Pixel 9a in 2026
I have been using this device now for a little over 2 weeks and so I thought I would go through and compile my thoughts about it the good the bad and the ugly (well there isn't really any ugly tbh).
Firstly the design, it is possibly the most generic device released recently much like the e model iPhones it is simply big screen, almost flush camera (fully flush on its successor the 10a) and a USB C port on the bottom of the device.
Notably they decided to go for plastic on the back, to be honest this is mostly a positive in my eyes, it saves budget in the BOM for other components and is more durable and I think a lot of people might not even notice, they have applied a similar etched glass effect finish to the plastic as what you see on the back of an iPhone so it feels nice in the hand with no case on it, I only really noticed when I happened to tap my finger on it that it didn't have the same "weight" as tapping on the glass of a more premium phone.
The phone I got shipped with android 16 already updated if I had to guess it was produced around November / December time as it had google play security updates from October out the box which I have of course updated to the latest ones by now but it was good to see that these had at least not just sat around.
This also meant there was no issue really with moving my data over, because I wasn't sure about if I am going to make this my mainline device or not I decided when I transferred my data from iOS to android using googles tools, much better than the current move to iOS app for moving from android to iPhone I will add (although there seems to be some ongoing effort to make that better), one thing I did not transfer was my WhatsApp messages, Instead electing to link the Pixel to my iPhones WhatsApp the same was as you can a Laptop or a tablet. This way I don't risk loosing my WhatsApp data as I have in the past when moving iOS>Android or Android>iOS.
Then from there to be honest I have no real bad words to say about the usability of this device for day to day use, Googles approach to use the same G4 chip they put into the Pixel 9 / 9 Pro / 9 Pro Fold along with 8GB of RAM is a good thing to see. It means for social apps, web browsing, photos and video, navigation, even some light gaming like Pokemon TCG Pocket or Balatro it handles it light a champ. While it can run more demanding and heavier apps and games they obviously don't run amazing but honestly if you want to play those kind of games this is not the device for you, or get an android handheld console to play those on instead.
When it comes to battery this is probably one its strong suits despite being the same size as my iPhone 17 Pro it ships with a battery 1200mAh larger than my global variant iPhone with the sim tray (900mAh more than the US variant) this means that for me the way I use my phone, which I would think is typical for most office workers, mostly on Wi-Fi with use on the bus/train to work on 5G for using discord, whatsapp, and a bit of balatro. I end up with needing to charge it around 6pm on day two which I think is more than acceptable and this is with me taking no care about battery or power management, I think if you did that you could probably squeeze 3-4 days out of this device with less usage, low power mode, keeping it on Wi-Fi as much as possible ect.
Cameras are great on this device honestly espeically for a budget device in my opinion it goes toe to toe with the iPhone camera i have provided a table below of comparison shots lets see if yo can figure out which phone took which pictures.
| Phone A | Phone B |
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Click here to reveal which phone is which
Left: Google Pixel 9a Right: iPhone 17 Pro
There was a few things I would say compared to my iPhone that are slightly lacking, the main thing being the speakers, this is obviously something they cheeped out on here, they are still decent just not on the same level as the iPhone speakers even comparing to my work iPhone 16e also the lack of full Qi 2 charging is a miss in my book while they did add this to the mainline Pixel 10s this year however this is easily fixed with a case, I opted for the Spigen Nano Pop with MagFit, its still missing from the 10a but it also only charges at 10W when using a Qi 2 charger which is a bit of a bummer for me considering I have a Qi 2 charge on my desk at home and at work given the phone has such long life its not the end of the world but typically when I am not using the device say during a meeting I would normally chuck the phone on the charger to give it a top off and keep that battery going even longer.
Spigen Nano Pop Case
Considering that its currently on sale both at googles own store as well as other shops here like Argos and Currysfor only £350 it is defiantly worth the money. I am always a proponent of buying your phone outright then getting a sim only deal, not only does this give you more agency over your stuff, like when to upgrade, it is also cheaper.
So what is the fate of this phone for me now. Well I think for me now this will be a mostly a tinkering device. I plan to go back to using my iPhone as the daily device but I could absolutely go and use this hapily for my daily needs the thing is I am invested a lot into apple with the Watch and AirTags it would be a lot to leave that behind right now but I will keep this around to play with android, and hey its now there as a jumping off point for me should I need it. In the future I would also like to explore the state of custom ROMs like linage OS and Graphine OS which of course I will be sure to document on this blog when the time comes.
Last Edited: 5 days, 3 hours ago.