device call translation.
The phone has a 48-megapixel main camera and a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera, the same as last year. The main camera works well in most conditions, even in low light. But given the wide-angle lens’ older, smaller sensor, it tends to lose some detail and it doesn’t have autofocus.
The Pixel 10a has a camera coach AI feature which can guide you in shooting an object by helping you frame it better in the viewfinder. There’s also Auto Best Take, which merges photos to create the best composite from a set of photos, which is useful when photographing a group. The phone also supports up to 8x super resolution zoom, but the processing and quality aren’t as good as the Pixel 10, which offers up to 100x zoom with this feature.
Notably, some AI features could come to the Pixel 10a via Pixel Drop, Google’s periodic software updates that** often bring new features to older models.
Google offers seven years of software updates with this device, which is crucial for receiving both operating system updates, as well as feature drops and security updates. Although it’s not exclusive to the Pixel 10a, the phone has a quick share feature that now works with Apple’s AirDrop. This means I can simply transfer photos, as I did for this story, to my MacBook with just a few clicks. Previously, I had to connect the Pixel 10a to my MacBook with a USB-C cable.
At $499, good battery life, a bright screen, and faster charging are the main benefits of the Pixel 10a. For this price, the phone offers good value in a lightweight, flat design. However, if you already own last year’s Pixel 9a, there’s no reason to switch. Also consider: The Nothing 4a Pro phone, also $499, has better specs, like a larger, brighter screen, a more capable Qualcomm processor, a dedicated telephoto lens, and faster 50W charging speeds.
