Google Pixel 9a review
Display
The Pixel 9a has a slightly larger display than the Pixel 8a. At 6.3 inches in diagonal, it aligns with what the regular Pixel 9 offers. The resolution is the same at 1080x2424 pixels as well. This results in a crisp pixel density of around 422 ppi. Just like the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9a advertises 1,800 nits of whole display brightness in high brightness mode and a peak of 2,700 nits.
We did our standardized measurements and got great figures for the Pixel 9a: 1,248 nits by maxing out the slider and a whopping 1,930 nits in max auto mode. While this is a great result and one that ranks very high in the brightness charts for this price category, it is worth noting that the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro still managed notably higher values in our testing. Even so, the Pixel 9a has more than enough brightness to be perfectly usable even in direct sunlight.
Max display brightness test
White test pattern, 75% fill (nits)
- Manual mode
- Auto mode
Pixel 9 Pro
Pixel 9
Pixel 9a
Pixel 8a
Poco F7 Pro
Pixel 8
Motorola Edge 60 Fusion
Just like the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9a has a 120Hz maximum refresh rate. Google doesn't let users mess about too much with the refresh rate. There is just a single Smooth display toggle in the settings menu. Once enabled, you enter an automatic mode where the phone decides which content to use a high refresh rate for and which not to. Your only other option is to have the toggle off and be stuck at a constant 60Hz.
While the phone is pretty happy to boost to 120Hz for most apps and the UI in general, we had very little success getting games to run above 60fps. So, keep that in mind.
The Pixel 9a has some HDR support on its display, though Google does not specify exactly what kind. On a software level, the phone reports being capable of decoding HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG, but there is no Dolby Vision. There is also support for the highest possible L1 Google Widevine DRM certification.
Battery life
The Pixel 9a has the largest battery out of any Pixel thus far at 5,100 mAh. We ran our usual battery tests and got some solid results. The Tensor G4 seems to be doing quite alright for itself all around, perhaps with the exception of call endurance. But that's something this chip is known to struggle with.
Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.
Charging speed
The Pixel 9a supports up to 23W USB-PD fast charging and up to 7.5W Qi-wireless charging. Since the phone doesn't come with a charger, we had to source one ourselves for testing. We used a 30W Google-branded PD charger.
Charging speed
- in 15 min
- in 30 min
- Time to full charge (from 0%)
Poco X7 Pro
Galaxy A56
Pixel 9 Pro
Galaxy S24 FE
Pixel 9
Pixel 9a
Pixel 8a
The Pixel 9a's charging rate is anything but fast. The phone takes over an hour and a half to show a 100% charge rate and over two hours for a true, complete charge. This is not a phone you charge in a hurry; if you're charging overnight anyway, you don't need to be fussy about what type of charger you're using.
The Pixel 9a has a pretty simple yet surprisingly robust set of charging protection features. These are under the Charging optimization umbrella. The default mode is Adaptive charging, which learns your routine and makes sure that your phone only fully charges shortly before it is unplugged. That ensures the battery doesn’t spend unnecessary time at 100% charge, which is detrimental to it. Then, there is also the option to limit the maximum charge percentage to 80%, which is a different approach to achieving a similar goal of protecting battery health.
Speakers - loudness and quality
The Pixel 9a has a stereo speaker system of the hybrid variety. There is a dedicated bottom-firing speaker, and the other channel is handled by an amplified, front-facing earpiece. This innately brings some imbalance to the sound output, but it's not that bad in practice.
The Pixel 9a has a pretty good loudness, managing a Good loudness score in our testing. That's about on par with the Pixel 8a but not as loud as the vanilla Pixel 9. The quality of the sound is good, with clean and clear mids. Not too much highs or bass, though.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Connectivity
The Pixel 9a takes a single nano-SIM card but also has eSIM support so you could use it as Dual SIM like that. It has SA/NSA Sub-6 5G support. Location services are handled by dual-band GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS and NavIC. For Wi-Fi connectivity, the phone has Wi-Fi 6e. Depending on your market, you will get either dual-band Wi-Fi or tri-band, with support for the 6GHz spectrum. On board, Bluetooth is version 5.3 with LE support. There is NFC on board as well. No 3.5mm audio jack or FM radio, though.
The USB port on the Pixel 9a is officially a USB 3.2. That is not terribly descriptive regarding speed, but from our testing, the maximum transfer speed seems to be 5 Gbps. This is not too bad for a phone, in our opinion. There is OTG/Host support on the port as well as video output over USB Alt mode.
The Pixel 9a has a full set of sensors on board. There is an STMicro LSM6DSV accelerometer and gyroscope combo, a MEMSIC MMC5616 magnetometer and compass combo, and an AMS TMD3733 light and hardware proximity sensor. There is even a Geomicro SPL07003 barometer on board.
Reader comments
- Anonymous
- 14 hours ago
- mA{
Keep dreaming. 😋 Even "cheap" Chinese phones start from $ 250.