Google Pixel 9a review

A solid dual-camera setup

The Pixel 9a only has two rear cameras with which to work. These are nothing special in terms of hardware, but it is well-known that Google's prowess lies in computational photography.

The rear camera setup consists of a 48MP main camera and a 13MP fixed-focus ultrawide. On the front, there is a 13MP fixed-focus selfie. While the main camera is new this year, the ultra-wide and front cameras have been borrowed from last year's Pixel 8a. The new main camera is brighter and wider than last year.

Google has never been particularly forthcoming about the exact sensors it uses. This is also true for the Pixel 9a.

• Wide (main): 48MP (1/2.0", 0.8µm), f/1.7, 25mm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; 4K@60/30fps
• Ultrawide: 13MP (1.12µm), f/2.2, 16mm, fixed focus; 4K@30fps
• Front camera: 13MP (1.12µm), f/2.2, 20mm, fixed focus; 4K@30fps

Even without precise sensor information, we still managed to ascertain the basic specs of each camera. As we already said, the new man cam is both brighter and wider than the one on the Pixel 8a. It has a 1/2.0" diagonal and 0.8µm pixels.

The other two cameras are quite familiar to us from last year.

The Pixel 9a lacks some advanced features in the pricier Pixel models. There's no Pro mode, and manual controls are quite limited, though RAW image capture is still available. Oddly, support for the Display P3 color space and HDR video capture has been dropped despite both being available on the Pixel 8a. However, Ultra HDR support for photos is still included.

The camera app itself is clean but can feel unintuitive, especially if you're used to other brands. You can't swipe up or down to access extra settings. Instead, there are two separate settings buttons, which can be confusing to use quickly. Video recording isn't just another mode but has its own dedicated toggle.

Perhaps the most jarring design choice is the UI layout: with all controls placed at the bottom, the shutter button ends up unusually high, which can throw off your muscle memory if you're switching from a different phone.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

The main camera on the Pixel 9a delivers impressive image quality, capturing sharp details and natural, true-to-life colors across most lighting conditions. It's a reliable shooter that consistently produces great results. Thanks to the Ultra HDR feature, photos pop on the phone's HDR display, though the effect is hard to convey outside the device.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP main camera samples

The Pixel 9a does a great job of portraits. Interestingly enough, the phone insists that the portraits should always use at least a bit of digital zoom. The default presets are 1.5x and 2x. Still, the quality looks great. Faces come out natural with plenty of skin texture and a good complexion. Subject detection and separation are nearly perfect, and so is the quality of the background blur.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP main camera portrait samples

The Pixel 9a doesn't include a dedicated telephoto lens, so all zooming is handled digitally through the main sensor. There's a convenient 2x zoom shortcut in the camera app, and you can zoom manually up to 8x.

At 2x, image quality holds up well. While not captured at native resolution, the results are perfectly usable and only show their limitations upon close inspection. However, once you go beyond 2x, image clarity noticeably drops.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP main camera 2x zoom samples

A pleasant surprise is the camera's built-in macro capability. The new main sensor has a very close focusing distance, allowing for detailed close-up shots without switching to a special mode. Just bring the phone close to your subject, and it'll automatically recognize and capture it as a macro shot. You can even engage the 2x zoom to get even closer digitally, and the results are genuinely impressive.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP main camera macro samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultra-wide camera does a solid job in good lighting. Detail and color remain consistent with the main sensor, which is something not all competitors manage to achieve. That said, sharpness falls off around the edges, and image quality dips more noticeably in lower light.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP ultrawide camera samples

Interestingly enough, just like the main camera, the ultrawide also saves its shots in exactly 12MP resolution.

Selfie camera

Selfies are solid through and through. There is plenty of detail and great natural colors. The focal depth is nice and forgiving, so the fixed focus doesn't matter that much.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP selfie camera samples

Another interesting development is that the selfies aren't exactly 12MP or 13MP, but they are just over 12MP in resolution.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera captures excellent low-light stills. These have an impressive amount of detail and practically no noise. The colors look great as well. Both shadows and highlights are handled very well, and light sources are well-contained. Honestly, we have no real complaints about these shots.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP main camera low-light samples

The Pixel 9a has an automatic night mode, which it triggers adequately depending on the conditions. You can also manually trigger it using the "Night sight" camera mode. Here are some shots from the main camera with forced night mode just to show that there is not a lot of difference and that the phone does automatic night mode perfectly fine on its own.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP main camera Night sight samples

At 2x zoom, shots look just a bit softer than their 1x equivalents. A tiny bit of noise creeps up in the frame, but it's really nothing to fret about. Otherwise, the quality remains excellent.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP main camera low-light 2x zoom samples

The ultrawide camera struggles quite badly in low-light conditions. Its images are soft and blurry, with not a lot of detail and blown-out light sources. They are still usable, but once you start pixel-peeping, it all falls apart.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Forcing Night Sight on doesn't really help much. Here are some shots with it manually turned on.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP ultrawide camera Night sight samples

Low-light selfies are decent, but there is nothing to phone home about. Some skin texture is coming through, and skin tones look natural. However, fine details are blurry more often than not.

Google Pixel 9a: 12MP selfie camera low-light samples

Video capture quality

The main camera can record video in 4K up to 60fps, but the ultra-wide and front cameras can only record 4K up to 30fps. If you want 60fps, you must drop down to 1080p on them. The phone saves video in HEVC/h.265 by default, but you can toggle it off and go for AVC/H.264 if you prefer.

The 4K video from the main camera looks good but is a bit soft and not especially resolving for 4K. You do get excellent image stabilization, however, along with good colors and dynamic range. There are two levels of video stabilization available. The first one can be enabled at any resolution, while Active mode lowers the resolution to 1080p and takes its footage from the ultrawide camera.

The ultra-wide video isn't very good. Even in broad daylight, there is noticeable noise in the image, especially in the corners. The image is also quite soft and looks more like 1080p than 4K. There's also no 60fps support unless you drop down to 1080p, which is even softer.

Low-light video is pretty solid on the main camera and not really impressive on the ultrawide.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.